Come fall, Lake Station Community Schools could have 12 fewer teachers.
Superintendent Tom Cripliver confirmed Friday that although the process is in the preliminary stages, nine teachers from Lake Station Edison Junior/Senior High School and one from each of its elementary schools will be casualties of a district-wide reduction in force. The elimination of additional positions, including administrative, are also being considered.
Like most school districts, the one-two punch of declining enrollment plus a prohibitive funding formula by the Indiana General Assembly is the culprit for the RIFing, officials said.
More Top Picks Best Egg Cookers
“Our district has been negatively (affected) by declining enrollment and the changes that we made recently in the funding formula. We will lose $1.1 million over the next two years,” Cripliver said. “And we have seen declining enrollment in our district. I won’t know how many students we are losing – or gaining, I hope – until the September count date.”
Those numbers could be on top of the positions that already weren’t going to be filled for the 2015-16 school year, said a school employee who asked not to be identified. Two of the positions to be left unfilled include a family and consumer science teacher and a physical education teacher.
“We’ll have one teacher handling all the different courses in FAS, and if we have one gym teacher, who’s going to keep an eye on both locker rooms with classes of 40 to 50 kids?” the employee said.
The employee also worries about the school’s letter-grade ranking. Lake Station Community Schools were given a “D” in 2013, but had been able to pull it up to a “B” grade for the 2014-15 school year, according to the Indiana Department of Education.
“If you’re going to do these cuts, how will they handle it? We’re going to drop right back down,” the employee said. “I truly believe (parents and residents) don’t understand how damaging this is going to be to the schools.”
The Lake Station School Board of Trustees will meet at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Polk Elementary School.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.