Kamenetz tells legislators he will not restore 196 teaching positions
There's a late development in the dispute over cuts to high school teaching positions. Tonight Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz wrote to state legislators saying the county can't come up with the money to fund the nearly 200 positions that have been cut. He blames the county school system, in part, because it appears to have underestimated by $9 million how much it will cost to fund employee health care next school year. And, without going into all of the details of the Thornton funding formula and costs the state is shifting to counties, he says the bottom line is that education funding is not going up enough to offset the cost of an increase of 600 students next fall. I filed a story on line now and in tomorrow's paper that explains the ramifications that are being felt at Lansdowne High School in southwest Baltimore County.
Parents, students and teachers across the county had hoped that Kamenetz would put pressure on the school board and School Superintendent Joe A. Hairston to perhaps cut some adminstrative positions instead of teachers in schools. Behind the scenes, school employees and parents began to think that a bargain could be struck.
They believed that if the new money the legislature had worked to get for education (about $6.8 million for the county) was added to a few million from Kamenetz, the county school system might be able to cut administrators and come up with the remainder needed to keep teachers in schools. Somehow if all the dollars were put together it would be enough - about $15 million in a $1.3 billion budget - to restore the positions. Now it appears Kamenetz won't be giving any more money to the schools.
The focus seems to be shifting back to whether the school board or the county council will decide to make any last minute changes and whether either body will begin to intervene in the process. It seemed clear from Tuesday night's board meeting that school superintendent Joe Hairston doesn't intend to make any changes. Rather, he seemed to justify the cuts.
Kamenetz, in his first year, may be blamed for not working to resolve the issue. Weeks remain before the budget finally is passed and there's still more time for the politicians and the school board to work things out. Principals making crucial decisions about what classes they will be able to hold next year don't have much more time.
One last point about money and spending. At last Tuesday's school boad meeting, the board pulled one contract item that had made it to the agenda off the table for the final vote.
It was a $5 million contract for something called Language!, a series aimed at helping struggling readers, I believe. I asked a board member why the item had been pulled at the last minute and he said the adminstration had made the decision. So, the question is whether the county schools thought that perhaps a $5 million expenditure, one third of what it would take to restore the teachers, would bring criticism in a month when students are protesting and parents are angry.
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Comments
Unbelieveable. What will Kamenetz do in 4 years when he is unemployed?
Posted by: oodood | April 8, 2011 9:31 AM
With leadership like this he will not see another term in BC!
Posted by: Arewedoneyet1 | April 8, 2011 10:28 AM
I don't get it? These positions are guaranteed. I am a teacher, and the people at my school who were "excessed" still are guaranteed a job, just maybe at another school. So why are we acting like the positions are not paid for? They are paid for. All of these people still have jobs.
The problem is that the county has cut teaching positions at almost all schools, so there are no schools that have positions available, so these teachers might as well just stay at their current school, since they are guaranteed their full pay anyway.
Posted by: Mike | April 8, 2011 12:44 PM
Mike,
You're right, no layoffs, but why put everyone through the grief of telling them they are leaving then have no place for them to go. Why should everyone be quiet when Dr. Hairston only cut teaching positions and didn't even touch administrative positions, including the $214,000 wonder deputy. It's not a good way to run a successful school system. I'm hopeful that maybe Kamenetz can't restore all of the positions, but he can restore some.
Posted by: ann | April 8, 2011 2:45 PM
And Kamenetz was backed by Bost and TABCO. Will he be backed by TABCO in four years? How about councilmen and delegates in next year's elections. The classroom is the heart of teaching. Class size DOES make a difference. Tuesday's school board agenda discussed how effective high schools have been in preparing our students/children for college and technical schools. They applauded the diversity of AP courses available for students in high schools. How hypocritical!! Many of the high school teachers excessed are AP teachers. Many high school teachers will move to middle schools to teach the little ones in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade while their specialty is working with higher level courses for students on the path to college and careers. Yes they are certified for secondary math, science, etc., but there is a difference between those who teach middle school and apply the middle school philosophy and those who teach high school. Parents. What do YOU want for YOUR children? These are YOUR schools. Stand up and fight for your child's schools and classroom and the teachers who are in them!!!
Posted by: diane | April 8, 2011 9:44 PM
Yet the Sun does no reporting on the massive cuts in the City. We continue to buy the Alonso lies and give them a free pass. Schools are cutting hundreds of thousands of dollars each.
sad....
Posted by: poof | April 8, 2011 11:34 PM
Check out some of Dr. Joe Hairston's brilliant budget appropriation ideas from the aforementioned last board meeting by following this link:
http://www.bcps.org/board/exhibits/2011/040511ExhibitV.PDF
Kamenetz is lying to all of you when he says that there is not enough money to save some or all of the cut teaching positions. The truth is that Dr. Joe wants to use the money on surrounding himself with more people in the central administration and some more failed education programs and initiatives that will force him to waste more money on PR positions next year to tell all of us that it wasn't his fault.
Kamenetz, stand up for education and the children of Baltimore County, I stress education and children not solely teachers, and call Dr. Joe out! Do the job that you were elected to do!
Posted by: Cj | April 9, 2011 3:16 PM
@ Ann - I agree completely, and I didn't mean to imply I am for th positions being cut. What I am saying is that no one is losing their job, yet positions are being cut at every school, so I am curious as to whether the county has really thought this one out. In the end, these teachers should just stay where they are to keep things simple since apparently no schools have openings.
Posted by: Mike | April 10, 2011 2:13 PM