Please sign petition to save our teachers!

[oliviad51]

I live in Stanly County, NC. There may be MANY teachers losing their jobs next year including my mother. They have started a petiton and are trying to get 1,000 signatures on it. PLEASE help if possible. Thank you so much here is the link. scroll down to sign http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/scteachers

 

[PineappleMama]

http://www.scs.k12.nc.us/UserFiles/Servers/Server_284847/File/Proposal%20for%20Closing%20NA_1.pdf

I THINK that's the right one?? AND if, big if, I'm reading it right...

It outlines their proposal. They want to close down North Albemarle. When it was checked over they found Masonry cracking, Material damage and wear, Door replacement and adjustment, Complete roof replacement, Numerous ADA access issues, Elevator needed, Mechanical and electrical renovations required in three buildings, Miscellaneous repairs of a retaining wall, Replacement of sidewalks and handrails, and Other areas noted. This school currently has 274 students of the 368 capacity, 428 capacity if you count the outer structures.

They want to shift those students over to Central and East Albemarle. East's is 389/429 (again main/with outers) and is currently hosting 353 students so there's some room there. Central's capacity is 625, but only has 353 students... they're not even using the third floor of this building. Suffice it to say there is plenty of room for the North Kids at these two schools. North would end up with 514 kids of their 625 capacity and East would land 379 (+Pre-K to be determined) but still withing hte 429 the school can support. It would save the district the cost of operating an entire facility, which comes to 455,225.94. Quite a hefty chunk of change for a small district. It also would get the North kids out of a fairly rough building and into a nicer one, though some grades more crowded.

As to class size, always a major concern where little kids are concerned, PLUS teacher jobs...

Current average class sizes at North are 12:1 in Pre-K, 18.5:1 in Kinder, 20:1 in 1st, 19.30:1 in 2nd, 19.50:1 in 3rd, 17:1 in 4th, and 14.70:1 in 5th.

Numbers at East would change to TBD in Pre-K, 19.7:1 in Kinder, 19.7:1 in 1st, 19.7:1 in 2nd, 18.25:1 in 3rd, 21.3:1 in 4th, and 21.6:1 in 5th. Lower in first and third but higher in the others. Still the highest being 4th and fifth grades at less than 22... which is less than ours down here, and these are older kids who, presumably, will need less supervision than kinders so I can at least understand that.

Numbers at Central would change to TBD in Pre-K, 17.2:1 in Kinder, 17.2:1 in 1st, 19.40:1 in 2nd, 25.2:1 in 3rd, 23.7:1 in 4th, and 24.75:1 in 5th. Lower numbers in Kinder and first. Higher numbers in the higher grades. Down here we've got rules about Under 3rd can't be more than 22 (I think that's it?) but the higher grades can go larger. Donno about putting one teacher in charge of 25-26 3rd graders... take a brave soul! But I'd be okay with Kinder, First, Second, Fourth and Fifth 'cuz we're already used to those kinds of numbers. They aren't great by ANY means, but not a disaster either. Most especially something that could be stomached for a year or three until the economy balances out and things get back to normal!

I realize this would have a pretty negative effect on the staff that's let go, but as to how it effects the students I just don't see this as being that horrible. They need half a million dollars that they just don't have. Unless a fairy godparent cuts a big donation check I don't know what other choice they've got? Have the teachers/staff put forth any kind of proposal for how the district might make do? Any way to raise funds? Or maybe small pay cut across the board so everyone can keep their jobs (an idea a teacher here mentioned that they'd mentioned, can't take credit for it)... is there ANY other path they could take?

 

[oliviad51]

That's not all they want to do here though. We had a North Stanly Middle school for the Northern district schools, a South Middle for the southern district schools and they had 3 or 4 different elementary schools for the Western district rather then saving money and putting up another middle school. Thats the main thing I'm worried about. Its not fair to have all these teachers lose their jobs and keep all these schools up when they can easily make one of the nicer elementary schools a middle school.

 

[PineappleMama]

Need to do more snooping I guess. Only proposal I found was the Elementary one... and that seems to go right along with what your petition says about "close some bricks and mortar and redraw some lines." Is that right? You guys agree with their Elementary plan? Close down the old run down building, and actually use the full capacity of the other two.

I need to snoop some more. Your petition doesn't really give anyone a lot to go on... honestly it made me think you agreed 100% with the Elementary Proposal, and that's the first one parents would notice if they checked the school's website... which is why I didn't sign... I assumed I must have read it wrong, didn't know whether it was in support or against... etc. The bit about keeping schools open AND losing teachers threw me... overall just a bit confusing so I'll keep snooping and try and figure out what you're talking about as I don't like to sign my name to anything without reading all the fine print.

 

[oliviad51]

It's not my petition...just one that has been going around in Stanly County. Unfortunatly, the school board just made a decision to keep all the schools open instead of combining all of the western district into one big middle school. (which is what they did to the other district) This means that hundreds of teachers will lose their jobs. Thanks for your time. I guess you have to live hear or be apart of the schools to really know what is going on.

 

[Sierra pachie bars]

I hate seeing good teachers loosing their jobs. Two of my kids are home schooled but my youngest son is left in school because I do not feel I am qualified to give him the help he needs. In fact I think his teacher must be a angel because he's hard to deal with alone, i could not even begin to think what it would be like to deal with one or more students like him. I think these teachers should get raises , they are raising our future. To cut from it , to me doesn't make sense.

 

[PineappleMama]

I'm kinda lost still... how can keeping all the schools open result in teachers losing their jobs?

The plan I saw, again just the elementary one, said they were talking about closing one and shipping them to the other school and THEN teachers would be cut... but if they didn't do that... kept all the schools open, wouldn't they still need the teachers at all of them?

All very confuzzling. Things down in our district are pretty weird as well... already have come up with 14 million in cuts (lotsa jobs lost) and they've still got another 10 million in cuts to go. Pretty scary really. Makes me glad we took ours out last year to homeschool before it got worse.

 

[chickened]

Sounds reasonable to me.
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