Several administrators out in Benton Harbor Area Schools

BENTON HARBOR, Mich. — five administrators in Benton Harbor Area Schools won’t be returning to their posts next school year.

Trustees approved non-renewal of those staff contracts during a special meeting tonight at the administration building.

Meanwhile, the fate of the district’s superintendent is still up in the air.

“We had to make some personnel changes,” said interim superintendent Patricia Robinson. “And with that we had to non-new some of our staffing and our administrators.”

There’s yet another shake up in Benton Harbor Area Schools.

Wednesday, trustees approved resolutions stating the contracts of district curriculum director Brian Scoggin, alternative programs coordinator Rita Seay, ACA assistant principal Sharonda Pearson, Benton Harbor High School principal Donald Pearson, and STEAM Academy principal John David Van will not be renewed for the 2018-2019 school year.

These cuts come in the wake of reorganization in response to there being fewer students in the district.

“Based off of data, we did research in a few of the other school districts about how they do their staffing and we came up with our own formula for how we do our staffing,” said Robinson.

That formula looks at the ratio of staff to students in the hallways.

Meanwhile, another change the board at this special meeting would crowd those halls with even more students.

Last month, administrators got parent feedback on four options that would address real estate concerns under this district-wide right sizing.

Wednesday, it was announced the fourth and least costly option was chosen.

So now kindergartners will be absorbed in the Discovery Enrichment Center, third graders at MLK will head to Hull and alternative students will go to the high school as dream is shutting down and central administration will move to MLK.