http://rutlandherald.com/article/20140319/NEWS02/703199926
Published March 19, 2014 in the Rutland Herald
Springfield schools alert staffers of layoffs
By Kevin O’Connor
Staff Writer
SPRINGFIELD — The list came on a regular piece of paper. Except it wasn’t a regular piece of paper.
Springfield’s School Board voted reluctantly Monday night to send reduction-in-force notices to 10 teachers to start the process of cutting a total of 25 staffers and, as a result, almost $1 million from local tax bills.
March Town Meeting Day voters approved a 2014-15 academic year budget of $27.4 million for the 1,450-student, 359-employee pre-K-12 system. For residents, it will require a tax increase of 6.2 cents because of changing variables in a complex state funding formula. But for the board, it will require $960,376 in reductions so local costs don’t spiral higher.
“It’s a hard thing to do — it has impacts on people’s lives,” Superintendent of Schools Zachary McLaughlin told the board. “But this is the fallout from the cuts.”
The board received a list with the names of 10 teachers who must be told by April 1 that they won’t be offered contracts for the coming academic year.
“We’ve talked about positions before — this is a list of actual people,” McLaughlin said. “We have seniority lists and we go to the lowest. I just want to thank those people for their contributions.”
Hearing a motion to approve the list, School Board Chairwoman Jeanice Garfield asked her colleagues if they had anything further to discuss.
Without other options, members voiced nothing more than whispered approval.
School leaders will notify other staffers about layoffs at a later date. Depending on individual decisions about retirement or relocation, the budget could impact up to 25 current staffers.
Under the plan approved by voters:
The grade K-2 Elm Hill primary school faces about $200,000 in cuts, including two classroom teachers, two paraeducators and a mental health clinician.
The grade 3-5 Union Street elementary school faces some $150,000 in cuts, including four paraeducators and a mental health clinician.
The grade 6-8 Riverside Middle School faces nearly $250,000 in cuts, including one world language teacher, half-time teachers for language arts, math, science and social studies, and one half-time and two full-time paraeducators.
And the grade 9-12 Springfield High School faces $270,000 in cuts, including one social studies teacher, half-time teachers for English, math and Russian, one instructional assistant and the elimination of the Precision Valley alternative education program for students in danger of dropping out.
I am confused, I thought the budget was passed for the schools and that meant no one was losing a job. These schools need MORE teachers, not less, what is going on with this town? Education is so important but it seems to be lacking more and more in this town. WHY is that?
ReplyDeleteI think these are the same cuts that were approved, they're now just real and attached to actual people's names and lives. Instead of "10 teachers", it's now 10 specific people. Please do correct me if I'm wrong.
Delete11:55am: You are right, there have been no further layoffs. These were the ones list as cuts that were approved.
DeleteRE: .......elimination of the Precision Valley alternative education program for students in danger of dropping out.
ReplyDeleteWas this to prepare them for an alternative reality? Well guess what? In real life there actually ARE winners and losers... and the losers don't get a trophy. The other thing is, life isn't "fair." I'll never forget one "fortune" from a piece of Bazooka bubble gum. It was spot on: "The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary."
You are correct, in real life there are winners and losers. However: Most, if not all, of the kids in the Precision Valley Alternative Education program have never been given the opportunities to be "winners". Most didn't receive the proper instruction earlier in their education to reach the correct levels to graduate, whether it's in math, language, or discipline. Or they come from homes where parents didn't or weren't able to provide the proper support to their children. Or they have difficult to diagnose learning disabilities that simply can't be addressed by the school system because we (officials, budget creators and taxpayers) haven't given special education and educators the support they deserve. The existent of such a program at SHS is a marker of failure for the education system, the larger community, and parents not the students that are in the program. Such a program may seem shameful but it is more shameful to ignore the students that need our help. A program like PV serves two important roles in our schools: first as a last resort for students that may not otherwise graduate and second as a research tool to spot and hopefully prevent trouble spots in the system. If we don't find where our students are failing how can we hope to help them? All these matters are much more complex then simply "winners or losers". But ultimately you are correct, the word is filled with winners and losers: the former are children who are given the proper education and the opportunities to use it and the latter are the children that you turn your back on.
