Seattle Schools Losing Staff
I am hearing upwards of 25 elementary schools are losing staff due to "enrollment losses." Most of it is loss of teachers. A JAMS reader is reporting that their school is losing staff as well.
Please report in here as you hear from your school. This seems to happen every single year and throws schools off kilter and this should not happen like this at the start of a school year.
The district will not give me this information. I will file a public disclosure request to both the district and OSPI and see who gets it to me first.
Update: from Olympic View:
23 kids under original and it will affect 3 staff positions. 23 students across all 6 grades. (Note: one staff position is .4 so it's 2.4 employees.)
From JAMS:
Please report in here as you hear from your school. This seems to happen every single year and throws schools off kilter and this should not happen like this at the start of a school year.
The district will not give me this information. I will file a public disclosure request to both the district and OSPI and see who gets it to me first.
Update: from Olympic View:
23 kids under original and it will affect 3 staff positions. 23 students across all 6 grades. (Note: one staff position is .4 so it's 2.4 employees.)
From JAMS:
I wanted to share with you that 52,399 students are attending Seattle Public Schools this year, according to our 10 day headcount (9/30). That is an increase of 411 students over last year. While we have more students this year, the number is still lower than we projected by 675. Here at Jane Addams Middle School we have experienced lower 8th grade enrollment than projected, which has lead the district to reduce our budget by 2.0 certificated staff with an additional .4 reduction in certificated Special Education staff.
We have an immediate plan to reduce sections of Social Studies, Special Education and Science as well as to shift funding from a variety of areas. We may have the opportunity to delay these changes until the semester. However, if Jane Addams is required to reduce the entire 2.0 FTE, at the semester we will need to make reductions in the above areas as well as in music, world language, and in math. Many student schedule changes will need to occur.
Comments
Parents at JAMS received the following email from the JAMS principal this afternoon, which reads in part:
"Here at Jane Addams Middle School we have experienced lower 8th grade enrollment than projected, which has lead the district to reduce our budget by 2.0 certificated staff with an additional .4 reduction in certificated Special Education staff.
We have an immediate plan to reduce sections of Social Studies, Special Education and Science as well as to shift funding from a variety of areas. We may have the opportunity to delay these changes until the semester. However, if Jane Addams is required to reduce the entire 2.0 FTE, at the semester we will need to make reductions in the above areas as well as in music, world language, and in math. Many student schedule changes will need to occur."
Unbelievable. Not one, but 2.4 FTEs? Many elementary schools are (rightly) complaining about losing 1 FTE - and JAMS is losing 2.4 due to lower 8th grade enrollment??
That's a massive, signifcant hit, particularly for one grade level. Remember that JAMS opened last year - this is only the second year of operations. Virtually all of the 8th graders were relocated from Eckstein or Hamilton and have already experienced enough disruption of their middle school years. You would think that the district would cut some slack and offer mitigation in this situation.
Jaded Jaguar
http://www.seattleschools.org/cms/One.aspx?portalId=627&pageId=68026
-really?
Adams
B. Gatzert
B.F. Day
Broadview Thompson
Bryant
Concord
Dunlap
Highland Park
K-5 Stem Boren
Laurelhurst
Leschi
Lowell
Madrona
Martin Luther King, Jr.
North Beach
Olympic View
Queen Anne
Roxhill
Sand Point
Wedgewood
West Seattle
Bring Them Back
-Clueless
Tight Space
Mag mom
At schools in neighborhoods with high immigrant populations, ELL students may trickle in all year long, because some are first assigned to an elementary bilingual orientation center, and then re-assigned to their neighborhood school.
I worry that SPS hasn't accounted for the addition of ELL students (year-round) when they pull teachers and squeeze kids into fewer classrooms in October. Class sizes of 27+ may rise over time as ELL kids trickle in.
-North-end Mom
NE Mom of 3
1) the district KNEW these changes were happening and, if principals were notified that the changes were coming, it should not be a surprise to them.
2) NE Mom makes a very good point that kids do come in thru the year and then the principal is stuck making do.
3) As well,it appears the homeless population is rising. I am told there are 125 homeless students at Garfield which is quite a large number with not a lot of support. At the A&F ctm mtg yesterday, the financial report shows that the fed dollars are about $47K for all the homeless kids in the district. That is just not enough.
I am behind on my committee threads but one thing that came out at the A&F meeting is that the district, by 2017, has to pay a bond bill for JSCEE of $17M. In full. And they had an unannounced closed session after the regular meeting (which Director Martin-Morris said was on the agenda but wasn't) which was, I believe, to figure out how to pay for that.
