COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – For the first time since 2009, teacher layoff notices have been issued in the Coldwater School District. The pink slips, eliminating 5 elementary positions and 6-and-a-half instructors at the secondary level, take effect at the end of the current academic year. The notices went out last Friday and were formally approved last night by the Coldwater Board of Education.
Superintendent of Schools in Coldwater Dr. Tina Kerr said the cutbacks come in the face of a trend which saw the district with a loss of 320 students since 2010. The corresponding dip in state funding with the declining enrollment, falling per pupil state aid, higher insurance rates and retirement costs along with needed building maintenance and transportation upgrades, it all added up to what Kerr termed a 5-year formula for disaster. Kerr said it’s always easy to point fingers how they arrived to where they are at now, but she said the facts support that what’s happened has been beyond their control.
The district continues to plan on how best to deal with a $1.6 million budget deficit. The money crunch has brought the district a dwindling fund balance that Kerr says has to be addressed so the district doesn’t surrender all of the academic progress that has been realized. She also believes the school system remains in position to move forward without jeopardizing a favorable classroom size.
Besides the elementary cuts, the secondary level layoffs would target 3 core level teachers in math, language arts, and social studies. Then there’s one computer teacher being let go, one Spanish teacher, one Physical Education instructor, and a half music position. Last week, the School Board took action to eliminate the computer credit that is required for graduation because the district is going into more full classroom integration of technology with the expectation that teachers will continue to use that as a tool rather than a pullout program
