BYFIELD — Facing difficult budget choices, Triton Regional School Superintendent Sandra Halloran recently confirmed several job eliminations and job switches throughout the district.
Effective Wednesday, 10 instructional assistant positions will be eliminated. A total of eight teaching positions will be cut, including two special education teachers, one each at the high school and middle school; two behavioral specialists at the high school; one guidance counselor at the middle school; and a district special education coordinator. The district will also lose a classroom teacher at each of the elementary schools. In addition, more than seven positions will change based on the fact that a portion of their jobs was eliminated.
"Of course, it is never a first choice to cut positions, especially teaching positions, which is why we restructured as many positions are we could, but budget cuts being what they are this year, and with uncertainty about more cuts looming near, these changes were necessary to keep the schools moving forward," said Halloran. "The cuts and changes were reviewed carefully to ensure they had the least impact on the direct education of the students."
Job restructuring moves include those for the middle school assistant principal, who will now devote half his time to assistant principal responsibilities and half his time to teaching. Other changes in job reductions include reduced days for the district's early childhood coordinator, as well as the health program coordinator and reduced number of days for the art teacher at the middle and high school. Art, music and physical education teachers at the elementary and middle schools will be cut to four days, but the schedule will be rearranged so that no student has fewer of these classes, despite reduced days for teachers.
The elementary schools will now share a librarian — Anne O'Brien from Salisbury Elementary School — and library assistants, taken from the pool of instructional assistants who would have otherwise lost their jobs, will be assigned to each school to instruct daily library classes.
The positions of reading and math specialists at the elementary school level were to be cut in half, but will now remain intact because of the use of federal stimulus money.
Finally, the position vacated by Christine Kneeland's move to be principal of the Pine Grove School will be changed from administrator of pupil services to administrator of special education. Halloran recently appointed Katherine Harris to this position, after her position as special education coordinator was eliminated. Harris will handle special education and 504 plan issues, while the rest of Kneeland's previous responsibilities will be divided between Halloran and assistant superintendent Kathy Willis.
Recent discussions with the Triton Regional Teachers Association, Instructional Assistants Union, Head Custodians, Custodian and Cafeteria Workers unions have yielded contract changes that will yield budget savings of $26,751 for the district. Halloran had previously noted that any additional funding that could be secured would be targeted toward the elementary school grades — fourth and fifth grade at Pine Grove Elementary School, fourth grade at Newbury Elementary and fifth grade at Salisbury Elementary — that have higher than ideal class sizes.
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