After several years of budget cuts, retirement incentives and layoffs, the V.I. public schools have an array of important positions empty – from nurses to instructors specializing as English as a second language, Department of Education officials and school administrators told the V.I. Legislature on Monday.
The Education Department has seen its local funding reduced by $48.1 million since 2005, Assistant Commissioner Donna Frett-Gregory testified to the Committee on Education and Workforce Development, chaired by Sen. Donald Cole.
English as a second language instruction has been especially hard hit, with the department losing instructors to retirement, Frett-Gregory said, just as the school system is absorbing growing numbers of ESL students.
"More ESL teachers are definitely needed to better address the learning needs,” Frett-Gregory said, adding that program expansion is necessary.
Sen. Nereida "Nellie" Rivera-O’Reilly said ESL on St. Croix is lacking and asked St. Croix Superintendent of Schools Gary Molloy for a timeframe for making improvements.
"We need staffing," Molloy said. Exacerbating the situation, many students are coming into the system who are not proficient in reading or writing in their native language either, Molloy said.
Carver Farrow, president of the St. Thomas/St. John Educational Administrators Association, also emphasized a need for more personnel, especially in ESL and nursing.
"During the past 10 years, the district has lost highly qualified teachers to retirement or to teachers leaving the territory Farrow said. “The Office of Human Resources for the Department of Education has tried to hire more teachers in the area of bilingual education or ESL, but to no avail."
Along with hiring efforts, "there needs to be more funding to provide more teachers with the opportunity to acquire a master’s degree in ESL or bilingual education," he said. “At this time we have schools such as Yvonne E. Milliner-Bowsky, Joseph Gomez and Leonard Dover Elementary schools" that have English language learners, but no ESL teachers, Farrow said.
He said there is a program that is helping 17 teachers get their master’s degrees, but it is not enough. Schools also need more nurses, cafeteria workers, student counselors, secretaries and an on-site maintenance person in every school, Farrow said.
"There are only five schools with nurses in the district that has 16 schools. It is an unsafe situation. We have asked that LPNs be placed in the schools with RNs supervising them. EMS personnel could be used as well," Farrow said.
Sen. Myron Jackson asked if salaries played a role in the nurse shortage and – if the system could offer higher salaries – "could you get the nurses you need?"
Frett-Gregory replied, "You are correct the main issue is they don’t want to come work for the department because salaries at the hospital and so forth are much higher."
Nicole Jacobs, Education’s acting director of Human Resources, said the schools are working on a plan where RNs "would have authority over a cluster of schools."
"One obstacle is our RNs are totally against it," she said, adding that the system is working on getting the school system RNs on board.
Jeanette Smith-Barry, St. Thomas/St. John district superintendent, also said many important slots need filling soon, rattling off a long list of positions.
"We have been severely handicapped by a lack of staff," Smith-Barry said, adding that it has been a great challenge.
No votes were taken at the information-gathering oversight hearing, which followed up on a hearing last week in which the committee took testimony from V.I. Board of Education and V.I. Vocational Education Board members.
A third hearing will be scheduled for St. Croix, to ensure the concerns of the entire territory are heard, Cole said before adjourning the committee.
Present were Cole, O’Reilly, Jackson, Sens. Janette Millin Young, Tregenza Roach, Judi Buckley and Terrence “Positive” Nelson.