There is no real replacement for the experience and institutional knowledge of Tracy Libros. But, that said, she's gone.
Michael Tolley, Flip Herndon, you have a lot to answer for.
How dare you take PROMOTIONS and RAISES when children in your care are doing without TEACHERS.
SHAME on you.
It is disgusting your willingness to line your own pockets when special education teachers are being pulled from buildings. You are not fit to lead.
Remember that junket you took to Boston to 'study preschool'? Really, is that the best use of your time?
I will not be voting for the levies. The last time the levy failed, there was a massive layoff in Central office.
I will vote yes on any failed levies that will be brought back in 6 months time, provided the District has gotten the message that I want spending priorities clear: students. Students need teachers. Students do not need Charles Wright. Or Robbins doing Project Management, or Echeverria doing Continuous Improvement. Or, a Chief of Schools. Ditch those 4 positions RIGHT AWAY. Or, risk failing the levy if you prioritize those positions over 4 teachers. Teachers are precious. Teachers do the work. Those 4? Would any of the 52,500 students miss them if they are gone? In contrast, would students miss a teacher is a teacher is suddenly yanked?
The public does not trust the SPS leadership. That much was evident during the strike. Parents could relate to the teachers' frustrations. Ask yourself why. Maybe those parents had been similarly disrespected and told to 'talk to the hand' one too many times by this district leadership? If this leadership proceeds to pull teachers from kids with zero information or warning or mitigation, they risk the entire levy.
There is no good faith here on their part. None. Parents have no good will to this District. Messing with 21 buildings in November, when they need to have us vote yes on a levy in February is stupid. Boy, they sure are overconfident in their approach, do they really think their decisions have no influence on levy outcomes? They are complacent.
Do not pull teachers. Find a way.
Voting NO
Frustrated in the NE
Senior staff take teachers and parents waaaay too much for granted. I don't think they realize - as you accurately point out - what happened, what shifted during the teachers strike.
I would agree - raises for senior staff and most of JSCEE staff - as teachers are being cut really does not look good.
I think a shock to the system might be a good thing. That and a new majority on the School Board.
Nobody likes staffing adjustments, it is not fun for anyone.
However, staffing adjustments done without the transparency of enrollment data, means that the only plan is conjecture and innuendo.
They stated that enrollment is 611 students under projection, district wide. However, many schools and most high schools are way over their projected enrollment. So where is the shortfall?
No numbers = no transparency = no fixes. Then of course there are the ever-growing downtown staff numbers. Where is the transparency on those positions. Have any been cut this year? Yes, rhetorical question.
Dear downtown: Do not force parents to do public disclosure requests on this issue. Waste of time for you and us. Publish the numbers. Downtown numbers too.
CapacityWonk
If the levies do fail, and Central Staff must be cut, what additional ramifications would be felt at the school/building level? It certainly is an interesting strategy but it would be important to fully understand impact. After a combined 12 years in Seattle Public Schools, I really feel that Central Staff has so little regard for parents and children and are more about keeping adults employed. They only seem to understand $ and in the case of a levy failure, lack of it...
-SPS Tired
BUT the BTA? That would put some things on hold but if the effect were to get the district's attention, then that would do it. They could go Chicken Little all they want but if parents organized and then won this, then there would be the traction to force change.
I'd also consider a no vote if it really would mean staff reduction at JSCEE. Did that happen last time a levy didn't pass? I just don't know the history on that. And like "Voting No" @9:11AM I would also vote yes if levy was proposed 6 months later if more money went into schools v. JSCEE.
-levy overload
* http://www.seattleschools.org/UserFiles/Servers/Server_543/File/District/Departments/Capital%20Projects%20and%20Planning/BTA%20IV/Levies%202016%20Community%20Meetings%20PPT%20FINAL-100515.pdf
https://www.scribd.com/doc/283990563/Oct-FTE-Adjustment-Matrix-V3-20141015
There is no predicting what would happen for certain. But, like the strike, I think if this were a united front over disappointment/frustration/uncertainty in the district, that the district would have to pay attention. I think parents would be able to extract some real promises from the district in exchange for support in a re-vote.
Steve
That was such a nightmare last year for Garfield (and all other schools).
-GHS Parent
"Enrollment in @seapubschools up 411 students — not as high as the projections — to around 52,500, Supt. Nyland said."
Kyle Stokes @kystokes 52m52 minutes ago
"District missed projections because significant numbers left @seapubschools for neighboring districts, which Nyland attributes to #SPSstrike"
-StepJ
Oh give me a break.
