COAL TOWNSHIP - Twenty-one staff members of Shamokin Area School District lost their jobs Thursday night - 19 of whom were teachers.
The staff furloughs - said to save an estimated $1.3 million - effectively eliminate music, art and physical education as standalone programs on the elementary and middle school levels.
Those subjects must now be included in the core curriculums taught by elementary homeroom teachers and, in the middle school, within the core courses of language arts, math, science and social studies.
The kindergarten program was eliminated and reestablished within 30 minutes when board members moved to shift that program's budget from the district's general fund into a budget for Title 1 federal funding.
The same move was made last year to save the district's K-4 program.
Board members were clearly affected by the harsh rebuke they collectively received from the audience of more than 500 people.
"We don't want to do this. I know most of you people," director Ed Griffiths said with exasperation. "Where do we start?"
Many in the audience shouted the answer, "At the top!", in calling for the district's highest paid employees - the administrators - to lose their jobs.
More cuts ahead
The furloughs came at an emotionally charged school
board meeting held in the middle/high school gymnasium to accommodate the large crowd - a meeting where the audience's energy peaked when student drummers performed for the crowd, turned angry and derisive upon board commentary and decisions, and plummeted when the furloughs were approved.
The gym was used because the auditorium was off-limits - students were practicing to present a musical this weekend, "Beauty and the Beast."
The cast interrupted rehearsal and arrived at the meeting in unison, drawing roaring applause from the crowd.
When the meeting ended and the final decisions made, the cast returned to finish rehearsal.
Shamokin Area began its budget preparations last year facing a $5.6 million deficit. That deficit is now cut by more than half following the furloughs and other cost-saving measures.
The board must still remove more than $2 million from a budget which is due to the state on June 30.
Brian Persing, board director, said the plan is to use $1 million from its reserve funding. The rest of the deficit, however, must come through further cuts.
Opposition
The overwhelming majority of the audience were opposed to the layoffs, specifically that 19 teachers would lose their jobs. They instead favored cuts from the top down, calling for district administrators to lose their jobs first.
Joseph Reed, whose daughter, Joelle, was among the teachers laid off, gave a passionate excoriation of the furlough plan at the outset of the meeting.
He ripped Gov. Tom Corbett for funding cuts, bashed administrators for holding student assemblies to raise funding for the school pool as teachers faced job uncertainty and implored the board to grant the least-experienced teachers a shot at tenure if they were furloughed.
"Where is the assembly to talk about saving the teachers?" He asked.
Two hours later after the cuts were made, he vowed the board would face even harsher criticism than what they faced tonight.
Dan Venn, a longtime teacher and former board member ousted in last November's election, said there were other areas from which the board could cut beside teaching jobs and programs like art and music.
"It's the fun things that keep kids coming to school," he said.
Venn's daughter, Lyndsey, is among the staff furloughed.
Charlie Shuey, board director, criticized Venn for adding to the deficit during his time on the board.
Specifically, Shuey said Venn was on a "lame duck board" when outgoing members approved a lucrative administrative contract last year. That contract granted salary elevations over the next five years for 13 administrative positions.
"Don't come here and act like you did a good job because you didn't," he said.
Venn said the contract extension was necessary under Act 93.
A third-grader, 9-year-old Rosalind Kane, cried after telling board members the positives of art and music in elementary education.
"Without all these classes, school would be no fun," she said as she teared up and got a hug from her mother, Marla.
How they voted
Board dissent almost derailed the furloughs outright.
Eight members in attendance split a vote in half to eliminate enrichment programs from the curriculum. After adjourning for their second private recess of the night, they returned and voted 6-2 to cut the programs.
Directors Griffiths, Bob Getchey, Jeffrey Kashner, Ron McElwee, Brian Persing and Bernie Sosnoskie voted in favor. Shuey and Tracey Witmer were opposed. LaRue Beck was absent.
A vote to specifically furlough the teachers by name passed 7-1, with Shuey again opposed.
Shuey has long called for administrative cuts to be made before teachers are furloughed.
All eight members voted to allow the furloughed teachers without tenure a chance to gain tenure at year's end. Tenure will be granted upon a successful performance review.
Staff cuts
Programs eliminated from kindergarten through sixth grades are music, art and physical education. Those three programs were also eliminated for seventh and eighth grades along with computers, family and consumer science, technical education, foreign language and health.
Nine elementary teacher positions were cut, as were two art teachers, two gym teachers, four music teachers, a library teacher, computer teacher as well as a school counselor and school nurse.
A German teacher and family consumer science teacher will lose 1/4 of their responsibilities.
Those laid off are Janet Robinson, Shawn McGugan, Connie Boyer, Shawn Zalinski, Nancy Shuey, Mary Anne Stump, Krista Breeding, Annamae Kanuchok, Nancy Troxell, Joan Kidron, Rachel Ulsh, Kristy Hoffman, Emily Young, Jennifer Neary, Nina Varney, Lindsey Davies, Lindsay Venn, Joelle Reed, Sarah Krieger, Jessica Wolfgang, Inga Hinterliter and Cara Burns.
Ruby Michetti lost her administrative position as curriculum coordinator and was demoted to become a middle school teacher. If she opposes the move, a legal hearing will be held.
Three bus monitors - Karen Arnold, Judy Simkunas and Wendy Herb - were also let go.
'Now we know'
Sam Scicchitano, president of the district teachers union, expressed disappointment in the board's decision.
He said that beginning today, the union would continue to work with board members to see what can be done to get the teachers back to work and the programs reinstated.
The union and, he believed, the board weren't sure what the outcome of Thursday's meeting would be.
"Now we know and now we have until the budget has to be in to try and work with them and find out what we can do to get these programs back," Scicchitano said.
There has been no discussion of a salary freeze or forgoing of raises for next school year, he said.
Some in the audience shouted down Getchey as he spoke at the meeting's end, suggesting the athletics programs got a pass.
Not so, the school director said.
"Don't worry, athletics will be addressed. You can guarantee that," Getchey said.