Budget Worries Cause 52 East Providence, R.I., Tenured Teachers to Be Laid Off

By Alisha A. Pina, The Providence Journal, R.I.

Feb. 27–EAST PROVIDENCE — Pink slips to the district’s entire untenured faculty two weeks ago may not have been enough. In a split decision last night, the School Committee approved sending additional layoff notices to 52 tenured teachers.

As a result, 103 educators — nearly 20 percent of the School Department’s teaching staff — have or will be receiving precautionary letters of nonrenewal, human resources director Lonnie Barham confirmed last night.

Those possible departures are in addition to the 43 district employees who have announced they are retiring at the conclusion of the school year.

The district’s most recent budget had an equivalent of nearly 494 full-time teacher positions, but Barham recently said the city has close to 600 teachers, fulltime and part time. He said the department’s total staff is about 825 people.

“I hope and pray we can bring back every one of these teachers, but we have to retain flexibility [with the budget],” Supt. Jacqueline Forbes said regarding her recommendation. “It does not do me any good [to let go of these teachers].”

The district is facing a projected $3.3-million deficit at the end of the school year, she also said. It is unknown at this time how the deficit is going to be resolved, but state law mandates that any teacher who might not be asked to return must receive notice by March 1.

Teacher callbacks vary from community to community and situation to situation, school officials explain. Some said it could even be months before a teacher know his or her fate.

“I truly have a problem with this,” Chairwoman Mildred Morris said. “Two weeks ago, we laid off the nontenured and now this. I hope that maybe 95 percent will be called back, but in the meantime, the families and homes of these teachers are going to be very stressed.”

Pointing to last night’s list, she continued, “This list is not necessary.”

A standing-room-only crowd applauded her last statement. Most were the district’s teachers and school children’s parents.

Member Stephen DeCastro said while he agrees with Morris that this is an excessive amount of teachers, he said the March 1 mandate needs to be changed to a later date, such as May 1. He said communities will have a better financial picture then and therefore, not as many notices would need to be sent out.

Yet member Eileen Lovett said she and other school officials asked state legislators last spring for a later date and “we got nowhere.”

Member Robert Faria said the “sad part” about pink slips is teachers will start to look elsewhere for jobs and the district will definitely loose some “fantastic” and “talented” teachers to other districts during the wait.

Yet he and member Steven Santos said, “We have no choice.”

The projected deficit is in addition to a roughly $1.2-million deficit from previous years. School closings, a reduction or elimination to extracurricular activities and other controversial measures may also be on the table to help reduce the deficit. The city manager plans to present a deficit-reduction plan to both boards at either the council’s March 18 meeting or later that month.

“My intent is not to inflict stress on the teachers,” Forbes reemphasized. “Last year, I was criticized for not laying off enough.”

Her advice to the teachers: “In the meantime, focus on the teaching and learning and we’ll get through this.”

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Copyright (c) 2008, The Providence Journal, R.I.

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