Norwin cuts 5 teaching positions, balks at layoffs, favors no tax increase

In a move aimed paring a projected deficit, the Norwin School Board cut five teaching positions and one administrative job for the 2023-24 school year, despite warnings about the impact it will have on the district’s education program.

The positions the board eliminated Monday for the upcoming school year were:

• A gifted education teaching job for students in grades seven through 12.

• A music teaching job in the K-12 music program.

• Two kindergarten positions, reducing the number of full-day kindergarten classes to one in each of Norwin’s four elementary buildings.

• A principal’s position with the Norwin Online Academy.

• A high school family and consumer sciences teaching position.

The school board opted not to eliminate a technology support teaching position and a high school social studies teaching position.

No layoffs planned

While the board approved eliminating positions in the 2023-2024 school year, Norwin officials have said no teacher will be furloughed.

That’s because the vacancies will occur through attrition, but some teachers will be reassigned to other positions for which they are certified to teach.

Of the school directors voting on eliminating the teaching positions, only William Essay, a retired Franklin Regional teacher, and Patrick Lynn, a Woodland Hills teacher, opposed all of the cuts.

Robert Wayman, a retired Norwin teacher running for re-election to a second term on a platform of “Kids First,” voted to eliminate four teaching positions and the online academy principal’s position.

Lynn said the board is “doing a great disservice to the students” by eliminating teaching positions.

“Forget about your campaign promises. Look at the kids,” Lynn shouted, referring to the faction of the board that ran on a pledge of no tax hikes.

Director Shawna Ilagan, one of those directors who ran on the “no tax hike” platform in 2021, said they were not being political in the vote, but they were “necessary cuts.”

Even if some classes are eliminated one year, there are 145 pages of classes from which students can select courses.

“What we are discussing is very minimal,” Ilagan said.

‘A real and negative impact’

By eliminating the teaching positions, Assistant Superintendent Natalie McCracken said there will be “a real and negative impact on the services we provide to students.”

Teachers may be certified for instructing other subjects or grade levels, but some “have never taught under that certification.”

Moving staff to fill vacancies created by attrition in the ranks of the faculty will require substitutes to teach core subjects, McCracken said.

“We have staff with less experience and less knowledge of their (students’) needs,” McCracken said.

McCracken also raised the point that with less staff, safety is reduced. Norwin has two school resources officers and seven school buildings spread across North Huntingdon.

By eliminating the all-day kindergarten classes, the district could “minimally provide” full-day kindergarten to students whose test scores show that need, but there would be just a few openings for students that would be filled by lottery, McCracken said.

Ryan Lynn, president of the Norwin Education Association and Patrick Lynn’s brother, contended that the reduction in staffing “could have far-reaching consequences.”

“Education is not a platform for political maneuvering,” said Ryan Lynn, a reference to campaign promises not to raise taxes.

No tax-hike budget

The school board also rejected a proposal to raise taxes to the state-mandated inflationary index of 4.5 mills to cover a $4.5 million shortfall between projected revenue and expenditures in next school year’s budget.

Raising taxes to the limit would generate $1.9 million, and the district proposed to use about $3 million from its fund balance to cover the rest of the shortfall.

A proposal to raise taxes by one mill also was rejected.

The board also rejected, by a 6-2 vote, the proposal to pass a budget without a tax hike. That was based on eliminating seven positions and using about $4 million of the fund balance. Directors Essay, Lynn, Christine Baverso, Darlene Ciocca, Alex Detschelt, and Wayman opposed it, while only Ray Kocak and Ilagan supported it.

Some board members said they wanted to wait to see the revised budget proposal, with two positions added to that spending plan, before voting on it.

Ryan Kirsch, business affairs director, said there has been little change in the proposed shortfall over the past month, with revenues projected still at $81.3 million and expenses at $85.8 million.

Kirsch pointed out that the district’s expenses are rising, but revenue is not keeping pace.

“Next year’s budget could be a lot harder,” Kirsch said.

The board is scheduled to vote on approving a final budget June 5.