As promised: teacher position losses, school by school

After the account by account budget of the Worcester Public Schools, you can find the school by school budget. If you've ever wanted to know how much it costs to run your child's school, you can find it there.
It's also where the individual position changes, as proposed, are posted.
When I got the budget late last week, I ran through them and compiled a list of teacher position changes, school by school.
Please note: this is only assigned TEACHER positions; there are a myriad of other position changes as well.; there are also general some elementary positions held aside, pending summer assignment, thus not all of the math is here. Decisions are made based on enrollment and need.

(These are in budget order: high, middle, elementary, in sorta alphabetical order, which has to do with state school codes. Errors, should you find them, mine.)
Burncoat High
1 math
1 history
1 language
1 health
1 credit recovery
(up 1 business teacher)
net: 4.5 teachers lost

Doherty Memorial
1 English
1 math
1 health
(up 1 special ed teacher)
net: 2 teachers lost

North High
1 reading teacher
(up 1 math, 1 ELL, 1 language, 1 chapter 74, 2 special ed)
net: 5 teachers GAINED

South High
1 math
1 language
1 science
1 health
net: 4 teachers lost

Worcester Tech
1 math
1 science
4 chapter 74 teachers
1 special ed
net: 7 teachers lost

Claremont Academy
1 English
1 special ed
(up 1 ELL)
net: 1 teacher lost

University Park
1 wraparound coordinator

Burncoat Middle
1 math
1 reading lab
(up .5 ELL)
net: 1.5 teachers lost

Forest Grove
1 math
.5 ELL
1 language
1 student support
(up 1 special ed)
net: 2.5 teachers lost

Worcester East Middle
no change

Sullivan Middle
no change

Burncoat Prep
1 reading lab
net: 1 teacher lost

Canterbury
3 elementary
(up 1 ELL)
net: 2 teachers lost

Chandler Elementary
2 elementary
(up 2 ELL)
net: no change

Clark Street
1 elementary
net: 1 teacher lost

Columbus Park
1 ELL
net: 1 teacher lost

Flagg Street
1 special education
.5 ELL
net: 1.5 teachers lost

Goddard
2 elementary
3 ELL
1 reading lab
net: 6 teachers lost

City View
1 elementary
1 ELL
1 preschool
net: 3 teachers lost

Gates Lane
.5 ELL
(up 1 special ed)
net: .5 teacher lost

Grafton Street
1 elementary
(up 1 ELL)
net: no change

Heard Street
.5 ELL
net: .5 teacher lost

Lake View
no change

Jacob Hiatt
1 elementary
1 ELL
net: 2 teachers lost

Lincoln Street
1 elementary
1 reading lab
net: 2 teachers lost

May Street
1 special ed
net: 1 teacher lost

Midland Street
no change

Nelson Place
2 elementary
(up 2 special ed)
net: no change

Norrback
3 elementary
5 ELL
net: 8 teachers lost

Quinsigamond
1 reading lab
net: 1 teacher lost

Rice Square
2 elementary
(up 1 ELL)
net: 1 teacher lost

Roosevelt
3 elementary
(up 1 ELL)
net: 2 teachers lost

Worcester Arts Magnet
(up: 1 elementary)
net 1 teacher GAINED

Tatnuck Magnet
1 elementary
net: 1 teacher lost

Thorndyke
no change

Union Hill
1 elementary
1 health
1 reading lab
(up .4 lead teacher)
net 2.6 teachers lost

Vernon Hill
1 elementary
2 preschool but I'm told that this remains to be assigned; Vernon Hill isn't losing preschool
net at least 1 elementary

Wawecus Road
no change

McGrath
1 elementary
net: 1 teacher lost

West Tatnuck
1 elementary
net: 1 teacher lost

Chandler Magnet
1 elementary
2.5 ELL
2 special ed
1 reading lab
net: 6.5 teachers lost

