After being fearful he would be forced out of Wharton High due to the end of renewing teachers contracts in the school district’s “drop” program, Wharton track and cross country coach Wes Newton said he is now optimistic about being able to stay at the school indefinitely.

The good news for Newton came Tuesday, when Hillsborough County school administrators and teachers union leaders tentatively agreed to bring back about 130 veteran teachers who initially were told they weren’t coming back in the fall. Teachers like Newton had been working on yearly contracts after they reached 25 years of teaching in the district and had entered the drop program. In the program, they earned salaries at the top of the pay scale, plus money toward their retirement. As the state’s economy worsened, however, the school district said they could no longer afford these teachers and they were told they would not be rehired.

Today, Deputy Superintendent Dan Valdez said the administration is willing to bring them back at a lower salary. Newton, who turned 60 in January, said his principal, Bradley Woods, approached him today to see if he was interested in remaining at Wharton. Newton said he wants to stay at Wharton and Woods told him he would try to “make it happen.”

Newton, who led Wharton’s girls track team to fourth place in the Class 3A state finals and the boys seventh, said he is hopeful he will be at the school when classes begin this fall.

“I want to stay for several reasons,” Newton said. “One, I still need the health insurance and the paycheck. And I think I still have several years in me of teaching and coaching. I’m just not ready to sit on the front porch and do nothing.”