-StepJ
Things are pretty dismal at my school. I've begun to notice so many things I hadn't before. We have a lot of young teachers and they are gone by 4pm. I come from an era when so many of us were having meetings about field trips, exchanges, art activities, inviting outside enrichment opportunities into the building. Now no one cares. And I don't think it reflects on the young teachers. They're tired.
Teachers are so overwhelmed with demands that it is all we can do to just get through the year month-by-month. Every school is different but that is what I'm seeing at my school. It is "equity, equity, equity" all the time. And it is meetings and principal-demands every other day. People are tired.
With principals now being autocratic, we are all having different experiences. I believe scores will go down quite drastically at my school over the next few years. Because so few seem to care anymore and because so many are so overbooked with meetings, paperwork(not student-related) and principal-pleasing. Oh, and my principal has no clue about math. Math scores will plummet.
I'm not happy about it. Nyland is a neanderthal and he's leading principals in the right direction for them I guess. But the wrong direction for everybody else. Interesting because I think my principal might actually be gone in another year or two. But five or six years at $115,000 a year isn't bad. I met my principal's $162,000 boss the other day. When you think about it, he's in a category that doesn't have to pay social security taxes on some of his salary. Boy, that used to be a privilege for the monied (moneyed?) few. And my principal is within $3500 of meeting that threshold. Imagine that. A principal and a principal's principal rubbing shoulders with the once veddy, veddy rich.
Hard day today.
Unfortunately, it sounds like it will be the eighth graders who will be most disrupted by the schedule changes. These kids already got moved from Eckstein and Hamilton juat last year. Beware to anyone who is slated for a newly opened school! Don't expect support from the district!
TIB
We just found out that our son will be losing his first grade class, and the students will be reassigned among the other 4 classrooms. This is the absolute last straw with SPS...just as the kids get adjusted, after a significant delay in starting, their horrible planning strikes again! Class sizes will jump up to almost 30 and a teacher will lose a job. Furious...
- LM
Alki Elementary school experienced lower enrollment than projected, which has lead the district to reduce their budget by 1.5 full time teaching positions (1.0 from a general education classroom and .5 from the specialists of PE/Multi-Arts/Technology).
-yumpears
Please contact the following to let them know that this is unacceptable and to remind Seattle Public Schools that their Core Belief is - Our Students Come First
Dr. Larry Nyland, Martha McLaren, Leslie Harris, Charles Wright, Michael Tolley, Flip Herndon, Kenneth Gotsch and Israel Vela.
"Alki Elementary school experienced lower enrollment than projected, which has lead the district to reduce their budget
by 1.5 full time teaching positions (1.0 from a general education classroom and .5 from the specialists of PE/Multi-Arts/Technology)."
Principal Shannon Stanton states there will be an update Friday or Monday. We sit and wait to know which students and teachers will be impacted. I imagine at least a few classes will be at overload capacity with the loss of a classroom teacher.
What can we do?
P'ohd
I worry that there will be a loss of unity, as each school makes its case. In truth, though, I can't see how any school could make staffing changes once students are two or three weeks into their year without disrupting things. It's not enough to know that they are staffing "by the numbers" (and, honestly, it's not clear that they are), I think that they have to go a bit farther and prove that there is no other option than to cut teachers from these schools. We, as a community, needs to insist that they prove the necessity of this, for the sake of all of the affected schools.
"If we don't hang together, by Heavens we shall hang separately"
- Benjamin Franklin
However, failing the levy once, will give the District the message that JSCEE is too big and too fat. During the that last levy failure, head office did get a major hair cut. How I would love to see it trimmed down NOW to save teachers!
"By the end of two years, the central office staff had been cut by more than 100 from 467 to 364 "full-time equivalent" positions." That is a 21% reduction in JSCEE staff. I could live with that. Happily so.
Or, how about cutting the salaries of Superintendent cabinet staff by 15%? I could live with that too. Who is on the cabinet?
Person Function
Tolley, Teaching
Herndon, Capital
McEvoy, Operations
Brent Jones, HR
Ken Gotsch, Finance
*Ron English*, Counsel
Wright, *nothing*
Nyland, *not sure*
Herndon's starting salary back when he was hired was $176,446, plus benefits and a $450 per month car allowance.
Would any of these people up and quit if their pay got docked by 15%? Let's say Herndon got slimmed down to $154,000. Would he quit? Would it matter? Would he go back to Bremerton?
Just 2 years ago, there was NO Herndon. Operations included capital. McEvoy covered it all. And, no underling to Herndon (that would be Richard Best). JSCEE top dog pay has increased dramatically over the last 2 years, and, the number of top dogs has increased dramatically too over the last 4 years.
