BOE Debates Staff Cuts

The big news out of this week’s Board of Education (BOE) meeting was the appointment of a new Superintendent of Schools, but there was also some bad news on the agenda. The board had to vote on the “Recommendation of the Interim Superintendent of Schools to Terminate Tenured Teachers for Budgetary Purposes.” The tenured teachers in question are Kristin Corpus and Thomas Shea, both English teachers at Stafford Middle School. While this is the first time specific names have come up, the loss of these positions is not a surprise. They have been on the chopping block since the first Budget Workshop. This meeting happened before the budget referendum where this version of the budget was shot down and cuts were made by the Board of Finance. In other words, this may just be the beginning of the staff eliminations.

Many on the BOE have expressed their consternation over eliminating these positions, but Interim Superintendent Dr. Laura Norbut has explained that to align the curriculum with the Science of Reading, there will no longer be separate reading and writing classes in the eighth grade. Stafford’s fifth graders have already made this switch, and while change takes time, she says they are already seeing positive results from the change. Reading classes are currently only offered to a few eighth graders who aren’t taking a world language. As such, some of these reading classes only have seven or eight students in the room. Dr. Norbut made it clear that this decision was in no way a reflection of the teachers’ performance, but was a budgetary decision. 

Still, some members of the BOE, who voted for proposed budget, were not happy. If you haven’t been following along, BOE Democrats Sara Kelley and Jen Biedrzycki, as well as Republicans Shana Boland and Eileen Bartlett voted for the budget. The rest of the BOE Republicans, Erica Bushior, Aaron Hoffman, and Chris Paradiso, voted against it. However, during Monday night’s meeting the Republicans traded places. 

Shana Boland read excerpts from a letter she said she received from a friend’s daughter who did not want to see Corpus or Shea go. Additionally, she expressed concern that Shea coaches field hockey, and that the school already has trouble recruiting coaches. It is not required that coaches be teachers in the district.

BOE Chair Kelley said, “It’s not the people, it’s the position.” She urged the rest of the board to think of it this way. 

Bartlett, who attended the meeting via Zoom, said she agreed with Boland, and “Those two teachers have been amazing for my own two kids.” She also expressed concern that kids in this grade level tend to have a higher need and require smaller class sizes. 

Norbut added, “No matter what position we reduce, it will have an impact here in Stafford.”

This discussion continued but when it came time to vote, the motion carried 5 to 2, with Boland and Bartlett voting against. Some of the other positions on the chopping block because of the budget are not filled and therefore do not require any actual eliminations of existing personnel. Another is a building substitute who is moving to be a daily substitute, and an interventionist position at Stafford Elementary School. Two interventionists are currently splitting their time between schools, which technically means they are already operating without that position and it did not need to be brought before the board.