MOUNT VERNON — In order to offset revenue losses, the Mount Vernon City Schools Board of Education and administration have announced cost containment measures which will save the general fund $2.5 million. The general funds appropriations are between $24 million and $26 million a year.
Staff reductions effective for the 2011-12 school year, are expected to save the district $1.5 million. Those include 14 teaching positions, saving $770,000; three administrator positions and all building technology leaders, saving $420,000; student council advisors, saving $13,000; and 25 full- and part-time support staff, saving $154,000.
Of the teaching positions, nine will be elementary teachers. Superintendent Steve Short said two of the positions are intervention tutors at Wiggin Street and East Elementary, four are classroom teachers from different elementaries, and the other three are elementary music, art and physical education positions. Short said the pupils will still have art, music and physical education, but the amount of time each week will probably be decreased.
At the high school, a language arts position will be eliminated and the health/social studies position from which a person retired will not be filled.
Three positions will be abolished at the middle school. At this time, those are one classroom teacher, a seventh-grade language arts teacher and a sixth-grade teacher. Short said there may also be some staff reassignments, based on the enrollment numbers in sixth- and seventh-grade.
