District Unveils Personnel Plans

Hatboro-Horsham Superintendent Curtis Griffin Monday night outlined specifics of the district’s plans to eliminate up to 15 teaching positions next school year.

Griffin cautioned during the school board meeting that plans are preliminary and could change in the coming months, as the state budget is finalized.

According to Griffin’s report, one teaching position will be eliminated from the first grade at and one position from the school’s fourth grade, along with one position in the fourth grade at . At , one sixth-grade position will be eliminated, in addition to a seventh-grade language arts position, along with the school’s building reading specialist. A math, social studies and science teaching position will also each face demotion.

will face the elimination of the instructional technology specialist position, along with a special education position, a social-studies teacher and an art position, although the latter is expected to be addressed by a teacher retirement. The high school will additionally see the loss of half of a position each in business and consumer science, family and consumer science and world language.

Griffin said there are an additional 15.5 teaching positions currently open that are not factored into this proposal and that will be further analyzed as plans progress.

“This is a very long journey,” Griffin said. “The only thing we’re certain of right now is that by Labor Day we should have this resolved. But there are a tremendous number of decisions that need to be made.”

Furlough proposals are expected to be formally reviewed by the board at its June 20 meeting.

Once the plans are finalized, they will be submitted to the state Department of Education, and individual  meetings will be held in August with teachers who could be furloughed.

Griffin explained that the staffing changes are largely the result of declining enrollment: In the last decade, enrollment across the district was down by 530 students, about 9.54 percent.

Enrollment changes do not just illustrate students moving out of the district, Griffin noted, but are demonstrative of a number of programmatic changes.  

For instance, the high school’s internship program has grown dramatically, as has its dual-enrollment program and Advancement Placement program — from 197 participating students several years ago to 397 students this year — as well as its virtual-learning program, which this year had 80 enrolled students. The new learning opportunities, Griffin said, have changed the classroom landscape.

“We have a wider variety of options now for the students, so they are making different decisions on what classes they take and how they take them, which affects enrollment,” he said.

The proposed personnel revisions are part of a proposed package to close a nearly $2 million budget shortfall.

In addition to the proposal, the board also voted to approve a memorandum of understanding between the board and the Hatboro-Horsham Education Association regarding the recently approved teacher employment contract.

The board also elected to move forward on a proposal to launch a transportation co-operative with area schools, designed to be a cost-saving initiative.

Prior to the board’s business, district officials handed down an array of end-of-the-year honors for exemplary students and staffers.