NEW PALESTINE — Approximately 20 teachers will lose their jobs with the Southern Hancock schools if the school board approves the recommendations from Superintendent Jim Halik during its regularly scheduled meeting Monday night. 

    Halik met privately after classes this past week with each teacher affected. 

    “It was definitely at the top of the list as one of the more difficult things I’ve ever had to do,” Halik said. 

    The layoffs come as the final piece of the puzzle in the district’s efforts to trim $1.7 million from the budget. They also were the last thing SH administrators wanted to do. 

    “There aren’t any circumstances you can think of that it’s easy to lay someone off, but to lay off a number of people, it really begins to take its toll on you,” Halik said of the individual meetings he had with the teachers. 

    “It’s emotional on both sides,” he said. “It’s just downright sad. You’re changing people’s lives, and it wasn’t by our doing.” 

    Halik said current legislative policies combined with the recession multiplied the problem of a budget shortfall. 

    When considering the options for trimming the budget with administrators, the school board and the community, Halik said they kept two things in mind when making final decisions. 

    “We wanted to protect the integrity of class sizes and keep them as reasonable as possible and keep all programs for kids, and I think we’ve come close to doing both of those things.” 

    The district has compiled a list of 45 recommendations that will save the school corporation an estimated $1,250,415. 

    Some of those concessions came from the teachers association. 
 
   Teachers and administrators have agreed to no increase in salary for the next two years, which Halik said will save the district an estimated $200,000. 

    They’ve also agreed to cut the $350,000 extracurricular activity salary account in half to $175,000 without cutting activities for students 

    Plus, teachers will also take a 2 percent cut in their annuities, saving $200,000. 

    “Teachers and administrators have given up a collective close to $600,000,” Halik said. 

    With $300,000 already trimmed and the transfer of $168,788 of other funds into the general budget, SH was able to meet the $1.7 million shortfall. 

    “There are a thousand different ways to save $1.7 million, and we found 45 ways to collectively be one recommendation, but we know somebody is not going to be happy.” 
 
   Assistant superintendent Bob Yoder said in his nearly four decades of education, dealing with the budget cuts have been incredibly difficult. 

    “This is my 39th year of education, and undoubtedly the last six months have been the most difficult and frustrating that I’ve ever experienced,” Yoder said.
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