In the future, the Warren County R-III School District will consider the need for certain teaching positions before hiring their replacements when they leave.The district is looking at ways it can increase efficiencies and reduce its budget.“Our goal is to find places to cut that won’t impact our programming,” said Superintendent Dr. Gregg Klinginsmith. “We’re trying to be as efficient as possible.”Ultimately, the district anticipates the cutbacks could result in $435,000 in savings.“We’re really trying to have a fiscal neutral budget where we aren’t deficit spending,” said Klinginsmith. “We want to look at how to do this without impacting services offered to students.”Rather than cutting positions that are currently occupied, the district plans to slowly introduce the cutbacks through attrition.“As people leave we’ll look at those positions and determine if it’s something we need to replace or not,” said Klinginsmith. “We’ll determine if we can still provide that service without filling that position.”The district has identified nine teaching positions that it could reduce, along with one cook and three latchkey positions.“Our main cuts are at the teaching position with district-funded teachers,” said Klinginsmith. “If somebody would retire or leave the district, those are the positions we would evaluate.”The district has been focused on teacher retention, especially with the recent approval of a four-day school week. It appears those efforts may be working, as a smaller amount of staff have indicated they are leaving after this year.The district developed a plan based upon numbers from the department of elementary and secondary education, identifying which grade levels have more staff than needed based upon the state standards. DESE standards indicate having a 25 to 1 student to staff ratio in kindergarten through second grade, 27 to 1 for third and fourth grade and 30 to 1 for fifth through eighth grade.Warren County R-III School District logo