Budget shortfalls will force the elimination of classroom teaching positions, Lynchburg Schools Superintendent Paul McKendrick said Monday.
McKendrick’s comments came at the first of three public forums to discuss a potential gap of more than $8 million in next year’s budget. School board and administration members have said they want to gather community feedback early in the process — a departure from last year when the public was invited to comment after basic plans had already been sketched.
McKendrick told Linkhorne Middle School teacher Cathy Dalton that he would not be able to fulfill a request that he cut administrators instead of teachers, because the size of the budget hole.
“It’s going to hit everybody,” McKendrick said. “We will do as much as we can to save class sizes … but for me to stand here and say it’s not going to affect classrooms, I would be lying to you.”
Dalton later suggested that if enough teachers are laid off, some school administrators should step in to teach one class in addition to their other duties.
Roughly 90 people attended the meeting, including teachers, parents and more than 65 students on assignment for school board member Darin Gerdes, who teaches a government class at Liberty University. Suggestions ranged from to instituting sliding scale fees for extracurricular activities to eliminating some aides for special needs students and employing prison labor for school groundskeeping.
Judy Mathus, another Linkhorne Middle School teacher, said she could see layoffs now causing further budget deficits in the future.
“Personnel (who are) not working don’t pay taxes,” Mathus said. “Thus we find ourselves back around in this circle.”
One mother of a Bedford Hills Elementary student put forward the idea that the school should cut transportation costs, saying that there are eight buses that travel through her neighborhood each day.
McKendrick’s responded by saying the division can consider elimination of some bus stops, but the division still faces mandates on the transportation it provides relating to racial desegregation requirements.
After some encouragement from McKendrick, many of the Liberty students also weighed in on the discussion, some highlighting examples of cost-saving measures they had seen in the school districts they grew up in.
Upcoming School Budget Forums
-Jan. 26, 7 p.m., Heritage High School
-Jan. 28, 7 p.m., E.C. Glass High School
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