Woodland Academy
(up 3 ELL teachers)
net: 3 teachers GAINED

Belmont Community
(up 2 ELL)
net: 2 teachers GAINED

Elm Park
1 reading lab
(up 1 elementary)
net: no change

Alternative at St. Casimir
no change

New Citizens
(up 1 ELL)
net: up 1 teacher

Creamer Center
1 history
1 other
net: 2 teachers lost

Challenge and Reach
(up 1 history)
net: 1 teacher GAINED

Chandler Magnet Academic Center for Transition (ACT)
(up 1 special ed)
net: 1 teacher GAINED

Don't panic: organize (Round two)

Hearing concerns from parents that layoffs are happening now, even though we don't yet know what the final budget will look like.
Yes, that is true, on both counts!
We've had budgets these last few years that haven't involved layoffs like this, so for those who haven't been through this already:

•  In order for Human Resources to hold up our end of the contractual agreements about position changes, notices of position cuts and layoffs have to go out now, for those changes to be processed and take place before the end of the year. Openings that will occur due to retirement, due to teacher's not having professional status, due to layoffs, or otherwise, go out on the "bid list" for those within the system that are interested. There are several rounds of this, and it's starting now.
• This always happens prior to the budget. The budget won't come out until the first week of May; it won't be deliberated until June. That's far too late for decisions about cuts and class sizes and assignments to be made.
• If changes have to be made over the summer, it's much easier to make them in a positive direction--adding teachers to cut class size, assigning support staff, opening additional sections--than to make cuts over the summer.
• And finally--and you're going to hear this a lot from me in the coming weeks--NO BUDGET IS FINAL UNTIL IT IS VOTED ON IN ITS ENTIRETY BY THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE. 

So, if you are hearing about cuts at your child's school, if you're concerned about course selection, if you've heard something about staffing levels: don't panic. Don't give up. 

Also, don't think that means that the school administration or the School Committee has given up. We plan for the worst; we hope and work for the best.

If you now have specifics about your school, NOW is the time to make those calls and emails, to have those conversations, about what a school budget that isn't appropriately funded looks like for your school. 

The School Committee doesn't determine our bottom line; the Worcester City Council and City Manager do.

what will the cuts do?

another parent asks what difference the cuts would make
Boone: research and development department to help us tell
"cutting teachers will increase class sizes"
elementary will be less than 27 (average)
need to study impact tutors have had on academic achievement
suggest try to maintain the level in lower elementary classes "where they can't help themselves"

A bit of WPS budgetary history

Since FY02, $60 million in cuts
820 positions
8 schools closed
52% in supply spending
tech spending cut by 86%
...etc

Possible solutions

$8.1 million of stimulus money
cut of 70 positions
use of school choice money
making nutrition health insurance fully self-supporting

there are also some compliance requirements for ELL, special education, which may cost more money

suggestion from the school superintendent on the WPS compact and on school restructing

Hey, Nelson Place Parents!

You've got your own item tonight: "consider formulating...a plan and design for replacement of Nelson Place School, on an expedited timetable, through municipal bonding and through such support as can be obtained from the Massachusetts Building Authority"

In the "better late than never" department...

At last night's school committee meeting, the following estimates were given on the possible impact of Question 1 on the Worcester Public Schools, should it pass next Tuesday:

$70 million lost, leading to:

• closure of 20 elementary schools
• class sizes of 40 students
• the end of all athletic and fine arts programs

Pass it along!

Mr. Monfredo: question

Mr. Monfredo: question to Mr. Riccardi (?)
Every class over 27 addressed in some way? Yes
20.5 per teacher a few weeks ago (average: and remember that average means some are higher)
if there are classes over 30, they'll have a tutor
Motion: re-aligning districts for schools that don't have the extra classroom space (refer to subcommittee) for NEXT year
preventative programs in K-3 numbers
Goal that all children reading at grade 3 level by grade 3
motion passes

Dolores Lombardi, librarian

"have been in decline for the past 20 years"
funding "has virtually disappeared"

clear link between libraries and student achievement

"how to blend the technology skills they learn in computer labs" with books
"both physical and intellectual access to technology"
"reading and literacy in its broadest sense"

We'd lose our CW-MARS membership if we cut our librarians to two in middle schools.
separate research strand in skills
(we're going to need them to meet goals at state and federal level)

"Worcester continues on the wrong path" by eliminating librarians.

