By Stephen Smoot
Last week, the Pendleton County Board of Education held a special hearing to consider a Reduction In Force, or RIF, request from a staff member who received notice. While multiple staff members received notices, only Tanya Wehrle from Franklin Elementary School requested a hearing.
In the worst case scenario, an RIF notice indicates that the recipient of the message will be laid off. However, that is not always the case. In some cases, it indicates that an individual’s role or the category in which their job is placed will change, but that they will not be out of their job. With a number of regulations and rules governing especially grant and federally supported positions, RIFs help school systems rearrange the chairs on the deck to suit rule makers and keep the school system within its budget.
J.D. Wilkins, Pendleton County’s Board of Education president, opened the meeting with a statement. He explained that “employees of Pendleton County Schools are the only reason that we can teach to students.” Wilkins explained that the “students are the most important” aspect of the system, “We absolutely have to be able to have the employees to help them out,” he said.
Much of the meeting centered around the hearing request by Wehrle. She has held two different roles as a media specialist in the school library and also a parent coordinator. Jason Long, who facilitated the hearing, asked if Wehrle preferred an open or closed door hearing. “Open is fine,” she responded.
Pendleton County Schools officials took pains to express their admiration and appreciation for the amount of work in different areas and projects that Wehrle undertakes for FES. They explained that the RIF notice was nothing personal, nor was it a reflection of her work.
First, Nicole Hevener, superintendent, received an opportunity to discuss the reason for the RIF notice. She stated that Wehrle has two separate “extracurricular contracts” that combined to form her job. These do not involve coaching or athletics, but other work activities outside of teaching and the classroom.
Hevener stated that “the position of media specialist is on the (RIF) list because it was not correctly printed for what the purpose is.” Because it was wrongfully posted and, therefore, wrongfully filled, it must be removed. That said, Hevener said of the parent coordinator role that Wehrle also fills that they “would like to continue that and even expand it.”
When asked later by Wilkins if they could adapt the parent coordinator role to provide her sufficient time to perform the work she does now, Hevener stated, “We’d change the parent coordinator job, so she has the time.”
The change in status would result in a reduction of two hours per week from Wehrle’s work schedule. Wehrle wanted to address that reduction in her part of the hearing.
Wehrle described a significant list of tasks and accomplishments that she has been able to perform in the service of the school and students. One lay in modernizing the nonfiction section of the library, leading to expanded use of the books there by students. She also helps to put together the school yearbook. All lauded the number of different jobs that Wehrle completes with time as a very limited resource.
She explained that the loss of two hours per week of time would have an impact on what she could do for the students. One casualty could be the popular art show that she puts together for FES to show off student art talents.
The board will consider the recommendations of the superintendent and act on them in March.
