Cuts at Work (very long) - YouLookFab Forum

Ugh, I am so frustrated. Almost my entire department has been cut at work - the reading specialist, the math specialist, and both the elementary and high school principals. These are definitely CUTS and not retirements/voluntary leaving.

Two years ago our district was looking as statewide test scores falling for many years in a row. I adored our previous principal, but he was not the man to usher in anything new. He retired (voluntarily) and we took on a new principal who hired a reading specialist and a math specialist. The three of them began some major overhauls in the system and brought our scores in both departments up dramatically. This year is the second year for all of them... and they have all been cut.

I am new to the department this year, and I am running LLI lessons and other interventions. As it stands, even the scheduling meetings for intervention have been cancelled for next year, and our reading and math specialists have been eliminated. We have one reading teacher (not an administrator like the reading specialist) remaining, and technically I am her assistant. But we don't know where things stand for next year.

ALL staff is on alert for cuts. Aides aren't safe. Teachers aren't safe. There WILL be more cuts, but no one yet knows where. There is a mandatory staff meeting Monday, so please wish me luck.

I am quite lucky in the sense that I do not need my job to keep our family afloat. Indeed, if it came to that, I would want them to keep a different full-time employee and cut me, because with my sub license I can easily make what I am making now and not be hurting. But I LIKE my job. I feel like I am making a difference. I am unbelievably frustrated with the cuts because I feel like whenever someone shakes up the system they make "enemies", or people who don't like the change. Some of the changes we have made are difficult for teachers, but the numbers prove that what we have done is working. But apparently politics (or vendettas and personal dislikes) are taking precedence over facts, and we are losing everyone who has made the changes happen.

Anyway, if you can spare a good thought for us, please do. We are a very small school district, and we have very limited funding. We are building an addition to our building, so money is very tight. But I feel we are cutting areas that shouldn't be cut. We are a Title One school for a reason, and our students need the interventions we have. I am more concerned for them than I am for my own job. I am just very, very sad about the changes.

I won't burden anyone with any political speeches, but for someone working on the front lines of education, it is very hard to see (and live) all the cuts our state has made.

[I am also very grateful that my own children are not in need of intervention, so my own family will not be affected in any other way than my job. But we have SO many students in need of additional help in reading and math that it will be impossible to help them all with the cuts. It has been almost impossible to service them all now with the staff we have, let alone with only two of us left - if I retain my job. Not that anyone but me will remember, but I will report whether our test scores have gone up or down around this time next year. I guaran-da*n-tee you that they will go down.]

9 years ago

rabbit

Veteran

That is so so frustrating. I'm crossing my fingers for you and your students and sending all my good wishes your way. It's horrible when politics and vendettas get in the way of providing something as important as public education. It's horrible that's it's so underfunded to begin with that choices about cuts to vital services have to be made. (I could get on my political soapbox too, believe me).

You can't be alone in thinking that the changes that were implemented had some measurable value, and perhaps some of the effects and altered strategies will remain even if you lose key players. Here's hoping.

rachylou

Wow. That makes me so mad. Specialists like this are really important. It's so unfair to the kids. And people have no shame, no self awareness: they totally always turn their insecurities into political vendettas. Has the PTA been informed yet?

Debbie

This is something that makes my blood boil. These are specialities that are needed. We base our education system on testing so we need to give the children the resources they need to be successful.
I will definitely be thinking about your school on Monday.

Double post.

Echo

Rachy, everyone is being told that the principals are moving on because they want to, but I am fairly close friends with the high school principal's husband, and that is NOT the case. As far as most parents are concerned, it just happens to be an unfortunate coincidence. Additionally, while I am loathe to make generalizations, the children who need intervention the most often have the parents who are involved the least. So the cuts will go mostly unnoticed by the parents whose children are doing well (which are the bulk of parents on the PTO).

And please forgive me for being petty, but the superintendent's grammar and spelling are atrocious. Coworkers at the high school have told him as much and have offered their services for editing, and he has refused. It just strikes many of us as ironic that a man who seemingly can neither spell nor use language correctly is making such enormous slashes to the very services it seems he could have used most as a student.

