Levittown Issues Layoff Notices To 108 School Teachers In District

May 24, 2011 11:30 PM

(credit: CBS 2)

Filed under

Local, News, NY News, Seen On CBS 2HD, Watch + Listen

LEVITTOWN, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) — It is a distinction that no parent wants for their child’s school district — having the most teacher layoffs in the area. However, that is exactly where one Long Island community is headed.

More than 100 teachers could be losing their jobs in Levittown. The school district’s superintendent, Herman Sirois, said layoff notices have been sent to 108 teachers.

“I have a gifted child who’s in the enrichment program and what I’ve understood is that program is now gone for September,” Patricia Kilian told CBS 2′s Kristin Thorne.

The district contends that there wouldn’t be as many layoffs if the teachers’ union would agree to more salary freezes. However, the union said it has already made enough concessions.

Sirois said it was unlikely that all 108 teachers would be laid off. He said the school board was still reviewing the layoff list and hoped union concessions would come through.

“The teachers are all trying to be there for each other and be there for the students,” teacher Sean Breves said.

Sirois said the district was receiving about $4 million less from the state next year. He didn’t want to speak on camera, but said: “We have to make these cuts or we can’t open our doors. We’re at the mercy of the state politicians. We have no choice.”

Just last week parents approved a school budget that increased class sizes and reduced staff. Many of them said they didn’t think things were going to be this bad.

Sirois said the final number of layoffs will be known by the end of next month.

Please offer your thoughts in the comments section below.

Levittown Issues Layoff Notices To 108 School Teachers In District

DrJoe

Consider this: according to the NYS Dept of Education, a teacher is required to teach approximately 180-days/year.

If you are a project manager, you know that the number of “working days” in a year is approximately 262 days, give or take, depending on how holidays fall.

So, for the sake of argument, let’s go with 260, and assume that a person works a normal 8-hours job, 5-days a week. Let’s be generous and give him 3-weeks vacation, which is 15-days. That means that this person will be working 245 days this year.

So, according to Newsday, the average salary of teachers is around $100K/yr, (and I’m not even considering adminstrators) and in just working days alone, they are working about 25-30% less, not adjusting for the number of actual hours spent not teaching. Unless I’m mistaken, this is quite a good scam (er, deal) and every voter falls for it every year.

Perhaps money would be more wisely spent if the voters in districts demanded an independent audit of the books and see exactly where all the money is going. After all, they caught a few districts already and I’m sure there are more to be found, and probably money to be found as well.

Shawn

Though your math is correct, your missing some amazingly glaring problems with your argument. One, you’re talking about an independent audit? Do you know how much that costs? Two, most teachers don’t just take off during the Summer as many people suspect. A lot of that time is spent making plans for the following year and taking workshops to improve the style of teaching and making better teachers.

Now do all teachers do this, No! However, I am sick of people over generalizing teachers as a whole, rather than scrutinize minority of teachers who don’t belong there. This gets back to awarding teachers based on merit.

You want better schools, books, and teachers! Get the community involved and make sure you are electing responsible administrators to your boards. Obviously the people in Littleton were manipulated by their board to make a vote.

Stacey

The amount of ignorance on this board is appalling. I am not a teacher, but my daughter is a kindergartner. While my husband and I work full time, our daughter is learning to read and write, do math, tell time, American history, culture and science. She is learning to work as a team and independently. She is learning to express herself in an organized fashion. These are all skills necessary to be a successful human being. The amount of work that goes into my daughter’s education is staggering, considering the amount of students in a class and their ages. Doesn’t anyone here have a small child and recognize the value of these skills? This misdirected anger and ignorance is a toxic bane on our society, especially a first world society built on knowledge. Shame on you for being ignorant about education.
TheTruth

Look at it this way, they go and lay off all these teachers yet no administrative positions are being cut? I would like to think that teachers would be the last resort as education for our children should be the top priority. What good is keeping a secretary or higher level position if there are no teachers left to teach?

