More principals would allow cut in central HR
By COLIN KYLER ckyler@timesobserver.comWarren County schools may soon see additional principals.
Superintendent Dr. Robert Terrill outlined a plan to add full-time assistant principals at Youngsville High School and Sheffield Area Middle/High School during the Warren County School District board of directors' meeting Monday evening.
The Personnel/Athletics and Co-Curricular Activities Committee should review the proposal at its next meeting on Monday, March 22, Terrill said, adding that the positions for the next school year would be covered financially by cutting the four-person central office human resources staff to two and a half members.
The decision was based on analysis of each person's job functions, Terrill said, as well as interviews with the staff and input from the previous human resources director.
In addition to eliminating overlapping responsibilities, Terrill said the plan would remove an administrative layer while redirecting resources to place full-time assistant principals in the two schools.
In other business, the board voted 8-1 to removed tutors from the Kelly Services contract with board member Jeff Lockett casting the only vote against the measure.
Board member Kim Angove asked if the district would pay unemployment if it takes back the responsibility of providing its own tutors and loses its grant to fund them.
Rosemarie Green, director of state and federal programs, said if the school district lost its grant it would no longer have a tutor program.
Kelly Services is now paid 40 percent more than the district would pay to operate its own program, Terrill said, so the move would be cost effective.
Angove asked if tutors are paid the same whether or not they have a teaching certificate; Green said they were.
When the district takes over, Angove said they would be paid according to whether they simply have a bachelors degree or a teaching certificate as well.
Tutors who are retired teachers may not wish to come back to work for the district, Lockett said, as it may affect their retirement.
Retirees need to stay under 500 hours, Green said, and the district had not run into major problems with the requirement before.
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warrendragon
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03-13-10 6:15 PM
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He showed the numbers at the school board meeting. This will cut staff and save money. Win-Win
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JerseyBoy
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03-11-10 11:47 AM
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Last month Terrill said the reorganization was to lower costs. This month the reorganization is to provide more principals. Which is it? Sounds like a schoolyard bully trying to get rid of people he doesn't like so he can pay more to those he does like. Show me the savings and the educational benefits!
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warrendragon
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03-10-10 10:24 PM
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faulby the AV principal also is the Sheffield Elementary principal, they already have 2 buildings so you plan doesn't work.........how is putting another principal in a building working with kids a wash? I don't see how you can argue with cutting Central Office staff and putting more people in the schools.
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faulby
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03-10-10 9:42 PM
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Warrengrad, from what you are saying, Mr. Terill is adding one person and eliminating 1 and a half. Costwise, it's a wash, however it does add 1 more person to the WCSD payroll making it now 10 new hires since September and that makes absolutely no sense to me .... we have declining enrollment ...remember. Use the AV principal to help Sheffield out. After all AV employs about 1/2 the teachers that Sheffield does (32 vs 56). You can still cut the 1.5 admin jobs and at the same time hire none.
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mare1276
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03-10-10 12:29 PM
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When I watch the news on 100 school districts in the US going to a 4 day school week, cutting school bussing, classroom with 40 students and laying off teachers and other measures to cut costs, it makes me wonder why WCSD does not start cutting costs ahead of problems starting here. The states are cutting costs and eventually PA will have to too. Build new schools, add personell, get another study done, it does not end
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muskie
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03-10-10 8:57 AM
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What do they even need a principle for,when there's a problem they call the police. When I was in school,the principle was God,and feared by all,and had a 2 hander paddle.
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TheKeymaker
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03-10-10 8:17 AM
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That wasn't what I called fishy. I couldn't agree more with the need for qualified Principals.....Stay tuned.
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Warrengrad
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03-10-10 7:39 AM
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Nothing fishy about this keymaker...teachers at SAMHS have been asking for YEARS for a full time Assistant Principal. Dr. Terrill realizes the importance of that. Why is it fishy to do something that will actually benefit the kids. I would rather have an additional principal or two working in the "trenches" with the kids than more office staff at Central Office...
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TheKeymaker
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03-10-10 7:18 AM
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Anyone find it interesting they interviewed "Staff" and the previous "HR Director". Why? Something smells fishy about this one....
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Warrengrad
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03-10-10 5:50 AM
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Faulby, there is already a full time assistant principal that splits their time between Sheffield and Youngsville. And it doesn't work! This person is only at one building half of the week...Sheffield is two schools in one--a middle school and a high school. And now that the district has block scheduled the middle school, it is difficult to run both schools with one administrator. Teachers at Sheffield have been begging for a Full time assistant principal for years. You would only be adding one principal position, as the current half time asst. principal would be come full time at one of the buildings.
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faulby
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03-10-10 5:42 AM
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The math here is a little misleading. I read, and I paraphrase "we add two assistant principals and we reduce central office HR by one and a half". Overall, isn't it a net GAIN of employees by one half. When you have four people, reduce by 1 and a half then add 2 it's 4 and a half, or half more than we have now. If we add principals' we are adding a tax burden to Warren County for their wages and benefits, PLUS you're adding additional funding requirements to the PSERS retirement fund. Recall that less than 1 month ago,there were headlines indicating huge increases in taxpayer requirements to cover the retirement plan for teachers and now two "new" positions will add to that burden as well. Finally, is this half position at least 500 hours per year so this person too, can be eligible for retirement benefits. For anyone keeping track, it's now 9 new positions added or pending to the WCSD this year..... with declining enrollment projections of 10% plus in the next 5
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