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Home > Blogs > Springfield Schools News and Issues > Archives > 2008 > November > 14
Friday, November 14, 2008
District facilities recommendations coming soon
A Springfield board committee will make facilities recommendations in December and January to move central offices out of South High School and possibly to close one school, board Vice President and committee chairman Ed Leventhal said Thursday.
The district’s central offices are the only remaining operations in South High School and the short-term committee has been looking at options for moving those employees out of the school over the last several months.
The committee will make a recommendation at the Dec. 11 meeting, said Leventhal.
“We are trying to weight whether we move that to a current facility where we have room or to some place on the open market,” he said.
There will be some costs associated with either selection, either renovations to school space or rent for a new space, Leventhal said. The committee is also considering whether all of the offices in the central administration need to be together.
In January the committee will make its final recommendation on whether to close a school as suggested by a state auditor earlier this year, said Leventhal.
The auditor recommended closing a middle school immediately and an elementary in the future if enrollment declines persist. Clark Middle School and Fulton Elementary School are the two lowest capacity schools in the district, according to the audit.
Otis Williams, chair of the local Southern Christian Leadership Conference and a member of the committee, urged board members not to close a school in the southwest corner of the city. He pointed to that area’s loss of South High School as a reason not to close another school there.
“I feel that the southwest quadrant has already suffered enough,” he said. “They should not even be considered. They’ve taken too many beatings. If we’re going to think about closing something down, let’s stay away from over there.”
There will be some costs with closing the school in the first years, said Leventhal.
“To close a school, the first year’s probably going to cost you about $100,00 to $110,000,” he said. The cost would decrease in the second and third year.
All of Springfield’s school buildings are new built in the last several years through a partnership with the Ohio School Facilities Commission.
If the board elects to close a school it would be part of a projected $1.4 million in budget cuts needed for next year, said Leventhal.
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Financial woes have affected district hiring
Financial problems in the city schools have impacted Springfield’s hiring because of recalls and a perception of instability, Wendy Ford, Director of Human Resources, told board members Thursday night.
Ford made a presentation about the district’s hiring practices in response to questions raised by the Coalition for Justice and Equality in October that the district had “displaced” black leadership and does not have enough diversity on its staff.
Springfield schools has been under state oversight since 2005 because of financial difficulties and has laid off many employees because of finances and in an effort to “right size” the staff to a declining student population, said Ford.
The district’s hiring practices are governed by negotiated agreements with bargaining units, state law and the civil service test regulations.
The district’s contracts with bargaining units call for current employees to have the option to transfer to an open position first, said Ford. Then the position is offered to laid off employees on a recall list.
“We’ve had a number of people on our recall lists,” she said. Currently there are some classified staff members — aides, secretaries, custodians, etc. — still on recall lists, but no teachers, or certified staff members, remain on the list.
After current and recalled employees, the job is posted publicly for an open application process, said Ford.
For certified staff members, Ford and the building principal look over all applications and choose the candidates to interview based on certification, qualifications and experience. Then an interview team, typically made up of teachers, administrators and curriculum coaches, conduct interviews.
The team selects a candidate and Ford has final approval.
For administrators, the team recommends two or three finalists to the superintendent who makes the final selection.
Otis Williams, chair of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, asked why some recently vacated position had not been posted and some people had not been considered for those jobs.
“That was my main concern that all those wanting to be involved have the opportunity to be considered,” he said.
Interim Superintendent Don Thompson said time constraints had put some limitations on temporary hires this school year.
“Time some times is of the essence in order to get an individual and that may play a factor,” he said.
At least three of the district’s administrators are interim employees currently. The board will launch a national search later this month to replace Thompson and Interim Campus Director JoEtta Cooper with permanent selections.
Former district employee Tom Payton, another interim employee, is temporarily overseeing duties that had been handled by former Director of Student Services Mattie White, who left abruptly in August to take a principal position in a Dayton suburb.
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