SALISBURY — As many as 20 support positions districtwide will be absorbed by December after a decision by the Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education on Thursday.

The board approved a proposal to optimize school support staff, with the goal of trimming 20 jobs by the end of the calendar year. Most positions would be absorbed through attrition or repurposed.

“This is not about a restart situation. This is really about the optimization of what we have,” Assistant Superintendent Julie Morrow said.

District administrative staff began looking at equitable staffing models after tallying school needs, including factors such as students getting free and reduced lunch, the number of English as a second language speakers and each school’s exceptional-children population. But while schools have different needs, they are all given the same number of staff members.

“They all have a tech facilitator, a media specialist, an assistant principal. They all have the same number of guidance counselors, they have a reading coach,” Morrow said. “… All of our schools are significant. However, some have more needs than others.”

In some cases, other staff members might be able to take on the duties of the support position.

“Could we combine, for instance, a tech facilitator and a media center coordinator together and gain a position?” Morrow said.

The proposal extends only to support positions such as assistant principal, media center coordinator, reading coach and technology facilitator. It would not affect teachers, teacher assistants or other staff.

Many district schools don’t meet state qualifications for support positions like assistant principals, so those jobs are funded out of local money, Morrow explained. By absorbing positions, the district could free up to $1.5 million that could be put toward other needs.

However, some board members were not pleased. Dean Hunter argued that the proposal is, in fact, cutting positions, and he chastised administrators for trying to dress up the idea into something more palatable.

Morrow and Superintendent Lynn Moody said the intention is to trim positions through attrition and transfers — not cuts. The move, they said, is not one that they are fond of but one they see as necessary.

“Do we want to eliminate staff? Absolutely not,” Moody said. “Do we think this will benefit academic performance? No. But when you’re looking at this list of priorities, and you want to know how do we get an SRO into an elementary? … That’s all this is. If we weren’t looking for money to free up other things, we wouldn’t bring this suggestion back to you at all.”

Board Vice Chairwoman Susan Cox also disagreed with Hunter.

“To me, it’s not about staff. It’s about need in the school,” she said.

It wouldn’t be easy, but some schools could afford to have fewer staff members and some couldn’t.

Board members still wanted to be sure the proposal would not result in mass job terminations.

“By doing this, will any positions actually be cut?” Chairman Josh Wagner asked.

“Our goal is to do this through attrition … so that nobody would lose their job,” Morrow said.

Trimming would be done on a school-by-school basis after careful consideration of current staff abilities.

“We shouldn’t think of this as losing or gaining money, because it’s a pot that we already have. We’re rearranging money,” board member Richard Miller said of the savings.

Miller made a motion to approve the proposal, and board member Jean Kennedy seconded it. But Hunter was still not convinced.

“We don’t have any proof that this is going to be a success. Not only financially — it’s a shot in the dark,” he said.

The motion passed on a 4-2 vote, with Wagner and Hunter voting against it.

“I appreciate the concept behind staff optimization,” Wagner said in an email after the meeting. “I believe that the board is working hard to try to free up dollars in order to reallocate them more effectively. I absolutely support any opportunity to redirect funds in a more efficient way.

“With that said, I voted against the staff optimization simply because of the unknowns. While conserving tax dollars is important, I can’t support that if it comes at the cost of students and staff. With that said, I will be interested to see the impact over the next year. We may find out that we have to make adjustments during the next budgeting cycle.”

Board member Travis Allen did not attend the called meeting.

Contact reporter Rebecca Rider at 704-797-4264.