BREAKING NEWS EXCLUSIVE: Teachers get pink slips
BEREA — Nearly 40 teachers at Community School were laid-off today, effective the end of this school year, amid a brewing controversy surrounding Berea’s Independent Schools growing insolvency. As of now, Superintendent Diane Hatchett has not responded to The Edge’s request for comment on the lay offs and on whether, as an unconfirmed tip to The Edge suggests, there are talks that Independent Schools will merge with Madison County schools.
A regularly scheduled Independent School Board of Education meeting this evening in the Kennedy Theater at Community School beginning at 7 PM. The public is welcome to attend.
This is a developing story The Edge will continue to cover. If you have a tip or any other information to share, please contact The Edge publisher, Whitney McKnight:
UPDATE: This story was updated at 4:47pm, Monday, March 17, to reflect that the lay offs will take place at the end of the 2024-2025 school year. It was updated again at 12:47pm on March 18 to reflect that some tenured staff were also fired.
I am interested in how this will proceed. I went to the community school, as did my children. It was a wonderful school that supported learning well. Letting so many teachers go at once will cause school moral to plummet badly. I am very concerned!
What happened to cause so much insolvency? Did this happen suddenly and with no preparation? How?
Some non-tenured teachers do have positions (for example my husband teaches special ed) and sadly some tenured teachers were pink slipped because of numbers, they just removed whole classrooms or programs.