Enrollment Down

Lenoir City BOE cuts faculty, staff

Jonathan Herrmann news-herald.net

A reduction in student population prompted Lenoir City Board of Education to eliminate faculty and staff positions with passage of the Lenoir City Schools budget for the 2018-19 school year.

With a decrease in total revenue from the 2017-18 school year, Jeanie Mowery, business manager, called the budget process a challenging one.

“We did face quite a challenge this year with our loss of (average daily membership),” Mowery said. “That student loss did make our funding go down from the county and kept a minimal increase from the state.”

In May, Mowery supplied the BOE with a handout that showed the system had lost 46 students in the past year and 209 over the past three years, with 151 of those withdrawing for homeschool or online schooling. Total enrollment for the 2017-18 school year was 2,308.

Hopes are that a homeschool initiative within the school system will help reverse the downward trend in the years to come, Mowery said.

“What I’m hopeful is that it will serve the needs of our community better,” Jeanne Barker, director of schools, said. “If indeed our community has a need for more flexible opportunities with students in learning then that’s our job. I’m hopeful that we’re serving our community needs better. In the end I think we have a phenomenal program to offer our families.”

The school system has experienced an increase in the cost of retirement and medical insurance benefits for the coming year. The Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System contribution rate rose from 9.08 percent for licensed personnel to 10.46 percent, which amounted to a nearly $140,000 increase. The total increase in retirement contribution costs was $167,857.

The biggest area in which the loss of funding and increased benefit costs for the school system was made up was in cutting five positions from the school system. Those cuts included a guidance counselor, a science position at Lenoir City High School and three positions at Lenoir City Elementary School — a kindergarten teacher, an RTI match teacher and a solutions program staff member, a program that provides early intervention for student misbehavior.

“It’s never a good thing when we have to cut, but we are funded based on our student-teacher ratio needs,” Barker said. “This puts us more in line with our student-teacher ratio as described by state board policy. Every position was looked at by the number of students that we have that we’re serving. That’s always a hard thing to do, but we try to be very conscientious in everything we do and do the best we can for our students.”

The cuts come “mostly” from retirements, Barker said. The reductions at the elementary school are a result of an anticipated decrease in the number of students, specifically in kindergarten.

Registration numbers warranted cutting a kindergarten teaching position, lowering the total number of kindergarten teachers at LCES from seven to six, Barker said.

Staff across the system will receive a 1 percent raise with an additional 1 percent salary bonus. Regular instruction teacher salaries will total more than $6.6 million for the 2018-19 school year, special education teacher salaries are $576,165 and vocational education program teachers cost $532,761.

Principal salaries total $285,396, assistant principals $425,483 and the director of schools salary for the coming year is $137,808.

The 1 percent raise is a permanent increase, but the salary bonus is for the 2018-19 school year only.