Story Photos
 Photo by Roger Werth For a water Olympics activity Wednesday, Longview School District teachers' aides Meg Hubbard and Terry Tinker help special education student Ashley Bennik, 15, out of the Mark Morris High School pool. Teacher Gerri Schooling, in the background, says repeating the same activity will be difficult with less help from teachers' aides next school year. |
District to cut 42 aides
Thursday, June 10, 2004 7:31 AM PDT
By Hope Anderson
Printable version
E-mail this articleAt-risk students and kids needing extra attention in Longview classrooms will lose the help of 42 teachers' aides next school year.
"I don't have an issue with the district, I don't have an issue with the union, but I do have an issue with what's going to happen to the kids," said Susan Laughlin, a special education teacher's aide at Mark Morris High School, who will lose her job at the end of June.
At the end of the month, the Longview School District is laying off 42 of its 208 para-educators, or teachers' aides, and decreasing the hours of those remaining.
The district, which recently passed a two-year $2.6 million maintenance and operation levy, blames inadequate state funding and federal requirements of the No Child Left Behind law for the layoffs (see box).
The cuts -- which affect special education, learning assistance and Title 1 programs -- are "independent of local levy dollars," school officials said.
"To us, this feels like No Child Left Behind mandates are affecting jobs. We have a budget, we have to meet that budget and provide the best services we can within that budget," said John Vencill, the district's human resources director.
School officials call the layoffs, which are based on seniority, a "worst-case scenario." The final number and the impact of the layoffs remain to be seen, but officials said that students will receive the same caliber of education.
"Our goal, when all the dust settles, is we're going to put qualified teachers teaching kids," Vencill said.
The district also hopes to rehire some of the aides, such as ones who have specialties -- a piano accompanist or a Braillist -- that the district must have on staff. But the district will have to shuffle the remaining aides to fill empty positions, and teachers will have to pick up extra duties in the classroom.
"We all recognize that this is very difficult. What we're trying to do is make sense of a very complex requirement while we're dealing with the human aspect of it," said Ann Cavanaugh, the executive director of student learning and support. "It's frustrating, and it's hard."
The majority of the present 208 aides work with special education students or students who are below grade level. Laughlin, for example, coaches special education students to learn everyday tasks.
She helps her students stock the student store and find real-life work sites in the community. She said she "fights fires" and "runs a lot of tread off the shoes."
Teachers' aides currently spend 650 hours with special education students a day. That will be cut by 135 hours -- or by 20 percent, said Ron Yauchzee, the district's special education director.
Gerri Schooling, an R.A. Long special education teacher, said "it's affecting everybody."
"When someone comes into my room, they can't tell who the teacher is," she said. "I value (aides) so much because they put up with so much, they're my eyes. I can't be everywhere."
The adjustment will be difficult, but "you got to do what you have to do," she said.
Building principals will have to concoct ways to continue meeting students' needs with a smaller staff, Vencill said.
"I believe we are taking the care and attention needed to identify the needs of the students ... and still meeting our budget and providing the best possible education scenario for the kids," he said.
Federal, state rules work against school district
Longview School District officials say several aspects of the federal No Child Left Behind law and state mandates are driving the decision to lay off 42 teachers' aides at the end of June. They include:
• The district must set aside transportation money in case a school doesn't meet math and reading test standards for two years in a row. The funds would pay for transporting students to a different school, if the parents opt for that choice. School officials fear that St. Helens Elementary, which failed to meet reading standards last year, may repeat again this year. In preparation, the district must accumulate a nest egg of $340,000 over the next two years.
• The state caps special education funding at 13 percent of the district's student population. In Longview, special education students account for 14 percent, and the district must make up the shortfall. That amount is roughly $500,000.
• The state requires the district to maintain the same level of funding for special education from year to year, which means if the district pays more next year, it must continue supplying that same amount, regardless of fluctuating needs.
• Schools receive Title 1 funding -- which pays for additional assistance programs -- on the basis of student poverty levels. Some schools in the Longview district, such as Northlake Elementary, receive less money because fewer students come from poor families.
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