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VOLUME 27, NUMBER 26
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VIEWPOINTS, PAGE 6 | CALENDAR OF EVENTS, PAGE 10 | CLASSIFIEDS, PAGE 15
SEPTEMBER 11, 2015
INSIDENOVA.COM
Up to 25 teaching positions possible
First day of school
TRACY BELL
Stafford County Sun
ABOVE: Christina Fallon, a 15year educator teaching Family and Consumer Science at A.G. Wright Middle School, hands out bus number tickets to students arriving at the school on the first day of the school year. LEFT: Hank Walsh, 9, left, glances back at his parents, Brandy and Michael Hansberry, as he waits to board the school bus in the Woodstream community of North Stafford on Tuesday, the first day of school. PHOTOS BY ALEKS DOLZENKO STAFFORD COUNTY SUN
The Stafford County School Board voted Tuesday to allow the possibility of an additional 25 teaching positions, if financially feasible. The board voted unanimously to give Stafford County Public Schools Superintendent Bruce Benson the authority to move forward with as many of those full-time teaching positions that the schools system can afford. The figure includes last week’s agreement to allow 10 new spots for teaching positions and paraprofessionals. As the school year kicks off, school staff will monitor class sizes, especially in rooms that have more than 30 students. Some of the funding for the positions could come from salary lapses, but school staff won’t immediately know how that will affect the positions. Previously, seven positions were added to some of the county’s middle and elementary schools. Tuesday’s move is meant to keep class sizes lower and help remedy damage caused from previously cut positions and to make Stafford comparable to neighboring school systems, which have lower class-sizes overall. Also at the meeting, the school board: ■ heard a presentation on the schools system’s new MUNIS ERP financial system, which is expected to go live in July ■ exchanged reports about the first day of school, which went well despite some small transportation setbacks, they said ■ heard an update from Scott Horan, assistant superintendent for operations at SCPS, about Stafford High School. Horan said that temporary occupancy of parts of the building were reached, but that the following day, minimum requirements would have to be achieved for freshman orientation to go forward Thursday, and for school to open next week. “The school is coming together. The teachers are readying the rooms,” Horan told the school board. Tracy Bell can be reached at tbell@staffordcountysun.com.