Superintendent Mark Henson and Fannin High School Principal Eric Cioffi say last week’s decision by the school board to eliminate the cosmetology program was not an easy one. The move was part of the reduction in force plan for next year. As passed by the board last Thursday, the plan includes the elimination of one high school business education teaching position; one half middle school chorus position; two elementary school teaching positions, which will be eliminated through attrition, and the elimination of the cosmetology program. According to Henson and Cioffi the program is being scrapped to dedicate more resources to health care pathway courses, such as physical therapy. During last week’s meeting, though, students and teachers spoke out in opposition to the decision.

Speaking on behalf of his wife who teaches cosmetology, Jim Quintrell said he feels the program and what his wife does for her students adds value to the community.

“Based on the numbers,”

he said,

“120 plus kids expressed an interest (in cosmetology for) next year.”

Principal Cioffi, though, says the number of students who express interest in a program isn’t always commensurate with the number of students who complete pathway programs, like cosmetology. The reason, Cioffi says, is due in part to scheduling conflicts and genuine loss of interest. In his comment, Quintrell recited a few statistics, citing more cosmetologist state-wide than physical therapists.

“As of May 9th, the state of Georgia has 46,128 licensed master cosmetologists, 8,935 nail technicians and there are 5,557 licensed physical therapists and 1,831 assistant therapists,”

he said. The point, though, practically argues for the necessity of more physical therapists and healthcare workers, in light of the full implementation of Obamacare next year, which warns of shortages in the healthcare field

During the meeting, Elisha Winkler, a student, opposed the decision.

“Cosmetology is not only my dream”

she said,

“but it is billions of others girls’ dream (as well).”

Winkler’s mother also gave an emotional testimony, saying that cosmetology has been her daughter’s dream since she was little. Additionally, another advocate Mrs. Turner also spoke out about the program.

“A lot of students cannot afford to go to college. They can’t get a scholarship for cosmetology through the lottery (via the HOPE Scholarship),”

she said. Cioffi, though, says this inaccurate. He said students can earn hours towards clinicals in high school that they can submit to a collegiate cosmetology program for review.

“We have an articulation program with North Georgia Tech (nical College),” he explains, “Where our students can go up there and take courses while in high school.”

Additionally, the State of Georgia broadened the HOPE scholarship technical schools recently, where students are only required to retain a 2.0 GPA to receive the scholarship.

Faced with healthcare increases, step raises, and under-funding from the state, the school board unanimously and reluctantly approved the reduction in force plan, including the elimination of the cosmetology program. Superintendent Henson says health care increases and mandatory step raises will cost Fannin an additional $750,000 this year, while the district is underfunded in state money $2.5 million.

“I don’t like to do it,”

he said.

“For us to serve the good of all the children,”

though, he said reduction in force plans will have to continue.

In an interview this week, Henson and Cioffi explained the difficulty in choosing a pathway program to eliminate. They explained the decision entailed a great deal of analysis.

“One of the things I had to look at are those (students) requesting (a pathway) aren’t the number of students taking the classes,”

Cioffi said.

“Some students sign-up for two or three classes in the same year…You could take (pathway) core one and two the same year; you could take core two and three the same year; you could take core three and four. So, my estimation is probably about 75 students, because a lot of them will request two levels in the same year. This year I had 67 students in core one. Forty of these students elected not to take core two.”

He said the issue with cosmetology is not the number of students requesting to take the pathway (Quintrell says over 120), but with the number of students staying in the pathway, saying the number drops consistently from year to year.

“It’s real hard for me to justify one teacher for six kids (who would complete the cosmetology pathway),”

Cioffi said. Henson sad these numbers are especially difficult to justify when the healthcare pathway is growing incrementally. Cioffi and Henson said the decision is based on student interest, saying more students are interested in healthcare pathways than in cosmetology. Here, Cioffi cited results from the transition plans that juniors and seniors fill-out, indicating desired and future career choices. Out of 380 students, 85 selected healthcare fields and only eight selected cosmetology. According to the number of students projected to complete pathways for the 2013-2014 school year, 103 are in healthcare and only 18 are in cosmetology.

Cioffi also said the pathway programs have seen a cut in state funding of approximately 10 to 15 percent. Since the programs are state funded, the state also recommends certain programs, Cioffi and Henson said, such as healthcare. However, Henson said eliminating cosmetology doesn’t necessarily save the county money, but attends to students’ demands.

“It’s not an issue that we don’t like cosmetology or that we don’t think kids ought to have cosmetology—it’s not that,”

Henson said.

“It’s supply and demand and right now the demand is not there for us to supply.”