County will cut teacher positions

Cut monies to prisoners, get rid of unnecessary positions within the county and reduce administration where necessary but don't cut teachers or raise class sizes. One of the primary reasons private schools are more successful that public schools is because they have much lower class sizes. The less students a teacher must teach the more emphesis can be placed on individual students and their education. Mr. Nagle is a great man and will do what is needed but schools & safety should be the last place to make cuts with tax payer monies.

With the exception of kindergarten, raising the student population in a classroom from 18 to 21 is NOT a back breaker. The move is appropriate and Mr. Nagle is to be lauded for this decision. Unfortunately, we will probably hear some wailing and gnashing of teeth from the educational community, and from others that have no real understanding of educating children in public schools. GGpap.

Education should be the very last thing to be cut from any budget. And 18-21 may not seem much to you GGpap but in a class setting it means 3 more kids to try to teach, teachers already don't have the quality time they need to spend with each child as it is so yes it does matter. I am not blaming Mr. Nagle but I am blaming the state of Georgia, our kids are already lacking in the education department as it is.

The numbers here are misleading. I teach 7th grade and have up to 31 students per class. My friend teaches 4th grade and has 26 students all day long. Both of these in Columbia County. The 18 is only a maximum class size for 3rd grade as class reductions were begun in that grade years ago and then stopped due to budget issues. So, PROJECTIONS are made based on 18. There really are VERY FEW classes (other than 3rd grade) that ever have such a low number. This just means that once they hire based on 21 kids per class, they won't open up a new class until all the classes are way over the limits - which are different for different grade levels.

Thanks for that info reader212, just goes to show that budget cuts to education is the last thing we need.

Greenbrier High School generally has 30 students per class. Add in behavior problems, which every class has, and that 30 seems like 40, at least.

I teach middle school in Columbia County and I had four classes with 28 students last year. Don't be misled by the 18-21 figures.

I think that the county needs to look elsewhere for cuts. There is an awful lot of fat to trim. I also think that board memebers and other items the school pays for are quite excessive. They have technoloogy people but yet are paying for computer companies to do work???????? I tried to donate a machine to use with a weather station and have yet to get the paperwork the technology person said I needed to have before I can GIVE them a FREE machine to hook to an EDUCATIONAL aid item. I thought they were in the ducation business and not in the hamper and see if we can keep education from happening business.

Every official has to make the best of the money with which he/she has to work - it seems as if this one is trying his best to stretch every dollar. WE ALL have to make cutbacks now - school though is not one where stinginess needs to prevail although I can say that years ago when money was just as tight or maybe tighter schools produced people who are now determining current budgets. There are ways to cut back and maintain quality - I'm not sure that teachers are one of those ways however. We keep screaming for more teachers and colleges are turning out those who have spent time and money to BECOME teachers only to now learn that they are a disposable commodity. There are probably savings in areas of equipment and supplies that could be made in order to keep more quality teachers. Years ago corporations such as Coca Cola provided paper and pencils in schools, yet now each school must maintain a supply in case there is a student who can't afford that. Give the man some input in a rational way and see if there is some other way to meet the budget and keep the needed teachers.

Just a note to those who want to cut expenses from elsewhere in the County. Please remember that the Board of Education is a state-funded entity, not locally funded by Columbia County. Columbia County government is completely independent of the Columbia County schools, and there is no budget overlap, so cutting our local government's expenses will do absolutely nothing to helo our ailing schools. Increasing teacher pay, cutting state expenses and pet projects, and decreasing classroom sizes is what is needed.

If they are having sex in the middle of the day with their coworkers I don't think their presence will be missed very much anyhow.

It's better to have 1 teacher actually doing her/his job than having 10 that aren't.

Jillian your comment is completely irrelevant. Get a life.

Lady: At least Jillian is consistant. Merry Christmas.

Isn't Grovetown's New High school opening next year? I guess the school will open without any teachers since they won't hire to fill the empty school.

