School Board announces cuts as it looks toward levy

The large cuts faced by the Libby School Board reared their collective heads at Monday’s meeting as 14 district employee contracts were not renewed.

The district, which is asking for a mill levy of $350,000, already has planned cuts that includes staff reduction. In all, the cuts will approach $700,000, said Libby Superintendent K.W. Maki.

“We could have waited until May to let them know,” he said. “But we did it early. We need to let people know so they can plan their lives.”

The district shortfall will not affect tenured teachers, but the school board said the 14 non-renewed contracts will drop total teachers from 84 down to 70.

“If we were to lose all of those teachers, the word would be catastrophic,” said Ron Goodman, Libby Elementary School principal. “But this isn’t the sequester. I don’t think anybody believes we are not going to hire some of these teachers back.”

No matter what happens in the school election May 7, some of the teachers will be hired back. The part up in the air is how many of those 14.

“The hardest part about that is they are all good people,” said Libby High School Principal Rik Rewerts. “But we have to have flexibility. My hope is that most of those people are rehired. The community can’t afford to lose another 14 jobs.”

The 14 named employees are all the non-tenured teachers in the district. They tend to be the youngest and most energetic, said school board member Amy Fantozzi.

“You hate to offer a contract to somebody and then say ‘oh sorry,’ in May when you don’t have the money to pay,” she said.

For a school district with declining enrollment, cuts are planned virtually across the board, but will hit hardest in personnel.

“It’s an unfortunate thing to do,” said Ellen Johnston, school board member. “But the school district needs to balance its budget. Unfortunately, that often happens on personnel because personnel is 80 percent of the budget.”

The 14 school district employees in question are Rae Baerlocher, Erin Bothman, Mindi Burford, Brenna Chvilicek, Christine Conver, Bruce Fuller, Mary Gier, Lisa Goodman, Samantha Hannah, Keith Ivers, John Love, Cody Pate, Lea Spencer and Joan Stern.

The Western News made attempts to get comments from these 14, but they did not return calls or declined to comment.

This might be in part because although those 14 have been let go, some may return after the election May 7.

“A portion of those 14 should return,” Maki said. “They’ve been let go already.”

 It all comes down to that crucial election in May to see if those teachers could return.