Though a number of faculty members are taking advantage of the district’s retirement/resignation incentive package, Principal Brad Burns said no programs will be lost and class size increases should not be an issue.

“The only ones that are leaving are the ones that resigned and retired,” Burns said.

In an attempt to reduce budget shortages, the school board voted in March to offer an incentive worth 10 percent of the employee’s salary for up to 500 employees to resign or retire. Later the amount was increased to 15 percent.

With the vacated positions here, Burns said one of three things will happen.

“Either we will not fill those spots, which is only going to happen to three [teachers],” Burns said. “There will be transfers from around the district, and the third option is to hire.”

Burns said he wants students to know that no programs will be lost.

“We are either trying to maintain or expand programs,” assistant principal Monica Story said. “We do not want to eliminate programs.”

Story wants students to know that no single department is overly threatened.

“There’s not one department that is just taking a hit,” Story said.

Burns said he doesn’t think class size will be an issue next year.

“We don’t expect any class sizes to be affected,” Burns said. “We have a ratio and it’s about 23 to 1.”

Though Susan Stockslager, the school’s only Latin teacher, is among the retirees, Burns plans to hire a new Latin teacher and continue the program.

“And that is our number one goal, no programmatic changes,” Burns said.

Another program in the foreign languages department will be expanding.

“For foreign languages we are looking to add an American Sign Language [teacher],” Burns said.

The administration is looking to expand the program because of the high demand to take ASL.

“We have had an outstanding number of requests for the course,” Story said. “It has grown tremendously.”

Burns and Story agree that sign language is an important course in high school.

“It’s certainly as vigorous as any of the other foreign language courses, but it’s a different method to learning,” Story said.

Burns said the plan is to hire the ASL teacher using one of three Spanish vacancies.

“If American sign language goes up, Spanish numbers will go down,” Burns said. “There is a possibility [some Spanish teachers] will go to North or South [campuses].”

It is also possible that some employees will transfer within the district.

“It just depends,” said Burns. “If there is a need out at Flower Mound High School, that’s where they would go.

“Employees are not Lewisville High School employees, they are LISD employees.”

Some of the new hires may be first-year teachers, Burns said.

“First-year teachers are right out of college,” Burns said. “They have zero experience.”

Burns said he thinks all job candidates who walk through the door will have expertise in their fields.

“But how is their character?” Burns said. “How do they work with kids? Those are the important things.”

Burns said he must also address the number of department heads who are retiring.

“We are going to take applications from different teachers in the school,” Burns said. “Out of those we will choose a department head to replace them.”