"With the exception of kindergarten, raising the student population in a classroom from 18 to 21 is NOT a back breaker"-the K class I work in started with 21 and we expect more. There are 19 terrific kids and 2 who are more trouble and work than the whole other 19 combined. If you get an additional 3 good kids, it's ok. But if you get 3 kids who are behavior problems or need intensive help to learn, it seems like 30. Last year we had a combined class and there were THIRTY ONE kids in one classroom- stressful and exhausting doesn't even begin to describe it. Let your boss tell you that your workload just increased 15%, with no pay increase, no support, and you have to do 115% of your work in the same time as you did the 100%, what would you say?

Corgiemom, please understand, when I wrote, "with the exception of kindergarten," I was trying to make it clear that even 18 kids in kindergarten were MORE than enough for any teacher to have to deal with (that's why an aide is usually hired for kindergarten classes, obviously, someone has to handle the wildcats!). Reader212: Thank you for providing us with some relevant information on this issue. Once upon a time, long, long ago I also taught classes of 31-32 "wild ones (I say this with a smile)." These were Native American middle school students, and my schedule consisted of 6 (55 minute periods) daily. There were, indeed, several disruptive students in each class; but, overall, these memories are some of the happiest I have from my late-life, second career as a teacher and school administrator. :o) GGpap.

Just to clear up some misconceptions. Yes, the School System is separate from the county government. When people pay county taxes about 60% of it goes to the school system. The state does contribute to support the schools but currently it is just below 50%. The rest must be from county raised taxes.The school system is very limited as to what it can spend its tax money on. Currently in Col County approximately 90% of our $180 million dollar budget goes to pay salaries and benefits for the employees. So as you can imagine, because our system has a lean budget, a cut in support from the state will necessarily impact the amount we can pay in salaries. Another constraint placed on Ga schools is that 65% of the budget must go directly to the classroom.

I am in favor of small class sizes but in these difficult economic times we have to make extremely difficult decesions about spending tax dollars and we will be taking very close looks at all areas of spending.

As for the staffing of Grovetown HS, since Greenbrier and Harlem will each be sending students to Grovetown, each high school loosing students will send a contingent of their teachers to the new school

GGpap, I understand what you were saying. And the reason why I work as a volunteer aide is that in my school system, aides have been reduced to 2 1/2 hours per day in each kindergarten class. and we think it's going to get worse. Kindergarten aides are one of the first things to be cut when budgets need to be slashed, because testing occurs in the upper grades and schools are driven to raise test scores. And as more and more needy students- behavioral, academic, and disabled come in, it just gets worse and worse. Most of the people on here were disciplined by parents and were expected by their family, school, and society to behave themselves. It's not always like that now, and it is HARD.

Point well made, corgimom. I am truly sorry if the burden is being put on "volunteers" by cutting paid aides. That, in my opinion, is putting far too much reliance on a presumed endless source of volunteer assistance. In the end, the students will suffer the most. Intolerable! However, have a happy holiday season and hope for the best in the rew year to come. GGpap.

If you don't think the fact teacher's are having sex in the back room instead of doing what they are being paid to do- EDUCATE our children, then you are in all prob. a product of the educational system which allows such gross neglect of duty.

The only alternative would be to cut teacher pay, right? My job - we all voted to take less pay so everyone could stay on the job. The only reason I feel comfortable suggesting that teachers who are not totally dependent on their salary take a cut is that I have had to do it myself. Sacrifice for the greater good. I know a lot of people will holler about this but think about it.

OK, let me get this straight, the country elected Obama and one of his daily campaign statements was" we need to reform our education, a new generation of teachers,so we are going to extend class sizes and stress out the few quality teachers we do have. I bet his kids in Washington are not in those class sizes. We need to make our class sizes smaller not bigger. What a JOKE!!!! Well I say start a ggod voluntter program to help our teachers lower the ratio!`