Open Letter From Trimble Co. Superintendent

Trimble County High School Principal Mike Slider has announced that he will not be returning for the 2018-2019 school year

As you may now be aware Trimble County High School Principal Mike Slider has announced that he will not be returning for the 2018-2019 school year. This has prompted the board of education and myself to re-evaluate the need for maintaining that position at TCHS. It has consistently been my practice to do this as employees leave voluntarily in order to effectively assign the use of district funds efficiently. In this case we are looking at a building that has just over 500 students grades 7-12. Is there a need for two separate principals with this population? The answer is at this point, no. It would not be an efficient use of school funds to re-fill the position being left by Mr. Slider. 

It is, however, not as simple as leaving the position Vacant. TCHS and TCMS, though consolidated physically in the same building, have been operating as two separate schools administratively since they were combined. Both TCHS and TCMS have had their own site-based councils. The requirement by statute is that if a school has a site-based council then the school must have a principal. It is the presence of two councils that requires some action by the board in order to allow the superintendent the opportunity of cutting an administrative position. That action was taken at the board meeting on Wednesday, June 6, 2018. The board approved the full consolidation of TCMS and TCHS by allowing the superintendent to undergo the process with the Kentucky Department of Education of administratively combining TCMS and TCHS and allowing for only one site-based council. 

After the board took action on June 6th, the district applied, on June 7th, through the Kentucky Department of Education to combine TCMS and TCHS under one school number for the state’s purposes, which in effect, close out the two separate entities of TCMS and TCHS. It also nullifies the current site-based councils. The district will be notified within five business days of the application of a new school number for the combined school to be called Trimble County Jr. and Sr. High School. At the time of the assignment of the new number, the superintendent becomes the hiring agent for at least a 60 day period and has 60 days to put a new site-based council into place. It is my goal to have all of this completed much sooner than 60 days. 

The benefits of doing this are, of course, the funding we save from not paying an administrative salary. There are also some great advantages for scheduling and the sharing of resources with the building now operating as one 7-12 entity. There are also some advantages connected to the safety of the building related to how visitors enter the building. As to the impact on students and parents, there will essentially be no change from how we have currently been operating. As Trimble County continues to deal with the loss of student enrollment as well as the lack of revenue from within the community and from cuts to state funding we are faced with constantly evaluating the way we operate. We have a responsibility to utilize the funds we are given in a responsible manner. This decision does just that. I hope this fully explains the rationale for this decision and the process that must be followed in this case to effectively make efficient use of school funds. As always, anyone is welcome to call or come in with any questions they may have for further clarification.