The Sarasota County School District’s teacher lay-off policy drew sharp rebukes last week from parents of autistic children at Laurel Nokomis School in Nokomis.
As a result of comments made during the June 2 school board meeting, the board members agreed to study a situation at the school during their August work session.
The district is laying off 120 teachers this year, giving top retention priority to those with seniority and relevant certification as student enrollment and district funds have shrunk. The administration has an understanding with the Sarasota Classified/Teachers Association (SCTA) regarding how the layoffs are being handled.
But the district’s actions have directly impacted the three-year-old autism cluster site at Laurel Nokomis, the only school in the county serving middle school-level autistic children. Fruitville Elementary is the only other school in the county running a similar program; it serves elementary students.
Three of the four autism spectrum disorder teachers at Laurel Nokomis are losing their jobs to senior teachers with ESE (Exceptional Student Education) certification, though these teachers have no experience in teaching autistic children, parents have said.
The only two teachers in the county who already have the endorsements for teaching autistic children made mandatory by 2011 by the Florida Department of Education are also losing their positions. One is being moved out of the autism program; the other is losing her job because she is a junior teacher.
The Laurel Nokomis program has had six teachers in three years, disrupting the lives of the students who specifically need structure and consistency to learn, parents said. The students have made dramatic improvements with the appointment of teacher Jennifer Latta to the program in February, parents told the school board.
"In six weeks she taught my son to read," said Richard Raliowski. His son Rischad is a sixth-grader.
Latta is one of the teachers losing her job.
"Please do not destabilize the lives of our children when some stability has been established at the school. Waive the seniority rule for autism teachers," pleaded David Harvey, whose son also is a sixth-grader in the program.
"This would mean only protecting 20 teachers out of the 2,000 the district employs," Raliowski said.
Tracy Vervane, mother of Emma and Zachary Vervane, said that though her family lives just a couple of miles from Fruitville Elementary on Honore Avenue, a student rezoning has forced them to go to Laurel Nokomis.
"We were told it was best to take our children from Fruitville to Laurel Nokomis," Vervane pointed out. Yet, because of the constant changeover in teachers, she said, Emma, "who was a Student of the Month at Fruitville, has regressed to hurting her peers."
Vervane’s husband, Derek, told the Pelican Press the district is hurting his children instead of helping them.
Superintendent Lori White responded to the parents that the teacher displacement would be unique to the coming school year and that the district would have teachers with autism endorsement in schools in 2010, a year ahead of the DOE requirement.
The administration, White added, would provide teachers financial support to get the new endorsement. "That way we will have a pool of trained teachers who can teach autistic children."
White also pointed out that the picture at Laurel Nokomis for the 2009-2010 school year will become clear only in August, when the school reopens. With vacancies created by teachers retiring or moving away, the surplus staff may be accommodated, she said.
School board Vice Chair Shirley Brown pointed out to the parents that their children would be getting some very senior teachers "who have chosen to be there. Give them some leeway."
However, board member Frank Kovach said he was "angry and disappointed" by the "bumping system." Calling it "poorly designed," he said running a school system on seniority is wrong. "This administration should have the courage to design it in a different way."
Board member Carol Todd agreed with him. As a volunteer at Fruitville Elementary, she said she had seen autistic children make huge gains when they had the same teacher over time.
"It is not in the best interest of these children to have six teachers in three years," she said. "We have to make sure that we are doing the best for our children."
Board member Kathy Kleinlein added, "This is a field where bumping should not be happening."
Chair Caroline Zucker said she had asked White if the board could create a protected class of teachers. "She had asked me, ‘Where do we begin?’" Zucker said.
Pointing out that hiring and firing are the superintendent’s prerogatives, Zucker told the parents the board has no control over the situation.
Kovach pointed out the board’s business is to protect the interests of the students. "We need to keep our best teachers regardless of seniority."
Todd reminded her colleagues that anything they wanted to do "was doable. This is something the board needs to discern."
Ultimately, the board agreed to the detailed discussion in August.
That has not assuaged the parents, however, nor are they convinced that the teachers who have opted to be in classes for autistic students are doing that because they want to.
"They just want to save their jobs, not teach our children," said Raliowski. "If they wanted to teach autistic students, why didn’t they do it two years ago?"
Parents also expressed skepticism about the ESE certification in regard to teaching autistic students.
"ESE is a certification you get online," Derek Vervane said. "It does not give any practical experience about dealing with autism. ... Now it is going to be another year of inconsistency. I am losing the support I should be getting from school.
"If they are not doing something about it right now, I am suing them," he said.
SCTA Executive Director Barry Dubin was unavailable for comment.
June 11th 2009 - 2:52PM