Start from the top down, go through the entire admin staff currently employed by school boards state wide and trim those positions first, then if necessary cut teachers. If you think about cutting teachers first makes no sense.
Rynstone

Mike,

If your wife and two daughters are teachers I suggest they school you in proper grammar and spelling.
And what’s up with all the upper case letters?
Ride this Train

I remember a neighbor who will remain nameless Bragging about being the Highest paid conductor retiree on the LIRR around 1983 because he was able to BUMP anyone for the overtime RUN because of his seniority I guess that still exists Hin his name was MattY D
Charles

It is true, the MTA is a cauldron of waste and mismanagement. The inspector general should be looking into all the fraudulent overtime paid to MTA workers. Some track workers clock in and “disappear” into the labyrinth of tunnels or wind up at home calling up co-workers to clock them out (I hear of this constantly from those who do this and I play sports with).
Sadly these people don’t come anywhere close to the education that our educators attain in order to teach our children, yet educators are constantly singled out for salary reductions and layoffs
phila

Teachers , is this the union you want to belong to that is willing to have 108 members lose their jobs instead of making concessions so all the members can stay employed?
Aggie

Why doesnt anyone see that the schools problems lie in illegal housing! We have slumlords that divide single family houses into 4-5 family housing.The landlord pays taxes for one family and 3-4 other families go on the backs of legal 1 family taxpayers.Wake up LI.Oh by the way this also puts our firemen and police in extra danger when they have run into these fire hazards to save lives.

Jack

The teachers and unions are complicit in this as well.
The more students(legal or illegal) the more teachers needed and more dues, more power.
You are absolutely correct.

same old same old

People people you are directing your frustration in the wrong direction; teachers have more education than most and have a modest salary. Problem is not their salaries its the pensions and benefits districts are forced to contribute to. They are no different than any NYS employee with great benefits.. this is what the unions don’t want to give up. And why are there hundreds of districts on LI and not 2? Nassau SD and Suffolk SD? That would be too logical to save $$.

Dottie

Modest salary, are you kidding me? The salaries are high by most standards and extremely high for part time work, they work less than 8 months a year and certainly a lot less hours per week than the rest of us who are trying to make ends meet, better benefits and pensions too.

Their outrageous salaries and demands are pushing senior citizens off of Long Island. They won’t help each other and we’re supposed to feel sorry for them.

Jack

Teachers are in their own world. They are oblivious to the fact the the average taxpayer has none of the benefits and much lower salaries. No tenure, no lifetime healthcare or pension, summers off, spring break, winter break, christmas break, and can’t retire as early as they. No automatic pay raises either.
Many times there are multiple family members teachers and socialize mosrtly with teachers.
There is a real world out there not enjoying these perks.
How appropo they point to wall streeters as having it better.

Mark

You have been FOOLED for many years. The teachers Unions are the problem. Even if teachers take a salary freeze, there are NUMEROUS other “union package” benefits that just makes you keep paying higher school taxes. I am a former school board member for a very successful north shore school district. LI Teachers are not only the highest paid teachers in the country, but YOU the taxpayer have to pay for their contionuing education (in service training they call it) so after the teacher completes the in-service training, they move up on the pay scale and make even more money. School Boards are absolutely afraid of the the teachers unions – why? because when the teachers unions don’t get their way, they pull a Saul Alinsky – a liberal tactic by recruiting your KIDS, while in class, to tell them how BAD the teachers are abused, that the administration won’t allow certain books, or authorize certain field trips, or want to take money away from them. Then little Johnny runs hiomw, tells his mother, and the mother is on the phone to the Super complaining. This happens in every school district. I remember when I was in Middle School and High School, I NEVER heard a gripe out of teachers. Today, its the new way. Enlist the kids to do their dirt work – and don’t you believe for a second the don’t. So the parents, beacsue their kids are in school, will pay just about anything to get a LI education, put pressure on the district, then everybody makes nice, and spends your money but still no tissues in the classroom. Lifetime health benefits, in service training, extra cirriculuum stpiends, THERE IS NO ACCOUNTABILITYU at ANY LI School for your money, because to them its free.

