CAMDEN — The Preble Shawnee Board of Education heard from the Preble Shawnee Local Education Association (PSLEA) on Thursday, Feb. 9, during the board’s regular meeting. PSLEA voiced its opinion on several topics, including the size of fourth grade classes, and its stance against arming teachers in the school.
“One issue that we have here, over at Camden, are the class sizes. It’s something specifically in the fourth grade — there are 26 students in the small rooms in the old wing, and they’re getting tight with space,” stated newly appointed PSLEA President Kristin Doughty.
“The way they switch classes, sometimes there’s 30 kids in there, and that’s a lot for those smaller rooms.”
Class sizes at the elementary school have been mentioned to the board previously, but according to Superintendent Todd Bowling, to decrease the size of classes would be to hire more teachers, which the district is currently unable to afford.
Bowling said during a community meeting held Feb. 8, the district is to the point of considering hiring less experienced teachers simply because they require lower salary. “That’s how tight our money is,” he said.
Doughty also expressed the PSLEA membership is opposed to arming teachers at Preble Shawnee locations. According to Doughty, surveys taken of PSLEA membership show a high percentage against any kind of implementation of arming or training teachers with firearms.
The conversation of arming educators in Preble Shawnee was initiated by board member David Akers during a previous board meeting when he requested discussion regarding FASTER Saves Lives (FASTER) be added to the February agenda.
According to the FASTER website, the organization is a nonprofit dedicated to teaching and training school staff, such as teachers, to be armed with firearms in school safety zones marked as gun-free.
“Created by concerned parents, law enforcement, and nationally recognized safety and medical experts, FASTER is a groundbreaking, nonprofit program that gives educators practical violence response training. Classes are provided at no cost to your school district,” FASTER’s website claims.
FASTER acts as an extension to House Bill (HB) 99, which was passed into law Sep. 12, 2022, and acts “to establish the Ohio School Safety Crisis Center and the Ohio Mobile Training Team to develop a curriculum and provide instruction and training for individuals to convey deadly weapons and dangerous ordnance in a school safety zone, to expressly exempt such individuals from a peace officer basic training requirement, to require public notice if a board of education or school governing body authorizes persons to go armed in a school, and to make an appropriation,” according to Ohio legislature.
“What this does is puts folks through three days of training, eight hours a day, free. The only thing that the folks trained have to pay for is their certificate, in the amount of $125,” stated Bowling.
“Obviously any decision made on this, we would sit down with our union and negotiate.”
Akers expressed his belief that through the FASTER program, the school district would be better prepared to defend against active violence. He added that the training required would be both mentally and physically strenuous, thereby eliminating those unfit from the program.
Bowling assured those in attendance that no decision will be made without first surveying teaching staff, parents, the union, and the required board member votes. Bowling noted no other school in Preble County has enrolled in any such program.
Board member Julie Singleton added she was uncomfortable with Preble Shawnee being “the guinea pig” for such a program, especially considering its weighty consequences.
The board expressed the decision would not come to fruition in 2023 and urged the community to take time to consider its stance on the topic.
For more information about HB 99, visit www.legislature.ohio.gov.
In other business:
The board approved the College Credit Plus payment rate for Sinclair Community College and Wright State University for the 2023/2024 school year.
Reach Nathan Hoskins at 937-683-5047.
