The Kanawha County school board voted unanimously Thursday to end the contracts of four Garnet Career Center teachers and 24 full-time aides countywide, according to the board's human resources director.
Carol Hamric said the Garnet position cuts include teachers in auto tech, business education and nursing. Another Garnet nursing instructor resigned and her position is being eliminated.
Hamric said aides, of which there will be 325 remaining after the cuts, can include classroom helpers, special education aides and monitors on buses transporting special needs students. All the layoffs are effective at the end of this school year.
Garnet Career Center serves adults only. Mark Milam, Kanawha's assistant superintendent over secondary and career and technical education, said no local dollars go to fund adult education, and said state funding for the county's career centers has been decreasing for the last five years, with a current $1.9 million appropriation expected to drop to $1.8 million next school year.
Garnet Principal Wendy Bailey said her school's automotive technology, business education and licensed practical nursing programs will survive despite suffering teacher cuts. She said she's losing her full-time certified nursing assistant teacher, but the same individual has said she will offer the class part time in an evening program, which will take students longer to receive the certification.
Hamric said 10 aides were cut last school year.
West Virginia's public school student enrollment dropped nearly 2,760 students from last school year to this year, more than double the declines in the past two years. Kanawha, which has the state's largest school system, also saw the state's largest drop at 591 students.
"Which is the size of a middle school," Hamric said. "So we don't need a lot of aides in the classrooms because the classrooms aren't going to be there."
Kanawha saw a 442-student decrease last school year and a 170-student drop the year before.
Hamric said it's still possible some of the workers approved for layoffs Thursday could find new jobs in the school system next school year if more current employees retire or quit.
She said that next week, the school board will hear from the first two of about six employees who've requested hearings because they are either losing their jobs or being transferred out of their positions because other employees are taking their roles.
Teachers with more years of experience who lose their positions are allowed by state law to take the positions of certain educators with fewer years, a domino effect that perhaps puts the less-experienced teachers out of jobs instead. Two of the Garnet employees losing their jobs are taking the positions of workers at other schools: one is being recommended to take another teacher's business education position at Riverside High School, and the other is being recommended to take another teacher's auto mechanics position at Ben Franklin Career Center.
Another Garnet teacher, who is losing his position, is being recommended to transfer to the vacant business education position at Carver Career Center.
Also Thursday, board members voted unanimously to approve naming Deborah M. Mougaes as principal of Cedar Grove Elementary School. She'll take the place this month of Leah B. Earnest, who's moving to the Kenna Elementary School principal position. Current Kenna Principal Terry Sauvageot is moving to the county-wide community education director position, from which Clara Jett has retired.
Reach Ryan Quinn at ryan.quinn@wvgazettemail.com, facebook.com/ryanedwinquinn, 304-348-1254 or follow @RyanEQuinn on Twitter.