Chesterfield schools could lose 525 jobs
Published: January 28, 2009
The Chesterfield County school system is proposing to eliminate more than 500 positions, funding for Advanced Placement testing and its elementary International Baccalaureate program to make up for a $52 million budget shortfall.
"To say that this is the most difficult budget process I have overseen as a superintendent would be a dramatic understatement," Superintendent Marcus J. Newsome said yesterday at a news conference.
School and department budgets will be reduced by 20 percent, and the expansion of foreign languages at elementary schools would be delayed. Also, employees would be required to take two days off without pay and would not receive raises.
Newsome announced the massive cuts in a presentation of the proposed $551.5 million 2009-10 budget to the School Board last night. The school system expects to lose $52 million in state and county revenue.
The 525 positions proposed for elimination include administrators, teachers and instructional aides. One hundred and eleven classroom teaching positions are included in that number.
Newsome said about half of the 525 positions would be eliminated by attrition and by not filling open positions. He said he has asked school principals to submit their staffing needs based on student enrollment.
Principals informed their staffs yesterday that the positions of dean on the high school level and administrative assistant on the middle school level -- a total of 30 jobs -- would be eliminated. A high school dean of students is an administrator one level under an assistant principal. The employees will have a chance to apply for other positions, he said.
Also in Newsome's budget proposal:
"Most initiatives that were implemented for the last three years have been eliminated," Newsome said. "I think that some of these programs that are being eliminated may never be restored."
Meredith Ford, a parent of two children, said as she walked into the meeting that she was worried about the effect in the classroom.
"They're cutting special-education teachers," she said. "Both of my kids are in special education. That's a biggie for me."
Contact Juan Antonio Lizama at (804) 649-6513 or
.
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Reader Reactions
(obvisously) NotHoraceMan:
“Too many teachers… defending”
So, is your point that our country was a better place before there was public education? You know what happened when there wasn’t public education? The vast majority of people just plain DIDN’T RECEIVE EDUCATION. If we are to keep up in the world, it is a necessity for children to receive a common education. A basic tenet of any society is a set of shared knowledge and values; it is how the society perpetuates itself.
P.S. I find it curious that you would use a quote (out of context) from a proponent of British Imperialism. He could just as well have been referring to his own “tyrannical” government. Ha!
Holy Dewey Decimal System! Way too many public school teachers here defending their poorly performing profession. “concerned” nailed the issue here - the absence of competition! Why do I have a choice in every aspect of my child’s life except where he goes to public school?
“Whenever is found what is called a paternal government, there is found state education. It has been discovered that the best way to ensure implicit obedience is to commence tyranny in the nursery.“ – Benjamin Disraeli, 1874
The thing that people need to realize that in the end it’s the KIDS who will suffer. We are talking about 29 kids in class for grades K-3 and 35 kids in grades 4-5. There will be no one to help these kids in small group instruction and the kids who need it most WILL get “left behind”. Not to mention just the kids who are well-behaved and quiet, they will be left on their own as teachers struggle to maintain classrooms with *35* children in them.
All this while Marcus Newsome and his buddies earn well over $100K a year and get huge car allowences. It borders on unethical, if not just plain immoral. Our children suffer so they can drive nice cars to work! They should be ashamed of themselves!!
This is just such a horrible situation. Between the children and what they will suffer, the job losses for teachers and school staff, the lowering of house values because Chesterfield County’s school system is failing… It’s just all too much. Citizens need to stand up and tell the School Board and the Board of Supervisors that this CANNOT happen!
Listen folks, in other parts of the country, parents of AP students pick up the $84 per exam fee on their own, it’s not part of the overall budget.
As to the elementary IB program, get rid of it. It’s not a curriculum, it is globalist indoctrination and a completely superfluous expense.
12steprevenge It’s been a long time since I’ve been in school,I would’nt even know how to find them now, but I’ll see what I can do. I commend you for the job you do and wish you well. I know people who teach now and it is a big responsibity, if I could choose another career, I would definitely love to be an art teacher for high school kids….maybe one day I will go for it.
Ms. Fedup, It is not too late to let your teachers know you appreciate their impact on your life. I’ve taught for a little over a decade and am fortunate enough to have students think enough about me enough to look me up and say thanks. It’s a moving experience.
Funny thing is, most people have had teachers who helped make a positive difference in their lives. surely, we’ve all had bad teachers, too, but they are more the exception than the rule, in my experience.
Thank you for sticking up for us. We’re not a lazy bunch of bums who live for the summers. Believe me, the student loan debt to income ratio wouldn’t hold up to a simple cost/benefit analysis. Most of us teach because we love our kids and love what we do.
chadzzilla ) I feel sorry for the teachers, they are underpaid and overworked…you have a very good point…I can’t imagine anyone wanting to be a teacher today, it’s a very difficult job. The ones that do, for the most part, do it for the love of teaching and are trying to make a difference in a childs life, it obviously isn’t for the money. I commend the ones that make the effort, I still have fond memories of the ones that made a positive impact on my life, I wish I could tell them that now, they will probably never know.
Interesting that “concerned” consides this reduction in force (RIF) an appropriate time or method to weed out ineffective teachers. Actually, the RIF process used by Chesterfield Co. has absolutely no basis on teachers’ performance or merit. The teachers who are being laid off are simply the latest ones hired. The policy only considers years of service in the county (not even years teaching elsewhere) and what subject areas a teacher is endorsed to teach. So if an innovative, recognized, inspirational teacher has only been teaching a few years in Chesterfield, he or she will probably be “bumped” by an older teacher who is near retirement; the older teacher will stay and the newer teacher will go. Period. The result? The county will be left with an older work force of teachers, some of whom will of course be outstanding, but others tired, burned out, and out of touch with today’s generation and current academic content.
