By Jen Horton
posted Jun 12, 2008 - 4:27:05pm
The Volusia County School Board, in an effort to cut a strained budget, has laid off more than 200 non-tenured teachers.
“They’re out of a job,” Volusia Teachers Organization President Andrew Spar said.
Spar said 68 teachers were laid off due to poor evaluations, but the 220 teachers who lost their jobs June 9 “had good evaluations.”
Spar said VTO has a grievance with the School Board for the way the layoffs were handled. Teachers had little or no warning, and the layoffs weren’t based on seniority or any other apparent method, he said.
“They’ve managed this very poorly,” Spar said. “There was no systematic approach.”
The teachers’ union president said the school system is top-heavy with highly paid administrators, and doesn’t have its priorities straight.
“We recognize cuts were necessary,” Spar said. “A lot of teachers are losing their jobs. I don’t think that’s necessary.”
Nancy Wait, director of community information for the school system, said cuts have been made in administration, too.
In 2007-08, 17 district department administrator positions and 10 assistant-principal positions were eliminated, and 29 assistant principals were changed from 12-month positions to 11-month positions.
For 2008-09, 18 managerial positions are being eliminated from the general-fund budget, including an assistant-superintendent position. District staff is being reduced by 10 percent, and all administrator salaries are being reduced 2 percent.
“It’s important to know we have eliminated an assistant superintendent, cut an assistant principal, reduced administrative pay by 2 percent and reduced district-level staff by 10 percent,” she said. “This has touched every single job description. We still have $5 million to go [in budget cuts]. It’s a lot to wrap your head around.”
Wait said the cuts in teaching positions are tracking enrollments.
“This year, we lost over 1,000 students. We are already overstaffed,” Wait said. “Next year, we anticipate losing another 1,200-plus students.”
Wait said the School Board waited for teachers to give notice of resignations and retirements, so the board could estimate the number of jobs opening up before laying off teachers.
“The number is still changing,” Wait said. “We’re still receiving retirements, and we’re able to plug those positions [with displaced teachers].”
The teachers talk
As they tuck classroom decorations into boxes, three teachers wonder where they will be and what they will do when school begins again in August.
Rene Scarborough was a first-year psychology teacher in the International Baccalaureate program at DeLand High School.
Scarborough, who earned her degree in communications, interned at The Beacon before being hired by Volusia County Schools in 2003 as a copywriter, a contract position. One of her duties included writing lesson plans.
When the grant for her copywriting position ended, she was told “Let’s get you in the classroom.”
She went to work at DeLand High School.
“I have loved every minute of it,” she said. “I love working with the kids.”
Scarborough enjoyed challenging her students, showing them how to think for themselves, and giving them tools to sustain them through adulthood.
She said losing her job wouldn’t have been as hard if the School Board had explained the method for determining who would be laid off.
“There are people who came in the same day as me, and they’re staying,” Scarborough said. “And people who came before me are leaving.”
The school system left it up to principals to determine which teachers would be laid off.
Scarborough doesn’t know where she’s going next, or what her future holds.
“It’s hard to decide if you cut your losses, or if you carry a candle and hope there is a position in August,” she said. “I’m going to keep my options open.”
A first-grade teacher in Deltona who preferred to remain anonymous said she is afraid to speak out publicly because she is now in the job market, and doesn’t want to be blacklisted.
When she was laid off, she was one day away from tenure.
“Tenure is three years and one day,” she said. “I had one day to go.”
She’s unsure what the months ahead hold for her.
“I’m scared,” she said, her voice quaking with emotion. “I’m a single mother. My income is the only income we have. I have a home. If I don’t have a job next year, they might have to foreclose.”
Only third-year teachers were laid off at the school where she worked; she wonders if it is because tenured teachers are more costly.
“They kept all of the first- and second-year teachers,” she said.
Cathy Friedman, a fourth-grade teacher at Manatee Cove Elementary School in Orange City, has taught for only two years in Volusia County, but she’s been a teacher for 20 years. It was a shock this week when she learned she no longer has a job.
“I just found out today,” she said. “I was surprised. I was just given papers and told I’m going to have to go. It didn’t go by seniority. I didn’t have evaluations. I was just told I have to go.”
Friedman is 60 years old. She doesn’t relish the thought of starting over, yet again.
“I’m not free to go to another county. I’m married; we have a home here; we can’t just pick up and leave,” Friedman said. “And with gas prices the way they are, you can’t go too far from home.”
Friedman, also, isn’t sure what will happen.
“I don’t know if I should file unemployment, or wait and see if they’re going to hire next year,” she said. “Everything is sort of up in the air right now.”
Where will the graduates go?
Each year, both Stetson University and the University of Central Florida produce classes of bright-eyed, bushy-tailed teachers, ready for the job market.
With more than 200 teachers laid off in Volusia County, these new teachers will likely have to look elsewhere for their first teaching jobs.
Dr. Glen Epley, a department head at Stetson University’s College of Education and a former district superintendent with Volusia County Schools, said the layoffs are extremely discouraging.
“Not just for the people coming out of Stetson,” he said. “But for the children missing out on those energetic go-getters.”
These teachers with the latest skills may not be available if they’re needed in the future, he noted.
“It’s a missed opportunity for Volusia. We had a 100-percent hiring rate,” Epley said. “Many of those teachers have stayed local. It’s slow all over Florida, but it’s not slow all over the country. Many will leave.”
Epley said this was “absolutely not the fault of the School Board. They’re doing everything possible.”
He laid the blame on lawmakers anxious to appease tax protesters.
“The blame is lack of political courage in Tallahassee,” Epley said.
He said taxpayers have to realize the money for the services they demand must come from somewhere. Cutting property taxes makes money go away.
“It’s time to pay the piper,” Epley said.
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