Well Now, This is interesting

Below in red is a copy of an email that Mrs. Robinson sent to her staff shortly after she signed her new contract. Now I am curious if the school board was aware this was coming before agreeing to give her 7 years of guaranteed insurance and those extra days.

Dear Colleagues,

The Dickenson County Public Schools has suffered a significant loss in Student Average Daily Membership for the 2015 - 2016 school year. The March 31st ADM state numbers were confirmed last week and they show a net financial loss of $376,805 to our school system. In addition, other projected revenues are not coming through as anticipated from last year’s budget. We are working through the extent of the problem but we know that we must immediately make spending cuts.

I have discussed this matter with central office staff and school administrators. Effective immediately:

1. All expenditures and purchase orders are frozen until further notice.

2. Through the remainder of the school year, only essential expenditures (food, fuel, etc.) will be approved.

3. All directors are to implement cost-saving measures within their departments.

4. Building level administrators are to implement cost-saving measures within their facilities.

5. Building level administrators are requested to consider using in-house staff (as opposed to hiring substitutes) to supervise and teach during staff absences.

6. Building level administrators are requested to assess rescheduling all approved field trips and approved professional leave.

On a personal level, I sincerely regret the impact of these cuts on our school system. As many of you know, our budget has been cut more than $5 million dollars since 2009-2010. Now more than ever I ask that each of you consider doing anything that you can to cut costs that do not negatively impact the educational environment. Simple things like turning off the lights and water add up. If you have ideas about how we can save money, please share them with me.

I sincerely appreciate your time and commitment to our school system.

Haydee L. Robinson