Teacher layoffs begin

BY JOHN L. GUERRA
Citizen Staff

Uncertainty continues in Monroe County schools as teachers this week learn whether their contracts will be renewed for the next school year.

Though teachers learn every year at this time whether they´ll be offered contracts for the next school year, cuts to the county education budget makes this year´s wait harder. Schools Superintendent Randy Acevedo announced a few weeks ago that more than 30 positions will not be funded in the fall.

At least six teachers at Marathon High School, including a special education teacher, have been told in recent days that their contracts won´t be renewed next year.

Acevedo leaves it up to school principals to decide how to handle the cuts within their schools as part of school-based management. That means principals can decide to keep some positions funded by cutting programs elsewhere in the school. The teachers with the least seniority are cut first; exceptional teachers with annual contracts might be placed in other schools, Acevedo said.

“What our principals are doing more of this year than in the past is talking with other principals about placing good annual contract teachers,” he said.

Some of the job loss is in the Exceptional Student Education (ESE) program, which will be cut by $400,000. Lesley Messier, director of student services, last week said her staff is looking at where to cut costs.

“We are in the process of making these cuts and once they are finalized, we will be sending our recommendations to the superintendent,” Messier said. Acevedo proposed releasing ESE curriculum research teachers based at school district offices and returning those with teaching certificates to classrooms.

Among the Marathon High School teachers who were cut, some had just completed their first year in Monroe County schools. Those contracts will be filled by school administrators with teaching certification, or with teachers within the same school or transferred from another school.

Only schools with decreasing enrollment will reduce teaching slots, Acevedo said, and seniority will provide job security in most situations.

“If the school has lost enrollment and they have three tenured teachers and one annual contract teacher, it´s going to be the annual contract teacher,” Acevedo said. “They don´t have their seniority.”

As for teachers worried about their jobs, Acevedo said: “I sympathize with the position they´re in with all the uncertainty. They are valued, and I want them to know I appreciate what they do for our students. We´re going to work hard to minimize job cuts.”

Understandably, school administrators can´t say anything about what´s going to happen to individual teachers or other employees. Marathon High School Principal Harry Russell a couple of weeks ago sent a letter to teachers and school personnel urging them not to talk publicly about the cuts.

United Teachers of Monroe President Leon Fowler uses care when talking about upcoming negotiations between the teachers he represents and the school district. An early retirement package is being offered to longer-serving teachers to see if positions can be freed up that way rather than cut teachers.

“In times like this, all employees are fearful depending on their contract status and financial situation,” Fowler said. “We are still trying to finalize an agreement on an early retirement package, the results of which will impact contract negotiations - depending on whether employees take advantage of it.”