Schools

BOE Reorganizes, Emotions Run High Over Staff Reductions

Newly elected board members took the oath of office, a new board president and vice president were elected at Monday's meeting and the board voted to "reduce" or "re-structure" several positions

Peter Suh and Joseph Surace, who were re-elected to the Fort Lee Board of Education last week, and Helen Yoon, who was elected for the first time, took the oath of office at Monday's reorganization meeting, as Arthur Levine was elected the board's new president and Linda McCue was elected vice president.

After the newly constituted board approved resolutions designating official newspapers for notices and legal advertisements, approving the schedule of board meetings for the 2011-2012 school year, naming depositories for board funds, approving and adopting curricula, programs and textbooks for the 2011-2012 school year, approving the bylaws and policies of the board, adopting New Jersey school board member code of ethics and approving petty cash funds, and after pulling from the agenda for further discussion the appointment of an auditor, architect of record and board attorney for the 2011-2012 school year, the reorganization meeting ended without incident.

And then the special public business meeting began, with a large contingent of students, parents and others expressing their concerns over personnel matters on the board's agenda, specifically the "termination due to a reduction in force" of certain school employees.

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Academy of Performing Arts students, for example, turned out in full force to support one of their teachers, while student athletes voiced their concerns over the fate of their coach, another teacher in the district facing termination.

Howard Lipoff, a special education teacher at Fort Lee High School and the treasurer of the Fort Lee Education Association, expressed the association's "deep displeasure with the way teacher terminations were handled at the high school this past week."

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"We were very disappointed because the members of our association--teachers--were given letters while they were teaching classes telling them that they would be terminated," Lipoff said. "That's not the way to handle terminating employees who have worked very hard for years."

Lipoff said the teachers were "startled" that they were going to be let go, and that they should have been informed that their jobs were in jeopardy "before the last moment when they got these announcements late Friday afternoon."

"It's the feeling of our membership that there's been a mistake on many of these people, that they should not be terminated, that they have been excellent employees, who have had a constant impact on the children of this community," Lipoff said. "And losing them would be a disgrace to the Fort Lee Public Schools. Please don't do it."

Several APA students also spoke on behalf of one of their teachers, at one point approaching the microphone en masse in a show of solidarity.

"Essentially, we are not cutting the APA program," Fort Lee Superintendent of Schools Raymond Bandlow told the students. "The teacher who will be teaching it is appropriately certified ... The program itself is not in jeopardy. It is being changed. And it's being changed because it's necessary to consolidate to make sure enrollment is sufficient to serve the needs of all our kids."

Bandlow went on to say "it's never easy" to make reductions in staff, pointing out that the school board in drawing up the budget was to some extent hamstrung by the state mandated two percent tax levy cap at a time when expenses were going up four percent.

"That's very difficult to do," Bandlow said. "In order to do that, we said to everyone we will have to make reductions, including teaching staff reductions. And they need to made in areas that are not required. We worked very hard with the high school administration and where we could find reductions in non-required areas. But you don't want to confuse one teacher with the program, because the program doesn't rely on one teacher. There are others who can teach in the program as well."

After returning from a private session, the board passed resolutions eliminating the positions of six high school faculty members, one part-time Art teacher at School No. 4 and one ESL teacher at School No. 2.

Those “reductions in force” for the 2011-2012 school year are as follows:

  • Sharon Amato, a supervisor of World Languages, BIL and ESL at the high school
  • Claudia Cutler, a high school dance teacher
  • Jeri Ann Elson, a part-time Art teacher at School No. 4
  • Alfred Epstein, a high school Industrial Arts teacher
  • Ana Megaris, a high school Greek teacher
  • Debra Silverstein, an ESL teacher at School No. 2
  • Daniel Ward, a supervisor of English and Social Studies at the high school
  • Justin Williams, an ESL and Social Studies teacher at the high school

The board also eliminated 60 classroom aide positions across all Fort Lee schools in what Bandlow characterized as a “re-structuring.”

Earlier in the meeting Bandlow explained that he and business administrator Cheryl Balleto met with many of the aides on Friday afternoon “to explain to them that we have to reduce our costs in the aide line items.”

For that reason, Bandlow continued, “we are re-structuring our aide services.”

“Some of the positions will continue to be full-time,” he said. “Some will be part-time instead. Some may be eliminated. Some may be consolidated or combined. All that is going to happen within the next six weeks or so, and we’ll be able to give people assignments by the end of June.”


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