By Rebecca Rider
rebecca.rider@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — A state policy provision could threaten local art and music teachers, Rowan-Salisbury staff said Monday.

At the Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education’s Monday business meeting, system administrative staff said a policy passed with the state budget earlier this year to reduce class sizes may paint a grim future for local school systems. And they asked the local board to fight it.

The policy states school systems must reduce average and maximum class sizes by three students for kindergarten through second grades. For Rowan-Salisbury schools, that would mean hiring a minimum of an extra 30 teachers, according to April Kuhn, executive director of administration and legal services.

But when the General Assembly passed the policy, it neglected to increase teacher allotments for school districts or provide funding for the move.

“We would be looking at a large shortfall and elimination of positions,” Kuhn said.

Administrators are worried that unless the policy is overturned or funded, it may mean cuts to local positions such as art, music and physical education teachers. In an interview prior to the meeting, district Chief Financial Officer Robin Leslie said school systems — including Rowan-Salisbury — traditionally vary class size to allow schools to use some state allocations to preserve art and music positions.

With this policy, systems would be forced to use those allocations for extra classroom teachers.

“What’s happened is they’ve eliminated our flexibility,” she told the board on Monday.

Leslie estimated the state policy would cost approximately $1.8 million to fund locally.

“We either have to come up with $2 million to fund those, or we have to cut positions,” she said.

But the move could have other impacts. According to Kuhn, school systems are already suffering from a shortage of qualified teachers. Rowan-Salisbury Schools started out the school year with nearly 70 vacancies. With districts all over the state being required to force hire at once, staff predicted a worse shortage.

“We wanted you to be aware that this is on the horizon,” Kuhn said.

In an interview before the meeting, Leslie also said space would be a concern in a few schools. Faith Elementary, for example, had its entire first grade housed in mobile units during the 2015-16 school year.

“This has already passed,”Superintendent Dr. Lynn Moody told the board. “This is the train coming down the tracks. And unless when they go back they don’t reverse this, this is a done deal. So they really need to hear from you all and from the community.”

Board Chair Josh Wagner asked if staff could bring back numbers on exactly how many art, music and P.E. positions have the potential to be impacted by the policy.

“Because that’s part of it — if they don’t change it, we’ve got to face that, right?” he said.

He also said he would like to see if the board could look at the budget to try and find other areas to cut to preserve positions.

“Every organization is strongly opposing this and asking them to change this,” Moody said. “… I’m expecting them to change this. This is the one that I’m thinking that they’re not going to fight every arts council, every P.E. — across the state… I don’t know anybody who’s not fighting this.”

Moody said she thought that state officials and representatives meant to lower class size, but didn’t realize it would cut positions or remove flexibility. The board agreed that while it was in favor of having smaller class sizes, it was not in favor of cutting positions to do so.

“I think the concept is good, but the money has to come from somewhere,” Wagner said.

The board directed its lawyer, Ken Soo, to draft a resolution asking the General Assembly to provide full funding for the policy.

Wagner also encouraged fellow board members to speak to representatives about the potential negative impact.

Contact reporter Rebecca Rider at 704-797-4264.