COMMUNITY SUPPORT INSPIRES YORKTOWN STAFF

The recent outpouring of community support for the district’s schools has been an inspiration to the instructional and support staff in Yorktown.  This community has a long history of supporting its schools, and seeking the best educational programs for its children and young people.  Staff members appreciate the overwhelmingly positive role that local residents, parents, students, and former students have sought to play in the budgetary process, and we are impressed with the openness the Board of Education has shown in facilitating public participation. 

We recognize, as well, that current economic conditions have created real challenges for our schools and for large numbers of families and individuals.  For our part, the teachers and support staff are committed to playing a positive role in dealing with the financial challenges the community faces.  The Yorktown Congress of Teachers (the staff union) has agreed to a number of changes suggested by the administration—involving the extension of unpaid leaves of absences, the broadening of criteria for such leaves, and the reduction of payroll expenses by encouraging the early retirement of more senior teachers.  We acknowledge that a number of staff cuts are inevitable and justified by declines in school enrollment, and indeed we have never opposed reductions in staffing through attrition.  At the same time, we recognize the need for economies in budgeting, and stand ready to assist school officials in identifying areas where belt-tightening is possible.

The district’s professional staff, however, is troubled by a flawed process that we have seen in this year’s budget cycle—and in particular by a lack of consultation on the part of central and building administrators with teachers and department coordinators in developing proposals for the budget.  The proposed cuts are neither balanced nor equitable, and are not consistent with the best interests of students or the district’s educational commitment.

For example, the Business Department has developed an Advanced Placement program in economics, achieving results that are well above the national average.   Now the administration proposes cutting five out of seven teachers in that department, and eliminating the very teachers who developed the “A.P.” program as well as  high-level computer courses—and moving these courses to other departments.  Are teachers in the other departments prepared to teach these courses at the same level of proficiency?  What will the impact be on courses in their own subject areas in terms of class size and offerings?  And how will all of these changes affect students in preparing for an increasingly demanding, high-tech, and competitive workplace? 

Instructional programs are complex in terms of their goals and interrelationships, and  teachers are not so many blocks of wood that can be moved here and there without consequence.  It is unfortunate that the administration saw fit to propose such massive changes without consulting the teachers and department coordinators who best

understand these curricular programs, their interrelationships and implications for staffing, as well as the role they play in the overall development of our students.       

When this budgetary process was begun, a number of months ago, it appeared that there would be a massive cut in state aid.  Since that time, the federal stimulus package has enabled the State Education Department to restore all of the funding that originally was slated to be cut.  Indeed, it appears that STATE AND FEDERAL FUNDS AVAILABLE TO THE DISTRICT WILL NOT BE LESS, BUT SUBSTANTIALLY MORE THAN LAST YEAR.

Under these changed circumstances, the massive staff and program cuts proposed by the administration are simply no longer required.  The public involvement, and the school board’s openness to input, have both been impressive.  We hope, at this point, that the

school administration will see fit to operate in the same spirit, rethink the ill-advised changes it has proposed, and enter into genuine consultation with the professional staff.