MOUNT VERNON, N.Y. -- The Board of Education is laying off 19 teachers and five teaching assistants as part of a special-education change.
The layoffs mean that the district will have fewer classrooms staffed by two teachers.
Under the new approach, special-education teachers will only come into the classrooms that have a mix of nondisabled and special-education students for part of the day.
The Board of Education adopted resolutions authorizing the layoffs at a special meeting on Wednesday. The layoffs included three elementary teachers and 16 special-education teachers.
On Monday, schools spokeswoman Desiree Grand said that the district was following a model instituted by the Yonkers school district in the 2009-10 school year.
"Rather than having the special-education teacher with the students throughout the day, they are sharing special education teachers among several classrooms," said Jeff Yonkers, president of the Mount Vernon teachers union.
Showing posts with label teacher layoffs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label teacher layoffs. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Displaced Special Educator Speaks Up
The feeling of telling someone you lost your job is difficult task to undertake. I didn't really lose my job though; I had it taken from me by New York Governor Cuomo with his budget cuts to education and by NYSUT, the union I belong to, whose support of an inane "Last in, First out" rule has prevented me from continuing my work with my high school students.
I have been on a nine-year journey through two graduate schools, three one-year teaching positions between New York and Florida and countless days of substitute teaching in the hopes that I would be more marketable to a district in the process. The 'Last in, First out' rule cost me and thousands of others around the state this year and it is destroying the institution of teaching.
As a nation, we do not give support to teachers and educators: instead, politicians and parents alike condemn teachers when students do not succeed and decide to make drastic budget cuts that make educating the next generation less appealing as a career. Where are the priorities of this once great nation? Governor Cuomo says that districts should have better fiscal management: "Manage the school system. Reduce the waste. Reduce the fraud. Reduce the abuse."
Well, which one am I Governor Cuomo? A waste? A fraud? An abuse of the system? Was my hiring a poor choice for a resource room for students with Asperger's Syndrome despite my expertise with students with Autism Spectrum Disorders? Are you really in a position to make a call like that?
I have been on a nine-year journey through two graduate schools, three one-year teaching positions between New York and Florida and countless days of substitute teaching in the hopes that I would be more marketable to a district in the process. The 'Last in, First out' rule cost me and thousands of others around the state this year and it is destroying the institution of teaching.
As a nation, we do not give support to teachers and educators: instead, politicians and parents alike condemn teachers when students do not succeed and decide to make drastic budget cuts that make educating the next generation less appealing as a career. Where are the priorities of this once great nation? Governor Cuomo says that districts should have better fiscal management: "Manage the school system. Reduce the waste. Reduce the fraud. Reduce the abuse."
Well, which one am I Governor Cuomo? A waste? A fraud? An abuse of the system? Was my hiring a poor choice for a resource room for students with Asperger's Syndrome despite my expertise with students with Autism Spectrum Disorders? Are you really in a position to make a call like that?
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