Ellwood Christian Academy began its second semester of the school year Tuesday with a few less teachers.

Headmaster Rev. Gary Crum said two teachers and three aides were laid-off. There are 26 teacher positions at the private school.

Crum said the academy’s board felt it was the appropriate decision following the routine assessment it conducts every semester to save money.

“We try to make an assessment to see where we are and what we could do to improve the efficiency of our program, and unfortunately that’s the decision you have to make,” Crum said.

The school staff was notified about the situation prior to the holiday break, but they were not immediately informed about who would be laid-off.

Over the break, the laid-off individuals were told via letter about their employment status.

The content of the letters were discussed on the Sound Off Selma’s Facebook page, and sparked a lengthy discussion. Crum said he was surprised to learn that the letters gained as much attention as they did.

“You expect that in small towns, like ours, where there is not much other news going on,” Crum said. “I didn’t expect it to get to this magnitude because it’s just an assessment that the board had to make. Of course, if we could have been hiring more, that would have been great.”

While the amount of teachers recently decreased, the student enrollment has done the opposite.

The 2014-2015 school year began with 380 students, the largest enrollment the school has seen since it was first established four years ago.

The increase came following the Alabama Accountability of 2013, which states that Alabama will provide a tax credits or rebates to parents who transfer their children enrolled in or assigned to a failing public school to a non-failing public or private school of their choice.