Thousands of educators have been laid off already, as school districts scramble to make up the money lost from the coronavirus-caused recession, and experts say more will come. The layoffs have upended the lives of teachers, administrators, and students. Here are a few of their stories:
鈥楻educed to a Line Item in a Budget鈥
Third grade teacher Jami Witherell considered Newton Elementary School in Greenfield, Mass., to be her 鈥淒isney World鈥 of elementary schools. She loves her students and the community and was as an 鈥渋nspiring teacher.鈥 But early last month, she received a letter from her school district saying that she had been let go.
Witherell started teaching at Newton in 2013, but she resigned last year to help care for her mother, who had breast cancer. When she came back to Newton in January, she had lost her seniority. Six months later, with Greenfield public schools reeling from coronavirus-inflicted budget cuts, she was laid off alongside about a dozen other educators in the district. In total, 43 educator jobs were cut due to layoffs, retirements, and vacancies鈥攖wo dozen of which were teaching positions.
鈥淚t came as a big surprise,鈥 Witherell said. 鈥淲e are hoping we get recalled, but with the budgets the way they are, with remote learning on the table, we just don鈥檛 know what positions will be available.鈥
Superintendent Jordana Harper that she had to lay off staff after the city council voted to approve a school budget that was $1.7 million less than what she had proposed. 鈥淭o get to the mayor鈥檚 budget, I did what I needed to do,鈥 she said. 鈥淎nd we have no idea yet what we鈥檒l see from the state in funding.鈥
Witherell said administrators told her not to apply anywhere else because they want to hire her back in the fall, but she says she can鈥檛 just wait and see. Instead, she鈥檚 been applying to other teaching jobs nearby鈥攐nly to find many job postings that are available 鈥減ending funding.鈥
鈥淚t鈥檚 terrifying, in a way,鈥 she said. 鈥淚鈥檓 going to have to say yes to a job that doesn鈥檛 really even exist yet? I have to hope they get the funding for that. That feels really unstable. 鈥 I think the pandemic itself has brought on a lot of unsureness. 鈥 This would be adding to the boiling feeling of, 鈥楧oes anyone know what鈥檚 going on?鈥欌
At a virtual school board meeting after the news of the layoffs, parents spoke in support of Witherell, whom they described as a caring, creative teacher who had raised tens of thousands of dollars for the school through DonorsChoose.
鈥淚 can鈥檛 believe you have let go of the love, kindness, [and] diversity she poured into our students,鈥 said one parent. Witherell, who is Chilean, was one of the only teachers of color in the school building, even though about 40 percent of students are students of color.
鈥淪he has compassion and she鈥檚 passionate,鈥 another parent said. 鈥淪he鈥檚 a teacher that someone remembers for life.鈥
But despite their pleas for the district to reconsider, Witherell is still job-hunting. She鈥檚 also missing her students and is mourning the potential loss of a tightknit school community.
鈥淲hen you鈥檙e part of a family, it feels a little personal even when I know it鈥檚 not,鈥 Witherell said, adding that teachers are people who 鈥渞eally dig deep into the trenches and work with students, regardless of what鈥檚 facing us. 鈥 To be reduced to a line item in a budget is a challenging thing to swallow.鈥
鈥擬adeline Will
鈥69传媒 Are Going to Need More Support鈥
When students in Tacoma, Wash., return to school this fall鈥攆or at least a couple days of in-person instruction鈥攎any familiar faces won鈥檛 be there.
The 30,000-student school district laid off 86 of its more than 600 paraeducators last month. The district also notified nearly 350 more paraeducators that their hours would be reduced or their schedules would be changed. The decision was not driven by budget cuts, officials said, but rather was based on how many students district leaders estimate will be in school buildings at once.
鈥淲e do not know what school will look like in the fall,鈥 the district said in a statement. 鈥淲e had to make our best estimate based on what we know now. And what we know as of today, 鈥 is full-time face-to-face learning as we traditionally know it will not occur in the fall.鈥
Still, Glory Tichy, the president of the Tacoma Federation of Paraeducators, said she doesn鈥檛 understand the motivation for this decision. 69传媒, she said, will be coming back to school after being home for six months, and many will be struggling with anxieties and other challenges that stem from the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting changes to their routines.
鈥淭he part that鈥檚 hard to swallow is we feel as though students are going to need more support than ever,鈥 she said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e going to need all the support that鈥檚 available to them.鈥
The school board鈥檚 decision to lay off the paraeducators spurred a lot of criticism from families and staff. The president of the board announced this month , three years before his current term ends, to spend more time with his family. The district did not return Education Week鈥檚 request for comment.
