From Okaloosa County readers:
Gee it is certainly funny that there has been no mention in any paper or on the local news about the massive cuts that are going on in Okaloosa County as we speak with teachers and other school staff. Suprisingly this has been kept out of the public eye – for a reason????
It has been going on at different schools at different times but teachers and staff are being laid off (no-positioned) all over the county. One of the smallest schools in the county got the largest cut to their budget of 16%, another a 13% cut. At the small school 12-13 teachers and school staff were laid off a 30% decrease in teaching staff – this is huge for a small, rural school which has not received any subsidized funds for a while and was expected to make it on its own just like the large schools. Now 30% of their staff is cut and at least on the high school side they cannot even meet the federally mandated class size amendment. Even our virtual schools have lost about half of the teachers they had.
Other schools also are losing teachers, assistants, aides, and not just for electives but core class teachers. Not based on any kind of performance base at all, the district started cutting anyone hired from 2004 and later. The teachers are now supposed to wait all summer to know if they even have a position for the next school year – basically putting their lives on hold. Many are forced to sell homes and land because without the income they simply cannot pay for them and not everyone has a dual income in the family. And despite what the general public thinks a teacher’s salary although touted as being an average of some $50,000.00 is a faulty figure because it includes the higher wages from more affluent areas in the state. For myself, I just barely break 30,000.00 a year. They think we get this great retirement and it is nothing to be compared with retirement packages from most businesses. Even at my highest earnings based on retirement age I wind up with about 600.00 a month. That would not even pay the rent.
BUT the real victims are the kids in the schools. Who is their advocate – who will speak for them? Who will be there to teach out future leaders that will be taking care of all of our needs in our senior years? No one is looking toward anyone’s future, and the ones making all the rules have no clue about the implementation of things that probably started out as a good idea. Our country is falling apart and it is going to take all of us to make our voices be heard and do something about it all.
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Just wanted to write you and tell you how the Okaloosa County School District is coping with the cuts. By slashing teachers throats. Layoffs were given on Monday to all the teachers that were hired since 2004 regardless of how well they performed,based solely on time. I am not sure of how many district wide but know of the school my wife teaches in and 12 full and part time teachers have no position next year and it is the smallest school in the county.
Funny thing is no matter how many news people I talk with and write to,not one story about this layoff has hit print or on TV. Why? Could it be the school district does not want the public outcry? I can’t say but I do see all the private sector layoffs in the news. Strange!
Now some of the teachers will of course be hired back or transferred just before school starts next year, but why should their summers be ruined by this. Why the news blackout? Inquiring minds want to know.