Brentwood to layoff 260 teachers?

[PeteT]

What they heck are they thinking?

Brentwood is already only rated a 3 out of 10 starts by GreatSchools.com who list the district at 15,874 students and 17 schools. 62% of the students are eligible for free or reduced price lunch. They spend slightly less than the state average, and 69% is spent on instruction like it should be.... But even though they have higher than average attendance - they still only have a 68% graduation rate....

This is a district that has a good percent of limited english proficiency and needs to be there for their students - as do all on the island. Now do the math - for 15,874 kids and a average class size of 25 (kinda high when you look at the special needs) you need 635 teachers. How the heck can they be expected to drop 260 teachers and still have anyone graduate?

How can our elected officials expect anything to come of Long Island if we have uneducated kids? This is our future folks... Lets stand up for it and our kids!

What do you think?

[earthlee]

Pete this is a scare tactic and you should know about those by now.

Every year the school districts negotiate the teachers salaries in Feb/March.
The contract is signed, sealed and delivered. Then they work on the budget
using those figures. The first thing they threaten you with is all the extras
that will be cut from your childs education. They never think to hit up that
extra slush fund they have hidden that they think no one knows about. They
never think to go down in the basement and look to repair the broken desks
instead of buying new ones, or selling some of the equipment they have stored.

Parents don't want to hear about teachers being laid off because then the sob
stories start about how each class is going to have 32 kids instead of 27. You
don't need a masters degree to take care of 32 kids, and with the salaries they
get paid, along with the perks, learn to take care of them.

Before they lay off teachers, how about laying off the office worker who gets paid
to keep track of the honor roll and type out those certificates. Or kick the illegals
out of the school district and send them back where they came from so they can
speak their own language and we don't have to hire all these ESL teachers and
pay for them with OUR tax money.

They'll probably lay off about 25 teachers when all is said and done, but first they
have to scare the S^*T out of everyone so that they all panic, go crazy, protest and
then they can lay off the teachers who have no tenure and everyone will go "Whew"

Don't get me started on school budgets. Teachers are not on my top priority of
people I like. They can't take a pay freeze for a year? They can't contribute to their
pensions like everyone else does, or their health insurance? How many people DON'T
have health insurance and these people want everything handed to them on a silver
platter...and oh yeah, two months off in the summer. Poor babies.

Something needs to be done about school taxes because if they continue to give
the teachers and the school districts an increase every year, Long Island will have
two classifications of people who live here: The HAVES and the HAVE NOTS. There
will be no middle because no one will be able to afford it. When I see a teacher
all I can think of is "gimmee gimmee gimmee". You don't need a Masters Degree
to teach elementary children, you don't even need a Masters Degree to teach HS
kids. No one who taught me had a masters degree except the principal. I'm no
idiot and back then teachers cared about their students. NOT TODAY. It's all
about the almighty dollar.

Aren't you glad you asked this question and I answered you?

[comet]

Pete this is a scare tactic and you should know about those by now.

Every year the school districts negotiate the teachers salaries in Feb/March.
The contract is signed, sealed and delivered. Then they work on the budget
using those figures. The first thing they threaten you with is all the extras
that will be cut from your childs education. They never think to hit up that
extra slush fund they have hidden that they think no one knows about. They
never think to go down in the basement and look to repair the broken desks
instead of buying new ones, or selling some of the equipment they have stored.

Parents don't want to hear about teachers being laid off because then the sob
stories start about how each class is going to have 32 kids instead of 27. You
don't need a masters degree to take care of 32 kids, and with the salaries they
get paid, along with the perks, learn to take care of them.

Before they lay off teachers, how about laying off the office worker who gets paid
to keep track of the honor roll and type out those certificates. Or kick the illegals
out of the school district and send them back where they came from so they can
speak their own language and we don't have to hire all these ESL teachers and
pay for them with OUR tax money.