To increase the effectiveness of teachers and retain high quality professionals, a school system needs performance evaluations and scrutiny that hold teachers’ feet to the fire, and slackards need to go. Firings and/or closely monitored retraining need to take place based on performance and not based on budgetary concerns, and firing needs to happen regularly. I know several schools in Chesterfield where teachers report that adminstrators have never observed them teaching in their classroom! This is poor management at best, and a travesty to education at worst.
“Concerned” made a generalized observation that teachers are ineffective and only interested in summers off, etc. I’ve heard these generalizations before and they are true only for a small, embarrassing minority of teachers who make the rest of us look bad. Yes, there are teachers who have no passion or interest in their jobs, teachers who do not know how to manage a classroom, teachers who get by doing as little as they can. Those teachers need to be fired based on their poor performance! They need to rest elsewhere.
But I must disagree with the generalization that makes it seem that *most* teachers are like this.
Go into a school and watch a teacher for more than a few minutes. Follow a teacher for a day or a week, and watch how much and how diligently and with what dedication and sacrifice he or she does his job. Don’t just glance or assume: really watch the teacher do his or her job. Most teachers I know work more than 60 or 70 hours a week, spend their own money on supplies, accept below-average salaries (especially in relation to their own level of education), and yet consider their profession an honor. Most teachers I know are highly effective, highly qualified, and successful at bringing students through a myriad of academic demands, while also guiding students in their behavior and inspiring them to believe they can achieve more than merely the mundane or ordinary.
School choice and competition may be worth considering, but before everyone starts pointing fingers at teachers as the ones to blame for poor performance in schools, I suggest walking a few miles in their shoes. This is a problem with layers and layers of complexity. There is no one layer that is to blame.
I have really enjoyed reading all of the comments concerning the budget cuts in Chesterfield County.
Many are concerned that teachers, who actually teach children, are being cut. I do find it to be naive to assume that all teachers are good, effective teachers. believe this is an opportune time to help many teachers find another line of work. Many administrators too! Many teachers (I used to think it was about 50% but I think it is significantly higher than this now) are not good teachers, they are not effective nor do they care a hoot about their students. Many struggling students simply fall through the cracks. Teachers do not want to differentiate for diverse learners, they don’t want to do this or that, and they want more money. They want summers off and they want to leave with the buses each day. Well, if my husband who worked in the private sector behaved in this manner, he would be out of a job rather quickly.
And is anyone aware that not a single teacher education college or university in Virginia actually requires a future teacher to take a course in teaching reading in order to graduate with a teaching degree?! Could this explain why most teachers cannot teach children to read?
But this is the problem with government-monopoly education. They have no competition, the tax dollars keep them in business, and they can treat parents and students any way they please, even though we, as taxpayers, are actually their “employers”. There is little to no accountability for a single school employee, (unless they commit a felony)!
So as far as I’m concerned, everyone posting here is missing the “elephant in the room”. A symptom is bureacracy out of control. A symptom is tax and spend and hire. A symptom is sloppy, third-rate education. A symptom is 42% of 4th graders in Virginia not reading on grade level, according to NAEP. A symptom is the disgraceful drop-out rate. A symptom is the cheating and gaming by adults in the system to make AYP. A symptom is the disregard for students’ learning and students’ rights.
But the PROBLEM is government-monopoly and government CONTROL of education. Competition would solve most of the problems plus drive down the cost of education significantly. Look at the school choice program in D.C. Huge success for the few thousand students participating in it. Happy parents, happy students, higher achievement in math and reading!
Check out http://www.schoolchoiceva.com .
Also, http://www.mykidsdeservebetter.com .
And to those of you who are anti-illegal immigrant. You make me absolutely ASHAMED to live in Chesterfield County. Years ago, your ancestors immigrated here, and if we had the immigration quotas and laws then that we have had since 1924, then perhaps you would not be an American citizen today. Our immigration laws have been arbitrary, and quotas were established in 1924 as part of eugenics movement here in the U.S. Illegals and legals pay sales taxes, they work hard here, and pay federal IRS taxes. And they have kept housing costs and costs of services in Chesterfield low, saving home buyers and citizens thousands of dollars. We have had many unrighteous laws in this nation - so “legal” doesn’t necessarily mean morally right nor does “illegal” always mean morally wrong!
Besides I would much rather have my children listening to Spanish in schools than the profanity in “English” that is the norm in most schools in Chesterfield!
Ron- do you honestly think that the schools budget problems will be solved with a freakin vestibule? Get with it… not only would it cost money to redo the schools to put in a stupid vestibule, but the amount of savings it would bring are miniscule. 12step is right, the amount of money spent on “illegals” is towards the bottom of the list. Also remember that the kids aren’t always illegal, their parents might be, but it doesn’t mean they are. As citizens (the kids) they have the right to an education. Why don’t we just stop letting kids in who’s parents don’t make alot or any money… oh wait, that’s why public schools were created in the first place… to allow all the opportunity to get an education without cost.
Chesterfield screwed themselves over by filing positions they didn’t have to. It’s great to have tons of staff, but when they aren’t mandated positions they are the first to go when it’s time for budget cuts. That’s why Henrico is having much less of an issue with the budget… they strategically hire and try not to superexceed mandates because when push comes to shove, there isn’t anyone on the chopping block because the positions filled are state mandates and not “extras”. For example, if the state said 1 principal for every 500 students and you had 900 in your, middle school let’s say, Chesterfield gave that school 3 principals just because it had the money, Henrico only gave 2… now Chesterfield has to lose one because only two are required.
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