GLOUSTER, Ohio — The Trimble Local School District Board of Education held a special meeting Monday, March 24, to certify the abolition and suspension of faculty positions, as the district’s estimated deficit grows.
Originally estimated at a $1.6 million deficit this fiscal year, board treasurer Ashley Miller now sets the projected deficit at $2.5 million to $2.7 million.
Following a two-hour executive session, the board voted 6–1 to abolish 11 teaching positions and five administrative positions, and unanimously voted to suspend 15 teachers association and administrative contracts, effective June 30.
Bob Hancock, a former school treasurer whom the district is consulting with on its fiscal distress, said a majority of district spending is for personnel, so that’s where the majority of the district’s cuts need to come from.
“That’s the nature of a school district, and that’s where all the savings generally come from,” Hancock said. “Because you’re not going to get [far] cutting nickels and dimes when you’re in this situation. So as I mentioned [to] the board the last time, you end up ripping the Band-Aid off here; You’re better off. Just do your very best at planning your budget, making the maximum reductions you can make, and then you build back from that.”
The district abolished the following 11 positions:
- One pre-K teaching position,
- Three K-5 teaching positions,
- Two intervention specialist positions,
- One reading/intervention position,
- One computer teaching position,
- One middle school math teaching position,
- One high school math teaching position, and
- One high school English teaching position.
In addition, the district abolished five administrative positions:
- One attendance/homeless liaison,
- One transportation supervisor,
- One assistant elementary principal,
- One building level exempt employee, and
- One district office exempt employee.
The district also suspended a dozen other individual Trimble Local Teachers Association contracts and three exempt and administrative contracts. Those individuals are eligible to be rehired if a position is vacant or a new one is created.
In the 2023–24 school year, Trimble had 61 teachers for 754 students and around 95 other staff members, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Superintendent John Hurd said the positions that the board voted to cut were chosen by district administrators, including himself. Hurd said the district realized it was in financial trouble in late 2024. Around October 2024, he met with administrators to discuss how to implement cuts.
“And then we really started sitting down and starting having tough discussions about staffing and where we could be least impactful on certain areas and still provide some services to our kids … like liberal arts, performing arts and those items,” Hurd said.
Hurd said the district “placed a pretty high value on early literacy,” so it avoided cuts to kindergarten, first and second grades. Hurd said the administrators decided to cut one teaching position from the third, fourth and fifth grades. The administrators also “brought forward the recommendation” of converting middle school math from a 90-minute block session into a single period, he said.
Hurd said that the district added a math position to the high school last year “because the board believed at that time we had the money to support that.” He explained that he “brought that recommendation forward to eliminate that role, also because it was a newly hired position.”
Hurd said the high school English position “was targeted due to increasingly declining enrollment at our high school.”
Hurd said that some of the administrative roles that the board voted to cut on Monday were for employees who “have stepped out of those rules due to retirement. We targeted those also because we felt like they were not necessary to the day-to-day.”
“We had to take a look at what we can do that was going to be least effective on kids in the classrooms,” Hurd said. “While we know this is painful, and we do know there is one area [kindergarten] where we have a concern about an increasing population, we have felt like there’s a manageable plan — or we can have one in place — to reach across and serve everyone’s basic needs.”
When a meeting attendee asked if more cuts could be coming — since the deficit may be $1 million more than originally estimated — board of education president Gary Arnold said: “Can there be more layoffs? The answer is maybe, but we won’t know until the state does their thing.”
Hancock said the district’s deficit may be certified by the state controlling board in late April, after which more cuts might be possible.
“You have to take multiple bites at the apple,” Hancock said. “It’s very common that you don’t get it done necessarily on the first first hit. … [The] administration, the board, will have to decide what is tolerable there, and just balance it out with everything. It’s difficult. These are not fun times.”
One woman asked about a worst case scenario — a district shutdown.
“I’m not gonna jump to that discussion, as far as shutdowns are concerned,” Hancock said, noting that neighboring school districts are also making cuts in response to financial woes.
Hancock added that it’s more difficult for small, rural districts like Trimble to bounce back from such distress. “You don’t have the local tax base behind you,” he said. “You’re highly dependent upon state funding, and that’s a tough place to be right now.”
