ABERDEEN—In its April meeting, the Aberdeen School Board voted not to renew 16 teacher and 16 teacher assistants contracts during executive session. Some of the reasons for not renewing these teaching contracts stem from reasons such as retirement and those who had expressed they would be moving on to jobs in different school systems. These cuts ultimately stemmed from budget cuts every school and state agency in Mississippi is currently facing.

Aberdeen Elementary School had one teacher assistant per teacher in each grade, but following the cuts, these positions will be adjusted to sustain one assistant to two teachers per grade. Some districts throughout the state voted to eliminate teacher assistant positions all together.

“It’s never a good feeling to have to make job cuts, but even with the lack of these positions, we could still combine two classes for one teacher in some cases,” said Chester Leigh, superintendent of the Aberdeen School District.

This month’s regular meeting was met with rumors swirling of 40 more teacher layoffs amidst a $15,000 raise for Leigh.

“Superintendents’ contracts are different from teachers’ contracts. Superintendents work on two, three and four year contracts and in May 2009, my contract detailed incremental steps. The overall amount of my salary remains the same. It’s not viewed as a raise since the contract amount has not changed. It’s almost as if I agreed to work for a lesser amount the first year,” Leigh said.

Leigh is on his second year of a three-year contract with the Aberdeen School District and his salary is paid for through the district funds.

During executive session of its May meeting, the Aberdeen School Board voted not to renew three more assistant teachers’ positions. A few positions in food services and transportation were also terminated, but no fulltime teaching positions were cut.

The Mississippi Department of Education has accountability standards regarding student to teacher ratios and even with the recent job cuts, the Aberdeen School District will be in accordance with these rules.

“When looking at where our district was enrollment-wise 10 years ago as in comparison to now, we’re trying to be more efficient with our spending since the number of students has decreased so much since then,” Leigh said.

During its regular meeting, the board did hire four teachers for the 2010-2011 school year. Two of the 16 teachers who were cut last month were rehired after licensing issues were resolved.

The board also hired 51 teachers, bus drivers, three food service workers and 19 students as tutors for the district’s extended learning program, which will take place throughout the month of June.