New school year set to begin in Florence County

Hank Murphy

     With their gleaming floors and immaculate hallways, the school buildings in Florence are primed to receive a full complement of staff and students for another year.

     Some teachers will have at their disposal new laptop computers and classrooms outfitted with slick Smart Boards as they strive to fulfill the district’s mission of “empowering all students with knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to be successful, contributing citizens in an ever-changing global society.” Others will have new tools for pinpointing students’ strengths and weaknesses and curriculums to challenge advanced learners and help rescue those who fall behind.

     Brandon Jerue will start the year as K-12 principal, a position he has occupied since former elementary principal Deb Divoky left the district with an injury in November 2009 and never returned.

     Administrator Tom Woznicki said that when he was hired in 2009, the board considered the possibility at some point of combining the job of superintendent and elementary school principal.

     “My recommendation is that at this stage, they have enough issues of interest that need to be resolved on the level of superintendent that they probably don’t want to split off that responsibility just yet. They may choose to do that down the road, but I don’t think this is the time. The board was being judicious and cautious in trying to reduced FTEs (full-time equivalent positions) in areas other than teaching first.”

     One area to see a decline in staffing is in physical education. Part-time gym teacher Nick Baumgart will not be back with the district this semester as a physical education teacher or in another role, Woznicki said. Teacher Karen Harrison will handle the bulk of physical education at both the secondary and elementary campuses, he said.

     The district, Woznicki said, is trying to gradually reduce teaching positions commensurate with declining enrollment, which is expected to decline by 20 to 30 students this fall. Last year’s enrollment of 479 represented a drop of nearly 20 percent in five years while the number of teaching positions declined by fewer than one half an FTE, according to Woznicki.

     With respect to taxpayers, Woznicki said they should expect a mill rate close to the rate of $9.23 projected last fall for year 2010-11, the first year of the new five-year, $1 million-a-year referendum.

     School officials will have a better handle on personnel costs soon after school begins and administrators know if they’ll have to hire one or more SAGE teachers, he said. As it stands, two elementary classes have 18 students, the maximum allowed under the SAGE program. Were another second- or third-grader to enroll, the district would have to hire another teacher to meet guidelines.

“We’ll be very close to the projected mill rate given to taxpayers in the five-year plan,” Woznicki said. “It will be adjusted, but it will be comparable and we will deliver on our promise to maintain quality programming, but we’re not going to spend money we don’t need to spend.”