Earlier this week the Ar-We-Va school board approved the reduction of staff by eight full-time employees. The decision comes on the heels of the approval to move forward with partial-grade sharing with the Carroll Community School District beginning in the 2016-2017 school year. Ar-We-Va Superintendent Kurt Brosamle says both decisions were driven by tight district finances.
The move will save the district approximately $200,000. Brosamle says that even though staffing throughout the district was already tight the reductions will impact staff at the middle school and high school the most.
Many of the eliminated positions, he adds, were those of elective class instructors where the number of students in each classroom were low. The course material, however, will still be offered this fall.
Brosamle says that handing out pink slips is never a pleasant situation. Moving forward members of the board will continue to do what they can to put their student’s needs at the forefront.
Positions which were eliminated at Ar-We-Va include positions held by: Spanish teacher Kathy Francis, Math & Computer Instructor Dan Kock, Industrial Technology Instructor Dave Brus, Science Instructor Christy Magner, Business Instructor Pam Austin, and part-time math teacher Al Kock. They received termination papers while Social Studies teacher Kerry Schoessler and Librarian Alice Baughman’s contracts were reduced from full-time employee status to part-time.
