By Meg Peters
Review Co-Editor
Out of the 14 teachers who received pink slips for the 2015-16 school year, ten have been called back to reclaim their posts as Lake Orion district educators.
The ten open positions were first given to the members of the layoff group, but five of those teachers had already taken positions elsewhere, Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Rick Arnett said.
So, five new faces will also be walking the halls of the district’s schools.
The majority of the callbacks, ringing in at a total of eight full time positions, are for positions at the elementary level, and there’s a reason for this.
‘Based on our enrollment predictions we couldn’t make the cuts in the areas we thought we could at the elementary level,? Arnett said.
Enrollment predictions had pinpointed class sections to be smaller in certain grades, however enrollment pulled through. And the vice versa happened, where enrollment was projected to be greater in some sections and wasn’t. ?
So, the district couldn’t make all the cuts they had predicted.
‘It’s just a balancing act, and very difficult to predict,? he said. ‘Families come and go, you get new move ins you don’t expect, and they don’t all come in nice easy clusters.?
The district had not anticipated hiring back as many as ten teachers, however it is good news for the teachers and students.
‘From an educational standpoint and what’s best for the kids we determined it would be in our best interest to keep all sections in certain cases,? he said.
He used the example of trying to keep kindergarten class sizes to about 25 or 26 students at the most. Had the district cut one class of kindergarteners in a typical section of 25 or 26 student classes that could have pushed class size to 28 or 29 kids. By keeping the additional teachers, however, class sizes can be a little lower, rounding off at about 22 or 23 in those cases.
Aside from the elementary teachers, the remaining two positions are for a part time math teacher in the high school, and a district wide school psychologist.
Assistant Superintendent of Business and Finance John Fitzgerald said the district’s recall of the ten teachers was ‘budget neutral? for the most part because many of the positions replaced teachers on leave.
‘We won’t know our true budget impact till all the ‘dust? settles and our actual enrollment is known in about month,? Fitzgerald said.
Some of the recalls also replaced teachers who had retired, and some of them came from the determination that the district could not cut all the positions that had been budgeted to be cu t.
Arnett said this was typical, because enrollment is very hard to predict.
‘It’s all about predictions, budgeting is predictions, and unfortunately it’s not like a business where we make things and it’s all based on sales,? he said. ‘We’re really at the mercy of the community and people who transition in and out, and for Lake Orion it’s been a little bit better than most communities, but if u look across the state, we’ve lost in excess a quarter of a million students in the last five years.?
Before coming to Lake Orion for the 2015-16 school year, Arnett worked for the West Bloomfield district for the past five years in the same role, and said that district was losing students at an even faster rate, making enrollment predictions even more challenging. ?
‘Some areas get hit harder than others, and Oakland County has not been immune to it.?
For the 2014-2015 school year, the Lake Orion district laid off 11 teachers, and six were called back. In the 2013-2014 year, 26 teachers were laid off , and all of those teachers have been called back or found positions elsewhere.