Our school could be changing very drastically, and the decision may be in our hands. Twenty-five of our own teachers are in danger of losing their jobs. The Business Department, Latin, and American Sign Language, to name a few, could be cut from the high school for good. Many of your favorite teachers may not be your teachers next year.
This year’s budget is becoming a serious problem and a hot-topic issue around the district. Because of the 2% tax cap declared by Governor Cuomo last year on the state’s education, WHB district is forced to reach a budget that is simply not feasible.
In order to meet this cap, the Board of Education is planning on giving each sector of jobs in the district a “hard freeze” which stabilizes the pay of each department: clerical, custodial, administration, and teachers. All departments besides the teachers have contracts that expire this year, so it’s in their best interest to accept the freeze. Yet the teachers are under a different contract, so if they accept the freeze then there will be no salary increase for that year, and essentially an entire year will be lost monetarily wise. It’s extensively violating their contract, and “it’s unconstitutional,” said Mr. Wiznoski at the budget meeting last week.
Along with trying to battle the Board to keep their salaries, the teachers are also battling continual false advertisement in The Southampton Press; with biased stories constantly blaming the teachers for cuts the district may have to endure. “It’s become all too common to give into the current teacher-bashing propaganda,” said Susan Kearns, president of the Teachers Association at The BOE meeting on March 11th, “some of these programming cuts are fully beyond our control and not dependent on teachers taking a hard freeze.”
The chopping block is large, even in just the high school. Any language that is not a state graduation requirement, (Latin, American Sign Language) the Music Department, the Art Department, (not entirely; electives would be offered every other year) the entire Business Department, Varsity Bowling, and the 4:30pm bus, are just some of our programs that are in danger of being cut. In the past few weeks, 16 teachers in our building received official notices that their jobs may be at stake as well.
We don’t come to school everyday just to sit in class; our extensive variety of electives, arts, and athletics and our dedicated teachers are what makes our school so enriching. It would be beyond a shame to see these leave the district- it would be a major catastrophe. This is a serious issue that needs to be addressed by everyone in the community. There will be a few more meetings before the official budget vote on May 21st. Help pass our budget by voting and encourage your family members to do the same.
Remember that the teachers here are not at fault; because of their contract they’ve been put in a difficult spot and these cuts are not up to them. This will still always be the school and community that raised us, so let’s give it the respect it deserves.