Where the money ought to go

There have been lots of meetings this spring...
Meetings of parents. Hearings. Meetings with city councilors. Meetings with school committee members.
I've been to plenty of them. I've heard lots of people talk about education funding.

Not once has anyone said, "you know, we really need a pre-engineering program fully funded."
Or "Gosh, let's fight hard for more AP classes."
Or "Hey, don't the special ed teachers need more in-service?"

I don't think anyone would dispute that those are great and worthy things.
I'm also sure that the time to decorate the windowboxes is not while the house is falling down.

We have schools in this city that are literally crumbling over children's heads. We've got kids getting their parent's science books. We have kids that haven't been near a computer all year. We have every elementary school library in the city closed (unless staffed by volunteers). We've got kids across the city in schools that have a only short visit by a nurse each day. And yes, we still have kids in overcrowded classrooms.

I'm not precisely sure how these glaring lack of basic necessities escaped the attention of some in the school administration. Apparently it has, though, because when asked what the administration would recommend spending additional funds on, their list mentioned not one of these basics.

Not one. Not even a start on one.

Is the rarefied air in the administration building getting to people? Is there such a disconnect between the people in the schools and the people in administration? Does someone have a particular reason for forwarding this list?

I don't really know. I do know that if you have any objection to the money that you fought for being allocated this way, you should let the school committee know before their hearing on Thursday.

It's not just here...

and it's not just us...

You may have heard something of the big protest in LA last week over education funding. I thought this post from a mom out there was right to the point:

We have baked and fund-raised, sold magazines and clocked in endless unpaid hours at our children's schools trying make up for previous budget cuts that have left us without teacher's aides, arts programs, working computers, you name it. We have labored beside these teachers collating handout pages and collecting money for field trips, serving snacks and writing grants and they have become our friends and collaborators. These are the people (not Brewer, nor Schwartzenegger) who are helping us to rear our children into informed, responsible citizens. Citizens who hopefully will have learned by our example that sometimes you have to stand up for what you believe in and do what is right, no matter what the cost or inconvenience.

Preach it!

Janitors

On to janitorial staff...they're cutting three positions.
They're going to split janitors next year, by having them deal with buildings close to each other.

O'Connell asking if we can reinstate those positions by saving funds elsewhere.

Bogigian speaks on "year after year, we've cut the personnel...we can have all the equipment in the world, but if we don't have the manpower...it just doesn't cut it...we can't have it both ways. We can't continue to cut custodial staff and then demand that we have clean beautiful buildings."

The mayor suggests that the schools put out an RFP on outsourcing the cleaning of the schools, pointing out that the cleaning of City Hall has been outsourced. This means, says the superintendent, that he has won the office pool! The mayor (who's in rare form this afternoon), when the superintendent cites the Research Bureau, retorts, "I don't think anyone believed anything they said." Bottom line, from Springfield which did the outsourcing, that the buildings were dirtier, there was theft, and they had to bring back in staff for supervision. Laying off employees means we have to pay their unemployment compensation, as well, Caradonio points out.

Mullaney..."The janitors in our schools do more than cleanup after kids...they assist the principals in all sorts of tasks..have a relationship with all parts of the school. They are not just cleaning people; they know how to do some sorts of emergency things to keep things going. Not just after school closes...these are important people in the building..a minor amount of money in my opinion to keep this ship afloat."

Hargrove: "I've heard about privatizing for 50 years...not dealing with Wal-Mart; we're dealing with children. I've seen it over and over again...they constitute part of the family we have in the Worcester Public Schools."

Questions from City Council: class sizes again

Mayor Lukes: difference between student/teacher ratio and adult/child ratio?

