FeedsDozens of teachers receive pink slips
“This is not an easy action to take,” said Judy Mardigian, president of the Plymouth-Canton Community Schools Board of Education.
Board members approved a resolution on Tuesday that ordered school administrators to inform four dozen teachers they may not be asked to come back in the fall.
As part of an effort to eliminate more than $3 million from the projected 2008-09 budget, 48 teachers were issued pink slips, or layoff notices notifying them of their termination effective at the end of the 2007-08 school year.
Mardigian said the move is necessary as school funding from the state continues to dwindle while health care, insurance and utility costs continue to rise. In order to submit a budget without dwindling cash reserves, the district must cut down what it can, she added.
“This is not an easy thing to do. We pray that the state will come through with some more funding,” Mardigian said.
Interim School Superintendent Ken Jacobs said the layoff notification is a process mandated by the state to give teachers at least 90 days notice of their release. Jacobs said the district has been able to call back many of the teachers in the past and expects to do the same as more teachers announce retirements, transfers and leaves of absences.
While school board members and representatives from the Plymouth-Canton Education Association (PCEA) expect to recall a portion of the laid off teachers back to the district, Lisa Wysocki, who has been laid off and recalled each of the last three years, said the maneuver forces teachers to perform “with the umbrella of uncertainty over our heads.”
“It deeply impacts the morale of the staff,” Wysocki told the board, referring to teachers who must finish out the school year and go into the summer not knowing if they will be called back. “We are real people and we love what we do…it’s a horrible feeling.”
Chuck Portelli, the president of the PCEA who has been a part of the school district since 1976, said it is time to draw a line in the sand with cuts before they start to impact the quality of education within the district.
“These 48 teachers have given everything they can,” said Portelli, who added that many of them could find themselves in the same position next year.
“We’ll be looking at reductions (next year),” Portelli said. “My question is: When do we stop?”
School board Trustee Nancy Eggenberger called on parents, community members and school officials to urge Lansing to increase funding for the school district. The Plymouth-Canton schools receive about $7,100 per pupil, which is less than the allotment for Northville, Wayne-Westland and Livonia students, even though Plymouth-Canton is the fourth largest school district in the state with 19,000 students.
“I still hate the fact we have to make these cuts,” she said. “Our district makes a lot less money than the ones around us.”
