Layoff notices kickstart gloomy weekend
More than 40 educators were left dazed and confused after layoff notices went out Friday afternoon.
Until the governor’s revised budget is released in May, the Gilroy Unified School District is playing it safe, notifying dozens of teachers that they may not be returning to the classroom come fall. During the interim, everything is “up in the air,” a phrase educators echo that describes the current climate in the wake of the state budget crisis.
Now that the board of education has slashed $3.8 million from its budget, middle school elective teachers are looking at a very different schedule this fall.
David Roberts, Ascension Solorsano Middle School’s art teacher, received his notice Wednesday after school, he said. The 32-year-old is in his second year at Solorsano and, as the middle school art teacher with the least seniority, may not be returning in the fall.
“I love teaching,” he said. “The kids and I have a really good rapport. Art is such a great outlet for them.” He gestured to the room full of his students’ art surrounding him.
Hundreds of middle school students, parents and teachers gathered Thursday afternoon at South Valley Middle School to celebrate the annual Arts Extravaganza, showcasing talent from band, choir and visual arts programs. SVMS art teacher Amber Woodward and Roberts filled the computer lab with their students’ work. Black and white and color photographs, paintings and paper sculptures crowded every square inch of table space.
“David is a great teacher,” Woodward said.
“This is magnificent!” said SVMS band teacher, Howard Miata, his eyes browsing over the intricate work of a paper sculpture. “I would expect this of a high school level art class.” Miata, 51, dropped by to check out the art display after his jazz band finished performing in the cafeteria. Like Roberts, Miata said he received a notorious pink slip earlier that day.
After 10 years of teaching band at SVMS, Miata realizes the importance of elementary and middle school music and band programs. Eliminating the programs during the earlier years of education would be like “cutting off plants at the root,” he said. “There’s no feeder system if band’s not at the elementary level.”
After receiving a layoff notice, Miata said it was soon redacted. And now Miata has received word that he will be reassigned next year, which could mean anything from teaching music to kindergartners to helping with the music program at the high school.
Like Miata, Brownell band director Tom Brozene received a layoff notice that was replaced with a reassignment.
“It was a pretty good day, considering the circumstances,” Brozene said. “I still have a job. That’s comforting.”
Miata said reassignment is kind of a nebulous term.
“The uncertainty is taking its toll. It’s maddening. The district is trying to balance a budget on a best guess.”
Guessing is all they have to go on now that a revised state budget isn’t due to be released for another two months. By law, layoff notices had to be distributed by March 15. In addition to the pink slips that were handed out to elective teachers, four academic positions were eliminated at the middle schools and six at the high school level.
Gilroy Teachers Association President Michelle Nelson spent the majority of last week glued to her phone, she said, offering counsel to dozens of educators left without jobs.
“This is the busiest week I’ve ever spent as president,” she said. Her job is to help guide those laid off through the process, she said. Many educators can’t wait around until May to find out if the budget situation might loosen up, allowing the district to rehire some of the teachers who initially received a pink slip.
At a recent board meeting, Trustee Denise Apuzzo pointed out that this might be a problem come May.
“When bright, enthusiastic teachers receive pink slips, they’re forced to find other jobs and we lose them to the profession forever,” said Pan Brady, president of the California State PTA in a press release.
Many educators are keeping their fingers crossed that a revised state budget may allay the drastic cuts. However, some aren’t so hopeful.
“This proposed budget cut to eliminate art and music from a population of students who will in all likelihood never be offered a chance to explore such arenas of creativity, communication, and world connection, if not through public education, is as much a travesty as an armed war,” wrote Stacey Falconer, a sixth grade teacher at SVMS, in an e-mail. “In fact, California public educators have been steadily losing this war of attrition for the last two decades – fighting for the needs of children who are quickly becoming casualties.”