They'll probably lay off about 25 teachers when all is said and done, but first they
have to scare the S^*T out of everyone so that they all panic, go crazy, protest and
then they can lay off the teachers who have no tenure and everyone will go "Whew"

Don't get me started on school budgets. Teachers are not on my top priority of
people I like. They can't take a pay freeze for a year? They can't contribute to their
pensions like everyone else does, or their health insurance? How many people DON'T
have health insurance and these people want everything handed to them on a silver
platter...and oh yeah, two months off in the summer. Poor babies.

Something needs to be done about school taxes because if they continue to give
the teachers and the school districts an increase every year, Long Island will have
two classifications of people who live here: The HAVES and the HAVE NOTS. There
will be no middle because no one will be able to afford it. When I see a teacher
all I can think of is "gimmee gimmee gimmee". You don't need a Masters Degree
to teach elementary children, you don't even need a Masters Degree to teach HS
kids. No one who taught me had a masters degree except the principal. I'm no
idiot and back then teachers cared about their students. NOT TODAY. It's all
about the almighty dollar.

Aren't you glad you asked this question and I answered you?

Agree 100%..Pete this time of year every year right before the new budget vote its the same thing.

[Mikeysmom]

Pete this is a scare tactic and you should know about those by now.

Every year the school districts negotiate the teachers salaries in Feb/March.
The contract is signed, sealed and delivered. Then they work on the budget
using those figures. The first thing they threaten you with is all the extras
that will be cut from your childs education. They never think to hit up that
extra slush fund they have hidden that they think no one knows about. They
never think to go down in the basement and look to repair the broken desks
instead of buying new ones, or selling some of the equipment they have stored.

Parents don't want to hear about teachers being laid off because then the sob
stories start about how each class is going to have 32 kids instead of 27. You
don't need a masters degree to take care of 32 kids, and with the salaries they
get paid, along with the perks, learn to take care of them.

Before they lay off teachers, how about laying off the office worker who gets paid
to keep track of the honor roll and type out those certificates. Or kick the illegals
out of the school district and send them back where they came from so they can
speak their own language and we don't have to hire all these ESL teachers and
pay for them with OUR tax money.

They'll probably lay off about 25 teachers when all is said and done, but first they
have to scare the S^*T out of everyone so that they all panic, go crazy, protest and
then they can lay off the teachers who have no tenure and everyone will go "Whew"

Don't get me started on school budgets. Teachers are not on my top priority of
people I like. They can't take a pay freeze for a year? They can't contribute to their
pensions like everyone else does, or their health insurance? How many people DON'T
have health insurance and these people want everything handed to them on a silver
platter...and oh yeah, two months off in the summer. Poor babies.

Something needs to be done about school taxes because if they continue to give
the teachers and the school districts an increase every year, Long Island will have
two classifications of people who live here: The HAVES and the HAVE NOTS. There
will be no middle because no one will be able to afford it. When I see a teacher
all I can think of is "gimmee gimmee gimmee". You don't need a Masters Degree
to teach elementary children, you don't even need a Masters Degree to teach HS
kids. No one who taught me had a masters degree except the principal. I'm no
idiot and back then teachers cared about their students. NOT TODAY. It's all
about the almighty dollar.

Aren't you glad you asked this question and I answered you?

Agree 100%..Pete this time of year every year right before the new budget vote its the same thing.

and I agree 1000% same story, different year

[PeteT]

I don't know guys... The state has never been so hard on local governments. They really are forcing peoples hands to cut back. Understood that schools have reserves just for this purpose - but still they cant last forever, but the mandates do.

[earthlee]

Time for school districts to start cutting salaries if they want to
keep teaching staff.

Northport-East Northport Superintendent salary:
$233,000 year
$31,599 benefits
$18,400 listed as other compensation

He turned down a raise for a second year....well I should think so.

Maybe they should weed out the six or seven assistant principals
that they don't need in the High Schools, the two assistant principals
in elementary schools.

