Dr. Denita Dowell-Reavis
The Alexander County Board of Education held its regularly scheduled meeting for April on the 16th.
Public Comment
Several people spoke to the board about potential cuts to staff based on the Reduction in Force Policy. The district implemented the policy to try to meet the 2024-2025 budget. The board asked district leaders to make the cuts due to declining enrollment. Alexander County Schools has lost more than 900 students in the past 10 years and is projected to lose 93 more for the 2024-2025 year. Some of the speakers acknowledged the board and administration does not have an easy job to make cuts. Others said the cuts planned will impact the STEM (Science Technology Engineering Math) programs at the schools. Even more talked about the effect on the language department, particularly French, at Alexander Central High School. Speakers asked the board to do as the district motto asks and put “Children First.”
Board member Matt Reese told the board that the efforts to recruit a new superintendent are moving forward. While he did not release a number of applicants, thus far, Reese said the firm hired is making progress. The group being paid to conduct the search is screening applicants’ credit scores, social media postings and background. He said the firm is committed to finding a candidate that brings honor and integrity to the Alexander County Board of Education. Board member Brigette Rhyne added to the conversation about the superintendent search by saying that Dr. Hefner is not conducting the search for her replacement. The Masonboro Group is being paid $18,500 to do the search and are working in tandem with the school board.
Board chair Robert Arguelles reported that he and finance committee member Josh Dagenhart met with a couple of the county commissioners. The entire bodies met jointly March 28th to discuss school funding as part of the county’s overall budget. Arguelles says Commission Chair Josh Lail and commissioner Marty Pennell had follow-up questions about the loss in enrollment and the increased costs on the district for staff benefits. The district has had to find more than $1.5 million dollars over the past two years to fund staff raises mandated by the state. The commissioners did not make any promises about funding during the meeting and talks will be ongoing.
The committees also discussed an initiative on the November ballot to make school board races in Alexander County partisan. That means anyone running for school would have to declare their party affiliation–either Democrat or Republican–to run. Traditionally, school boards have been elected without a party association with the idea that parties should not sway decision making for students’ education. However, in the past several years across North Carolina, more school board elections have been chosen with candidates having to declare a party affiliation.
Superintendent’s Remarks
Superintendent Dr. Jennifer Hefner told the board that all personnel(except one) who are not being renewed as part of staff reduction have now been told by Human Resources Director Dr. Alisha Cloer. The board had asked Hefner to have her team cut 22 positions to find $1.5 million dollars for the 2024-25 school year. The district has followed the Reduction in Force policy (7920). It establishes that someone can fall under the RIF policy for a number of things including staff underperformance, the area of licensure, how many students are enrolled in their classes, and the level of the staffer’s degree. Some of those who were notified about their jobs were simply not going to be under contract anymore and were released. Those who are being RIF’ed will have a chance to appeal.
The district will now need to notify about 17 more people about their positions, which were paid for with federal pandemic money. Those meetings with staff and Dr. Cloer will start later this week. Initially, the district hired 41 staff members using the federal money, but several have been absorbed into other positions or left the district.