Anniston school board terminates teachers, approves administrator bonuses

May 18—Anniston's school board on Tuesday voted to pink-slip more than a dozen teachers and teachers' aides, then in a separate vote approved roughly $20,000 in one-time bonuses to administrators.

One member of the board said the bonus vote took the school system in the wrong direction.

"This board has been concerned over the last several years about top-heaviness," said board member Joan Frazier. "We are already spending more on salary for the top level positions, this year, more than we spent the previous year."

The board met Tuesday at Anniston Middle School in its regular monthly meeting (two days earlier than usual because of high school graduation Thursday) to discuss business as the school year ends. Among the changes was a plan to end the employment of seven teachers and seven teachers' aides.

It's typical for schools to fire some non-tenured teachers at year's end, sometimes with a plan to hire them again if the next school year's budget permits. Hill said more could have been let go if the school system hadn't seen a large number of retirements over the past school year, about 15 in all. Many people in the school system have attributed the high rate of retirement to the stresses of the pandemic.

The board also voted to approve one-time supplemental pay, taken from federal pandemic assistance funds, for the city's acting nutrition program director and staff in the human resources office, among others. Hill, after the meeting, said the bonuses amounted to about $20,000 and were for additional duties those offices were taking on.

"We're still in cleanup mode," Hill said, referring to the system's financial and management troubles in recent years. He said members of the staff had taken on additional duties in working to fix those problems.

Frazier said she was "a little shocked" that the system was letting go of teachers' aides. She said the schools needed them. And she asked why staff were offered supplemental pay when teachers haven't received the same.

"We haven't rewarded any of those teachers," she said. "We haven't rewarded any of those people who are in the schools."

Hill said the school system hopes to create more teaching positions next year with some of the funds gained from cutting teachers' aides. He said he agreed that teachers deserved a bonus, though the school system is limited in how it can use federal aid.

"I'm not going to go to teachers and tell them something they want to hear just so they'll be comfortable, and it not be true," he said.

The board voted unanimously for the teacher and teachers' aide cuts. It passed the supplemental pay with Frazier as the only dissenting vote.

"I guarantee the employees of this system are hearing her— and they're hearing the rest of the board as well," said Angela Morgan, a representative for the Alabama Education Association. She said teachers are looking for some sort of recognition from the board for the work they've done during the pandemic.

Closure of Tenth Street Elementary

Hill said only one of the teachers terminated Tuesday was from Tenth Street Elementary, the school the board plans to close this year. It's still unclear how the remaining teachers — and students — will be divided among the system's remaining elementary schools. Anniston is still monitored by federal courts for its compliance with court-ordered desegregation, and Hill on Tuesday said the system is waiting for court approval of a staffing and zoning plan.

The school closure comes as attendance at Anniston schools continues to decline. There are about 1,800 students in the system, compared with 2,400 a decade ago.

That drop includes the students lost early in the pandemic, when school officials estimate that about 5 percent of the student body never checked in for at-home schooling and, in effect, vanished.

Hill said Tuesday that the school system has since found five or six of those students, but administrators believe the rest are likely from families that moved out of the city.

Anniston High graduation Thursday

Anniston High holds graduation Thursday at Lott-Mosby Stadium in a ceremony that is likely to echo the socially distanced ceremony of 2020. Hill said the school system has increased the number of tickets available per family from seven to 10.

He said the school system is considering other changes, in light of recent changes to federal recommendations about mask use, but no decision has been made yet.

Capitol & statewide reporter Tim Lockette: 256-294-4193. On Twitter @TLockette_Star.