Reynolds School District lays off 149 teachers, more planned. Middle School students protest budget cuts
By admin - Posted on June 4th, 2009
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Going from bad to worse,
District lays off 149 teachers, more layoffs coming. Middle School students protest planned budget cuts |
Reynolds School District lays off 149 teachers
Source: The Gresham Outlook. By Rob Cullivan. May 29, 2009
The Reynolds School District is laying off 149 teachers as of Aug. 31, with the bulk of the layoffs coming among those hired in the past three years.
Faced with slashing almost $15 million from its 2009-10 budget, the district also will announce further layoffs, including among its music education staff as well as support-staff employees, according to Andrea Watson, district spokeswoman.
The teacher layoffs break down as follows: 5 teachers hired between 1996 and 2001; 42 teachers hired between 2001 and 2006; and 102 hired between 2006 and 2009.
Watson said Reynolds district teachers who are being laid off are given priority in rehiring – if they so wish – for at least 27 months after they have been laid off.
Reynolds Middle School students protest planned budget cuts
Source: The Gresham Outlook. By Rob Cullivan. Jun 3, 2009
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Students at Reynolds Middle School demonstrated against cuts planned for next year’s Reynolds School District budget, the afternoons of June 1 and 2 outside their school and outside Fairview City Hall on June 2. |
 Jim Clark / The Outlook Reynolds Middle School students protest outside the school after an earlier walkout protesting the school district’s budget for next year. |
The students say they planned similar daily protests after school through the end of the school year.
Maria Calderon, an eighth-grader, said she was one of between 50 and 75 students who took to the streets June 1 to protest the district’s plan to increase class sizes, decrease athletic funding and lay off 149 teachers to help close an almost $15 million budget gap.
“We’re just trying to get a message to the people so they don’t cut our sports,” she said. “And they’re going to cut some teachers that we really like, and we don’t want that happen.”
Jessica Elliott, also in the eighth grade, particularly criticized teacher layoffs.
“Cutting down our teachers means less one-on-one time,” she said. “Our district is just making more families in debt by cutting teachers.”
She added that she felt the cuts were shortsighted.
“Our society is getting dumber,” she said. “This is why kids drop out or do drugs. It all starts with our money and how we spend it.”
On Tuesday afternoon, Jordan Minter, a seventh-grader, said 96 people had honked their car horns by 4 p.m. in support of the protesters as they drove past Fairview City Hall.
Kenneth Loth, an eighth-grader, said the students might even try to obtain a parade permit for another demonstration.
“We’re trying to get everybody to understand our plight, that there is money that could be put to better uses,” he said.
Andrea Watson, district spokeswoman, said Robert Fisher, district superintendent, met with four of the student protesters at Reynolds Middle School on Monday afternoon to discuss their concerns.
“We support students in their rights to express their point of view, so long as exercising freedom of speech does not disrupt the educational process,” Fisher said in a statement after the meeting.
He added he was “pleased” to be able to honor the student leaders’ request to meet with him to get additional information.
Watson noted the district understands the students’ concerns.
“No one wants to be in a position of making these reductions,” she said. However, she said the district had to make the cuts to close the gap, and couldn’t tap into reserves, as some students suggest.
“In order to move toward fiscal solvency, we need to go on the conservative side,” she said, adding it’s better for the district to hire back teachers it lays off than cut even more teachers in the future because it doesn’t make fiscally sound decisions now.
