Public schools are off this week, but instead of enjoying their
week of freedom, many Gilroy teachers are polishing their resumes
in anticipation of impending layoffs.
Public schools are off this week, but instead of enjoying their week of freedom, many Gilroy teachers are polishing their resumes in anticipation of impending layoffs.
“Morale is down,” said Heather Parsons, a fourth-grade teacher at Eliot Elementary School. “People are nervous.”
Like at many schools, lunchtime conversations at Eliot often gravitate back to layoffs, pay cuts and their impact on students.
“We’re stressed,” agreed Marwa Yousofzoy, a third-grade teacher in her first year at Eliot.
California is reeling from a $18.9 billion deficit over the next 18 months and will pass about $5 billion of that shortfall on to public schools. As a result, the Gilroy Unified School District must slash $6.3 million – or about 7.2 percent – from its $88 million general fund. Although many details remain foggy while the school board deliberates, one thing is certain: Teacher layoffs are imminent. And because seniority determines the district’s pecking order, newcomers to the district, such as Eliot’s Yousofzoy and Parsons, might be the first to go. At last tally, as many as 80 of the 540 district teachers could be on the chopping block.
Math, science and special education teachers will be spared because those positions are so hard to fill, Superintendent Deborah Flores said.
Losing that many teachers will have “a tremendous domino effect,” said Gilroy Teachers Association President Michelle Nelson. Teachers will be forced to fill in for subjects or grade levels they’re not familiar with or would prefer not to teach, she said. Nelson added that she hasn’t seen this many jobs at stake in her 30 years in public education.
With a master’s degree in elementary education from University of California, Riverside, Yousofzoy “was born to teach,” she said. The 26-year-old taught kindergarten and third grade at Rucker Elementary School for two years before coming to Eliot, where she immediately impressed Principal James Dent as a model teacher.
“They put in time way above and beyond,” Dent said of employees like Yousofzoy and Parsons. “They have open minds to new ideas and there’s a willingness to always improve.”
After graduating three years ago, Yousofzoy packed up her belongings and moved 400 miles north for a job she couldn’t wait to begin in a town where she knew no one.
“I love it,” Yousofzoy said, stooping to comfort a little girl with a scraped finger during recess. “I have always been a teacher. This is my passion. This is who I am. I define myself as a teacher.”
With two years in Gilroy under her belt, Yousofzoy finally felt comfortable enough to sign a lease on an apartment in town. She signed about a month before learning she might lose her job.
“I just signed a one-year lease so I’m hoping that I’m sticking around,” she said, her cheerful smile never wavering. “I can’t let this get to me now. But it’s hard – I’ve had some sleepless nights.”
And with state standardized tests around the corner, now is not the time for negative thinking, she said.
Thanks to the willingness of teachers like Yousofzoy to try new techniques in the classroom, Eliot is in the middle of introducing a new style of teaching Dent witnessed at a school in southern California.
Over this week’s break, a dozen Eliot teachers will travel to Victorville to tour Sixth Street Prep, a charter school that has shown remarkable success. Teachers from Las Animas Elementary will do the same. They hope to bring back what they see and replicate it in Gilroy classrooms.
Like Yousofzoy, Parsons has already visited Victorville and began using their techniques in her classroom, with great success. The teaching method uses constant visual, vocal and tactile stimulation to keep students engaged. The two young teachers are spreading what they learned to other Eliot teachers and will return to Victorville Thursday for another tour.
“We put in a lot of time and a lot of heart,” Parsons, 33, said. “We’re working on (the new program) with the full knowledge that we may not be able to apply any of it at Eliot next year. But I can’t let the thought of what’s imminent change my drive.”
The Hollister resident first taught at Eliot during the 2002 school year, and was soon laid off during that year’s round of budget cuts. She and her husband decided to take the opportunity to start a family. She returned to Eliot this year to find herself in the same predicament as seven years ago, only this time with two extra mouths to feed and a newly acquired mortgage.
“Not having a second income could be devastating,” she said.
As one of the district’s newest teachers, she’ll be one of the first to receive a pink slip in March, she suspects. But if the budget picture brightens and the district is able to rehire any of the teachers it laid off, Parsons hopes administrators and the union will remember her for her classroom merits.
“I will do my best,” Nelson said. “The district makes the ultimate decision but I will put my two cents in.”
The district expects about 15 teachers will not return next year due to the regular cycle of turnover. Nelson is encouraging those teachers to notify the district promptly to help save teachers who might lose their jobs from as much anxiety as possible. Flores estimated another 15 veteran teachers will take advantage of the district’s early retirement incentive – a bonus the GTA advocated for that is offered to teachers who retire early. The arrangement allows the district to replace a position that topped out at $80,000 in salary with a younger teacher who makes about half that. During their retirement, teachers who take advantage of the incentive will receive an annual stipend far less than what they would have received as an employee of the district. By retiring 15 teachers early, the district expects to save $160,000.
“I understand that this impacts real people and we feel very bad about this,” Flores said. “The budget crisis became much worse with the governor’s release of his budget in January. We were planning on cutting about $3 million and overnight it went up to $6.3 million. We’re doing the best we can and we’re committed to laying off as few teachers as we can.”
Though trustees have considered asking district employees to take an across the board pay cut, district calculations show that employees would have to cut their salaries by at least 10 percent to achieve the targeted savings. Flores said she can’t ask her employees to do that, even though it could save jobs.
“There have been no pay increases for two years yet the cost of living continues to go up,” she said. “People are really hurting financially all through the district so to ask people to take a pay cut, I wouldn’t recommend it.”
With a month to come up with other ways to cut the budget, Dent said he hopes the district will keep the cuts as far away from the students as possible. Still, he’s preparing to lose one or two teachers per grade.
“It seems like this might be the year that the doomsday scenario does come true,” he said.