DeleteAnonymous3/20/14, 12:24 PM
DeleteI knew someone would automatically provide the reasons as to why this program is needed by blaming the parents and other lame excuses for failure. Want to save programs like this? Cut the educators payroll, pension and benefit packages. Voila! Problem solved. Unfortunately with the public unions in cahoots with those that control their wages that is not going to happen anytime soon. Want to blame someone for turning their back on our children? Blame them and stop posting silly excuses for failure.
Well said, 12:24! I have relatives in a rural area of one of the wheat-growing states, in a small town about the size of Springfield.
DeleteThe only kids who leave town for good have been the children of the doctors (3) and the vets (2), because almost nobody sees any sense in having much education.
To them, education is just another chore. They accept that their kids will always live there or maybe in the next town over, and how much education do you need for that? As a consequence, every school's football coach is the first candidate considered when a principal retires or moves out.
It is a peasant mentality, disguised by their ownership of a lot of fancy machinery.
Maybe we can get some of them to come here and tell us what else to get rid of in the next school budget. No reason why they shouldn't have company.
@ annon 12:24
DeleteAs an employer I have the opportunity to interview several SHS drop outs each year. Their justification for leaving school is uncannily consistent. "I felt I was learning nothing relevant to earning a livelihood, and no one could give me a compelling reason to stay."
If such claims are accurate, pulling the plug on the PV program was well justified. Now, to initiate critical performance reviews of all facility responsible for this debacle. Education professionals that failed dozens of deserving young people subjecting them to grim, bleak future of poverty. To shun all reasonability for student's delusion with education, then to have the audacity to lay blame purely on financial support is disgusting.
12:24, that is a very good explanation. I did an earlier post about this which apparently didn't pass admin's high standards-- it was about what you get when a town develops a peasant mentality. Some of the commenters here haven't a clue of what it takes to be successful in a classroom. Sometimes I wonder if they've ever spent a significant portion of their life seeing how it is in other towns.
DeleteSchools are not there to provide students with training to earn a livelihood. Public schools are supposed to provide the students with basic skills of reading, writing (communication), social studies, and arts and sciences to enable them to function in society.
DeleteFunny how some seem to think that the schools offer nothing in the way of skills that would enable them to earn a livelihood, and yet to this day machinist jobs in the region go unfilled because the kids can't handle simple fractions.
There is nothing wrong with vocational training, but it is not for all kids. I don't blame them for being short-sighted, but when they see rising poverty all around them in the region with no goals and no perspective, what is their incentive to stay?
Just curious... what was the success rate for those students previously part of the PV program?
ReplyDeletethere's a lot more position's that could be cut,but since the people holding those jobs are friends with some of the higher ups,these positions will always be there,wasting taxpayers money, i still can't believe the town's people fell for the pity of the school budget,maybe we will learn as time goes on
ReplyDeleteEasy to say, harder to name.
DeleteTell us the positions or shut up.
I can't believe you graduated from Springfield High School. You are the poster child for what is wrong with Springfield.
Administration and teachers should have to contribute more towards health insurance. This year there has been excessive meetings for teachers, so students have been taught by subs, which is another cost. Springfield as well as other districts need to start running the schools like a business, rather than a blank check at taxpayers expense. Contracts need to include meeting that take place after school rather than during school hours.
ReplyDeleteWell at least the Riverside Spanish teacher thay is getting cut will stop begging the kids to save her job. Asking the kids to beg their parents to make a stink. I made my daughters, both, feel incredibly guilty. And that's unfair to the kids.
ReplyDeleteDo they EVER look at the administrative salaries/positions?
ReplyDeleteAs much as I hate to see anyone lose their job, especially in these times, the simple fact is that we cannot afford to keep funding at its current level.
ReplyDeleteIf your personal income does not support a wealthy lifestyle, you either increase your income or cut back. Our school system has been consuming vast amounts of money despite declining enrollments. Vermont ranks fifth in the nation for per pupil spending. Statewide, VT ranks third nationwide for per pupil spending based on income. However that is an average. Incomes are lower down here than they are in Chittenden county and in the wealthier areas of VT. And school funding isn't based on income in the first place, it's based on property taxes.
Bottom line, it hurts a town like Springfield that offers full service police, fire, library, snowplowing outside of normal working hours AND the school system far more than it hurts a wealthy town like Middlebury.