Mike

THIS IS TO ALL THE STUPID REMARKS THAT YOU HAVE ALL POSTED. MY WIFE AND 2 GROWN CHILDREN ARE TEACHERS HERE ON LONG ISLAND AND THE ONE THING THAT THEY WOULD LOVE TO HAPPEN IS TAKE THERE PAY AWAY FROM THEM,,, YES THATS RIGHT, THEY WANT TO GET PAID WHAT YOU AND I PAY FOR A BABY SITTER. 10-15.00 DOLLARS AN HOUR. TIMES THAT BY EACH CHILD THAT IS IN HIS OR HER CLASSROOM. AND THEN THEY WILL BABY SIT THE CHILDREN AND NOT TEACH THEM ANYTHING. THIS WAY THE TEACHER DOES NOT HAVE TO CONTINUE THERE WORK AT HOME GRADING TEST, PREPING WORK, GOING TO STORES TO BUY SUPPLIES, ETC… ** I REST MY CASE**

PETER

you are absolutely right. since the classroom is so miserable for them, they should take their health & dental insurance, step increases, free in-service training, 5-1/2 weeks paid holidays & breaks, 9 weeks summer vacation, humongous pension and get a job at the local daycare. (the principal in my elementary school gets $8,900 A MONTH pension WITH subsidized health insurance benefits. teachers’ pensions average around $65,000 AND THEY ONLY PAY 10 YEARS INTO THEIR PENSION. THE STATE HAS BEEN PICKING UP THE TAB FOR THE REST OF THEIR EMPLOYMENT YEARS. ONLY TIER 5 WHICH STARTED RECENTLY THAT EMPLOYEES PAY FOR LIFE LIKE THE REST OF THE WORLD) I admit the frist few years are difficult b/c it’s a learning process. but after that, all they do is xerox ditto sheets and recycle the same curriculum. out of a 8-period school day, teachers teach 5 PERIODS. they get a period off for lunch, a period for productivity (to make up lesson plans), and a period for hall duty, which they sit and read or grade tests. THEY ARE ONLY ACTIVELY TEACHING 63% OF THE DAY.
THEY SHOULD TRY THE PRIVATE SECTOR WHERE YOU HAVE TO ACTUALLY PERFORM WELL TO KEEP YOUR JOBS. THEY DO NOT HAVE THE ‘SLOMIN SHIELD’. IN SCHOOLS, U GET A RAISE NO MATTER WHAT. THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO INCENTIVE FOR TEACHERS TO DO WELL! WHY SHOULD THEY REVAMP THE CURRICULM WHEN YOU GET THE SAME DAMN COST OF LIVING RAISE AND THEIR STEP RAISE?! IT’S USUALLY 2-3% FOR COST OF LIVING AND ANOTHER 2-3% FOR STEP. WHO THE HECK ARE GETTING RAISES NOWADAYS!?!
if only you could hear and see what goes on in a school everyday. i know b/c i work in one. THEY SHOULD FIRE THEM ALL AND START OVER WITH NEW AND HUNGRY TEACHERS….NOT KEEP THE OVERPAID SICK-OF-TEACHING TEACHERS

Sell out Your Own

The Union is a brotherhood but hey will feed their brothers to the sharks rather then give up something to save their brothers. They have drawn a line in the sand and caused the whole problem. Unions in have caused our school taxes to rise and have really not given the taxpayer anymore then if they were non Union.
Harold

The teachers and their unions brought this upon themself. A lesson well learned for other school districts….. The taxpaying public has had enough is enough!!!

same old same old

If the public has had enough why do 95% of the budgets pass every year?

Rynstone

Patricia Kilian, you are quoted in the article as having a gifted child whose special enrichment program will be ending. Why should other tax payers be paying for a special program for your child? If your child has special gifts you should be responsible for additional costs for special programs.
Our schools should provide the basics of education.
We have gotten away from reading, writing and math to teach things like diversity and other special programs.

This is not an argument about wether or not our teachers are worth what they are being paid.
We are simply at a point where we can no longer afford the costs of our eduction. It has everything to do with oversized swimming pools, rubberized tracks, new football stadium, special programs and generous wages and benefits for school teachers, school administrators etc. There is no one single item that is responsible. It is the culmination of many issues.
My small local school had a budget increase this year of 12.6%.

