ROCK HILL, S.C. — School leaders in Rock Hill say they’re eliminating several district-level positions to get more money into classrooms, but they’ll be able to do it without layoffs.
District leaders told Channel 9′s Tina Terry about 90% of the budget is spent on personnel, and many of those positions are at the district office.
“Best practice is to have that number hover around 85-87%, so we knew cuts had to be made,” said Lindsay Machak with Rock Hill Schools.
At a recent meeting, Superintendent Tommy Schmolze announced a new district office reorganization plan that aims to do that. He says that’ll also get more money into classrooms.
“We were able to get there through attrition,” he said.
The new plan will retain five of the district’s mental health therapists in the upcoming school year.
“There has to be a change, we don’t have a funding source that allows us to offer these services for free,” Machak said.
But not everyone agrees with the restructuring.
In an anonymous statement, one of the therapists said, in part: “The children will be the ones suffering the most from these changes next school year ... in this era where school shootings and suicide is becoming more and more prevalent, I feel like we need school-based therapists more than ever for the children.”
Machak says leaders recognize the importance of mental health therapy for students and they’re looking for ways to continue and expand those services.
“How to offer more mental health through new partnerships, or something we may develop with an outside organization,” Machak said.
It’s unclear at this point just how many positions will be lost through attrition, but officials say this will not impact any teaching positions. All changes will take place on July 1, 2025.
You can see the full plan by clicking this link.
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