GULF SHORES, Ala. — Despite spending cuts, shortfalls and layoffs; despite dealing with more students and less teachers; despite having to rework class schedules to accommodate every students needs, Dr. Ernie Rosado, principal at Gulf Shores High School remains positive and optimistic.

“I know that we have been going through some tough times just like everyone has, but I like to concentrate on celebrating what we do have,” Dr. Rosado told the Gulf Shores City Council at a recent council meeting. “We are going to remain positive and we are going to do whatever needs to be done for our students.”

Recently, the high school staff losses included a cafeteria worker, a custodian, a receptionist in the front office, a counselor and 12 teachers.

“It was really tough to finagle a schedule that we were used to with all of the extra classes that we had, but we are surviving,” Dr. Rosado said.

One concern was that the school was going to lose the art teacher, but at this time that position is still in place with 156 students involved in art classes.

The school also continues to offer a drama class as well as two business technology classes.

“We are still offering all of the classes that we’ve had before, we are just having to downsize,” Dr. Rosado said.

Dr. Rosado said he is excited about the pre-engineering class, taught by Terry Jones, that is meeting in the old band room.

“Terry is a science teacher, but he’ll have one block the first semester and one block the second semester to teach this very important class,” Dr. Rosado explained.

The pre-engineering class exposes the students to many forms of engineering work including hydraulics, electronics and construction.

In May 2008, the high school broke for summer with 710 students. Presently there are 790 on campus.

Dr. Rosado said there was an increase of around 100 students at the elementary school, and the middle school was about the same as last year.

Dr. Rosado presented the council with some photographs of the new wing that was recently constructed, as well as improvements that have been made, with assistance from the county, to the existing ones.

“The county came in and spent four weeks painting every metal frame on the building around our break area. It was very rusty. We bought the paint, and they provided the manpower,” Dr. Rosado said.

The new wing includes a new band room, chorus room, as well as new classrooms for math, science and computer.

“What is also neat about the new wing is the science labs,” Dr. Rosado said. “These labs are set up just like colleges and are specifically for labs not for classes. The teachers will teach in the classrooms, then will bring them to the labs specifically for their experiments. If they don’t finish, they can go back to the classroom, then come back to the lab the next day.”

Dr. Rosado said the classes were always rushed in the past because they would have to break down and set up the experiments each day. The new labs will allow for more detailed experiments. In addition, scheduling has been set up to allow middle school students to use the labs as well.

Last week, Dr. Rosado was able to call the county to come remove the portable classrooms that have been used while construction of the new wing was in progress.

“It was a good feeling to finally get to make that call,” Dr. Rosado said. “They should be gone in a couple of weeks and we can get some of our parking back.”

All of the wood that has been used for the walkways between the portables has been saved and will be used in the set up of the pre-engineering room.

Dr. Rosado said there is a peace amongst the teachers and the students at the high school because, despite the difficult times, everyone is making a contribution to help things work.