With questions still unanswered about the state budget, Sampson County Schools officials, while expecting deep cuts to education, are trying to find ways to keep jobs, especially those held by teacher assistants.

“Two weeks ago, we were told that we should start planning on working with the June 13 House budget,” Dr. Wendy Cabral, assistant superintendent for personnel services of Sampson County Schools, told board members last week.

After a four-day holiday weekend, budget negotiators and state lawmakers returned to work Monday night, but as of press time, there was no word that a budget was imminent.

Gov. Beverly Perdue’s proposed state budget included deep cuts to K-12 education, mostly to all third-grade assistant teachers in the state, as well as $750,000 from the school system budget, roughly a 25 percent cut. That is on top of what the Sampson County School system has already returned to the state, some $500,000.

However, there is some good news, according to Cabral, who told board members that because of some additional funding, the state budget scenario is not a bleak one for Sampson County Schools. While she did not mention specific details on what positions would be lost, Cabral said there should be only two cuts at the middle school level.

“I am going to give you a forecast,” she said. “Basically, in elementary schools, we are going to be able to hire 12 to 15 teachers after our retirees leave. A lot of that is attributed to the additional Title 1 funds that will be available to us; At the middle school level, we have found a home for everyone with the exception of two employees; At the high school level, we anticipated having one teacher left (out), a principal had not determined which position to cut, but we were looking at some data, and we are anticipating to be able to put that position back at the high school, so everyone will be covered — It is a pretty good case scenario considering what we thought it was going to be.”

For teaching assistants, the news may not be that good.

In the House budget, Cabral admits that officials were expecting a 25 percent cut of all the teaching assistants in the county.

“Dr. Lenker proposed a couple of different scenarios, and Mr. (Dale) McLamb (finance officer) and I tossed some out,” she said. “Basically, if you are cutting 25 percent, you have to cut 25 percent of your people or 25 percent of their salary for it to work.”

The four scenarios presented to the board were:

1) Cut 25 percent of employees; 2) Look at an hourly rate for teacher assistants instead of a salary rate; 3) cut teacher assistants back a month; or 4) a combination of two and three.

“(Numbers 3 or 4)... that would save all the jobs,” Lenker said, “but it would also be the biggest cuts. Are any of these perfect? I think scenario number two is the one the board needs to look at, because we are headed in that direction anyway. It will save positions and it will save money. It is a cut, there are not a whole lot of options that we have right now. (that aren’t). We will do what we can to pick up these jobs — that is our main objective, not to lose any jobs.”

Since many of the teacher assistants also drive buses, Cabral noted that the system spent $41,000 on overtime when they drove buses.

“If we say we are going to let them continue to drive buses and allow this overtime, then that is two more positions that we are going to have to cut somewhere,” said Lenker. “We are going to have to have them drive buses, but technically, there is no way that they can drive buses and still be full time. It takes away from classroom time. This is why scenario two would be the direction the board should look at a little closer.”

Board member Doris Warren warned that if that was the direction the system was going to go in, there would be a “mumble” from employees.

“There will be a mumble from those teacher assistants who were hired with the understanding that they needed to get bus driver’s licenses,” she said.

“Most people don’t want a job for just two hours in the morning and then two hours in the afternoon,” said Cabral. “But with the state of the economy, we might be able to find someone who would want to.”

No decision was reached last week.

To reach Doug Clark call 910-592-8137 ext. 123 or send e-mail to sisports@myclintonnc.com.