NB school cuts begin with staff

By Barbara Brown
Thirty-six North Branch School district staff are losing their jobs when the new school year starts.
The North Branch School Board voted unanimously during a special meeting Monday night to not continue contracts for 14 probationary teachers and 22 para-professionals, teaching assistants and support staff.
While most of the contracts applied to teachers and staff at North Branch Middle School, all the districtís sites, including the district office, were represented on the list of non-continued contracts.
The cuts were included in a $1.7 million budget reduction package approved at Mondayís meeting.
The district has been facing a serious and growing budget crisis over the past year that culminated several weeks ago when the board was presented with budget cut options
The board could have reduced expenditures by $2 million for the 2003-2004 school year, but instead chose to cut less this year knowing they would be faced with making more cuts in the 2004-2005 school year.
Included in the list of 61 budget changes approved Monday night, the board axed $200,000 for new text books and $29,000 to eliminate all substitute teaching positions except long-term ones.
Several of the teacher and support staff positions that were cut will not be reopened until the districtís financial outlook is better.
The salaries for those posts cut Monday night ranged from $5,000 to $58,000 per year.
Superintendent Dr. Robert Stepaniak said the teachers and staff posts were cut based solely on budgetary reasons.
ìAll these people were good employees and weíre not saying they didnít have important jobs,î Stepaniak said.
As a result of the position cuts, the districtís classrooms will be more crowded for the coming school year, Stepaniak said.
He said many classrooms could have up to 35 students.
The districtís situation is complicated even more by the fact that the state Legislature had not passed a budget for the coming year.
The districtís funding, as well as other school districtsí, runs a risk of more cuts.
Board chairman Mary Jo Ahlgren said at the meeting that one bright spot in the decision-making process was that staff and board members worked to make sure there would be ìno gaps in curriculum.î
Stepaniak said the board would be presented with the option to put an operating levy referendum to the voters once again. The operating levy question has failed three times.
He said discussions on how much to request and when to make the vote would start soon.
ìWhen school starts next year, I want the people to know whatís on the block so they can have some say in it,î Stepaniak said. ìI am predicting we will face catastrophic cuts for the following year,î he said.
Also at the Monday meeting, the board voted to approve a bid from Sheehy Construction for $1.8 million for the heating, ventilation, air conditioning and electrical upgrades at the Primary School.
Last November, voters agreed to let the district tax them to pay for up to $2 million in improvements.
The board also approved the development of two same-gender classes for fourth grade next year. Fourth grade teachers Dave Balzer and Sue Howard will teach the classes separated by sex. Research from other schools shows increased test scores and decreased behavioral problems in some same-sex classes, Howard said.
She said the different classes will slightly alter the teaching approach. Boys tend to be better at spatial questions and are good at map reading and geography, for example. They tend to have less developed verbal communication skills.
Girls, on the other hand, tend to have good verbal communication skills and tend to take in information in a sensory basis.
Howard said the classes would be behaviorally and academically balanced with a mix of students, just like all the other classes in the school.
She said the opportunity is both for the teachers and students to learn new approaches to curriculum and challenge themselves in areas where they may be less comfortable academically.
ìI donít expect it will change my classroom dramatically,î Balzer said, ìalthough the research does point out some different teaching approaches. It will be a learning experience for me.î
Main Street School principal Sara Svir said parents were asked whether they objected to the class idea for their own children entering fourth grade next year. She said they were asked if they specifically wanted their child considered for the class or if they absolutely did not or if they had no opinion either way.
ìWe have more than enough that are interested to fill both classrooms,î she told the board.

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