In other business Monday night, the board approved the treasurer’s fiscal watch written plan.
The written plan notes that alleviating the initially projected $1.6 million deficit by raising revenue would require asking voters for a 25.43 mill tax hike. “The board of education is not comfortable with putting a large tax levy on the ballot at this time,” it states.
Miller said she’s working on with the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce, including a monthly oversight reporting and a workbook.
According to the plan, the district’s deficit is now estimated to reach over $2. 7 million for fiscal year 2025. Per the plan’s projections, the 2026 fiscal year’s deficit will shrink by $1.5 million.
“It’s still a massive deficit,” Miller said. “And it’s not eliminated fully by the action we’re taking tonight. It’s going to be a couple years until we get out of this.”
As with the week prior, parents and faculty members voiced concerns about the impact that the budget crisis — and staffing cuts — will have on students. Parents and faculty spoke during public comment, but also chimed in throughout the meeting.
Samantha Riley, a parent and district employee, echoed comments made by teachers at the district’s meeting last week — and pleaded for more transparency from leadership.
“Why can’t our superintendent come to this staff and explain what’s going on?” Riley said. “I’m standing for myself and for my co-workers, who I feel like they can’t because they are so scared to speak up to this man.”
Riley also brought up “bumping,” the process unions use to determine which employees are fired first.
Under state law and the teachers association’s union contract, teacher layoffs cannot be made based solely on seniority. Instead, the order of layoffs is determined by evaluations, per , are used to determine teacher layoffs. The contract does not specify procedures for aides.
Riley argued Hurd is “trying to control who stays based on their own performances, making sure his supporters are safe.”
Mandy Spencer, a parent, offered words of support for the district.
“I just want to remind everybody that this is our community, and this is our school, and we’ve been victimized — and who’s at fault, it doesn’t really matter. But if there’s anything the community can do to help, everybody would love to,” she said. “So if you can think of anything from here on out that we can do, I mean, I would love to help.”
Spencer later added, “In a situation like this, [saying] ‘I am so sincerely sorry and sad’ goes such a long way, and I feel like a lot of the teachers and the aides are feeling like nobody’s feeling that. And it might be the simplest thing, but as a mom, like, that is so important. So maybe have some sort of meeting, or some sort of something, and just let them know ‘I am so sorry this happened to you.’ This is everybody’s family. This is their life.”
Arnold said the board would be scheduling meetings for such purposes.
“I don’t believe there’s anybody on the board that doesn’t feel it. This is not the first time I’ve ever had to do this thing — I was on the other side, and it’s not easy, and so I understand your pain,” Arnold said. “I’m retired, so I know what having a job means, and it’s really hard on you, it’s hard on your families, and so we will try to be a lot more upfront and transparent. I apologize if we haven’t done that, and I truly mean that. We will attempt to do all the things that we should.”
Nikki Reed, a parent and employee, said, “My only complaint and concern is, you cut the middle school [positions] to two intervention specialists — OK, how is two of them going to take care of sixth, seventh and eighth grade? How is my child’s [individualized education program] goals going to be met next year?”
A woman among the crowd of over 60 attendees repeated Reed’s concern, too, while Reed addressed the board: “How’s my child’s goals gonna be met?”
Jamie Freel, a parent who also spoke at the board’s meeting last week, and whose contract the board voted to suspend effective June 30, asked Hurd if the district has a plan, should the need for intervention specialists increase amid staffing reductions.
Hurd said, “That’s the more volatile number, because it moves pretty easily. I mean, people get identified daily. They get put in for a referral. … If we have to shift someone to cover, we’re gonna to have that discussion, but we’re gonna hold out until the 11th hour to be able to balance that out. Yes, that is obviously something that we carry a constant conversation about.”
The Ohio Revised Code limits the number of students that intervention specialists may serve within an instructional period. The limits vary by students’ ages, disabilities and other factors.
The board also encouraged the public to review the district’s 2022–2023 financial audit, which the state released Tuesday, March 25.
The Trimble Local Board of Education meets the second Thursday of each month at 6 p.m. at the Trimble Local School District office, 1 Tomcat Drive, Glouster. Its next meeting will be Thursday, April 10.
