The Seymour school board’s decision to lay off 13 employees is stretching the support staff thin and worrying some parents, according to statements made at a school board meeting Monday.
One school district secretary who works in the special education department said she’s drowning in paperwork after the cuts.
The school board, faced with a cut in state funding, voted to eliminate 13 clerical paraprofessional positions in December.
The Valley Indy hosted a live discussion on the move earlier this month.
The video features Seymour First Selectman Kurt Miller and school board chairwoman Jennifer Magri talking extensively about why the layoffs happened.
The video is posted below.
At Monday’s school board meeting, parents said they’re worried about safety, as the laid-off staff previously manned school entrances to greet people coming in. The parents also worried there’s not enough staff to keep an eye on kids during recess at the various schools.
They wondered whether the school board had a clear understanding of the wide-ranging responsibilities that fell on the clerical workers’ shoulders.
“It said there was going to be a plan about how this was going to be absorbed, and none of us have yet to hear a plan about what’s happening,” parent Lindsay Commune-Browning said.
Commune-Browning said school principals are being asked to take on some of the tasks that were previously done by the clerical workers.
“It does need to be said that there were other places that these cuts could have come from,” she said.
Former state legislator and Selectwoman Theresa Conroy took exception with the process. The layoffs took the public by surprise. She said it was “appalling” that the decision was made so quickly.
Members of the public also took exception to the fact the layoffs were announced just before Christmas.
School board member Fred Stanek said the issue should be revisited in two months and that the board should rehire some of the clerical workers, if possible.
That remains a big “if.”
There is a chance Seymour could see some savings when it comes to special education, an often costly part of every school budget.
Special education spending gets very expensive when local schools can’t provide the type of programming needed for some kids.
Some kids with special needs are sent to schools outside of Seymour. Tuition and transportation can get costly. Tuition alone can be upward of $77,000 per student.
Bolstering special education spending could bring some students back and reduce costs, Seymour officials have said, which is why the district wants to hire a new special education teacher next year.
If the savings are concrete, the school board could rethink its decision on the layoffs.
Why Did This Happen?
Seymour school and town officials previously blamed the layoffs on the state’s budget problems.
Seymour was supposed to get $10.1 million from the education cost sharing grant, which comes from the state.
Instead, Seymour received $8.6 million, and officials didn’t know the dollar amount until well into the fiscal year. Click here for a previous Valley Indy story.
The Valley Indy spoke with Seymour Schools Superintendent Michael Wilson after Monday’s meeting.
He said the district faced a serious shortfall in funding and agonized over what to do. Substantial cuts were needed, and the feeling was that eliminating the support staff would have the least impact on classroom learning.
It’s a big adjustment, and school district employees are now doing more work to take up the slack, Wilson said.
It’s only been a few weeks into the new reality, since the layoffs were effective Dec. 31, Wilson pointed out.
“The administrators are having meetings, and then they’ll reassess how things are working. We’re not just ripping the Band-Aid off and walking away,” Wilson said. “The administrators have sat down with people and explained what’s happening, and that we have to do more with less, and this is what we’ll try.”
The assessment meetings will continue, Wilson said.
“Everything is so fresh right now. We’ll take a look going forward, but we haven’t had enough time at this point,” he said. “If we can’t do this, we’ll have to make changes, or we’ll have to come back to the school board and say it is not working. That hasn’t happened yet.”
