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Teachers and parents urge board to spare Title I and specialist roles as RIFs loom
Summary
In hearings across several nights, teachers, parents and students described classroom gains, social‑emotional support and community ties and warned that eliminating Title I positions and reassigning veteran teachers would harm student outcomes and school programs such as band and choir.
Dozens of teachers, parents and students addressed the Randolph County Board of Education over multiple hearings to press for alternatives to recommended reductions in force and transfers.
Second-grade teacher Jeanie Hughes told trustees she has spent 12 years at Jennings Randolph Elementary and asked the board to preserve continuity for children who benefit from stable classroom relationships. "I remain committed to upholding the values of excellence, integrity and innovation in education," Hughes said in her opening remarks.
Witnesses tied many of the proposed moves to the county’s plan to reduce or reassign Title I staff. A parent who testified during Hughes’s hearing said Title I teachers provide essential intervention services and urged the board not to "bump" veteran classroom teachers into different roles that would remove experienced interventionists from direct student support.
Specialist teachers warned that transfers would strip schools of programs that cannot be replicated by staff who lack specialist training. Ellen Fortney, who teaches music and PE at Colton Elementary, said her band and choir participation has grown under her tenure and provided a program-level figure to illustrate scale: "13 out of 27 fifth graders in Colton are in the band; that's nearly half the class," Fortney said, adding that the school has no schedule time for choir without her planning.
Hannah Shifflet, Midland Elementary’s music teacher, urged the board to consider the nonacademic benefits of music: "If I'm not there to light this torch the flame will go out," she told trustees while describing concerts, mentoring with high-school band members and a recent $4,000 grant that funded safer choir risers.
Kindergarten and elementary teachers also described the workload tied to early-childhood reporting and interventions. One kindergarten teacher testified that, by March, 79% of her students could correctly name all letters (up from 0% in September) and that intensive, classroom-level interventions produced measurable gains in both literacy and numeracy.
Several witnesses asked the board to consider alternatives to immediate staff cuts, including further exploration of funding and targeted reductions. The board responded by tabling multiple personnel sections and scheduling a tentative special meeting for April 22 to revisit decisions if and when clearer state or federal funding guidance arrives.
Provenance: The breadth of testimony on Title I impact, music and specialist programs appears across hearings for Jennings Randolph (Jeanie Hughes), Third W (Erica Roth, Tina Woolen), Midland (Hannah Shifflet, Jennifer Van Dender) and Colton (Ellen Fortney) — spanning the public testimony segments from SEG 015 through SEG 4351.
