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33 °F Forecast | Road Cams Sunday, March 13, 2005 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Health Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Real Estate Guide Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley SHOP OUR VALLEY AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Classified Place an ad TOP JOBS EXTRA NIE Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People Volunteer Moving here? eSouthernOregon CUSTOMER SERVICE FAQ's Advertise with us Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend March 9, 2005 Medford schools: back to basics District next year wants to add teachers, reduce class sizes and focus on core studies By ANITA BURKE Mail Tribune The Medford school district plans to put more teachers in classrooms next year, focusing on core classes in high school, but will have to make cuts elsewhere to fund the addition. Preliminary budget projections call for hiring 16 new teachers and reassigning about 14 other positions, said Dan Zaklan, the district’s director of personnel and secondary education. "We cut too much last year, and our core classes took the brunt of that," he said. Now the district wants to realign its resources to trim class sizes at all levels and to increase the focus on the basics — reading, writing and math. Zaklan expects eight of the new and reassigned positions to be in elementary schools to reduce large class sizes there. "We want to restructure and focus on meeting state and national standards," he said. "We have to give students the foundational skills they need to succeed." Advertisement The district’s Web site lists job openings for math, reading and language arts teachers, as well as a counselor, at each high school. North Medford High School is also advertising for a science teacher and a special education teacher. The changes will cost about $1,060,000, Zaklan said. "We are shifting some money, but we will need to make more cuts," he said. He estimated that $600,000 will have to be trimmed from the district budget, but those cuts haven’t been identified yet. They will be in areas other than teacher salaries and educational materials for the classroom, he said. The planned teacher reassignments result from a projected drop in district enrollment, Zaklan said. Enrollment has declined since 2002 and is expected to continue to dwindle through 2008, one district report indicated. With fewer students attending schools, administrators can deploy teachers in subjects that deserve extra attention rather than just assigning them to manage super-sized classes, Zaklan said. At the elementary level, the district hopes to eliminate seriously crowded classrooms and reduce average class sizes by one student. Among schools of similar size across the state, Medford’s high schools have the highest student-to-teacher ratio, Zaklan said. Some high school teachers in Medford work with more than 200 students a day and even more see between 180 and 199 kids a day, district reports said. The Northwest Accreditation Association sets 160 students a day as ideal. Reach reporter Anita Burke at 776-4485, or e-mail [email protected] . Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback Student Loan Consolidation Conference Calls - $50/Month Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker, Trunk, Footlockers home equity loans helzberg Slippers Student Loans afsa teleconferencing Memory Foam Mattress Advertisement s