BOWDOINHAM — At the start of Thursday’s School Administrative District 75 board meeting — at which the board unanimously approved a $33.39 million budget incorporating several position cuts — two speakers asked the board to reconsider how it decides which probationary teachers to terminate.
To accommodate declining revenue and enrollment, the draft budget proposes cutting 9.3 teacher positions — with three of those teacher positions at the elementary level.
Leslie Byrne addressed the board during the public comment portion of Thursday’s meeting, speaking as a representative of Williams-Cone Elementary School parents who signed a letter opposing the dismissal of a teacher at the school.
Byrne told the school board she has two children at Williams-Cone and that her family has been very happy with the experience.
“I am continually impressed with the quality of staff that SAD 75 hires and the standard of excellence that we continue to hold true to despite the ongoing financial challenges,” Byrne said. “I understand that the board is looking at eliminating a number of positions. What I do not understand is what process was undertaken to determine both which teachers were to be let go, and from which schools.”
Byrne said she looked at the teachers contract and state law, and learned the teacher contract states “when two or more teachers have the same seniority, the total teaching experience of each teacher will determine the order of the seniority, with the teacher having the longest total teaching experience listed first.” It also states, “If there is a reduction in or an elimination of teaching positions, teachers shall be laid off in the inverse order of teaching seniority,” unless the board determines that person isn’t qualified.
Byrne asked if the same process could be considered for probationary teachers as well, “knowing that the probationary teacher (Amy Finned) who is slated to be let go from Williams-Cone School has 13 years of experience. She came to use just two years ago and she came to us from Oregon. She was teacher of the year and she was teacher of the county. She is very special.”
“I ask that you please relook at the process that was undertaken to decide which of the probationary teachers are to be let go,” Byrne said. “I believe that this is one of those incidents in life that if you are to retrace your steps and please consider the process and standards that have been set in this district, that you may find that Amy Finnen, the teacher at Williams-Cone who is slated to be let go, is not the correct choice.”
Kathleen Murphy, the school-based physical therapists, told the school board she has run inclusionary motor groups in the district for 18 years, “and Amy Finnen, bar none, changed the culture of a school. By her mere presence, coming to that school and jumping in, she embodies, I think, what a good teacher is. … Unfortunately, budget cuts are happening but I think to really look at a process of how have you chosen a probationary teacher when she came in with a lot of other teachers … and what criteria was established, under what guidelines, under what guise, to keep someone.”
Superintendent Brad Smith said he appreciated the concern people have about losing a member of their staff, noting it would be inappropriate for him to discuss personnel issues at a school board meeting.
“Obviously, in our school system, you don’t get hired unless you’re the best of the best,” Smith said, “and so we find ourselves in the very difficult position,” in which due to the declining enrollment at the elementary level, “ we have to reduce the number of teachers.”
But state law is very clear, Smith said, “there is a totally different process for probationary teachers in the first two years than there are for continuing contract status people, and I can assure everyone that we have been very thorough and consistent in making very, very difficult decisions.”
In other business Thursday:
— The school board approved the resignation of physical therapist Kathleen Murphy, effective Aug. 31.
— The school board granted Mt. Ararat High School juniors May 29 as a compensation day for their Saturday, May 5 SAT requirements.
— School board member Linda Hall, who serves on the Policy Committee, reported the committee has come to a consensus that it does not want to pursue weighted grades at the high school level. It will discuss the admission of foreign students to the high school at its April 26 meeting.
— Smith reported searches are under way for an assistant superintendent and athletic director.
dmoore@timesrecord.com
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