Southland cuts 6 teaching positions, cites financial woes

Raymond Lasley

According to Superintendent Raymond Lasley, one high school teaching position, four elementary school teaching positions, and a speech implementer position were cut.

"Other districts are having people retire and not replacing them," Lasley said.

"Unfortunately, Southland did not have any teachers retire [and we] had to let some good teachers go."

Lasley said one of the major effects of the cuts will be increased class sizes, noting that some classes will double in size.

"The remaining teachers will have to pick up the slack," Lasley said. "Some of it won't make that much difference, but it shows up faster in elementary school."

According to the administrator, the district is looking at other possible cuts for the future.

Also during the executive session, the board voted to have no vertical movement on the salary schedule, as well as to hire Bradley Lell as a substitute bus driver.

Prior to the executive session, Lasley said the board went over the accountability plan and the progress the teachers are making.

"We have to track how many [Grade Level Equivalencies (GLEs)] are presented and how many of the kids mastered those GLEs," Lasley said. "We are pretty well on target. Not everybody is going to master them, but we have a pretty high percentage of kids who are mastering them. We think we are doing the right thing."

In other matters, the board:

* Approved submitting a summer school application;

* Revised the current school calendar to take off one teacher work day that was added by mistake, and;

* Tabled the 2010-2011 calendar for future discussion.

The next regularly scheduled Southand Board of Education meeting will be held at 8 p.m., on Thursday, April 11, 2010, in the Southland Library/Media Center.