smithfieldtimes

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Staff writer

Isle of Wight County Schools eliminated 21 positions, including 8 teachers, recently after receiving county funding $400,000 less than what it had requested.

The Isle of Wight County School Board unanimously approved its $55 million budget, and soon after teachers began receiving notices that they had been let go.

According to spokesperson Kenita Bowers, at the elementary level, staff was reduced by four teachers, four kindergarten aides and 1.5 clerical positions.

At the middle and high school level, four teachers and three clerical positions were eliminated.

There were 1.5 administrators reduced across all schools, and three position were reduced at central office.

A request for more detail on specific positions and at which schools the cuts were made was not answered by press time.

Bowers said the positions were eliminated because of “challenging economic times coupled with increased expenses in special education services, utilities, transportation and building maintenance.”

According to Bowers, the schools have more than 80 positions that are not paid for by the state’s Standards of Quality funding.

The schools relied on attrition and reduction in force regulations to reduce staffing numbers, she said.

Reduction in force, when applied to teaching positions, targets teachers with a provisional license or a special education conditional license.

From there, teachers are laid off based on job performance, disciplinary history and participation in programs aimed at improving performance.

At a recent Board of Supervisors work session, Christina Berta, school executive director of finance and budgeting, told the Board of Supervisors that anything less than $24.6 million in county funding would result in cuts to school personnel.

The supervisors approved a $24.2 million school contribution — $400,000 less than what was reportedly need to stave off lay offs — on May 23.

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Staff writer

After Isle of Wight County Schools Superintendent Katrise Perera announced her desire to leave the county and became a finalist for a superintendent position in Florida, some people remain uncertain whether she has officially resigned.

She has not.

In a May 17 press release, Perera announced “her intentions to pursue leadership opportunities outside of Isle of Wight County Schools” — but not her resignation.

Some media outlets reported it as such.

At the end of a May 24 School Board meeting, Perera reiterated that she had not resigned, saying that she had three years left of a four-year contract.

Perera has become one of five finalists in a superintendent search in St. Lucie County, Fla.

After the meeting, Newport representative Kent Hildebrand said the board members haven’t formally met to discuss Perera’s possible resignation, but have talked about it individually.

“(There’s a) consensus among the Board about what to do but until that time, we can’t speak to it,” he said.

If she chooses to leave, the conditions of her resignation are unclear. When Perera came to the division in June 2011, she signed a two-year contract that allowed her to voluntarily resign, providing she give 30 days notice.

After the resignation, all salary and benefits were to cease.

Perera’s contract would have expired June 30 this year, but the School Board unanimously approved a four-year contract in May 2012.

With that contract, the terms changed.

Nowhere in the contract does it say that Perera must give notice if she resigns.

In fact, it does not address voluntary resignation at all.

Rather, it speaks solely to the Board’s options. ...(Subscribe!)