HAMMONDSVILLE - Twenty positions in the Edison Local School District won't be filled next year.
Members of the school board met Monday in special session to discuss the district's financial strains after the proposed 9.45-mill continuous operating levy failed in the March 6 election.
The board approved a resolution in February enacting a budget recovery plan that will reduce the district's budget by $1.5 million in order to operate out of deficit, officials said.
The board n March approved an incentive package aimed at buying out high-end salaried teachers eligible for retirement at the end of this school year. Fifty teachers and staff were eligible for the buyout, of which 20 people took the offer.
The package offered $15,000 to those who accepted it, and each retiree will save the district approximately $70,000. Superintendent David Quattrochi explained that on average one of these teachers costs the district $85,000.
During the Monday meeting, Quattrochi and the board approved a resolution suspending teaching contracts at the end of the 2011-12 contract year pursuant to the reduction plan. Those suspended contracts will not be filled the following year, but Quattrochi explained other positions are not in danger of being cut.
Quattrochi said one position in each of the following areas of study will be eliminated next year as a result of the buyout: junior high/high school math and science; high school social studies; eighth-grade English and language arts; high school science; fifth-grade English and language arts; seventh-grade math; fifth-grade science/social studies; seventh-grade special education; high school special education; VocAg; and elementary arts.
In addition, the board also passed a resolution suspending nonteaching contracts at the end of the 2011-12 contract year pursuant to the reduction plan.
The loss of nonteaching positions will include seven bus drivers, one night building cleaner and one part-time cook.
Originally, the elimination of high school busing was part of the budget recovery plan, but Quattrochi said earlier this month that a transportation audit was performed by the Ohio Department of Education to look for alternative ways the district could save the money that eliminating busing altogether would have.
Quattrochi said the plan now includes a greater reduction in bus routes than anticipated and that students may have to go a little farther to their stop, but at least busing remains an option.
Eliminating high school busing would have saved the district more than $300,000, according to Quattrochi, but he said this new plan will save the same amount or more.
Transportation is the district's second largest cost, as busing covers 208 miles per day while the other districts combined cover 209 miles, Quattrochi explained.
