By Malcolm Butler
When Lincoln Parish School Board employees heard the news of the proposed plan to possibly combine four elementary schools into two, questions of job security may have been on the forefront of their minds.
A Ruston School District No. 1 millage will be voted on in April that could lead to Cypress Springs Elementary combining with Glen View Elementary and Ruston Elementary combining with Hillcrest Elementary (possibly along with the Lincoln Parish Early childhood Center) to have two pre-K through fifth grade schools within the district.
What would that mean for the teachers, administrative assistants, administrators and support staffs if that plan comes to fruition?
According to LPSB Superintendent Ricky Durrett, it won’t effect anything when it comes to salaries or employee numbers.
“All of that will pretty much the same thing (we have now),” said Durrett. “We’re still going to be the same number of teachers. Bus drivers still should be about the same. I don’t know that it’ll reduce any routes like that. We think some of the services could be better in this new plan. Rather than the art teacher or the SPED teacher or adaptive P.E. teacher or speech teacher having to go from one school back and forth, they’re going to be at one school all day. They are there and we are not spending time traveling back and forth.”
From an administration standpoint, Durrett said they would obviously only need one principal for each school but that the other principal would still have a huge administrative role and wouldn’t feel a financial impact.
“You know, a lot of the teachers were hung up on ‘Well there’s a librarian at Ruston Elementary and there’s a librarian at Hillcrest. Are we going to have two librarians?’ We’ve told people that we’re not reducing anybody’s salary. We’re not cutting anybody’s positions. Now, if we have two principals that end up having to go to Glen View, then one would be named the principal, and one would be named the assistant principal. But we’re not changing anyone’s pay. Okay? Now, when one of them retires or moves off, then the next person we hire won’t necessarily be at the same pay.”
Durrett said that over the course of the next few months, the Lincoln Parish School Board will hold public meetings at various schools to explain further details for the plan while also answering any questions that parents, teachers or the general public may have.
