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Brooke County Board of Education Approves Staff Cuts

Brooke County Schools will operate with 31 fewer teachers during the 2018-19 academic year, while the school system will also lose 17 service personnel.

Brooke County Board of Education members approved the 48 staff cuts during the Monday meeting, citing the need to save revenue.

“This is the one of the hardest things the board has to do because it’s the law,” said board President Brian Ferguson, who added seniority was the key factor in determining which staff members were cut and which remained.

Superintendent Toni Paesano Shute said, “It’s something we take no pleasure in, but we have to follow the letter of the law.”

Co-workers, parents and students offered praise for several teachers who requested hearings before the board on March 27 and other recent meetings. However, Shute said the primary purpose of the hearings was to allow staff members to argue the reductions in force weren’t conducted properly regarding such issues as seniority and qualifications.

Fired employees in recent years have been restored with the retirement of older colleagues. But Shute said few retirements are expected this year from the school district’s largely younger staff.

Shute said if any vacancies do occur, staff who have been let go may be considered for them before applicants outside the Brooke County school district.

The names of all fired staff members didn’t appear on the board’s agenda. Instead, it included 89 professional and service personnel to be considered for transfer to other schools in the county, which also were approved by the board.

The moves come at a time when the board is preparing to close the county’s two middle schools and three primary schools for the 2018-19 school year.

Follansbee and Wellsburg middle schools will be replaced by the nearly complete Brooke Middle School, while children from Beech Bottom, L.B. Millsop and Colliers primary schools will be transferred to Hooverson Heights and Wellsburg primary schools, to be renamed Brooke Primary North and South, and Jefferson and Franklin primary schools, to be renamed Brooke Intermediate North and South.

The current board made it no secret the primary school consolidations would mean cutting staff, saying it would eliminate about 73 professional and service personnel while saving about $1 million.

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