Thursday’s BOE budget and finance meeting was recessed until next Tuesday at 5 pm
TOP PHOTO: BOE Budget and Finance Committee member Ryan Cummins said he was opposed to the schools in his district having to split classes or grades to reduce the budget. BOE and budget and finance committee member Jamie Wheeler also pictured.
By Charlotte Underwood
JACKSBORO, TN (WLAF)- The Campbell County Board of Education’s Budget and Finance Committee met Thursday afternoon, approving a budget proposal with approximately $2.1 million in district-wide cuts to balance the school district’s deficit. The original budget proposal included having split classes at Elk Valley, Wynn and White Oak. However, the proposal was amended to cut out having split classes at these schools.
The proposal passed with a four to two vote and will now be presented to the full board at its June meeting.
The proposed cuts are in bold further down this page.
The lower conference room at the school administration building was packed to standing room only with principals, teachers and others concerned about the school budget and their jobs.
Director of School Jennifer Fields said the district was bound by state “accountability requirements” to “demonstrate fiscal solvency” and that “failure to do so could result in state intervention and loss of discretionary spending authority.”
“To put it in context, we are facing a $2.1 million budget deficit, and it is our responsibility to make sure we are committed to maintaining instructional equity while making necessary reductions to balance the budget. In order for the district to get to the $2.1 million savings, the additional cuts that were made were – we are sending back our instructional coaches that we had, they will be returning to the classroom, the academic coaches will be returning to the classroom,” Fields said.
Other additional cuts under this proposal include Campbell County High School will lose an assistant principal that was hired with ESSER funds, which is Daniel Sexton. Sexton will be moved over to the open principal position at ELLA and that assistant principal position at CCHS will be abolished. Campbell County High School will also lose an English teacher as well as a Spanish teacher. Caryville Elementary would lose a nurse, as well as an intervention teacher and a teacher for special education groups.
Wynn and Elk Valley would be losing a school counselor. Jacksboro Elementary will lose two intervention teachers, Jacksboro Middle School will lose one intervention teacher and an instructional coach. Jellico Elementary will lose an intervention teacher and LaFollette Elementary School will lose two intervention teachers, Valley View would be losing two intervention teachers.
The central office would lose the mediation officer. An assistant band director that worked county-wide and was hired during ESSER, that position will be abolished and so will a county-wide special education teacher that was on contract.
“The coaching supplement that was $40,000 for contracted services would be cut, county-wide another special ed coordinator would be cut. Jacksboro Elementary would lose an instructional coach and a 4th grade teacher to make room for the instructional coach. Caryville Elementary would lose an instructional coach, LaFollette Elementary would lose an instructional coach and a 4th grade teacher. LaFollette Middle School would lose an instructional coach and a librarian,” Director Fields said.
Under the original proposal, White Oak would lose four teachers due to class split grades, Wynn would have one split grade class and would have lost a teacher and so would Elk Valley, but this was amended to be excluded from the motion by the end of the meeting.
According to Fields, “savings from those cuts would be $2,282,241.”
“The thing about splitting classes is its very concerning with the level of responsibility put on one teacher for two class levels,” commented Budget and Finance Committee Chairman Crystal Creekmore.
She presented some additional numbers that she had asked county finance director Jeff Marlow to go over that were ideas of how the district could have some additional savings.
Budget and finance committee member Ryan Cummins said he opposed any type of combining classes and that he thought it was a “terrible idea.”
Board of Education Member Brandon Johnson, asked to speak. He said everyone was clear that “no one on the board wanted any school closures; end of discussion.”
“Moving forward, I hate the concept of combining classrooms, I don’t know what we do, especially at some of our smaller schools, we want to protect those smaller schools, but if we get down and a grade has two students, can we justify paying a teacher to educate two students, or five or ten and this board needs to figure out some type of formula where we can separate passion from logic and logically say hey, when a classroom gets to seven students we need to look at combining, or whatever, I don’t know how we have those conversations to make sure that every student in our system is well taken care of, but that’s a conversation as a whole we need to have,” Johnson said.
Johnson also asked Richard Terry with the county finance department if the school board members could donate what they are paid to serve on the school board back to the school system. He said he already donates his to cheer teams, volleyball and other school related things, but he would gladly donate it to help solve the budget deficit and if all 10 of the BOE members did that it would be “$60,000.”
School board members are paid $6,000 to serve on the board and by state law cannot lower their compensation, according to Johnson, he asked Terry if it could be donated and then the “school system would not have to make as many cuts.”