What Springfield needs is a commercial tax bas to take part of the burden off of homeowners. Springfield is not made up of wealthy retirees with large income and no kids. It's people working two or more - pardon me - crap jobs to make ends meet. We simply can't afford the spiraling costs of education.
I understand that sometimes budgets need to be cut because the money simply isn't there. What bothers me is the phrase "We have seniority lists and we go to the lowest". Instead of keeping the most valuable positions, or the best qualified teachers, you keep the ones that have been there the longest, regardless of need or quality. This is not the way to build the best possible education system.
ReplyDeleteThis is due to the teacher contract agreement, last hired, first to go! You don't think the senior teachers will give that up do you! It's a gravy train for them no matter what way they perform. We lose good fresh teachers with new ideas to keep the old ones who are just waiting to retire and the reason the Springfield Schools are “In Need”.
DeleteThe administration and their staff should be the first looked at for cuts. Yeah, I said it. These people don't even live around here. They have no concern for the community or it's well being. This has been demonstrated time and time again. The ridiculous amount of staff at the Park Street location is a huge waste of money. Last time I was in there it was about eighty degrees and a ton of staff milling around not doing much. I think everyone should stop by and take a look.
ReplyDeleteThe country with the best educational system in the world-- as judged by all the other countries in the world-- spent $9,700 per student in 2008, which is not that much more than we spend in Springfield.
ReplyDeleteVermont's educational standing is quite high among all the states, yet most of the comments made on any thread pertaining to education are complaints.
Why, out of the 31.5 million visits to this site, has there been not one other person to ask, "Why don't we turn Springfield into a world-class school system, just to show it can be done?"
RE: "Why don't we turn Springfield into a world-class school system, just to show it can be done?"
ReplyDeleteChuck, I couldn't agree more. I'd be entirely supportive if the school board declared a primary, focused objective of excellence. With the goal to being a National leader in SAT scores and tier one college acceptances.
But the teacher's union protects lazy, incompetent teachers that year after year turn out failing test scores and students so discouraged with education they willfully subject themselves to a life of poverty by dropping out. Think about it Chuck, when was the last time you heard mention of a SHS teacher spending their summer recess working in a professional capacity to improve their skill set, then bring that enthusiasm for learning into the class room? And I'm not talking about vacation trips to Turkey or authoring a book on the Beatles. Discouraging, isn't it?
10:34, why not get the teachers on board as well? No reason to consign them automatically to opposition to a plan which would improve their lot.
DeleteWhy is it people don't think this way?
Chuck, it can't be done. I'll tell you why. The single most important factor in kids doing well in school is the degree of engagement of the parents. Sure, there is the occasional kid who will do well anywhere regardless of the circumstances. But for most kids, a parent who cares about how their child is doing, sets a good example as being someone who believes in education, provides help but not excuses is key.
ReplyDeleteIt is a myth to think that the teachers can somehow learn the material for the kids. And the teachers do not control the curriculum. Have you see this "common core" hooey? What they have done to the subject of simple arithmetic is mind-boggling. Some professional educators who I do not think have ever stood in front of a classroom came up with a way to make arithmetic impossible for any kid to learn and for any teacher to teach.
This is driving dedicated teachers out of the system. I know someone who is a lovely nurturing person who loves little kids, has a masters in psychology and who gladly spent her own money on additional learning aids for the kids. She has thrown in the towel. She told me that she spent so much time writing up reports on the kids and dealing with behavioral problems that there was no chance of teaching anymore.
Take a look at the kids having kids we have in Springfield. What are these little kids learning from their parents? How to stand in line for benefits?
As far back as I can remember (and my memory goes back 45 years), Springfield has been a town that eschews academic achievement and glorifies ignorance. It's as if people are proud that they don't have all that fancy book larnin' stuff. Think Sarah Palin and you get the idea of the attitude. It's not just Springfield, it's Claremont, Newport any other of the chronic underachieving towns.
Fix the system. Stop teaching crap and get back to the essentials of reading and writing. Stop with this excuse that they'll be texting anyway or using Word autocorrect and won't need it. And stop with this excuse that if you teach them to use graphing calculators that this is a substitute for math. Teachers cant make a silk purse from a sow's ear.