Ardmore Elementary Closes, Teachers Lose Jobs

An Ardmore elementary school will be closing its doors and dozens of teachers will be cut from the school district due to large district budget cuts.

Friday, April 30th 2010, 10:54 pm

By: News 9


By Jacqueline Sit, NEWS 9

ARDMORE, Oklahoma -- An Ardmore elementary school will be closing its doors and dozens of teachers will be cut from the school district due to large district budget cuts.

The school board approved the closing of Franklin Elementary School as well as district cuts during Thursday's meeting. In total, the board cut the budget by $2.2 million.

Ardmore schools Superintendent Dr. Ruth Ann Carr said a committee was formed in January to identify what cuts needed to be made. The priorities were to keep as many jobs as possible and maintain student program services.

"It's important to keep the extracurricular activities for our students because that is what they like to do, this keeps them in school, and whether they pursue music or science or business, this could also create scholarship opportunities for them in the future. If we cut those programs, our students will not have access," Carr said.

A total of 27 positions will be cut district wide.

"We were advised to expect about 10 to 15 percent budget cuts on a state level, and the legislators have not taken action on next year's budget, with all of that combined, we couldn't wait and had to start notifying teachers whether they have a job or not," Carr said.

Most of the cut positions will consists of first-year teachers whose contracts are about to end.

Another major change will be to the school calendar. Next year, the school year will be 10 days shorter, but each day will be 50 minutes longer.

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