Putting a tutor in the classroom (or an aide) cuts the adult ratio without lowering the teacher ratio (as an aide or tutor is not a teacher).

What about the adult/child ratio for those classrooms that will still be over?

First try is to split the class. (And that solves the student/teacher problem) If you can't do that, you get a tutor for part of the time, cutting the adult/child ratio. "It depends where the 16 (large classes) are." If there's classroom space, you can split a class; no classroom, no split.

Curtis Moiles

current Flagg Street student (remember, incidentally, that Flagg is often cited as being one of the best and best-supplied schools in the city)

Citing the books that are old, the need for supplies, the lack of gym time, the grades that don't have art and music...He also tells, troublingly, of a time he needed his asthma inhaler and the nurse was not there...

Nice job!

Cuts for next year

If you're tied in with a local school, you've undoubtedly heard something of what cuts are expected for next year if they don't close the deficit. Two cuts I hadn't heard before Ms. DelSignore's comments last night:

• Currently, the city has one tech trainer for all of the Worcester public schools (that for 25,000 kids). Next year? None.
• There are no elementary school librarians in the city. Next year? No middle school librarians.

Just those two examples show how ridiculous this all is. How on earth are we expecting our kids to be trained for the next century if we spent no money on technology or on the people to support it? And in an economy that is less and less about knowing information and more and more about knowing where to find information, what are we doing firing librarians, the masters of finding thing out?

Post city council meeting

I'd assume it'd be pretty easy to chase down whether there is, in fact, a disparity in the number of students heading into the public high schools from public middle schools among the four city quadrants. Worcester has always had a population of students that leave the public schools at middle school to go to private (often Catholic) high school. Is that in fact increasing? And is there any disparity between Burncoat, North, South, and Doherty?

The perception that there is a funding disparity may in fact be a result of the Darwinian system the city has set up for the schools with lack of adequate funding. When cuts are made in things schools need, be that people to staff the library, paper for writing, or a copy machine, in the schools where the parents' income and time allow them to do so, parents (and parents' groups) have stepped in to fill the gaps where they can. And so we have ink cartridges brought from home, a copy machine leased by the parent-teacher organization, a library staffed by parents. The problem is that not all schools have parents that can do this. Most city schools don't. And so those schools go without, and have to meet the daily needs of their students with only the funds the city provides.

We are setting up a two-tiered system in which the schools with parents with a lower income level and less time bear the brunt of the funding cuts in a way that the schools with parents with higher income and more time don't. And that's, of course, completely contrary to the great leveller of obstacles that publicly funded education is supposed to be.

A Note on Teachers

Please note that the changes in the budget numbers mean that any announcements regarding teachers for next year will change over the next few weeks!
At this point, the forecast has gone from losing 95 to losing 40. That's a big difference.
There's a request in at next week's School Committee to have the budget recalculated using the new numbers. I imagine the Superintendent will be working with the principals regarding revisions.

Plus, the House budget doesn't come out until April 16th.

Do classroom visitors get it?

If you haven't yet read Nikki Connery's column in this week's Worcester Magazine, do so right away. She does an excellent job of capturing the disconnect between the Department of Education and the reality on the ground in our city schools:

From my perspective, I see my students working together, engaged, learning. But I am certain that the men and women from the DOE are observing my classroom through a very different lens. They have their own opinion of teachers in "under-performing" city schools. They pay no attention to the lack of staff, of materials, of parental support for students or the neglected physical surroundings.


Thank you, Ms. Connery. You've added to the good you've done in your teaching by sharing this with us.

Calling all teachers, principals, parents!

We've all seen the citywide statistics in the paper.

We've all seen the individual cuts at our own schools.

There's a discussion opened with a place for individual schools to share their losses over the past several years. Please add any information you have regarding your own school. Sometimes the individual stories hit home a bit more.

(You'll have to join the group as a member in order to post, but you won't get any email from it unless you want to.)