Ashe County Schools to Cut Four Teachers

Written by Adam Hicks

Wednesday, 03 June 2009 05:24 AM

High Country Radio was able to catch up with Ashe County Schools’ superintendent, Donnie Johnson, to talk about how the school system is handling budget cuts. Johnson said the system would be cutting four kindergarten teachers.

This news comes a day after Buncombe County and Hickory City Schools will reportedly cut 110 total teachers because of state budget cuts.

Johnson explained the loss of kindergarten teachers shouldn’t affect the classroom experience for student very much. The state pushed back the start date for kindergarteners in February, so there will be fewer kindergarteners entering school next year. Now, a child must turn five years old before August 31, while the previous cutoff date was October 16.

Johnson said the teachers that will be released have been informed and the administration plans on rehiring the teachers when the state budget straightens out.

Johnson noted the Ashe County Board of Education is working closely with the Ashe County Commissioners to ensure budget cuts will have a minimal affect on the classroom.

Avery County Schools’ superintendent, Keith Eades, and Watauga County Schools’ superintendent, Dr. Marty Hemric, both told High Country Radio yesterday their school systems should also experience minimal job cuts.

Comments

Carolina

|2009-06-04 04:23:35

WE need more clarification as to why these teachers are being let go. My guess is the outrageous salary and the moving expenses for the new superintendent, which is coming out of the county's budget. These teachers should not be loosing their jobs. The school board had a local whom applied for the job, whom according to the Jefferson Post was a qualified individual. Some, if not all of those jobs could have been saved, if the board had hired a resident in the county.

mozart

|2009-06-04 10:02:45

Wow, the K teachers are often some of the best - so important to positively introduce our children to formal education. Wonder when we'll ever see the downsizing of an "associate superintendent", or a "project manager", or a programmer/analyst, or better yet, some of the worthless 2,000 in the Dept. of Education in Raleigh!!!

Please keep comments on topic. Posts containing profanity, personal attacks or other inappropriate content will be deleted. Please review our commenting rules.

Keep it clean - This is a public forum, open to civilized people who do not appreciate obscene, vulgar or sexually-oriented language, no matter how creatively spelled.
Keep it civil - Don't defame, threaten, abuse or invade the privacy of other readers or the subjects of stories. No racism, sexism or any other sort of -ism that degrades another person will be tolerated.
Keep it truthful and legal - Don't lie, impersonate another individual or post comments that advocate illegal activity.
Keep on topic - Stay focused on the subject at hand. Do not post advertisements or solicitations for funds, goods, or services.
Be responsible - Comments are the sole responsibility of those who post them and do not necessarily reflect the views of GoBlueRidge.net, High Country Radio, or any of their affiliated entities
Share your knowledge - Give us your eyewitness accounts, background and observations. If you see a factual error in a story or think there are issues we should follow up on, please e-mail us at tom@wecr1023.com or call 828-264-2411.
Exercise your authority - Police these comments and suggest removal of those that violate the house rules. Report them to tom@wecr1023.com or call 828-264-2411.
And remember - Rules violators may be permanently banned from commenting.

(Thanks to our friends at KOMO-TV, Seattle)

Only registered users can write comments!

3.26 Copyright (C) 2008 Compojoom.com / Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."