Terry said the district had a board member in the past who had contributed back to the school system and that he would research it and see if it had to paid out to the individual and returned to the school system that way or deducted from the school board member’s paycheck and that he would get back to Johnson on that.
Committee members hashed out different ways that money could be saved for the district.
Director Fields said “it wasn’t much” but she had learned today that TISSA had increased by $37,712. She also suggested that since the deficit was $2.1 and that the proposed cuts equaled $2.82 million, then perhaps they could look at not doing split classes at the smaller schools.
“I was just told to cut as much as you possibly can, so I gave every option possible and I said, I said every meeting, when we take away from our students, that is the last resort, that is the last thing, we are defeating the purpose that we are intended to serve and I don’t ever want to do that,” Director Fields said.
In the original proposal of plan 4, there would have been four split classes at White Oak, one at Wynn and two at Elk Valley.
Board member Randy Heatherly said he, like BOE chair Jeffrey Miller, was concerned that the $2.1 million deficit was really $2.8 and that debt would “roll into next year.”
“I think we have a much bigger problem than what this is addressing, I am a no vote on either of these … I don’t want to see any of it happen; I feel like every step here is taking us back on the education side of it … I don’t want to be sitting here next year sitting $1.5 million in the hole, I think we need another option, maybe a third party could help us achieve that,” Heatherly said, suggesting a “third party evaluate the school system” and provide another option on “where the district can make cuts and where cuts need to be made.”
Heatherly said he would like to make a motion that the school district hire a third party that could offer a permanent solution.
Johson “echoed” Heatherly’s sentiments and said he agreed and that “maybe the board needed to look at tapping fund balance to hire a consulting firm to come in and look through the numbers and make strategic recommendations of what can be done long-term.”
Heatherly also added that he appreciated the effort that Director Fields and Budget and Finance Committee Chairman Crystal Creekmore had put into the numbers over the past months.
“I understand we are under a time constraint as well and if this board chose to do something temporary, I could probably relate to that, as long as there was a permanent plan in place to prevent us from being back in this position,” Heatherly said.
He again said he would like to make a motion to hire a third-party consulting firm, “not for this year, but for next year” to help the school district “evaluate, address their needs and concerns” and give a professional third-party opinion.
Creekmore said she liked that idea, but it needed to be added to the June agenda for the full school board rather than in the budget and finance committee’s workshop.
BOE member Cummins asked if that was something commonly used by school systems and what would the cost for the service be.
Director Fields said the school district had done something similar with the school buses by hiring a third-party consulting firm.
“It’s a $50 million budget … I think if we could agree to do that, it could help us move forward with addressing what we are facing this year,” Heatherly said.
Cummins said he would like to do research on that and see what other school districts were doing so they could be “good stewards of taxpayer funds.”
Discussion turned back to the $2.282 (million) in cuts that were proposed in option 4. Board member Jamie Wheeler made a motion to approve this proposal, “minus the split classes” in the small schools. It passed in a four to two vote with Budget and Finance Committee members Jamie Wheeler, Lisa Fields, Ryan Cummins and committee chairman Crystal Creekmore voting yes and Sharon Ridenour and Randy Heatherly voting no.
The proposal will be presented to the full board of education at its June meeting.
Elk Valley STEM School Principal Nancy Lay attended Thursday’s Budget and Finance Meeting. After the meeting was over, WLAF spoke with her, she said she was relieved the committee seemed to “be moving away” from the smaller schools having to split classes and grades as that was “a lot to ask of a teacher.”
“Having split classes means a lot of extra work for teachers regardless. There are a lot more demands on teachers now a days than ever. If you have a teacher that is teaching 7th and 8th grade split classroom, they are responsible for eight subjects, and eight different standards. It’s way different than you have at a traditional middle school where a teacher teaches one grade level and one set of standards,” Lay said.
Campbell County High School Principal Ben Foust said the cuts would be felt throughout the high school and it would be hard to lose an assistant principal, an English teacher and a Spanish teacher as well as the assistant band director and that he and others at CCHS feel that the school is the “flag ship” of the school district and that would not change.
“Whatever happens, we will continue to support our students and their education,” Foust said.
Thursday’s BOE budget and finance meeting was recessed until next Tuesday at 5 pm at which time the committee will discuss the 142 and 143 funds, which are the school’s federal projects and cafeteria funds which they will review and approve those budgets. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED-05/30/2025-6AM)
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