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Kettering losing up to 13 teaching positions

The most affected, Kettering Middle School, will be restructured.

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By Jill Kelley, Staff Writer Updated 11:32 PM Thursday, January 26, 2012

KETTERING — As many as 13 teaching positions will be eliminated at Kettering City Schools this summer — eight of them at Kettering Middle School — as a result of state budget cuts.

Superintendent Jim Schoenlein said teachers in the affected positions will be moved within the district, and that he does not expect any teachers to be laid off due to this restructuring.

“It will depend on how many people retire,” he said, noting around 20 to 25 teachers retire from the district each year. “We fully expect that all of our of people will have jobs.”

In addition to the eight positions at KMS, Van Buren Middle School will lose one position, Fairmont High School will lose one to two positions, and the elementary schools as a whole will lose one to two positions.

KMS currently has 67 teachers.

Schoenlein said the reason KMS is taking the biggest hit is because it has the lowest average class size, at 23.5 children per class. By comparison, Van Buren averages 28.5 per class.

Schoenlein said the district took an $8 million hit from state funding cuts and losses in local property tax revenue in 2011.

He said the district recouped $6 million because employees agreed last year to a contract that freezes base salaries for three years.

“That was a huge boost to our fiscal situation,” he said.

The elimination of positions this summer is expected to yield about $1.6 million, and the district also will trim from technology, textbook purchases and utilities to make up for the loss.

These latest cuts are in addition to the $10 million the district cut from its budget by reducing its workforce by almost 10 percent in the last five years, Schoenlein said.

Sue Kimbrell, who is the parent of a seventh-grader at KMS and has two kids at Fairmont, said the position reductions are unfortunate but she understands school funding is to blame.

“One of the pluses to Kettering schools is the lower class sizes, but with the current climate in the state, they have to do what they can to stay afloat,” said Kimbrell, who teaches at Centerville City Schools.

“I don’t know one district that’s not struggling; look at Beavercreek, Miamisburg — at least we have busing still. Thank God.”

KMS Principal Doug Cozad said his school will lose six academic positions and two from unified arts, such as phys ed and music.

The school currently groups students into nine teams for instruction, but that will be reduced to six teams under this restructuring. Each of the school’s three buildings will hold two teams from the same grade.

He said the new design may be an improvement.

“When we go to grade-level buildings, we can better utilize our resources within that,” Cozad said.

Kimbrell said KMS and Kettering schools have served her kids well.

“I hope this change is only uncomfortable, but we’ll get used to it,” she said. “Teachers do a great job working with less every day.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7325 or jikelley@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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