Post by Chris_Wendt on Mar 4, 2011 16:16:47 GMT -5
Remember the "bubble"? You know, that echo baby boom that started passing through our school district about ten years ago?
You will recall how we added classrooms to each elementary school building to accommodate the student population "bubble". You may even recall me and the rest of the school board telling you then that we did not want to rent portable classrooms to deal with the "bubble" on the cheap and as a temporary measure, but instead we 'sold' you, our community on the concept of building brick-and-mortar permanent classrooms so that when the 'bubble' passed we would then (which is now) have room to house full-day kindergarten.
You would probably also concede that as the student population 'bubble' actually materialized in our schools that the school board, hired the extra teachers needed to staff those new classrooms to teach all the extra kids in each of our elementary schools.
So here we are in 2011, and the 'bubble' has passed on from the elementary schools, through the Middle School, and has entered the high school for its final 3-4 years before expiring into the annals of Wantagh history. Enrollment has declined in the elementary schools, and some of the teachers we hired over the past ten years are no longer needed to teach the number of students enrolled for next year. Not the economy, not the federal and state revenue cuts, not the union contract or the union pensions or the union medical costs, but the declining enrollment in our elementary schools precipitated the first round of teacher layoffs announced last week by the school board to the BAC.
The 'bubble' has now burst in the elementary schools, and we do not need to retain teachers at the same staffing level as when the bubble was in full force and effect in those schools. This is a natural and normal phenomenon.
Now, how could we save those teachers?
Well, the driver for the reduction-in-force is enrollment, and we can't go out in the streets and recruit students. The drivers are NOT the union contract nor the union pension or benefits cost, so it is not a matter of trading contract concessions to save the jobs of four teachers whose current positions are simply NOT SUPPORTED by next year's enrollment. Okay, but is there an answer, and if so, what is that answer?
Yes, here is the answer.
Remember those extra classrooms we built before we hire those "extra" teachers? You know, the classrooms we built to house full-day kindergarten AFTER the 'bubble' burst? Well, if we initiated four (4) sections of full-day kindergarten in 2011-12, we could deploy those four (4) furloughed teachers to teach those sections and save their jobs.
Just like that? No, not exactly.
Here's the part where the economy, the reduced federal and state revenue. the teachers contract, the teachers pension cost and the teachers benefits costs all come into play (along with the escalating cost of heating oil and gas, electricity and even water). This is that really tricky and uncomfortable part where meaningful cash money concessions from the union could, in my own personal opinion, possibly be made to offset the additional cost of starting full-day kindergarten, and save the jobs of those four excessed teachers.
Just saying....
Chris Wendt
You will recall how we added classrooms to each elementary school building to accommodate the student population "bubble". You may even recall me and the rest of the school board telling you then that we did not want to rent portable classrooms to deal with the "bubble" on the cheap and as a temporary measure, but instead we 'sold' you, our community on the concept of building brick-and-mortar permanent classrooms so that when the 'bubble' passed we would then (which is now) have room to house full-day kindergarten.
You would probably also concede that as the student population 'bubble' actually materialized in our schools that the school board, hired the extra teachers needed to staff those new classrooms to teach all the extra kids in each of our elementary schools.
So here we are in 2011, and the 'bubble' has passed on from the elementary schools, through the Middle School, and has entered the high school for its final 3-4 years before expiring into the annals of Wantagh history. Enrollment has declined in the elementary schools, and some of the teachers we hired over the past ten years are no longer needed to teach the number of students enrolled for next year. Not the economy, not the federal and state revenue cuts, not the union contract or the union pensions or the union medical costs, but the declining enrollment in our elementary schools precipitated the first round of teacher layoffs announced last week by the school board to the BAC.
The 'bubble' has now burst in the elementary schools, and we do not need to retain teachers at the same staffing level as when the bubble was in full force and effect in those schools. This is a natural and normal phenomenon.
Now, how could we save those teachers?
Well, the driver for the reduction-in-force is enrollment, and we can't go out in the streets and recruit students. The drivers are NOT the union contract nor the union pension or benefits cost, so it is not a matter of trading contract concessions to save the jobs of four teachers whose current positions are simply NOT SUPPORTED by next year's enrollment. Okay, but is there an answer, and if so, what is that answer?
Yes, here is the answer.
Remember those extra classrooms we built before we hire those "extra" teachers? You know, the classrooms we built to house full-day kindergarten AFTER the 'bubble' burst? Well, if we initiated four (4) sections of full-day kindergarten in 2011-12, we could deploy those four (4) furloughed teachers to teach those sections and save their jobs.
Just like that? No, not exactly.
Here's the part where the economy, the reduced federal and state revenue. the teachers contract, the teachers pension cost and the teachers benefits costs all come into play (along with the escalating cost of heating oil and gas, electricity and even water). This is that really tricky and uncomfortable part where meaningful cash money concessions from the union could, in my own personal opinion, possibly be made to offset the additional cost of starting full-day kindergarten, and save the jobs of those four excessed teachers.
Just saying....
Chris Wendt
