School cuts claim 136 positions
Administrators to absorb work as district works on budget gap
STAMFORD — Tamu Lucero was blunt when a member of the Stamford Board of Education asked her this week how school principals feel about the potential loss of administrative interns.
“They think it’s a horrible idea. So do I,” said Lucero, the superintendent of Stamford schools and a former administrative intern herself. “It’s awful. It’s their person that they go to. It’s impossible to think they are going to do their job as well as they do without that support in their building.”
Shortly after the exchange, the board approved a cut of 136 positions from the school district — 12 administrative interns, or AIs, among them.
Lucero proposed the cuts to the board in order to close a $12.5 million gap in the education budget for the upcoming fiscal year, a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Figuring out how to divvy up the work done by AIs, and many other positions being eliminated, will be a challenge for remaining administrators and teachers to grapple with as they prepare for next school year. Administrative interns help principals and assistant principals manage school buildings, and provide instructional support to teachers.
“Well the AI is going away, so now who is going to do that work?” Lucero asked, later adding, “We’re going to have to continue to work with the principals to say, ‘How do you now do this with these cuts that have been made?’ ”
The list of cuts approved on Tuesday will likely evolve, said Board President Andy George. That’s because the biggest unknown is what school reopening will look
like in the fall, George said in a telephone interview. Any adjustments to that projection could reshuffle positions even more.
“The reductions in staff are really going to put more pressure on the system as a whole as opposed to any specific individual,” he said.
On Tuesday, Lucero agreed that the cuts are just the start of changes that will have to be made within the system.
“This doesn’t end just with this list,” Lucero said. “There’s a lot of movement that’s going to happen in the next several weeks over this stuff.”
Among the cuts were 15 kindergarten para-educators, 12 security workers, eight media specialists, eight teachers in music, art and physical education, seven custodians and five school counselors.
Other reductions include two deans of students, a co-principal at Roxbury Elementary School, one athletic director, the executive director of research, five positions in the AVID college readiness program, one teacher each at Rogers International School and Strawberry Hill School, and one position inside the International Baccalaureate program at Rippowam Middle School, among others.
Jenna Cinelli, a library media specialist at Dolan Middle School, had her position eliminated on Tuesday.
During a recent Board of Education meeting, Cinelli listed some of her responsibilities.
“I teach the research and critical thinking skills needed for high school, I teach digital citizenship, I provide a safe space for students to learn, create and grow,” she said, before adding several more functions such as managing the school’s technology.
“The list of our duties is longer than a CVS receipt,” Cinelli said.
She said the position is needed more than ever, especially if distance learning continues in the fall, since media specialists have been the ones answering technology support questions from students and parents throughout the distance-learning process.
Linda Marchisio, library media specialist at Stamford High School, said her position supports the whole school, teaching students and faculty.
The school board’s finance subcommittee this week approved the purchase of new Chromebooks and hot spots to ensure that every student in Stamford has access to one for the next school year.
“Who will teach those students how to use them?” Marchisio asked. “That’s what library specialists do.”
Many this week spoke out against eliminating AVID staff at the middle and high schools. Many current and former students, as well as staff, praised the program.
Gina Figliuzzi, the AVID coordinator for Stamford High School, said 94 percent of students in the program are on free or reduced-price lunch and 96 percent are minorities
She said enrollment at Stamford High has increased from 59 students in 2015 to 142 students this year.
However, Associate Superintendent for Teaching and Learning Amy Beldotti said enrollment in the AVID program across the district is declining.
School administrators could not provide specific enrollment numbers this week.
“If you hear frustration in my voice it is because the AVID program helps students,” Figliuzzi said. “In a district as diverse as Stamford, how are you going to turn your back on these students, removing their safety net, and further disenfranchising students who cannot afford to lose any more?”
Diane Burns, a math teacher at Stamford High and head coach for the girls basketball team, pleaded with the board not to cut one of the district’s two athletic directors.
She said Westhill and Stamford are each in the top 10 of schools, in terms of size, in the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference. Combined, they represent almost 4,500 students.
“Of all the schools to compete in the CIAC, none share an athletic director, let alone two of the largest schools” she said.
Administrators have said layoffs could be avoided if the four unions representing school employees would agree to a one-year salary freeze. But unions, which had earlier rejected a proposal for a two-year freeze, declined the oneyear option as well, in part they said because they did not see how the promise of no job losses could be realized.
Diane Phanos, head of the the largest union, the Stamford Education Association, which represents teachers, said she was surprised the Board of Education voted on cuts on Tuesday, and that they approved Lucero’s list without exploring alternative cuts to hers.
“I expected more discussion from board members about trade-offs,” she said.
Phanos said the SEA filed a grievance with the school system on Tuesday, claiming the district violated the union contract, which states that members should be notified of their assignments for each upcoming school year by June 15.
She said the action requested by the SEA is a written apology from the school department to all members.
Phanos said she has been assured that the SEA will be involved in any discussions or meetings related to reassignments or layoffs of union employees moving forward.
“I definitely think its going to be a negative impact,” she said of the cuts. “All these positions are valuable positions.”