Wooster City Schools trim administrative staff
As part of its continuing effort to trim the budget, the Wooster City Schools Board of Education voted to eliminate four positions, including two positions in the Central Office.According to Wooster City School District Superintendent Michael Tefs, the moves will save the district approximately $235,000 a year, which equates to well over $1 million over the district’s five year forecast.
Effective July 31, the position of director of curriculum and instruction, currently held by Peggy Shafer, will be eliminated along with the curriculum secretary.
According to Tefs, the director of curriculum and instruction is responsible for testing, curricular purchases and professional development to insure that the district implements curriculum “with the integrity and fidelity that it deserves.
“You want to make sure that the written curriculum is the taught curriculum is the assessed curriculum,” said Tefs. “The director of curriculum and instruction makes sure all that happens, that they’re moving together.
“If that’s not well explained the community could quickly say how do you not have a director of curriculum and instruction? It’s what we do. It’s why we’re here,” observed Tefs.
To make the reduction possible the district looked to a new governance model that established a district leadership team composed of representatives of each of the district’s buildings and central office staff and building leadership teams for each individual building.
“I feel very comfortable that we have the systems in place that we will be as effective if not more because we’re closer to our teachers. We’re closer to our faculty and our work,” said Tefs.
“We are finding that vertically and horizontally we’re probably as efficient as we ever have been in communicating the work of the Wooster City School District,” said Tefs, noting “at the end of the day it’s about the work and the work that we do is about our students.”
According to Tefs, the reorganization would not have been possible without the talents of the district’s building principals.
“I cannot give kudos and compliments enough to our building principals who are true educational leaders day in and day out,” said Tefs, adding “with the leadership we have I feel very positive that we will continue strong curriculum development and implementation, as we have in the past.
“Our principals are as strong educational leaders as you may ever find,” said Tefs. “Often we have building principals that are managing the environment and making sure the building is safe. We do that here but our building principals are probably as strong as educational leaders as they are managers.”
The board also moved to eliminate an alternative room intervention specialist at Wooster High School, thanks to the efforts of Principal Anita Jorney-Gifford and her staff, who were able to reorganize the alternative room function.
“We feel like we can still meet our needs for this area but can reduce by one full time equivalent employee,” said Tefs. “This will be a nice savings to the district.”
The board also voted to eliminate a deaf education intervention specialist, at least for the time being.
Tefs noted that the need for the position is driven by the services that the district delivers to students.
“Not knowing today what our student population might be it is prudent, appropriate and necessary for us to reduce this position today,” said Tefs. He added that the position could be almost immediately reinstated “depending on our student population and the need for a deaf education specialist.”
Tefs said that due to retirements and other openings in the district all four of the affected employees have been absorbed into other positions.