Parents, students tell Mount Union Area School District board cuts left math department ‘half the size’

At a Mount Union Area School District board meeting, residents urged the board to address what they called severe reductions in the district’s math staff and the shift of core math courses to online instruction.

Bridal Benson, a Mount Hope Road resident, said the district has gone from five math teachers in 2019–20 to “a total of 2 and a half” this year, and that calculus and precalculus had been removed from the in‑person schedule and shifted online. “This year, there’s a total of 2 and a half,” Benson said. “The math department has been cut in a half in the span of 5 years, which limits the opportunity we provide our students.”

Another commenter, India James of West Market Street, said the online placements undercut students’ learning: “Students cannot effectively learn behind a screen,” James said. James and Benson warned that students placed online for core courses could lack requisite backgrounds for later classes.

Board Chair acknowledged the concerns and said the issue needs attention, noting scholarship and program implications. Chair said it “sounds like something that we need to take a serious look at, especially with our Morrison scholarship and with the math and sciences that our students need.”

Administrators and some board members responded that staffing and scheduling challenges have affected offerings. District administrators present described ongoing work on benchmark testing, intervention placement and hiring priorities; one administrator told the board that hiring a science and a math teacher is high on the priority list.

The meeting record shows the board received the public comments and did not take a vote specifically tied to staffing at that session. The board indicated staff would follow up with additional information and that members would review assessment results and staffing data at an upcoming meeting.