The audience filled a section of bleaches in the middle school gym at the Randall School Board meeting Wednesday evening.
The Randall School Board voted Wednesday to rescind previously issued non-renewal and lay-off notices that had been made over uncertainity about the state budget.
The decision to retain the current teaching staff for the 2011-12 year was unanimous. A large audience of about 100 people, including many teachers, attended the meeting, which was moved to the middle school gym to accomodate the crowd. The vote received a standing ovation.
Chairman of the board’s Budget Committee Gary Franzen read a statement reccommending the move.
The board had issued non-renewal and lay-off notices to 10 teachers at a special meeting Feb. 26. Randall, like some other local districts who have taken similar actions, was reacting to uncertainity about the amount of state aid reductions that might be included in Gov. Scott Walker’s 2011-12 budget and contract obligations to make such notices by a certain date.
“There are going to be hard decisions to be made…” Franzen said. “We are attempting to make decisions that have the least impact on our children.”
Though the decision has been made for next year, Franzen acknowledged that this may be a one year fix.
Budget Committee member Randy Nolan addressed the need for the notices being made when they were.
“We are so sorry that you had to go through that but we needed time to figure things out,” Nolan said. “We were backed into a corner.”