Out of the 345 paraeducators who are still employed but had their hours reduced, 104 are no longer eligible for health insurance due to the reductions, Tichy said.
鈥淚t鈥檚 putting a lot of folks into a really difficult place,鈥 she said. 鈥淎s paraeducators, we don鈥檛 make a lot of money, but we do what we do because we love it.鈥
But now, paraeducators will have to weigh whether to stay in the school with their reduced hours or find another job. Other paraeducators whose schedules have been changed are frustrated at the thought of being reassigned from a job they might have held for years, Tichy said.
鈥淲e have one-on-one paraeducators who have put in years with the same student and have watched those students grow, watched those students make progress in and out of the classroom,鈥 she said. 鈥淭hey [now] have to make a decision: Is this job worth my time to stay on? 鈥 That鈥檚 a devastating decision for folks.鈥
鈥擬adeline Will
鈥楲ess Time to Be Creative and Make Music鈥
Earlier this summer, the superintendent of the Yonkers school district on the Hudson River in New York came to his principals with an upsetting request: Provide me a list of the positions in your school that can be eliminated.
Facing a $22 million budget gap, the 27,000-student school district had to eliminate 74 positions. About half of those came through retirements and vacancies, but three dozen teachers were laid off.
Among them was Colette Hebert, who taught general music for grades pre-K-8. She鈥檚 upset about losing her job, she said, but she鈥檚 also worried about the ramifications the job losses will have on children. Five music teachers were laid off, and several other music teachers retired, she said, leaving a gaping hole in the district鈥檚 music program.
Already, she said, most music teachers were split between two schools and had, on average, about 1,000 students. They saw students once a week for 30 minutes, and that was all the music education students got.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 going to make the music education program deteriorate even more,鈥 Hebert said. 鈥淲ith [fewer] teachers, they鈥檙e definitely going to have less instruction and less time to be creative and make music. Coming out of COVID, those are the classes kids need鈥攖hey need to be creative, they need an outlet.鈥
A spokeswoman for the district said principals had to make tough choices about which positions to eliminate, and layoffs were based on seniority. Hebert said that while the music teachers who were laid off had only been in the Yonkers district for a few years, they were all veteran educators.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not like we don鈥檛 know what we鈥檙e doing鈥攚e鈥檝e been able to advocate for our program,鈥 she said. 鈥淲e know what instruction kids should have. Kids, especially our kids, need music.鈥
Many students in the Yonkers school district come from low-income families, and Hebert said music can be the 鈥渉ook鈥 for them to learn to love school.
For their last assignments this school year, the music teachers who received layoff notices asked students to write a response imagining their life without music. One of Hebert鈥檚 8th graders wrote, 鈥淢usic is what makes us enjoy life. Without music, there is no real me, no creativity.鈥
One of her kindergartners wrote, 鈥淲ithout music my life would just be sad.鈥
鈥擬adeline Will
鈥業 Technically Laid Myself Off鈥
Superintendent Bob Behnke has always been conscious of how vital his public school system is to Adrian, a tiny college town in southeastern Michigan enveloped by thousands of acres of farmland.
When the county鈥檚 pandemic-induced unemployment rate last month crested at 30 percent, Behnke, whose school district is the area鈥檚 third-largest employer, brought an unusual proposal to his school board: In order to avoid layoffs, the board should slash his pay and his cabinet鈥檚 pay by 40 percent, cut his IT department鈥檚 pay by 60 percent, and furlough the entire central office this summer.
鈥淚 technically laid myself off,鈥 he said, referring to the legal process his board had to take when it scrapped his contract, along with its merit pay and annual raise set to soon kick in, and approved a new contract that paid him to work only three days a week this summer. 鈥淭he last thing I want to do is lay off mass numbers of employees. It鈥檇 have a trickle-down effect on the welfare of this community.鈥
Adrian鈥檚 budget-cutting scenario, which has played out in a series of emotional school board meetings, union negotiations, and cabinet meetings, illustrates the lengths districts will go to avoid layoffs, especially in areas where it鈥檚 hard to recruit and retain teachers.
The district relies heavily on state aid and in May, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, told school officials that the state faces a $2.2 billion shortfall and is considering cutting almost $1 billion out of its K-12 spending.
For Adrian, it meant that the superintendent would have to cut $1.8 million out of his $33 million budget.
Any layoffs to his 195-member teaching staff, Behnke said, could academically ruin a 2,800-student district like Adrian, which is more than one-third Latino, 6 percent Black, and more than two-thirds impoverished.
