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AOS 93 Superintendent Steve Bailey said Jefferson Village School may have to compensate its art and music teachers since the school committee voted not to increase their positions after the teachers had already been notified of salary increases. (D. Lobkowicz photo) |
By Dominik Lobkowicz
A 3-2 split vote by the Jefferson School Committee at a special meeting Aug. 20 means “specials,” or art, music, and physical education, at Jefferson Village School will remain
at half-time, at least for now.
Around 40 people attended the meeting, which was fraught with contentions the public was blindsided by the committee’s 4-1 vote Aug. 4 not to increase the
specials to 80 percent of full time, which was the intention discussed during the budget development process this spring.
The board voted Aug. 4 to use the funds to hire two educational technicians instead.
Former school committee member Ellie Day was among those remonstrating the committee for that decision at the Aug. 19 meeting.
“I can’t help feeling the school committee almost appears to be unethical,” Day said.
In the budget process, the committee was acting under plans to partially restore the specials – which had been cut in last year’s budget – and the art and music
teachers were under the impression they were getting a chunk of their positions back, Day said.
Day said the public of Jefferson will question whether it is worth going out to vote on a budget if the board goes against their stated purpose.
“I feel that a wrong action has happened, and I feel a little bit betrayed,” she said.
Committee member Maria Solorzano, who started the discussion on retasking the funds on Aug. 4, defended the board’s vote, saying it would bolster the school’s
students in subjects like math and reading.
Jefferson Budget Committee members Larry Grimard and Peter Brush also drew attention to the school’s test scores.
“This isn’t about slashing cuts” but about using the funds to the best of the committee’s ability, Solorzano said. “None of us are against arts, music, and all of
that.”
“I completely understand that there’s some in the public that think specials are the way to go. There’s also another side that sees the numbers and wants us to spend
the money to get math, reading, and writing up,” said committee member Shawn St. Cyr.
“If you take out the specials having to be decreased out of the equation, I cannot believe there’s a teacher that would say they do not want any help,” he said.
Heather Northrup, a second grade teacher at JVS, said the school’s teachers do not support the decision, and read a statement on their behalf.
“The board should not make educational decisions in isolation. It is both upsetting and confusing that the board would not have had a professional discussion with
the teachers about how to enhance the educational experience of our students,” Northrup said.
“I do believe kids need specials, I really do, but I also believe kids need to be able to count out change when they go to the store,” said committee member Forrest
Bryant.
When it came to a vote on rescinding the board’s Aug. 4 decision not to expand the specials, the motion failed 3-2, with Westrich and committee member Joan Jackson
voting in favor.
At the meeting there were also concerns AOS 93 Superintendent Steve Bailey may have put the town on the hook for paying a sort of severance to the school’s existing
art and music teachers by notifying them their positions would be increased this year without bringing their nomination before the board.
The school must compensate the teachers for 90 days from the date a position is reduced, the same as if they were laid off, according to committee Chair Bob
Westrich.
“We have never as a board put anybody at 0.8, so I feel the board is not responsible for [the payments],” said committee member Shawn St. Cyr. “If we are because
unauthorized contracts were given out, that is on the superintendent and the AOS, not the Jefferson school board and the town.”
According to Bailey, the teaching time for the specials positions was increased to 0.8 in a vote by the board April 7.
Bailey said the board did vote to authorize him to hire during the summer months, and then in bringing the new hires to the board in August, “Typically those have
just been formalized in terms of acting on the faith you provided in me back in June,” he said.
“To me, I don’t think we can give you the authority to hire, after reading the statute,” said committee member Forrest Bryant.
Bryant said he believes state statute requires a nomination of the teacher to the school committee, who must vote on it.
“Not until the board votes on it does it become real, if I’ve read that correctly,” Bryant said.
Westrich said the statute does not apply to teachers who have been with the school longer than three years.
Bailey said he will not ask for summer hiring authority next June.
Toward the end of the discussion, Solorzano asked Bailey, “Were there legal contracts passed out before the board approved those nominations?”
“Based on the April vote, the June vote, the May 27 vote, I extended to them the salary notification sheets that they signed,” Bailey said.
Westrich said the notifications are required by the teachers’ contract to be sent out within three weeks of a budget being passed by the town.
Whether or not the notification created any obligation is not yet clear.
“We don’t know yet, this is a legal question in terms of the salary notifications that the staff members have received, and what Jefferson’s obligation is to those
teachers,” Bailey said.
“If there’s an obligation to those teachers who were promised through their salary notification sheets of the 0.8 and they are reduced to 0.5, there is a $20,000
shortfall for the 90 day notice that the board would be responsible for, that the school would be responsible for,” Bailey said.
Whether that obligation exists will not be known for some time, Bailey said.
Correction: An earlier edition of this article incorrectly stated the committee’s vote Aug. 4 not to increase the specials to 80 percent of full time was unanimous. The board voted unanimously to hire the educational technicians, but a subsequent vote to keep the specials at half-time was 4-1, with committee member Joan Jackson dissenting. The Lincoln County News regrets the error.