MsMaven

Sorry to learn about this. The children are the future of our nation and yet so many people don't seem to understand the importance of education for all. My older son was a middle school teacher and he often shared his frustrations with us. I hope that somehow this will all be resolved in favor of the students.

Gail

Ugh ugh ugh. So sad as the children who need help the most are sure to suffer. Makes me furious , money is wasted on so much stupid stuff so none is left for critical programs.

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

That's really hard, and I'm sorry Echo. You'd think that the specialists would be the experts they need most. Hoping that this is somehow resolved.

Anonymous

So discouraging. I hope the parents will rise up in protest about what's being done to their schools, if they haven't already. It's an outrage when children are cheated out of a proper education.

Beth Ann

The educational environment across the country is stretched thin at the moment, and some states (like my former state, Illinois) are splitting at the seams. I'm struggling to understand how they can legally cut some of the services you mention, since many of the students serviced would have IEPs, which are subject to federal law.

I know how the real world works, however, and sometimes it's tough --- tough on the employees who are excellent at what they do, on the parents, and, most importantly, on the kids.

My kids' high school -- of over 3,000 students, has one psychologist. And she has to split her time with another school of 1,000 elementary students, too. This at a time when the mental health of students is more in need of expert help than ever before.

Hang in there, Echo. I hope that your job is spared so you can keep doing what you love!

Barbara Diane

Echo, so sorry to hear this. It is horrible when what is best for the students isn't the first concern. Taking away the exact people that improved the students skills, that makes me so angry. Hoping for the best at tomorrow's meeting.

Beth Ann, you are right that some of the students in question have IEPs. However, there is a block of intervention time in each grade, and not all students visit a reading specialist or specialized teacher during that time. Many students receive "intervention" in the classroom because it is defined as extra emphasis on skills. In other words, it is still classified as intervention if I go into a classroom and work with 8 students together on a certain skill set.

Right now, of course, the students in need are receiving either individualized help, or help in groups of two or (at the very top end) four. It goes without saying that individualizing a lesson with one or two students is far more effective, even if I see those students for a shorter time period each day (so 15 minutes of individualized instruction has been proven to be more effective and produce better outcomes than half an hour with four).

As far as I can tell so far (though, as I mentioned, the cuts are not over), special education has not been cut. Students who have difficulty functioning in a standard classroom setting or who have diagnosed learning disabilities are classified separately from students who score low in tests, but either have no diagnosis or have parents who refuse to have them evaluated. Many of the students I work with are ESL students. Their parents, thinking they are helping the children to learn English, have never read to them or taught them to read in their native language (usually Spanish in our school), even though it is all they speak at home. Not learning to read as a very young child makes it more difficult to learn to read any language later, so many of them struggle, despite being fluently bilingual.

Anyway, I won't get into any more details about things that most people aren't even aware take place in elementary schools. I am grateful that most students and their parents never have to be aware of the "system" that is in place. But as I have mentioned before, our school is a Title One school for a reason, and our students cannot afford the cuts to the system we are currently seeing.

Janet

So infuriating! I won't even get started on my admittedly political views on funding for education, but I sympathize and am sending good thoughts to all of you. I worked in a private school for nearly 10 years, and the school partnered with a city public school for some years to incorporate our curriculum and teaching methods into the public school. It was a very successful experiment, but alas, once the grant funding ran out, that was the end of that. Really sad because you could see change happening. I don't understand how on earth we can justify bleeding an education system dry while money gets spent on other, less critical efforts.

I am so sorry to hear these stories. My heart bleeds for all involved.

Ledonna N.

Sending prayers your way. My mon was forced out as a library science teacher for 30 years. she was forced out or into a class room with no books into a 5th grade classroom. I was so mad when that happend it devastated her. My sister is also a teacher who is a reading specialist. ,the move her like a chess piece in her district. It is fustrating. I will add you to the prayer list.

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