|
|
|
|
June 2007
Layoffs
Posted Thursday, June 28, 2007
June 19, 2007
Dear Colleague:
As a result of Level Funding in State Aid to Education, the Providence School Department will not be rescinding layoffs at the June 20, 2007 School Board meeting. The next regular School Board meeting is scheduled for Monday, June 25, 2007 it is uncertain how many rescissions will occur.
If you have not filed for unemployment benefits, I strongly recommend you do so immediately.
As always, I will continue to keep you informed and please feel free to contact the Union office if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Steven F. Smith
President
Teachers union says layoffs unnecessary
Posted Thursday, June 28, 2007
By Linda Borg
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — Two hundred and fifty teachers are still waiting to find out if they will have jobs this fall as the Providence school department struggles to find a solution to its multimillion- dollar budget deficit.
Union leaders, however, say that the district could have brought back at least 200 teachers at Monday night’s school board meeting, because, budget crisis or not, they will be needed to fill classrooms this fall.
“If the jobs didn’t exist, that’s one thing,” said Paul Vorro, the executive director of the Providence Teachers Union. “But the kids are there, so why aren’t you bringing them back?”
Because the district did not recall these teachers on Monday, their positions went to a consolidation meeting the next day. At that meeting, an annual event, teachers who have been displaced from their current positions due to enrollment or staffing changes get to pick new jobs, based on seniority. According to Vorro, 170 teachers attended the consolidation meeting and all but a handful got jobs.
The 250 teachers with pink slips will attend a job fair on July 13. Although Vorro is confident that nearly all of them will be rehired, many will not be returned to their current positions because those slots were filled during the consolidation meeting.
“Our point is the disruption this process causes,” Vorro said. “Some of these teachers have been at Flynn Elementary School for six or seven years. The parents know them. They’re working on School Improvement Teams. They’ve made connections with the community. Now their jobs can be taken by anyone in the district.”
But Tomas Hanna, the deputy superintendent in charge of operations, said that the district is facing an unprecedented budget challenge this year that requires the department to be especially prudent with regard to staffing issues.
“We were waiting for the legislature to act, so we erred on the side of being conservative,” he said, referring to the layoff notices. He said that the department hopes to rescind as many layoffs as possible prior to the job fair so teachers have the opportunity to get their old jobs back.
“Our concern,” Hanna said, “is that we hit our budget number and that we don’t put the district in a negative financial shape.”
Hanna acknowledged that teacher stability is an issue and agreed that the uncertainty created by the layoffs places a hardship on faculty. But, he said, “At the end of the day, we have a responsibility to ensure that we get the budget right.” And that means making sure that the district hires the right number of teachers.
The good news, Hanna said, is that by July 19, teachers should know where they are being assigned.
There is little doubt that the district is facing a daunting budget crisis. According to Supt. Donnie Evans, the school department is developing two separate budgets: one that supposes a $6-million deficit and one that supposes an $8.5-million one. The school department had inadvertently factored in getting $118 million from the city when, in fact, it will only get $115 million.
All that means little to Lynn Tramonti, a teacher at the George J. West Elementary School for four years.
“I am holding a list of students that I was planning to teach in the next school year,” she wrote in a letter to the school board. “Unfortunately, this will not happen because I have been laid off from my job and the Grade 4 position I have grown to love is no longer mine. How are we supposed to increase test scores and build community with parents when our teaching positions are in constant flux?”
Jillian DeFusco is one of six teachers who have received pink slips at Flynn Elementary School, and she expressed similar frustrations.
“We are a professional community but also a family,” she told the school board. “We work collaboratively to provide the best possible education we can for our students. Many of us take pride in watching our former students grow into fine young adults. With six teachers’ jobs going to consolidation, you are disrupting our team. You are forcing us to leave our family.
“Think of the effect this has on our students,” she added. “These students need consistency. They need security. There were many students crying on the last day of school because they would miss their teachers. If we are not recalled this evening and do lose our positions, we not only pack up our books, binders and pencils, we also pack up many years of memories and hard work. We leave behind a vacant classroom with a heavy heart.”
According to Vorro, the district is looking for any opportunity to consolidate classrooms in an effort to narrow the budget gap. If, for example, a couple of classrooms have only 13 students each, the district could combine those classrooms and save a teacher’s salary. But Vorro says that the district should have made these adjustments in January or February, when the layoff notices first went out. On Monday, the district identified about six elementary classrooms with low enrollments, Vorro said, but the middle and high school principals are still trying to find classes to consolidate.
“Meanwhile, all of these teachers are collecting unemployment,” Vorro said. “That’s a substantial amount when you multiply it by 250 teachers.”
|
|