The priority should be the students, and, the students need the classroom teachers. Axing the Deputy Super would have ZERO affect on the kids, but, would save them 2 teachers! 2 Teacher could support 300 middle school children. That is 'traditional math'.
Quoting the blog:
From the savvy Meg Diaz on salaries at JSCEE and teacher salaries:
Turns out that between 2012-13 and 2014-15, total compensation for the top 100 compensated employees in SPS increased by about $1.4M (~12%). It'd be fair to assume that some individuals would earn raises (although Ron English's pay jumped by over $50K?!?!?!), the top 100 positions in a large district would have fairly stable pay. Not so much.
Since I was on a data boondoggle, I had a look at the top 100 teacher's salaries, thinking... maybe EVERYBODY increased.
NOPE. The pay for the top 100 compensated teachers contracted slightly, by about 1.3%.
Vote no on the levy(levies), then vote yes 6 months later. The levy is the only referendum on how you think the district is doing. We can't vote for the Super. Changing over directors does not seem to make an impact. McCleary is not the issue here, it is how the current Super and cabinet prioritize the spending of the money they have. The problem is one of management. Playing, blame the legislators game (while there is blame to go around!), only distracts from our internal management problem. The only way to fix that, if they insist on cutting teachers, is to spank them. Vote no once. I am voting no for the kids. So that their management will wake up and stop messing with their learning. Sometimes it gets necessary to be hit with a brick to wake up the district to figure out parents are mad, and, not mad at teachers, made at them.
Voting NO
Tired
Are you kidding me???!!!! We have administrators who get a car allowance? OMG!!!!! I have been a teacher in Seattle for more than 20 years. Since I'm at the top of the salary scale my pay has steadily decreased due to inflation and increased health care costs. I can barely afford a crummy car payment ($450 a month is a HUGE car payment). What the XXXX is wrong with this XXXXXXX district!???
-sleeper
That students will have schedule changes yet again, and not be better served with a new Collective Bargaining Agreement as course sections are chopped, at a school without the asset of accumulated PTSA funds to hire staff makes me feel our school and its population are not supported by Seattle Schools.
I am alarmed by the possibility that overcrowding and underfunding will worsen annually through my child's attendance at SPS. Not really understanding how adding more stress and workload to SpEducators and cutting staff will help close "opportunity gaps."
These and other issues are foremost in our household's minds as we evaluate city council and school board director candidates a month before ballots are due. If it's a matter of parents petitioning elected representatives to fulfil state education funding, I plan to bring this predicament up with a state legislative member at the next "community coffee chat." I am seriously considering a physical relocation out of the city, or applying as a "hardship case" for my student to transfer to another school either in SPS or the nearest district, if my quest to adapt to and even surmount what seems to be overly punitive staff and resource reductions isn't successful.
-daisy
The problem is mirrored across the education market, especially in Higher Ed. The rise of the technocratic administrator.
--SendAMessage
Taking away FTEs after the school year has already started is definitely NOT putting the students first. And of course Nyland says their projections were off because of the strike -- another attempt to blame the teachers for central's incompetence and gross mismanagement.
Did anything ever come of the rumor that City of Seattle was looking into having some/all control of SPS? I know... be careful what you wish for, but we shouldn't expect anything to change unless we're willing to take some risks.
And exactly why should a mid-level (or even top-level) administrator make twice what the highest paid teacher makes?
Because there is NO accountability at the board level or from the voters, who happily pass every levy thrown their way.
--SendAMessage
Reposted for above, because anonymous is absolutely right.
Hint: In addition to calling Olympia, get TV into your school. Show the kids being shoved out of their classrooms. A picture is worth 1000 petitions.
"Also Impacted"
I think we need to pull all of our kids out of school and strike this way! We need to see some real change fast and they do not understand the severity of their actions.It seams as though they fly by the seat of their pants making outlandash decisions and in turn put our kids and teachers last on the agenda. I taught at a district in CA who eventually uncovered their own superintendent embezzling the money from their district, although an extreme case that said.........districts misappropriating funds is not new! We need to stop the madness and hold them accountable for the impacting they are making on our students! Petitions are circulating and keep your eyes on the news. Email/phone/snail mail our local senator and district. They said they wanted to hear from us ....so let us be known. We need real change NOW!
The Senate Early Learning and K-12 Education Committee
462 J.A. Cherberg Bldg,
P.O. Box 40466
Olympia, WA 98504-0466
-History
"We can't vote for the Super. Changing over directors does not seem to make an impact."
I think changing directors this election may be different.
Burke, Geary, Harris, + Peters + Patu may make a substantial difference.
Vote and see.
-- Dan Dempsey