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Cash-strapped counties need to have flexibility in hiring teachers during tough budget times, according to state education leaders.
"A reduction in force of 12 to 15 teachers can be catastrophic in a system that doesn't have many resources to begin with," said Calhoun County Superintendent Ron Blankenship, who takes out the trash and sweeps his own floor to cut custodian costs.
"We are simply to the point there are no frills anywhere," said
Blankenship.
When student enrollment declines, so does the amount of money county boards of education receive, and adjustments have to be quickly made, sometimes eliminating key components.
Blankenship and other leaders of small, rural counties say they could retrain more displaced teachers if the state aid formula was changed from enrollment-based to need-based.
Since 1990, enrollment statewide has dropped from 323,762 to 281,591, according to the state Department of Education. During that same time the number of classroom teachers has dropped from 21,653 to 20,413.
West Virginia's population has been dropping since the 1950s and more teachers find themselves unemployed.
Counties are required to notify teachers in the spring if they will be employed in the fall when school starts.
"It really hurts staff morale. If you're on the list, you go all summer long wondering if you have a job. A lot of times people on the list are young folks and they just pick up and leave," said Tom Lange, president of the West Virginia Education Association.
Lange said a county often will reduce its teaching force while advertising for teachers in shortage areas such as math and special education.
"In rural parts of this state and in high poverty areas, it is hard to bring people in," said McDowell County Superintendent Mark Manchin, after the systems keep laying them off and they leave.
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