Staff photo / Brandon Cantwell Mathews Board of Education member Beth Haddle reads a letter from teacher Kimberlee Lamm penned to State Rep. David Thomas, R-Jefferson, about the potential cuts in their district, as well as his response, at a special meeting in the high school’s library Wednesday afternoon. Lamm, formally employed by the district on Aug. 2, 2021, on a five-year limited contract, was one of four teachers named in contract suspensions.

VIENNA — The energy in the room was tense as teachers, residents and concerned parents fought against position eliminations and contract suspensions at a special meeting in the high school’s library Wednesday afternoon.

Mathews Local Schools Treasurer Bradley Panek provided members of the board of education with copies of the district’s financial forecast and explained to them that 2023’s property revaluations increased property values by 28%, but the district collected 5% less in 2024.

Panek said he spoke to the county auditor’s office, which said that their collection rate was a “little under” that of previous years, which is why the district was underperforming in terms of tax revenue. Panek said he had forecasted a 91% collection rate, but it ended up as “more like” 87% — which was $300,000 a year.

Superintendent Russell McQuaide said the district’s financial outlook in February was different than what it was now because Gov. Mike DeWine was going to take $600,000 out of the district’s budget. He added that House Bill 96 was later introduced, which would provide $30,000 more in state funding and reach into property taxes for schools. “It expects us to have a 30% carryover — which we currently have about a 55.9% carryover that is worth $6 million,” McQuaide said. “When you jump that to about a 30% carryover, we stand to lose $2.8 million. Will we? Probably not, but those are the destabilizing factors.”

McQuaide said the district has been overstaffed for “quite some time,” explaining that when he came to the district in 2018, they were at 646 students — which has dropped to 593 over the past seven years.

McQuaide said that while variables like House Bill 96 haven’t gone through yet, he wanted to be proactive about the district’s finances.

“I don’t want to be three, four years down the road saying ‘geez, we should have made adjustments back then,'” McQuaide said. “Then all of a sudden, we’re upside down and now we have to make massive cuts when we’re in financial trouble.”

McQuaide said he had been “agonizing” for quite some time because he didn’t want to hurt programming, and overstaffing is good for students

“There’s more individualized instruction, there’s more opportunity for student learning — it’s sort of a reasonable overstaffing and we want to make reasonable adjustments,” McQuaide said. “We are at 11.2 students to one teacher; the state average, I believe, is around 16 (to one teacher). The recommended average by the state is 24.9; if I’m at 11.2, I don’t think it’s unreasonable for us to start looking at making these adjustments.”

McQuaide emphasized that he didn’t want to cut anybody, as he played a hand in the hiring of the names on contracts listed for suspension.

The board ultimately passed a resolution 3-2 to suspend the employment contract of special education supervisor Jennifer Soukenik by 60% because of the district’s financial conditions, and the “reorganization and consolidation” of administrative functions effective June 5, 2025. Board president Mark Haddle and board member Beth Haddle were the no votes.

Board member Michele Garman, who voted in favor of the suspension, said they needed to make sure the doors stay open so teachers can teach.

“I don’t think the state right now is in favor of public schools, so I don’t see anything getting better for us financially, at least within the next few years,” Garman said. “We as a board need to make sure that Mathews comes out of this climate on the other side and succeeds through it; we need to do this by staying financially sound and academically settled. Like it or not, money keeps these doors open.”

The second move, which would abolish six five-year licensed positions across the district, while suspending four teachers’ limited contracts and reassigning several others for the 2025-26 school year, failed 2-3. Garman and board member Joel Polonus were the only yes votes.

Mark Haddle deemed the move to cut teachers a “knee-jerk”, as there were other places the district could have cut instead of staff members.

“We may well be overstaffed, but some of these programs are critical — my own daughter uses these non-teaching positions and has had a great response from them,” Mark said. “I think we need to look elsewhere, or at least make a committee to look at this as a group.”

McQuaide said that if he had waited until July on some of the decisions, the affected teachers would have had limited time to find another position.

“I’m glad you brought that up, because you mentioned at least six times in your previous speech that this is the board’s decision,” Mark said. “But you already went to these teachers and told them that they are losing their jobs; some of them have already found new jobs — that’s heartbreaking to me.”

McQuaide clarified he didn’t tell the teachers they were already cut; it was only his intent.

Before the vote, the board listened to public comments on the resolutions, where one educator, district speech pathologist Carla Pacilio, said the 11.2 to 1 ratio McQuaide mentioned was skewed because it factors in all staff, not just teachers.

“These are people. These are kids. And that’s the part that bothers me the most. The kids that we have now come into this district,” Pacilio said. “A lot of them, not even having their basic needs met — food, water, clothing, a place to sleep, which many of us know that some of our kids don’t even have beds sometimes, so we need all the support you can get as teachers and special help.”