Need more evidence of the strain being put on school budgets? Look no further than a disturbing news item that ran last month in the Daily Herald of Roanoke, N.C.
The district eliminated at least 12 school bus driver positions due to budget constraints and will fill those vacancies with assistant teachers who are already on staff. The teachers were set to receive school bus driver training this summer.
By all accounts, Roanoke Rapids Grading School District is much accomplished and innovative. The school’s Web site says that it was the first public school district in the state to offer 12 grades and the first to offer Kindergarten. It’s won state and national awards for student achievement and boasts the largest number of National Board Certified teachers of any school district in North Carolina, which by the way can mean a 12 percent pay increase. During the upcoming 2009-2010 school year, it would seem that some of those teachers will be working even harder for their wages after the school board voted to eliminate school bus driver positions.
Doug Miller, RRGSD maintenance director, said the school planned to use money from the state for transportation costs to supplement the teachers’ incomes.
“What we’re trying to do is provide enough work for teacher assistants. The state is cutting their funding,” Miller told the Daily Herald. “We’re trying to keep them around because of the work they do. It’s because of them that we’ve had such good test scores.”
Here’s hoping that the district’s student safety statistics don’t suffer as a result.