This is Longwoods Administration:
Allan Gerstenlauer, Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools--345-2172
Michael R. Lonergan, DSW
Deputy Superintendent of Schools--345-5896
Debra Winter
Assistant Superintendent for Student & Community Services--345-2793
Janet M. Bryan
Assistant Superintendent for District Operations--345-2782
Phyllis E. Sterne
Assistant Superintendent for Instruction and Learning - 345-2791
Susan Connolly
Director of Elementary Education - 345-2800
Gina Curiale
Director of Physical Education & Health - 345-9260
Tina Dillon
Director of Special Education - 345-2173
John J. Gallagher, Ed.D.
Director of Fine Arts 345-2150
Steve Harding
Assistant Director of Plant Facilities - 345-2772
Maureen Beatrice - Homeless Liaison
(Liaison to Students in Tradition Housing and Unaccompanied Youth)
345-2823
Nancy Kavanaugh
Business Manager - 345-2783
Bonnie Massetti
Purchasing Agent - 345-2796
Jennifer McCarthy
Coordinator of Secondary Special Education - 345-2177
Kevin McCarthy
Director of Athletics and Pupil Services - 345-9260
Julie Mulcahy
Coordinator of Pre-School and Elementary Special Education - 345-2177
Thomas Murphy
School Lunch Manager - 345-2805
William Neater
Director of Plant Facilities - 345-2772
James Perrotta
Director of School Safety - 345-6500
Ellen Pitrelli, Ed.D.
Director of Technology - 345-2900
Tracy C. Poulton, Ph.D.
Director of Secondary Education - 345-9282
Mary Richardson
Director of Compensatory Education - 345-2773
Myra Vaughn
Director of Public Relations- 345-2949
Gale Winsper
Transportation Coordinator - 345-2775

Are you kidding me? I have no sympathy. Only for myself who has to
pay the school taxes because I live in this school district. Sorry Pete.
They have to start digging in their pockets and find ways to cut expenses
and one of the first digs should be salaries.

[PeteT]

I never said anything about administrators... I said TEACHERS.

Personally, I think they need to consolidate districts. I say that the biggest hit is the superintendents themselves, and their support team of both employees and consulting resources. Why should a school district need to hire all these lawyers? Why the heck cant they use HR, finance and legal as services shared through Boces?

And why the heck does a Director of Technology have a Ed PhD? Why not an Computer Sci or Business degree like in the real world? And YEAH - I work with school districts around the country every day.

[earthlee]

I know you didn't say anything about admin. I did.
I said if they want to continue with the teaching staff they
need to cut elsewhere and one of those cuts should be the
high salaries and staff that are part of Administration.

Why do they have those degrees? Because it was negotiated
into their teaching contract and when they got the degree
the got big $$$$.

[fin]

Pass "Fin's Law". You mandate, you pay.

[earthlee]

I just received this in my email this morning. I belong to this group
who can get you any info you want (salaries, tenure, etc.)

The State Senate just passed School Contingency Budget Bill, S5523. The Bill increases property taxes by 4 to 10% forever and renders school budget votes meaningless. Senator John Flanagan opposed bringing the bill out of committee and did not vote for the bill.

In response to the New York State Senate bill which will increase school budget contingency caps from a negative of -0.4%a to a positive of 3.7%, LIFER calls for a campaign boycott of All NYS Senators who voted for the bill. Their vote is disgraceful. Senate disregard for those in financial stress and the unemployed is beyond arrogances and indifference. It’s Let them eat cake!

[bunny_girl]

Here are the specs for the school district I pay taxes in - the thing that caught my eye is the average class size is 15.

http://www.longislandschools.com/distri ... trict.html

[PeteT]

15 is way too small. But then again stats are dangerous.

Here's my district:

http://www.longislandschools.com/distri ... trict.html

But another good source of info on schools is GreatSchools.com

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