ABC’s of Education: Richland One responds to teacher reassignments

(Courtesy: RCSD1)

Richland, SC (WOLO) —  In the wake of some concerned and in some cases angry parents confused about their children’s teachers being relocated to new schools around the county, Richland School District One is releasing answers to some of their questions.

According to the district, teacher reassignments are nothing new. In fact, they say adjustments to classroom sizes are something hey are always monitoring as an way to make sure they can keep student, teacher ratios low in the classroom. Administrators say they couldn’t make those decisions about class sizes until after children were enrolled so they could see where adjustments needed to be made where classes were either over, and in some cases understaffed. The district says on the 45th day of the school calendar they determined it was time to take action. Administrators did so by  making ‘staff adjustments’ moving educators around within the district.

While the District says this is a customary practice, they are always open to hearing suggestions from members of the public on better ways to implement this procedure. However, another issue raised during the process concerning mismanagement and misappropriations of funds at the hands of the district are according to District officials ‘unfounded’.

Officials say one of their priorities is being fiscally responsible and making sure they are using money in the most effective ways to ensure they are ‘good stewards of taxpayer dollars’. In fact, the school district says over the past 35 years they have received some of the highest forms of recognition for their accounting and ability to report their finances accurately.

Instructionally, the district says the purchase of items like laptops which are tethered to a specific school could give the appearance that instructional expenditures are not a high as they are. During the 2022 school year, the fiscal report showed that more than 60% of their spending went to instructional materials and support.  Officials say being placed on a fiscal watch by the South Carolina Department of Educations was the result of internal checks and balances that uncovered some discrepancies concerning a former employee and that information was turned over to authorities.

That audit included more than 400  statement and nearly 4,000 transactions with a few exceptions. While the District admits there were some procedural concerns, misuse of money was not among them.