The Department of Education could save more money by eliminating top administrators than by cutting teachers and paraprofessionals, St. Croix Federation of Teachers President James Howell said Monday, decrying the recent layoff of 25 teachers and paraprofessionals.
Howell said the top nine Education officials’ combined salaries is $810,000; “over three quarters of a million dollars." By contrast, Howell said, seven St. Croix teachers union members were laid off, whose six teachers’ salaries averaging $35,000 and one paraprofessional’s salary at a lower pay scale. "If the department really wants to save money, the dismissal of seven of my union members doesn’t come close to what they spent on top management."
Seven of the dismissed individuals were members of the St. Croix Federation of Teachers, and several others were members of other unions, he clarified later.
The combined salaries of the seven dismissed St. Croix union members would be between $230,000 and $245,000, going by the salary figures provided by Howell.
Education Department Public Information Officer Ananta Pancham said Monday that 25 Education Department employees were laid off last week, of whom 14 were on St. Croix and 11 on St. Thomas.
If all 25 were paid an average annual salary of $35,000, the total would be $875,000, or slightly higher than Howell’s estimate for the salaries for the top nine Education Department officials. Some of those let go were at lower salaries, however.
The union and the Education Department remain at odds over how the dismissals were done, with Education maintaining everything was done according to established procedures, and in as sensitive a manner as possible, and Howell and teachers saying teachers were called out of class.
"Some teachers were actually pulled from the classroom in front of students and told to come to the office, where they were told to go home," Howell said. "In some cases, they were told to go outside, to hand over their computers and keys, and leave campus."
But Pancham, echoing comments made last week by Education Commissioner LaVerne Terry, reiterated that teachers and others who were dismissed were told of their dismissals privately, with principals and superintendents meeting them in the office.
"The department followed all the policies and procedures laid out by the Division of Personnel," Pancham said. She emphasized the layoffs were solely due to economic reasons and the department "had explored all avenues," for cutting costs before laying off staff.
"It is a bad situation,” she said. “We totally understand that and as Commissioner Terry said, this is solely based on economic need."
Asked whether more layoffs were imminent, she said she had no comment at this time.
These two versions of events do not necessarily contradict one another; however, the department and the union differ on several counts. According to Howell, some teachers had to abandon their classes and not return, while according to Pancham, every dismissed teacher who still had classes that day was given the option of going to their classes.
Howell also said some classes have been left without teachers, with paraprofessionals babysitting the students, but with no one ready to teach from a lesson plan. Pancham disputed this, saying every teacher was replaced by either a teacher or substitute teacher, with some classes that had two teachers overseeing them reduced to one teacher.
"That is not so,” Howell responded. "I can tell you right now there are classes where no teacher is holding them and when someone is holding them, it is a paraprofessional."
Pancham would not comment on how the individuals were selected for dismissal, other than to say the department followed the procedures established by the Division of Personnel.
Howell said the union was concerned the way it was done may have violated contract requirements.
"It wasn’t done by seniority, I can tell you that, and I can’t figure out what the rationale was," Howell said.
Several teachers who did not want to speak on the record said they were given to understand layoffs focused on those without full certification, but Howell also disputed this.
"As to certification, I don’t know that. We are trying to get that from the department but we don’t perceive that to be the fact," he said.
Union contracts for support staff and paraprofessionals call for economic layoffs to affect part time and probationary employees first, then to go in reverse order of seniority. The teachers’ contract says layoffs shall take seniority into account, but does not mandate they occur in that order, saying the needs of the department must also be considered.
The contracts may be viewed at the St. Croix Federation of Teachers website in the related links below.