鈥淲e鈥檙e a small district to begin with, and everything that we know about this virus is, we know we need to do whatever we can to maintain that relationship between the teacher and the student,鈥 Behnke said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 whether it鈥檚 face-to-face when we return or virtual.鈥
He and his cabinet set a goal of keeping staffing mostly intact. But in order to do so, everyone would have to make concessions, he told them.
Last month, after months of negotiating with all six of the district鈥檚 unions, Behnke brought a budget to the board that would freeze all unionized workers鈥 pay; forego new textbooks purchases, building maintenance, and technology upgrades; and eliminate custodial services for the entire district in July.
The idea to so drastically cut the pay of central office staff, the only employees in the district not unionized, was a financial one鈥攊t saved the district $100,000, about the salary and benefits of one teacher in the district鈥攂ut also a symbolic one, he said.
鈥淚 asked my team, from our end of things, what can we do to help prevent cuts that would impact the classroom?鈥 said Behnke, who鈥檚 spent his time in recent weeks figuring out how he鈥檚 going to afford personal protective equipment for the coming school year, attending Black Lives Matter rallies in front of his high school, and growing zucchini, broccoli, and tomatoes in his garden.
So far, the district has only laid off a theater manager in the high school鈥檚 drama department.
鈥淢y teachers know they鈥檙e going to be employed next year,鈥 he said.
鈥擠aarel Burnette II
When Layoffs and Equity Concerns Collide
Tucked in the June school board agenda was a recommendation that 鈥渟hocked鈥 the Madison, Wis., districts鈥 teachers: After decades of laying teachers off in order of their hiring date, administrators wanted permission to lay off teachers based on merit, certifications, and whether or not they鈥檝e completed cultural competency courses.
Their reasoning: With a looming $8 million budget deficit, the unionized district鈥檚 last on, first out layoff policy would wipe out the progress administrators had made in the last five years recruiting and retaining teachers of color.
Minority teachers make up only 13 percent of the district鈥檚 workforce, up 3 percent in the last decade. Black and Latino students make up more than half of the student body.
鈥淥ver the last 10 years, our district has gone from being a majority white district to a majority Black and brown district, and yet our teaching force doesn鈥檛 reflect that shift,鈥 said Savion Castro, the school board鈥檚 treasurer, who supports altering the district鈥檚 layoff policy.鈥淭hat鈥檚 a pretty big mismatch.鈥
Research shows that, in districts that lay off by seniority, more teachers are laid off at schools that have majority Black and Latino students, and poor schools. And a transient teaching force can have a long-lasting impact on student outcomes.
While many state legislatures during the last recession got rid of statewide last on, first out policies, the vast majority of districts have yet to change their own policies, said Chad Aldeman, a senior associate partner at Bellwether Education Partners.
Madison鈥檚 proposed change to the district鈥檚 layoff policy was tabled in June and is currently being negotiated with the administration.
The union opposes the changes. Edward A. Sadlowski, the union鈥檚 executive director, said seniority is a systematic, transparent, and objective approach to laying teachers off. The real issue, he said, is the administration鈥檚 inability to retain teachers of color. A layoff process based on merit will subject teachers of color to subjective performance reviews that, he said, historically have not favored teachers of color.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e trying to call seniority racist,鈥 said Sadlowski, who agrees that the teaching force isn鈥檛 diverse enough.鈥 鈥淚t鈥檚 the most unbiased thing there is. They鈥檙e just using this to drive a wedge between young teachers of color and the union.鈥
The district also wants to give just 30 days notice to teachers at risk of losing their jobs, a move Sadlowski said will lead to a lawsuit. Currently, teachers鈥 contracts prevent them from being laid off mid-year.
Five years ago, Madison鈥檚 administration made an aggressive push to recruit more teachers of color, including reaching out to historically Black colleges and universities and pushing the University of Wisconsin鈥檚 school of education to diversify its student body.
The district has made progress, administrators have said, but there鈥檚 still plenty of work to do.
Twenty-seven out of 31 of its elementary schools don鈥檛 have a single Black teacher. The few Black teachers the district has are now at risk of losing their jobs, administrators have said.
鈥淗aving these staff members always be subject to movement within the district does not create a good environment for retention,鈥 administrators said in a memo attached to June鈥檚 recommendation.
The issue is a pressing one. Without a congressional infusion of cash, Wisconsin鈥檚 legislature anticipates possibly having to cut more than $870 million out of its budget this fiscal year. Madison would have to make even more drastic cuts if voters don鈥檛 renew the district鈥檚 property tax this fall.
Said Castro: 鈥淚 don鈥檛 like that we鈥檙e in the position where student equity is based on whether our district has to make layoffs.鈥
The district on Monday, July 13, hired Carlton Jenkins, its first black superintendent.
鈥擠aarel Burnette II
