Baldwin Students Could See More Changes

Money saving changes are on the way for Baldwin County schools.
Tuesday night, school board members approved a financial crisis management plan and withdrew their request for a one cent sales tax hike.
The superintendent said some employees will be cut.
School Board Member Robert Wills said, "We have hit an economic tsunami where we've been clobbered from every side."
The plan approved by the board includes a reduction-in-force policy.
Superintendent Faron Hollinger said, "We will go in and initially determine what we consider to be essential and non-essential jobs."
Then, school officials will look at terminating all probationary classified personnel.
That includes bus drivers, school nurses, cafeteria workers, and custodians.
Hollinger said parents will probably see larger class sizes, and, "I do think you're going to see a reduction, a significant number of reduction in the bus routes. My guess is you're going to have kids with longer waits or longer walks to a bus stop."
What about terminating teachers?
Hollinger said, "We're not even talking about tenured teachers at this point."
Many teachers sat in on the meeting.
Theresa Long said, "Well, I'm not tenured, so I'm worried about my job."
Others at the meeting were still talking about the idea of a one cent sales tax hike.
Fairhope Parent Amy Thompson said, "I'm willing to fork out that one cent sales tax. I think there are lot of parents who would step to the plate with that, given the chance."
John Kilgore of Baldwin County said, "I don't believe they ought to go ahead and give the one percent right now."
Another Fairhope parent, Elizabeth McGriff, said, "I would much rather spend the sales tax, the one cent sales tax, when I go to the grocery, rather than those people not be able to make their house payments."
Hollinger said he'll appoint a committee of administrators, principals and others to establish the criteria for determining essential and non-essential classified personnel.
He hopes the committee will meet next week.