SPANISH FORT, Ala.—With 330 positions slashed from Baldwin County’s education budget, Spanish Fort schools have certainly not been spared the anguish and frustration of eliminated positions and the reality of increased class sizes as the state grapples with proration, but the local feeder schools are counting a few blessings for being both younger and smaller than some of their more established counterparts across the county.

Spanish Fort Middle School, for instance, has lost 14 employees—both teachers and support personnel—in the layoffs, 12 of which are positions that have been eliminated entirely.

“It means we just have to run this school with a lot less people, and that is especially challenging as our student population is growing,” SFMS Principal Carol Palumbo said.

She said the school system is holding its collective breath to find out how many—if any—positions federal stimulus funds might be able to reinstate, but in the short term no one is immune to the county’s $23 million shortfall and all of the schools are making the sacrifices necessary to protect as many priority programs as possible.

“What this means is that classroom sizes will increase and teachers and other employees will have to do multiple tasks, but I will not have to eliminate electives such as band or visual arts. Everyone here has had a real ‘can do’ attitude, which is very humbling. We will survive this,” she said.

Rebecca Comer, principal at Spanish Fort Elementary School, did not provide a specific number of eliminated positions and said only that the school’s personnel is in state of flux until decisions are made at the federal, state and county level regarding the disbursement of stimulus funding.

Of course, redistricting earlier this year netted SFE four new teachers from nearby Rockwell Elementary, where Principal Robbie Owen said the difficult decision was made to redraw lines in order to alleviate the newer elementary school’s sharp growth.

Due in large part to the shifts that have already taken place, Rockwell’s fate was minimized to the losses of one staff position, one custodial position and one teaching position, offset by an educator opting to retire.

“The bottom line is we’re down to 29 teaching units, and we lost a classroom,” Owen said, noting the unrelated redistricting inadvertently softened the blow.

With 830 students in a 550-capcacity building and 13 portable classrooms, Owen said he certainly would have preferred an addition be constructed, but in tough economic times he recognized the need to be frugal and take advantage of nearby SFE’s excess classrooms.

In turn, Rockwell will send 180 students and four teachers to SFE for 2009-10. Two other teachers who would have made the move have also elected to retire.

“The math works out, but it’s so hard to lose students and teachers because you’re growing so fast,” Owen said.

Of course, Owen also noted the cuts can be a double-edged sword for some small schools because even the most minimal cuts can instantly double a class size, where larger schools can spread out an absorbed classroom among 10 or 12 teachers.

“We don’t have that problem here, but there are smaller schools in the county that if they lose a teacher, their class sizes are going to jump from 15 to 30,” he said.

It was not immediately clear how the cuts are impacting Spanish Fort High School; Principal Beverly Spondike had not returned phone calls seeking comment at press time.

Sheren LeBlanc, president of the Spanish Fort Educational Enrichment Foundation, will continue to support the feeder schools’ principals and teachers through its mini-grant program—which awarded more than $22,000 in 16 grants two months ago—but that is the extent of its financial means.

“Unfortunately, we don’t have the money to supplement any of the lost teaching units, and I doubt any of the six other foundations in the county would be able to do so,” LeBlanc said. “Our resources are used toward teacher grants and specific requests from principals that help enhance the learning environments for the students.”

Not to mention, the fledgling schools are still “trying to get up and running,” she said, noting that books and technology alone can drain a reserve fund for such a young set of schools.

Baldwin County Board of Education President Tracy Roberts said Eastern Shore schools actually present potential sharing opportunities to help shield area students from total loss of programs, and those are exactly the sorts of creative avenues the board is considering.

For example, Daphne High School has a Junior ROTC program and Spanish Fort does not because they do not have enough interest to fill two or three blocks. Accommodations could be made, however, to possibly transport Spanish Fort students to the Daphne campus for participation in the program, but it is only an idea in the discussion phase at this point.

“We’re also hoping distance learning can help with some of our other electives, not really the arts, but maybe psychology or Latin,” Roberts said.