SMS: Staff cuts miss the mark

Propose alternate plan to LPOSD officials, board

SANDPOINT - The committee that made staff reduction recommendations for Sandpoint Middle School has missed the mark, said SMS principal Kim Keaton.

If approved, SMS not only would be the lowest funded staff in the district, but it also would be the lowest funded middle school in Region 1, he said.

“That concerns us,” he said.

The panel is recommending that the SMS teaching staff be reduced by three teachers and a part-time administrative position as part of an overall reduction of 33.43 positions for the 2008-'09 budget year.

However reducing SMS staff by that many positions would put it at 90 percent of the state funding formula. Instead, the school's staff proposed cutting one teaching position as well as a quarter-time administrative position and a quarter-time coaching position.

Keaton and a substantial number of educators attended Tuesday evening's school board meeting in which they expressed concern that the staff reductions would eliminate team teaching activities like the brain study currently taking place with seventh graders, would create overloaded elective classes, reduce the number of elective courses offered, and would cause the CORE reading program to fall by the wayside.

They also protested plans to eliminate the part-time assistant principal's position held by Deb McShane, saying in written response that it would put undo pressure on the principal.

Also of concern are plans to cut the certified librarian's position at SMIS held by Julie Smith, along with counseling positions.

Sagle principal Don Moore said when he began working as a principal at Farmin-Stidwell a number of years ago, his only help was a part-time secretary.

The workload almost killed his wanting to be a principal, he said.

Moore added that he has several friends who in the past had to act as principal at more than one school at a time.

Others do not want to return the school district of the past.

When teacher Mike Keough first went to work 33 years ago at Northside Elementary, the school did not have one special education teacher.

When he moved to Stidwell (the former junior high) in the ‘70s, he found himself in an open-concept designed building without walls. “The seventh and eighth grade was a holding pen,” he said.

Teachers did not communicate with one another and were not on the same page regarding curriculum, he said.

The junior high then moved and became Sandpoint Middle School and principal Steve Deal came up with a new concept dividing the student body into four houses to give kids a more personal experience.

Keough said he and other teachers who had been around for a while laughed.

That concept has worked, he said. Going back to how things were done 30 years ago, would be a mistake

“I really think we need to think of the kids first because the middle school is more than a holding pen,” Keough said.

Education should be about students, not answering to taxpayers first, he said. “It's all in the name of the dollar,” he said.

The committee also recommended eliminating 3.1 to 3.4 administrators, 6.9 certificated staff and 7.5 classified staff positions.

Supt. Dick Cvitanich said the district has no choice but to make staffing cuts.

“Some of the things you spoke about passionately tonight won't exist next year,” he said.

“It's a really difficult time for the district.”