Anthony Cloud

Staff Writer

During a recent meeting, the Bell County School Board discussed teaching positions throughout the district. Several schools will lose at least one teacher prior to the upcoming year.

The first school discussed was Bell Central. Bell Central’s SBDM council made a request for an addition of 3.1 teachers. The school stated that the request would give the school 32 teachers for the 2012-2013 school year, which is a reduction of one teacher from 2011-2012. The school believed that this would continue to allow them to have a teacher student ratio that will allow them to meet the needs of their students.

Chairman Kenneth Sams believed that the school needed an increase. The school board decided to give the school 3.4 teachers instead. This gave the school 33 teachers, which is one less teacher than the 2011-2012 school year.

Bell County High School was the second school that was discussed. Their SBDM made a request for 3.8 certified teaching positions. The request would allow the school to keep instructional levels high and class sizes low, according to principal Richard Gambrel.

The board approved their request, which will lower the teacher count from 40 to 39.

Frakes’ teacher count remained the same. The school requested 2.08 teachers for the upcoming school year. The board approved 2.7 teachers. This left the teacher count at 11 for the school. This will allow the school to maintain a minimum staff that would allow it to each grade level.

Lone Jack was one of the schools that lost two teachers. In their request, Lone Jack asked for an additional 2.22 teachers. The request would allow them to only lose one teacher instead of two, according to the request.

The request stated that the additional teacher will better assist Lone Jack with meeting requirements for the new common core standards. The board ended up issuing the school 1.4 teachers, which resulted in a loss of two teachers.

According the request form, Page was another school that lost two teachers. The initial request from Page was for an additional 1.08 teachers. The board approved .3 teachers.

Superintendent Yvonne Gilliam said that she may ask for an additional teacher in the upcoming months for Page. Currently there is a teacher at the school that is pulling students from different classes to fill their class. Sams said that he could not justify keeping that position if that was the case.

Right Fork received a little more than what they requested for from the board. Right Fork made a request for 1.7 teachers and received 1.95 teachers. The allowed Right Fork to virtually lose no teacher as their teacher count went from 14.5 to 14.

Yellow Creek made a request for two additional teaches. The board only approved one of those teachers, which is a reduction one position.

Anthony Cloud is a staff writer for the Middlesboro Daily News. He can be contacted via email at acloud@heartlandpublications.com.