Manchester: "Proposed teacher layoffs fuel debate"

[Dave Ridley]

http://unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Proposed+teacher+layoffs+fuel+debate&articleId=b2bd6560-f24a-424d-a23a-70dbe0297434

Proposed teacher layoffs fuel debate
By JIM KOZUBEK
Union Leader Correspondent
Friday, Dec. 22, 2006


Merrimack ? Teachers and a taxpayers group are feuding over the possible effects of budget cuts prompted by this year's townwide vote demanding no increases in overall school spending.

The school board Wednesday night introduced a school budget of $57,548,269, about 3 percent higher than this year's budget. The proposal includes the elimination of 15 jobs.

The independent 12-member School District Budget Committee will review the budget next month, and its recommendations could prompt more cuts when the school board returns to regular session. The budget will then be open to public participation in a deliberative session in March before going to vote in April.

Teachers and students have come to school board meetings in droves, calling for reinstatement of those positions and no more personnel cuts, while school board members say they intend to remain vigilant to meet taxpayer demands.

In his book "Moral Minds,'' Mark Hauser says lawyers and philosophers call it the double-effect -- when either outcome from a decision holds some negative effects, rendering each outcome both right and wrong. Teachers and taxpayers laid out their cases for the New Hampshire Union Leader this week.

Teachers
James Roy, president of the Merrimack Teachers Association, said the collective effect of annual cuts could undermine the ability of the district to adjust to changing student populations.

The student population at Merrimack was reduced last year to 4,713, with 70 fewer students enrolling, and the school board cut 11 jobs. The board projects declining enrollment of 8 percent in the next five years, to 4,303 students.

Roy says only five jobs should be cut in the next budget to adjust to reduced enrollment. Getting ahead of the game by making double-digit personnel cuts each year leaves the district unprepared when enrollment increases, he contends, forcing it to hire, train and acclimate inexperienced staff.

"It is the collective impact of these cuts," he said. "When you micromanage, you make it more difficult to react to changing populations."

Charles Kalinski, 59, a learning resource specialist, lost his job Wednesday night after having received a pink slip earlier this month.

Kalinski, who has a doctorate and several master's degrees, has been teaching in Merrimack since 1988. He is a learning resource specialist and diagnoses cognitive disabilities.

"It used to be that the child was thought of as an empty cup," he said. "Research in the past 30 years has moved to the neuropsychological model, and we are trained to pick up on weaknesses, trained to do educational diagnostic work and act as a consultant for teachers."

Roy argues that if the school district has to hire staff later, it would not get a teacher as qualified as Kalinski. "I don't know how we would ever replace him. He's just so learned, and there's a learning curve. What message do we send to teachers looking to come here? Don't unpack your boxes."

Merrimack Cares
A local taxpayers group argues there is room for reductions following a decade in which expenditures doubled: In 1995-96, the school budget was $25 million; in 2003-04, it was $48 million.

The district built Merrimack Middle School and opened its doors in 2004, increasing the budget to $57 million last year, with projected increases this year.

Jennifer Thornton and Jennifer Twardowsky founded Merrimack Cares in 2003 and supported candidates for the town council and the school board who advocated restrained spending. Taxpayers responded in kind, the group asserts, and the school board this month presented a budget reduced by $1.9 million.

Merrimack Cares and conservative-minded board members such as George Markwell have been the targets of educators and students worried that books and resources could be taken from them.

Twardowsky rejects those concerns, noting that she and Thornton each have small children in Merrimack schools. Spending has to be reined in, however, she said.

"Nobody has ever said no to this budget," Twardowsky said. "We want to be reasonable. People go ballistic and make generalizations, and we want to steer them away from that, to give us suggestions."

In the past 10 years, Twardowsky says, the school board has constructed a middle school and has built up an excessive special education budget. Of the special education department, directed by David St. Jean, Twardowsky said, "They won't even talk to us. Never been audited."

Twardowsky says taxpayers do not automatically look to cut teachers; they usually want to identify and eliminate waste in administration and maintenance costs.

Marge Chiafery says a 20-member panel decided which jobs to cut. Among the 15 positions, one was in administration and none were in maintenance. The panel was made up of administrators, principals and program directors; no teachers were included, she said.

[error]

Wow, that is one of the most disjointed, unfocused, one-sided and incomplete pieces I've ever read in a newspaper.

I've written 5-minute blog posts better than that.

Unfortunately I don't have the 20 minutes I need to give it a proper, er, critique...

[KBCraig]

http://unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Proposed+teacher+layoffs+fuel+debate&articleId=b2bd6560-f24a-424d-a23a-70dbe0297434
The school board Wednesday night introduced a school budget of $57,548,269...

The student population at Merrimack was reduced last year to 4,713...

So, a budget of $12,210.54 per student. How will they ever survive? 

[Ruger Mason]

This is happening in Merrimack, not Manchester.  Please correct the subject.  I *WISH* it were happening in Manchester.

[Atlas]

http://unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Proposed+teacher+layoffs+fuel+debate&articleId=b2bd6560-f24a-424d-a23a-70dbe0297434
The school board Wednesday night introduced a school budget of $57,548,269...

The student population at Merrimack was reduced last year to 4,713...

So, a budget of $12,210.54 per student. How will they ever survive? 

That's absurd. An education shouldn't cost more than five thou per year, especially at the junior high level.