Minutes - October 18, 2017
Certified Staff Advisory
October 18, 2017
The following individuals were in attendance: Jennifer Pieczyski (EMHS); Melissa Shields (MGES); Katie Morris (MLA); Amanda Henley (SES); Ashley Jones (PSES); Deborah Robins (MCEC); Kelley Hensley (EMS); Melissa Harris (TES); Katie Trogdon (CES); Lisa Bunting (GRES); Patience Whitehead (WMHS); and Sara Ceneski (WMS).
Dr. Ellis welcomed all in attendance, and thanked them for serving on this year’s Certified Staff Advisory. He reviewed the purpose of the meeting, for individuals to share information gathered from the meeting.
He bragged on the schools and the exciting things happening based on recent board visits. MLA expressed excitement to have administration!
Construction Update
Dr. Ellis noted that the new central high school is one of the biggest things happening in Montgomery County. It was anticipated there would be a $6 million bid for the site work. The bid was actually $2.3 million. Once the site work is complete there will be a beautiful flat space for the new central high school and CTE center that will be shared with the community college. The building pads (one for the school, CTE center, and athletic facilities) should be complete in February. A road for the new high school is now visible from Glen Road. A retention pond is also visible. The building bid will post on October 31st. The projected price is $54 million, which includes $43 million for the high school and $11 million for the CTE Center. If bids come in over that amount adjustments will have to be made to the design to lower the price.
What will be done with the existing facilities? The high schools will be deeded back to the county.
K-3 Class Size/Budget
In the state budget was buried the idea of reducing K-3 class sizes. It is a wonderful idea, however no additional money was allocated to make it happen. This year districts got a reprieve, and only have to reduce classes by 1 student. This required MCS to hire 4 teachers across the district which cost $200,000. Next year, the class size has to drop by 4. In preparing for next year, the prediction is that the district will need to hire 15 teachers in order to accomplish the new class size mandated by the law. This will cost the district around $750,000 unless the state provides money to help with the mandate. Not only is the cost of this problematic for our district, but also creates an issue of finding certified teachers to fill these positions. We have hired more lateral entry and emergency permit teachers than we have ever had to in the past.
The district has decreased from 79 to 42 teacher assistants since Dr. Ellis has been here due to continued budget cuts.
A plan will have to be put in place to address this issue. Some ideas are: 1) Cut teachers out of grades 4-12 and reallocate them to K-3. 2) Cut all teacher assistants and replace with teachers. It is his “hope” that the General Assembly will reevaluate this. If not, we will be developing a plan that could include ideas from both options.
Montgomery County Schools is currently on a hiring freeze, until we have a viable solution to the class size dilemma. This will also be enforced at the Central Office.
The county commissioners have tried to do all they can to help the schools by allocating additional funds to help with budget cuts incurred by the state.
There is a possibility for the first time that a RIF, reduction in force, could happen. All will be done to preserve people, but it is a real possibility.
Would there be an issue with having facilities for additional teachers due to the class size issue? It would be tight, but can be done. Trailers would have to be used to provide additional space.