My personal income has shrunk by over 60% since 2008. I can’t raise taxes to make up the difference. If we are going to fix New York State we all need to share in the pain. Will we do it? Probably not.
The sooner NY fails and goes bankrupt the sooner we can get to work fixing the state.
politician h8r

we keep cutting funds from education but yet we have money to send to other countries that don’t even like us…anyone see something wrong here? How about we take those billions and put ittowards education and services for our veterans!!!!
Aidan

“The district contends that there wouldn’t be as many layoffs if the teachers’ union would agree to more salary freezes. However, the union said it has already made enough concessions.”

fine. fire ‘em all.

taxpayer

Fire em all and take away their Health Insurance and send packing to another state they (the UNION) have raped us enough

Chris

Good idea. Lets end all unions. Lets revert back to a non union society. Who needs workers rights. Who needs protection from unscrupulous employers. Hell, who needs education at all? Lets put the kids to work. Most of our kids don’t deserve an education any way. Lets put them to work repairing the bridges and cleaning the highways and replacing our crumbling infrastructure for 3 bucks an hour.

peter

It is unconscionable for the teachers to vote down a salary freeze and keep the 108. How is a a teachers’ UNION when all is safe except 108?! What happened to ALL FOR ONE AND ONE FOR ALL??

Teachers all need to come down off their pedestals. They should only deserve a raise if they would transfer to a poor school district overrun with kids unable or unwilling to learn, work their magic and get all the kids to perform just as well as their present students. Guess what? They can’t!! They are NOT magicians! Teachers should NOT hog up all the credit to themselves. Share some with motivated students and proactive parents. Maybe then they will realize they do NOT deserve a raise.

After all the holiday breaks, winter and summer recess, snow days, and summers off, they ONLY WORK 8-1/2 MONTHS. That’s 14-1/2 weeks off!! The rest of us only get 2 weeks off. And THEY need a raise?!

In case the teachers do not know, the rest of the U.S. is on a salary freeze!

They should at least REFUND THE 108 ALL THE UNION DUES THAT THEY HAVE PAID!!

NG

We are financial mess due to the greed on Wall Street, not due to the “greed” of teachers. So if we share the credit with the motivated students and proactive parents can they then blame the lazy student and disconnected parents? Wake up, the rest of the US is not on a salary freeze. Have you been keeping up on the latest bonuses paid on Wall Street? I am from a family of hard working dedicated teachers, and I do not know how they get by day to day with the problems facing America’s children at home which spill over into the classroom. Before you criticize walk a mile in their shoes and spend ten months a year in a classroom.
Chris

Your ignorance is astounding.

TheConservativeDiva

NObama 2012!!!

dennis

All the states are broke because of the financial melt down caused by the housing bubble caused by unscrupulous & greedy Wall Streeters given a free pass by negligent government regulators and regulations written by “mostly” Republican legislators looking for donations to their political campaigns.

GetUrFactsStraight

Actually, you’re wrong. Organizations like ACORN and other similar groups FORCED banks to provide loans to undeserving, unqualified and deadbeat applicants because they’re black. Banks were sued by minority groups because their people weren’t getting loans. Those loans defaulted in massive numbers, but the banks did try to cover up the low credit ratings of each mortgage and try to bundle them as AA loans. Everyone is trying to pass the buck that Obama’s cronies forced on this nation. The banks are just as much the victim as we are. No more loans for unqualified UNDESERVING deadbeat minorities!!!!
Scream Rape

mortages are High because taxes are high because Teahers are allowed to RAPE us without going to jail because they have a contract that says so.
Dottie

Dennis,

You need to go back to school to re-learn history but the liberal teachers probably wouldn’t tell you anyway.

The housing crisis was started by Bill Clinton and others like him who thought everyone should own a house whether they could afford it or not. Most couldn’t and look where that has gotten us.

Jennifer G

I am a teacher on long island and I would invite any of you who comment that teachers are all overpaid to spend just one day in my kindergarten classroom!!!!!

sam

oh Jennifer G it must be hard getting the kids to put all the crayons back in the box

John

In kindergarten I was already learning basic math and reading skills Sam, not playing with crayons . Maybe your kids are “special.”

