Teacher layoffs proposed

EAST HAMPTON — Reeling from a steep reduction in the 2018-19 budget, school officials have released a list of potential teacher layoffs that will be needed to meet the reduction imposed by the Board of Finance.

Meanwhile, education supporters say they will rally outside the high school on Tuesday a halfhour before the Town Council begins its review of the proposed budget.

Superintendent of Schools Paul K. Smith had proposed a 3.73 percent increase in spending on education in the coming year.

But four of the five Republican members of the finance board demanded — and got — a much smaller bump, slashing Smith’s request down to 1.5 percent in a meeting this past Thursday.

The action cut $670,000 from the school board’s request.

The finance board majority said they acted in anticipation of further reductions in state aid as the General Assembly once again has waded into the debate over the growing state deficit.

Both Smith and Board of Education Chairman Christopher Goff expressed their disappointment with the finance board’s actions on Thursday.

In an email Friday, Smith said two weeks ago during a discussion of the proposed budget, “the BOF had mentioned a 2 percent increase for the board of education.

“A week later they approved a 1.5 percent increase to the disappointment of many,” Smith said.

Board of Finance Michael Rose had argued for a 2 percent increase during the discussion on the proposed budget Thursday.

But his efforts came to naught, and Rose would up joining with the board’s two Democrats Barbara Moore and Ted Turner in voting against the 1.5 percent proposal.

The finance board had been pressing for a reopening of the teachers’ contract to address what they said were outsized salaries for some teachers at the upper end of the wage scale.

The finance board eventually dropped that request after holding a closed-door meeting with the school board this past Tuesday.

But in his email Friday, Smith said, “Keep in mind that the teachers (and all of the Unions) agreed to revisit the contract last year and re-negotiate the insurance benefits as we switched from CIGNA to the State Partnership Plan.

“Each union contributed a higher percentage than the contract originally called for,” he said.

In his email, Smith identified eight potential reductions in the teaching staff, and included an assessment of the impact if the reductions are enacted.

The proposed reductions include three positions at the high school two from the middle school, a health teacher who works at the both the middle and high school, and one teacher from Center School and one from memorial School.

The three high school teachers are a math, a science and an English teacher.

The two middle school teachers are a Spanish teacher and the middle school librarian.

Center School would lose one fifth-grade teacher and memorial school one grade 3 teacher under the plan laid out by Smith.

As he outlined the proposed reductions, Smith said, “Keep in mind that there potential cuts must be approved by the Board of Education and will be reviewed once course enrollments are complete and exact class sizes from K-12 are determined.”

Letting the health teacher go would result in a reduction of health courses in grades 6-12.

If the middle school librarian’s position is eliminated, the school would instead rely upon “circulation personnel” instead, which would mean there would be “no research,” Smith said.

All the other instances outlined by the superintendent would result in larger class sizes, Smith said.

Former Board of Education member Tania Sones announced the 6 p.m. protest Tuesday.

Sones said “a grassroots group of parents, students, educators and education supporters (will seek) to demonstrate the strong community support for education funding.”

“Their goal is to urge the council to restore full funding for education,” Sones said in a release announcing the protest.

However, the town’s director of finance, Jeffrey M. Jylkka, said the council’s range of actions are restricted by the Town Charter.

The council can approve the budget as presented by the finance board, reduce it, or send it back to the finance board — where it could still be cut further. But the council cannot increase the proposed budget, Jylkka said Monday.