Published: June 03, 2009 01:38 pm      

Clarksville Community Schools Corp. prepares for more cuts

Interim superintendent not sure on extent of school cuts to be announced next week

A day after laying off seven teachers effective at the end of this school year, the Clarksville Community Schools Corp. board listened as Interim Superintendent Kimberly Knott announced that classified cuts and administrative reorganization details will be released Tuesday, at the board’s regular meeting.

Knott made that announcement at the board’s planning session Tuesday night.

The goal is to cut about $400,000 from the 2009 budget. Those teaching positions that were cut Monday will account for about $156,000, or 39 percent, of that total, Knott said. The rest will most likely come from the following: 27 percent with administration reorganization; 23 percent from classified cuts — such as secretaries, custodians and more; and 11 percent from extracurricular expenses.

After Tuesday’s meeting, Knott said she was not ready to discuss specifics on the number of classified cuts to be announced or how the administration staff will be reorganized, since many details may change and cause a domino effect, such as additional retirements or resignations. She did say that the administration likely will not see cuts, but people may pick up additional duties.



PUSHING FOR PROGRESS

Pam Cooper, principal of Clarksville Middle School, showed the board members a PowerPoint presentation detailing how students were doing academically and what she and her employees are doing to get them to achieve more.

Cooper said the school will develop an implementation plan for the RTI, or Response to Intervention, program. It is focused primarily on effective instruction to enhance learning for all students, Cooper said.

It involves prevention and intervention, such as working in small groups within a class to help keep kids from falling behind or to get them caught back up. Cooper said data will be a key component, allowing students to get intervention for very specific issues, if needed, such as just fractions in math and not other parts of the subject.



BUILDING PROBLEMS?

Knott said she will be talking to an attorney to see what the corporation’s rights are after the board discussed problems that occurred while Greenacres Elementary School was going through renovations in 2002 that were never resolved.

Board members, along with Mark Gelback, director of maintenance, listed issues such as a leaky roof, leaky windows, broken tiles, having a nonshatterproof window installed instead of a shatterproof one and more.

Gelback said he discussed many issues with the contractors and architects at the time and assumed it would be handled. However, he said the problems were not fixed.

Bill Wilson, board president, said no issues were ever brought to the board and urged that in the future those problems be told to board members.

Knott said she will ask an attorney to provide an opinion on how to proceed. She did have paperwork from the project, but wording was vague and there weren’t details about any warranties included in it.

• The next school board meeting is set for 7:30 p.m Tuesday at the middle school.



WHAT IS RTI?

• Response to intervention integrates assessment and intervention within a multilevel prevention system to maximize student achievement and to reduce behavior problems.

With response to intervention, schools identify students at risk for poor learning outcomes, monitor student progress, provide evidence-based interventions and adjust the intensity and nature of those interventions depending on a student’s responsiveness, and identify students with learning disabilities.

Read more about the program on page A4.

— National Center on Response to Intervention