MONROE — Three teachers from Porter Ridge Elementary School have been reassigned to new schools, effective Monday. They were notified Thursday afternoon.

David Clarke, Union County Public Schools assistant superintendent for human resources, initially said five or six teachers would be moved, but the extra reassignments were not necessary because of attrition within the last week. The school system will also hire four new teachers for overcrowded elementary and middle schools.

The teachers will be assigned to New Town, Rocky River and Poplin elementary schools. They will not teach the same grades they currently teach.

The most extreme change is for Elizabeth Clarke, who will move from fifth grade to kindergarten. Clarke said a curriculum specialist already provided her with books to review, and Poplin Elementary principal Stephanie McManus is giving her a week to adjust.

After meeting with David Clarke, Elizabeth Clarke — no relation — said the transfer won’t be “as disruptive as I thought.” She looks at it as “a new opportunity to go to a beautiful, brand new school.”

The other two teachers were also positive, David Clarke said. “They handled it very well.”

Students that the teachers taught at Porter Ridge will be dispersed among other classes. Class size at the school was below average, David Clarke said, and will not be over capacity with the transition. Each grade level’s curriculum is the same, he added, and students switching classes should not fall behind.

As for the schools teachers will move to, a school can either take a certain number of students out of each class in a certain grade to form a new class, David Clarke said, or pull small groups of students from a few classes.

The school system will hire four new teachers, one each at Union Elementary, New Town Elementary, Sun Valley Middle and Piedmont Middle. It is up to individual schools to post those openings, David Clarke said, to be filled “as soon as possible.”

Union County Public Schools could still be asked to give more positions back to the state, he added, but there are unfilled positions on reserve that it can give up if that is the case.

“We don’t think that the ones we’ve handed out will be needing to go back to the state,” he said. “We’re pretty confident in that.”

If the state asks for fewer positions than UCPS anticipates, more people will be hired to fill reserved spots, he said.

The state will make that decision the 40th day of school, near the end of the month.

— Tiffany Lane can be reached at 704-261-2229 or tlane@theej.com.