By Melanie Patterson

The North Jefferson News



Jobs are safe in at least one profession in north Jefferson County, for now anyway.

Teachers are one beneficiary of the stimulus package that President Barrack Obama signed into law in February.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 is sending more than $24 million to the Jefferson County School System.

“No one is going to be pink-slipped in Jefferson County because of economic conditions,” said Dr. Phil Hammonds, superintendent of the Jefferson County School System, during a board of education meeting Thursday. He referred to the allotment as “a godsend, a lifeline.”

“It certainly eased my mind, because I’ve had a lot of sleepless nights,” said Cynde Cornelius, Fultondale Elementary School principal.

“A lot of our teachers, especially the newer ones, have been concerned about their jobs,” Cornelius said.

Hammonds said that without the package, the school system would have had to lay off more than 100 state-funded teachers. The package will preserve 3,800 teacher jobs statewide.

The Jefferson County School System actually employs about 200 teachers in addition to state-funded teachers.

Karen Smith Nix of Gardendale, a member of the Jefferson County Board of Education, said the stimulus plan will help save those jobs as well.

“This money is going to help us not only keep our state-funded units, but we will not lay anybody off that we’re funding on a local level,” said Nix. “The last thing you want to do is lay people off. With this money, we won’t have to.”

In fact, the school system hosted interviews at the central office on Friday for Jefferson County Schools principals to interview teachers for next school year.

Nez Calhoun, information officer for the school system, said the system will be hiring 200 to 250 teachers for next year. She said that each teaching slot represents $80,000 with salary and benefits.

According to Hammonds, the stimulus plan will benefit not only teachers, but also certain programs.

He said the Title 1 program will receive $5.8 million and the Exceptional Education, or Special Education, program will receive $9.6 million.

The funds for Title 1 will provide an opportunity to expand the program to other schools and perhaps to expand staff, while Exceptional Education could receive more technology and new teachers, according to Hammonds.

“These programs are so important to us. We want to serve our special education students with the best quality programs we can,” said Nix.

Debra Campbell, principal of Bryan Elementary School, was also excited about how the stimulus package will help schools. She said she is thrilled to be working for a school system that takes care of its employees.

“I’m just excited to be working for Jefferson County. They’re able to help schools do the things we need to do,” she said.

The state is holding four regional meetings regarding the package. One is scheduled for Wednesday, 10 a.m. at the Jefferson County Board of Education Central Office Building.

“They will give more information about what the dollar amounts mean,” said Hammonds.

Hammonds said that the $24 million will “not make the situation go away,” but it makes the current difficult financial times “more manageable.”

In the meantime, school system employees are doing everything they can to cut costs.

At Fultondale Elementary, Cornelius said the staff is cutting down on using the heat and air conditioning, turning off lights and doing “any little thing we can to save money.”