Teachers urge board to preserve 'career literacy' classes as district seeks savings

The Cabell County Board of Education heard competing arguments Monday over whether to preserve the district's "career literacy" middle-school program or to fold its functions into core English language arts classes as a cost-saving measure.

Tracy McClanahan, a career literacy teacher at Barbersville Middle School, told the board she has worked in Cabell County for nine years and said the program engages students by "focusing on reading, writing, speaking, listening, and reasoning through the lens of careers." She asked the board to keep career literacy at all middle schools or at least preserve the program at Barbersville, noting that cutting the program there would eliminate six certified positions that the administration would then re-post as core-content jobs. "You're gonna cut 6 jobs just to go back and post 6 jobs," McClanahan said, saying the net fiscal effect depends on who is hired to fill new openings.

Brandon Tinney of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) spoke for affected staff and argued the reductions are tied to state policy choices and an expanding scholarship program that officials said has reduced public-school enrollment. David Watson, an eighth-grade career literacy teacher, described hands-on projects, a job-shadowing program with 67 local business partners, and a recent county-level recognition of his work.

Superintendent Timothy Hardesty said career literacy was developed by the district but that proposed eliminations respond to budget pressures. Hardesty told the board that the 24 teachers in the program account for $1,816,301 in salaries; eliminating the countywide program as recommended would require adding back six positions at Marblesdale Middle School because of that school's student count. He told the board that Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs receive approximately $58,000 per year in state funding for middle-school CTE but said that funding is small relative to salary costs.

Board members questioned whether students would continue to receive required ELA instruction and how special-education services and IEPs would be handled without the career literacy class. Hardesty said ELA standards would still be taught by ELA teachers but acknowledged that two teachers on a team allow more dedicated instruction time: "adding career lit never took any ELA standards from the ELA teacher either," he said, while also noting principals preferred to preserve middle-school team planning where possible.

Speakers asked the board to consider longer-term budgeting options and to weigh the loss of a program that teachers and former students described as increasing engagement and workplace exposure. Board members will vote on personnel sections later in the meeting that include the administration's recommendations for program and staffing changes.