Approving an Innovative Staffing Plan for the Cumberland County Public Schools
Resolution Number 2001-18
April 26, 2001
WHEREAS, the Standards of Quality for Public Schools, in §22.1-253.13:3.B.4 of the Code of Virginia set the student-staff ratios for school personnel, including principals, assistant principals, guidance counselors, librarians, and clerical support staff; and
WHEREAS, this provision also allows the Board of Education to grant waivers of those staffing requirements for school divisions seeking to implement experimental or innovative programs that are not consistent with the staffing levels required by the section; and
WHEREAS, until 1999, these staffing requirements were found only in the accrediting standards and there was a provision allowing the Department of Education to approve an alternative staffing plan as long as the plan did not reduce the total number of staff required; and
WHEREAS, the 1999 General Assembly adopted language superceding those provisions that requires schools to seek approval of an experimental or innovative program to provide alternative staffing plans; and
WHEREAS, the Cumberland County Public School division is a very small rural school division located in the central part of Virginia with a total student enrollment of less than 1,300 students (K-12) for the 2000-2001 school year and projections that enrollment for both the middle and high schools will not exceed 700 students for the next few years; and
WHEREAS, the Cumberland County School Board is required to employ two full-time media specialists to provide services to students in one very small facility that serves both the middle and high schools, and such staffing exceeds what would be required by the Standards of Quality in a single school serving a student population of 700 students; and
WHEREAS, the Cumberland County School Board carefully considers the level of services available to educate children in the county, and with the approval of the alternative staffing plan, it can provide additional instructional staff for the core academic program and continue to provide adequate media and technology services to students;
BE IT RESOLVED THAT the Board of Education approves the alternative staffing plan that would provide for the employment of one full-time media specialist, one full-time media services aide, and the support of a technology coordinator to staff the library-media center at Cumberland Middle and High Schools for three years beginning with the 2001-02 school year; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT the approval is conditioned upon the following:
1. The division superintendent shall provide written assurance that there will be no reduction on student access to the library media center for research, leisure reading, and other enrichment activities before, during and after school.
2. The school division must advise the Superintendent of Public Instruction at the end of each school year of the extent to which the Department of Education’s Office of Instructional Materials and Training has been used for technical and consultant services.
Adopted in Richmond, Virginia on This Twenty-Sixth Day of April in the Year 2001.
Signature:
Kirk T. Schroder, President
Board of Education
Adopted in the Minutes of the Virginia Board of Education
April 26, 2001
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