Schools

Salisbury Students Protest Teacher Cuts

An impassioned group of Salisbury High School students and parents denounced the recently announced teacher cuts at a standing-room only school board meeting Wednesday night.

An impassioned group of students and parents denounced the recently announced teacher cuts at a standing-room only school board meeting Wednesday night.

Representatives from a newly formed group called the Salisbury Student Coalition for Change spoke against the lay offs and in support of the three teachers who will lose their jobs because of the district's budget deficit.

By a vote of 6-0, the board passed Wednesday, which includes a 4.06 percent tax increase and the lay offs of three high school science, Social Studies and English teachers and support staff. The board will vote on the final budget June 13.

Tommy Walters, press secretary of the student coalition, told the board the students were expressing their dissatisfaction that "three of our best teachers were laid off last Friday."

"We firmly believe that this decision will be a detriment to our education and cordially request that you reconsider," Walters read from a prepared statement.

Among the reasons the teachers should be reinstated, he said, were that "they have established themselves as quality educators. These three teachers provide some of the most engaging, thought-provoking and genuinely interesting classwork and discussion of any in our high school.

"Their relatability and personal connection with the students transcends any written curriculum. And the genuine interest and concern they have for their students is something worth celebrating, and not disregarding."

While the students acknowledged the factors that went into the board's decision, including lower enrollment, less state funding and teacher union rules on seniority, Walters said they wanted to know more about the process that went into the administration's decision.

Resident Julie Bolton acknowledged the board's difficult decision to balance the budget, but she found the layoffs "troubling."

"My family very deliberately chose to move into Salisbury Township, which we felt 10 years ago, and still do, to be the premiere district in the Lehigh Valley," Bolton said. She encouraged the board to continue efforts to "ensure a fully rounded educational program."

Resident Rebecca Glenister asked the board if they would consider raising taxes 5.82 percent, the maximum allowed, which would cost an extra $194 to the average resident.

"What programs or personnel would that restore if that were considered?," she asked. "I can understand the reluctance to raise taxes in these economic times, but how else can the district be expected to attempt to maintain anything close to the current programming?"

As she choked back emotion, Social Studies teacher Morgan Flagg, who was among those laid off, told a tearful audience how she was humbled and stunned "by the outpouring of love and support from my Salisbury family."

Flagg-Detweiler read a statement decrying a "flawed system" that failed the students, yet how proud she was of the students' mature response and for standing up for what they believe is right.

"No one on this board is happy about laying off anybody, ever," said board President Russell Giordano.

"What we are sometimes forced to do is not what we would like to do. I want a whole school filled with Morgan Flaggs. Not enough people retire when they're eligible to retire. And when we have declining enrollment, it is the Ms. Flaggs of the world who end up going because of the seniority rules."

Beyond union rules, Giordano gave a brief explanation for the board's difficult decision, citing a confluence of factors, chief among them steep declines in revenue, state reimbursements and enrollment. He cited the crushing cost of having public schools pay for students who attend , which will cost Salisbury more than $500,000 this year.

Giordano urged the students in the audience to write and complain to their legislators.

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"The people who were elected in 2010 in this state, many of them are not friends of public education and they are doing everything they can to make life more difficult for public schools. They like charter schools, they like private schools and they are taking money out of our hands as fast as they can."

 

Find out what's happening in Salisburywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

 


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