MONTGOMERY CO. (WSLS 10) - Montgomery County public schools expect to hire at least 10 new teachers for next school year.
The school system is asking for $106 million from the county in their budget request, and plans to use a portion of the money to bring in new teachers.
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Omar Lopez, a Christinsburg business owner and parent, will have a child attending Montgomery County public Schools. He's hoping some of those new teachers will be at his son's school.
"I hope that the proposal does go through ... so that every student can learn a lot more," said Lopez.
Montgomery County School Spokeperson Brenda Drake says there's currently no word on which schools will get the new teachers, because administrators are still gathering enrollment numbers.
"These are teachers that we lost previously due to budget cuts, so in an effort to really try and stay afloat, and continue to provide a great education, there were some teaching positions that didn't get dilled and we are doing to be able to fill those positions now," said Drake.
The new superintendent's proposed budget is about $106 million, with roughly $90 million going toward paying staff and adding new teaching positions. Parents like Lopez are optimistic.
"With 20 something students in the class it becomes kind of difficult for just one teacher to teach all of them because some need more attention than others," said Lopez.
The school system originally requested $3.1 million extra, to ensure cuts wouldn't need to be made in order to make up for the money spent on the new positions. With that being said, the county said at best it could give is an additional $1.3 million.
"We hope that we get fully funded with the $1.3 million," said Drake.
Since this is not the original amount requested, the school is anticipating having to make some cuts. Some of the cuts include technology, like having Smart Boards in classrooms, and bus transportation cuts.
"We'll be cutting some professional development expansion some planned increase for technology," said Drake. "We're doing our best to keep the funds in the classroom."