Jun 23, 2009 11:38 pm US/Eastern
Broward School Board Approves Teacher Layoffs
Nearly 400 Teachers Pink Slipped
Most Are In Their First Year With The District
Some Could Be Rehired Before The School Year Begins On Aug. 24
FORT LAUDERDALE (CBS4) ―
Citing budget cuts and declining enrollment, the Broward School Board voted unanimously Tuesday to lay off 394 teachers.
"No one wanted to be in a layoff situation," said Schools Superintendent Jim Notter. "The inevitable is here now."
The inevitable means teachers like Gretchen Marfisi are without a job. An award-winning art teacher, Marfisi left Miami-Dade County Schools after 25 years to head the Art Department at the brand new West Broward High School. Since she has no seniority in Broward, she was laid off.
"It's very unnerving," Marfisi told CBS4's Carey Codd. "It's very disturbing. And I'm very worried about the students and their education and the quality of their education."
The School Board said a combination of a bad economy and fewer students in Broward County created a scenario where teacher layoffs were the only alternative. Notter explained the district will also lose millions from its capital budget, meaning there will be no new classrooms, no new school buses and no new technology.
Notter also said the layoffs were inevitability due to budget cuts and declining enrollment in Broward County. The district anticipates 3,200 fewer students for next school year. Notter said declining enrollment alone would have accounted for 145 fewer teachers. He and board members laid the blame at the feet of state legislators and the Governor Charlie Crist.
"We must stand in solidarity and demand that Tallahassee live up to Florida's Constitution, which fundamentally states that it is the state's responsibility to adequately fund public education," Notter said.
Board member Robin Bartleman went a step further, saying that state legislators and Crist should attend the school board meetings to feel the wrath of the public. She also warned parents and teachers to prepare for more budget trauma in 2010.
"This is only gonna get worse for every county in the state," Bartleman said. "The budget is gonna be worse next year. (Legislators) didn't plan. They have no plan. We should be angry."
Teachers, parents and students who attended Tuesday's meeting are angry. Many of the people in attendance represented West Broward High, a school that just opened last year and recruited first year teachers from outside Broward County. Six of those teachers -- including several department heads -- received lay off notices last week.
"We're a family and we're not gonna let these teachers go without a fight," said parent Cheri Markcity. "The whole county is being devastated by this. It's a very sad day for Broward County."
Notter said he hopes to rehire at least a third of the laid off teachers. He anticipates 90 new positions will be created through federal stimulus dollars and other positions will open up by teachers deciding not to return to the district and other teachers failing their certification exam.
But the Broward Teacher's Union said the cuts did not have to happen. Union Vice President Bernie Schultz said teachers provided the district with $100 million dollars in cuts the district could make to save money.
"There's waste in the schools," Schultz said. "There are schools sitting with brand new computers never out of the box because there's no one to train them how to use it."
Notter responded by saying he welcomes any input on ways to trim the budget and save jobs.
For now, saving jobs is the number one goal of the school board.
"None of us on this board has experienced anything like this," said Dr. Bob Parks. "We're gonna work as hard as we can to find positions for those people."
CBS4.COM's John MacLachlan Contributed To This Report
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