Belt-tightening continues for Clarksville Community Schools

Clark County

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June 10, 2009

Final cuts to bring Clarksville schools past $400K goal in savings following vote

By TARA HETTINGER The News and Tribune Wed Jun 10, 2009, 01:51 PM EDT

After many meetings on ways to save money, including laying off employees, the Clarksville Community Schools Corp. board voted Tuesday night to make final changes the school system needs to cut $400,000 from the 2009 budget.

Last week, the board voted to lay off seven teachers. On Tuesday, the board focused on classified and administrative reorganization to attain the rest of the savings.

“There is no secret we have a financial situation we must remedy in 2009,” said Kimberly Knott, interim superintendent.

Knott recommended moving three administrators, which would end up cutting the administration staff at the central office in half as part of the plan. Knott said the school system will not seek someone to fill her former position as assistant superintendent in the short term, and that curriculum director Amy Hasselbring was one of three administrators moved.

Hasselbring will now be the director/dean of student services at Clarksville Middle School. There, she will perform duties like an assistant principal and some of her grant writing tasks that she did in her prior position. The rest of the tasks that she did as curriculum director will be picked up by building principals, Knott said.

The existing assistant principal at Clarksville Middle School, Scott Gardner, was moved to be an administrator assigned to the position of assistant principal at Clarksville High School.

Brian Allred was moved from the assistant position that Gardner took to principal at Clarksville High School and is classified as an administrator.

Knott said the “administrator” in the titles allows for flexibility if needed. She said without that, people may not be able to be moved to various positions as needed to meet budget constraints.

The board also voted to end Life and Leisure, an adult education program, and not fill a number of retirements and resignations that have been coming in among teacher aides, custodians, teachers and other positions to help reach the $400,000 goal.

Knott said the changes — in addition to savings created by not filling the high school principal position immediately when Tina Bennett resigned, the board not going to its national conference and combining duties of a middle school counselor with the high school counseling position for a semester — adds up to about $431,000 cut from the 2009 budget.

With the measures voted on Tuesday and last week’s teacher layoffs, there are 21 fewer people working for the school system, Knott said.

“There’s going to be changes and we’re going to have to adapt to those changes,” Knott said of employees picking up extra duties.

“These are some trying times and I think it’s very important that everyone is willing to work together,” said John Gilkey, board member.

Even with all of the moves, Knott said children will still get quality service from the corporation. She pointed out that a Financial Health Analysis Report — which was completed by a third party last year — showed the school system was over-staffed with teachers and administrators, so there was some room for cuts.

BUILDING PROBLEMS?

The board talked at its last meeting about problems that occurred while Greenacres Elementary School was undergoing renovations in 2002 that were never resolved, such as items installed incorrectly and a leaky roof. Members had said the wording in the contract was vague and there weren’t any details about warranties included in it.

Since then, Mike Kane, board member, looked over the specifications for the contract and found a clause that indicated that the corporation did have a 15-year manufacturer’s warranty on the roof.

Knott said that gives the corporation something to go off of to try to get the problem fixed. She said she will turn that information over to the school system’s attorney to see what can be done.

• The next regular school board meeting is at 7:30 p.m. July 14 at the middle school.