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Schools

Westlake School Board Considering Levy In 2012

Officials will also eliminate or reduce positions and do away with high school busing to deal with millions in state budget cuts.

To handle the proposed $4.9 million in state cuts over the next two years, school officials were forced to implement , and it’s only the beginning.

The Westlake Board of Education will also consider a levy in 2012, but determining the millage will take months as school officials will need to review and analyze next year’s local and state budget data, said Superintendent Dan Keenan. But he noted that even if a levy is passed it may not bring back the 17 lost teaching positions as the district will try and maintain a respective 85-15 split between personnel and operating expenditures. 

Board members voted to eliminate or reduce 40 positions Monday night: 17 teaching (six of which were open kindergarten teaching positions that will no longer be filled), two administrative and 21 classified. Classified employees include bus drivers, custodians and maintenance workers, among others. 

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Transportation at was also eliminated and, collectively, the reduction measures will avert $2.1 million in expenditures during the 2011-12 school year. 

In regard to the transportation cuts, WHS principal Tim Freeman said, “I think it’ll be an interesting couple of years as we deal with construction simultaneously. I think the result of that will be a little bit of an increased traffic flow, as far as passenger cars. 

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“We’re trying to plan and get out ahead of the issue so we’re a little more proactive then reactive as far as being postured to handle the kind of traffic in the morning.” 

Keenan is currently seeking concessions with Ohio Association of Public School Employees and the Westlake Teachers Association. He aims to freeze their step increases and OAPSE has agreed to come to the table and negotiate. Members of the WTA, on the other hand, are going to vote on whether or not to concede with the district. 

If the union votes not to enter into concessions, then Keenan said he will be forced to lay off three or four more teachers. 

For now, out of the 11 teachers who will be laid off, three are at the high school level, which will slightly decrease class offerings and slightly increase class sizes, WHS principal Tim Freeman said. 

The core class sizes at the high school average between 24 and 28 students, and the layoffs may up those averages by one to two students. The increases will be manageable, Freeman added. 

Eight teachers will be let go on the middle and elementary school levels, and Keenan, like Freeman, estimated a marginal class size increase, saying that teachers should be able to manage it. 

“We have an exceptional value here in Westlake for what’s provided and what we spend,” Keenan said. “For the quality and the output and the excellence – not just in state testing but in so many areas – our intention is to maintain, for our community, an exceptional value which means an excellent product and efficient measures.” 

Additionally, pursuing future reductions will be, in part, contingent upon whether or not the Ohio General Assembly decides to increase or decrease the proposed $3.1 billion in education cuts that would take effect over the next two years. District officials will know for sure when legislators finalize and implement the state’s biennial budget this July 1.

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