Matt Tillson
MARLOW — With public schools taking a huge blow from the low economy across the nation, superintendents have had to make decisions on what can be cut.
Some of these tough decisions result in a Reduction in forces. The Marlow Board of Education was informed Monday night, by Superintendent George Coffman that Marlow Public Schools would be going through these reductions as well.
“The budget is tight this year and it will be tight again next year probably,” Coffman said. “If it is going to remain tight and we are wise, I believe that we can survive.”
Sandra Burns, Shelia Cain, Kellie Richardson and Arleta Freeman are the four employees that were presented to the board of a written recommendation from Coffman not to reemploy Monday.
“It is not that these four individuals have not done an excellent job because they have,” Coffman said. “They were just the last four employees hired and it is a hard but these decisions had to be made.”
Coffman said that the four employees will have 10 days to request a hearing by the board if they do not agree with the reduction. If a hearing is requested than it will be addressed at next month’s board meeting. If a hearing is not requested than at the next board meeting the names will be presented to the board for a vote of not to renew contracts.
“It is so hard to go through decisions like this but these are the times that we are going through,” Coffman said.
Also being approved by the board Monday night was the delivering of written notification to all temporary contract employees that their contracts will not be extended for the 2010-2011 school year.
“We have 11 temporary contracts that we are just going to let expire at this time,” Coffman said. “Again these decisions are tough to make, but they have to be made.”
Coffman also noted that he is anticipating six to seven employees to possibly be retiring after this year. If those retirements do occur, some temporary contracts may be renewed.
“If the retirements do occur we will have openings where we could renew some of the temporary contracts,” Coffman said. “Now that is not saying that these retirements will occur we will just have to wait and see what happens.”
The board also approved the resignation Linda Chapman Monday night. Coffman said that Chapman was a great asset to the Marlow elementary and library.
“Linda was a very good employee for the elementary and library as the media specialist,” Coffman said. “She will be deeply missed and we wish her luck in the future.”
Middle School Principal Kirk Harris and High School Principal Bryan Brantley presented the board with the drop out rate and reentry numbers for the 2008-09 school year. Harris informed the board that only one student dropped out during the 2008-09 school year but later reentered within the next quarter. Brantley stated that the dropout rate was around 4.7 percent.
“For the ’08-09 school year we had a total of 18 students drop out with one student returning,” Brantley said “We enrolled 360 students that year.”
Brantley said that during the 2007-08 school year the Marlow dropout rate was 9.1 percent while the state average is 13.02 percent.
“Obviously, when any student drops out of school it is not a good thing,” Brantley said. “I believe that one student dropping out is one student too many.”
— Matt Tillson is a reporter for the Duncan Banner. He can be reached at 580-255-5354 Ext. 142 or via e-mail at matt.tillson@duncanbanner.com.
