It's a bad year for teachers, especially in Southeastern San Francisco where schools that have a hard time attracting teachers stand to lose experienced staff. Newswire21's Mayra Martinez reports. Reporting like this requires your support, so please support Stories from the Ingleside.
Mayra Martinez
Newswire21.org
For the 349 San Francisco teachers who received layoff notices, the last, best hope for being saved from unemployment rests on the adoption of an agreement between the teachers union and school board that would save up to 148 teachers and provide an additional $700,000 towards trained support staff.
The board is expected to consider adoption of the agreement pending union ratification at its May 25 meeting, according to human resources officer Roger Buschmann. Either way, the city's poorest schools will likely feel the greatest impact.
In the Excelsior and Ingleside districts, which have the city's highest percentage of children per capita, the waiting game continues as the school year winds down. Frustrations and worries grow for teachers over leaving the classrooms and students they have called their own and the current reality of being unemployed in California.
“Us people in the trenches who are holding on to pink slips and trying to do our jobs everyday, and still do it with enthusiasm and happiness, are starting to get tired," said seventh grade science teacher James Stewart from Aptos Middle School. “I’ve done this for three years where I have to sit for the last two months of school and worry about my job and I don’t know if I want to do that next year.”
At Guadalupe Elementary in the Excelsior, David Gerbic is one of three teachers waiting to see if they’ll have jobs in the fall.
“I work so hard. I put in so many hours," he said. "I do everything they ask me to do and then they turn around and kick me out on my butt. I don’t feel valued. I feel pushed around. I feel like I’ve been chewed up and spit out.”
For those teachers whose jobs are safe, many wonder how they will maintain quality classrooms with less help. “We’re up at the crack of dawn. We spend our own money. We’re here after dinner.” said Gerbic, a fourth grade teacher. “Every teacher I know works 10 to 12 hours a day if they’re really doing their job right, but they get paid for what, 6 or 7?”
Stimulus Funds
This year stimulus funds and the Rainy Day fund, which saved many jobs in years past, were almost depleted. And Gov. Schwarzenegger's latest budget proposal includes $1.5 billion in education cuts and an additional $1.2 billion reduction in subsidized child care. That proposal, which still faces debate in the Legislature, comes as studies show that certified teachers will be sorely needed to rebuild California’s economy.
Then there is what has been called the “disproportionate effect” of layoffs on hard-to-fill schools in poorer neighborhoods. They have high teacher turnover rates in part because California law uses seniority as the deciding factor when jobs are cut. The American Civil Liberties Union has filed case against the Los Angeles Unified School District claiming the seniority requirement under the education code has a discriminatory effect on their lowest performing schools that is being closely followed for the precedence it may set.
“California ranks 47th in the nation on per pupil spending, so we had a problem even before this economic crisis, and now it's just getting worse.” said district spokesperson Gentle Blythe.
The district and union both are pleased the original number of layoffs has been cut by half. But the reduction provided less consolation for the teachers and administrators at schools where every single teachers is desperately needed.
“Every year we say I don’t know how things can get any worse, and then they get worse, said Guadalupe third grade teacher Grey Todd who remains hopeful that he will be one of the lucky 200 come May 25.
“You can’t expect a teacher alone in a classroom all day long with absolutely no help ... in a room of 34 kids to be effective.” said Todd. “It just becomes a babysitting job.”
Many of the parents in the Ingleside and Excelsior neighborhoods are working class, with scarce time or money to contribute themselves. Yet, at Longfellow Elementary, parents will be asked for the first time for money, said principal Phyllis Matsuno, although she acknowledges most have little or nothing to give.
National Problem
Last year Matsuno's school received no lay-off notices, but this year one-third of her staff is in jeopardy. Similar increases are being seen in districts across the state and across the country, according to national study of superintendents by the American Association of School Administrators.
At Monroe Elementary two certified staff, the nurse and counselor received final letters as well as their part time P.E. and art teachers, according to principal Jennifer Steiner. They will also have to make due with an $8,000 school supplies budget when a school of that size should have about three times that much. And there's no money for substitutes or stipends.
Teachers say all of these factors deeply affect every child’s chance for a good education and success.
“One of the most important aspects of good teaching is having a good relationship between the teacher and the students. Having more kids in your classroom just makes it harder to form close relationships," said Tracy Burt, who teaches child development at San Francisco City College. “Kids need to talk about the things that are going on in their lives. Teachers play lots of roles. They’re counselors, they’re moderators, they’re tutors.”
At schools where kids come from middle- and lower-income households, the effects can be more profound.
“Some of these kids have no routine at home. When they come to school, it’s the same everyday and we eat at the same time everyday and we are one big family," said Methinee Thongma of El Dorado Elementary in Visitation Valley. Earlier, she addressed the board in tears, talking about the kids she might be forced to leave. “Some of them do not even eat at home. They need safe relationships that they can trust.”
Buschmann, the district's HR director, agrees there should be a way to protect the "hard-to-fill" schools, "You get a great teacher that the principal and the parents are so happy to have in a difficult to staff school that may be under-performing that is on the rise," he said. “To turn away and take that teacher away from them is criminal.”
Ilana Nankin, a first year pre-K teacher has received praise from her paraprofessional for the work she has managed to do in one year at Fairmont Elementary in Glen Park. After receiving a layoff letter, she broke down in tears the next time she saw her class.
"Truthfully there’s no incentive to do a good job if seniority is the only thing that counts," said Stewart. “All my evaluations have been very high or outstanding and that speaks for nothing .”
Reluctant Move
During a May 11 school board meeting when the latest figure of 350 layoffs was approved, both Superintendent Garcia and several board members told the emotional and vocal crowd that this was a decision they made reluctantly.
“We went in knowing that unfortunately, when you have $113 million deficit, as much as we would want to not lay off a single person, that's virtually impossible.” said Garcia. “It's not us that have created the problem. It's Sacramento that has.”
“I think we all know that we're making a difficult decision that many members of the public will not understand. Not being able to look at the budget that we get to on a daily basis.” said BOE president Jane Kim.
“It's black and white.” said board member Rachel Norton. ”This is something we have no choice in.”
In order for more teachers to be saved the next steps between now and May 28 will be for UESF members to begin voting on the latest negotiated contract. Once it is passed and adopted by board members, more letters can be sent out rescinding layoffs. Until then students, teachers and kids wait to see which familiar faces won't be roaming the schools halls next year.
“There is a little girl in my son’s classroom that brought in a bag of coins and left it for her teacher," said Star King Elementary parent Jamie Deiner. ”The kids know. They are worried.”