Aidan

please …. it’s job … like everyone else has
Taxpayer

thats what your getting overpaid for dont complain
VicD

King/Queen of the kids..
Try butting heads with adults every day to get your check.
Enjoy unemployment..
GetUrFactsStraight

Kindergarten? That’s not even a real class. If you can’t handle the kiddies, you’re clearly a failure as a teacher. And what do you teach? Ass wiping 101? Sandbox etiquete? Pathetic.

John

She teaches your kids all the things that you are unable to teach them. Like how to function as a normal human being.
Shannon

you are so offensive and moronic, it surprises me that you could even concoct an actual sentence.

PAAUULL

yes…. the MTA and state governments are corrupt.. thats what happens when you vote for bigger and bigger govt. but the teachers union is just as corrupt. they are playing tug of war trying to pull the taxpayers wallets in three different directions…
Barukh Rohde

Well what do you expect? The state is broke, and they shouldn’t be giving money to the MTA any more than they should be paying for local governments to run their school districts, any more than they should be paying so much in the way of unemployment benefits, any more than they should be cutting taxes. They shouldn’t do any of these. Maybe if they didn’t, we’d actually have a budget surplus for once!

Krypton Falls

Maybe they should make a career change. Astronauts’ salaries at NASA range from $64K to $141K. Currently a GS-11 starts at $64,724 per year and a GS-14 can earn up to $141,715 per year. Remember, the Andromeda Galaxy is heading towards us at 300,000 mph, while our Milky Way Galaxy is hurling through Space at 600,000 mph. The distance between both galaxies is closing by almost 24 million miles per day. Scientists predict we will either be sideswiped by the Andromeda, or headed for a merger. We will have to replicate Earth on the Moon and on Mars as proposed in atmospheres.5u dot com.

salvo

In japan, teachers are called nation builders…..the good teachers are well resepected. Without a good education, our country will go down the tubes as it has already started.

Wet Willy

The reason teachers in other countries are held in the same regard as doctors, lawyers, scientists, and other educated professionals is because they only accept the best into their teaching programs. In the U.S. any fool can become a teacher. We need to raise the standards in our colleges and universities, allowing only the best and brightest. We do that with lawyers and doctors, why not teachers? It’s a shame. Teachers are a very well educated group of professionals, however, it takes more than education to become an outstanding teacher.

cat

It doesn’t matter if you put Einstein in the front of the classroom if the kids don’t care or there is no money to pay the talented teachers.

salvo

where in the hell is the lottery money going!!!! To many loose pockets and open hands in politics.
Fire them all

Its not about school aid its about overpaid teachers, Supers making over 250 k a year, Gym teachers with tenure going over 150k it goes on and on. They gave up enough GOOD give up more and stop raping the tax payers we have had enough

steve jones

“Fire them all,” I’m curious what you do for a living. I wonder if your business can keep you on thanks to generous tax breaks. Hmmm, do you do work, or sit on Facebook all day? How much do you make, and are YOU worth it? Perhaps you are the problem. I suggest an independent evaluator to decide if you are wothwhile since some sort of tax break/subsidy probably helps you keep your job. The catch — the evaluator must have no idea about your job and create a random set of measures. Perhaps a little more thought into your commentary, eh?

fire them all

Not about me BUT 250 K for an administrator of a district that dosent have a High School and Gym Teacher making 150k that if he wasnt a teacher would be working at Gold Gym. As for me i’m a retired Police Captain and to get there i had to pass tests and not live on tenure. and about know I’m going fishing

Woof

Why not get rid of the Dog catcher in the town of Hempstead
karlson

It’s really criminal for NY State to cut off school aid. Why is there money for the MTA which is a sewer of corruption, endless fare increases, cutbacks in service, terrible service and no-show jobs. The MTA with it’s 2 sets of books is the ultimate flim-flam organization based upon greed and has just about everything wrong with it that you can think of.

The teachers live locally by and large and have families and mortgages and car loans. How this will affect Long Island remains to be seen but anyone young enough to consider a career in education in NY will take notice that there is no future in it as a career when the state can hold back financial aid to school districts.

So now the mentality of NY State is to shift the money from school districts to unemployment – what a bunch of dopes! Because that’s where all the affected teachers will end up – on the unemployment line.