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235 teachers assistants cut
by Ali Rockett
Staff writer
Jul 13, 2011 | 13123 views | 32 32 comments | 37 37 recommendations | email to a friend | print

LUMBERTON — More than 40 percent of the teachers assistants with the Public Schools of Robeson County lost their jobs Tuesday night when the Board of Education voted to eliminate 235 jobs.

Christina Justice, a teacher assistant at St. Pauls Elementary School, anxiously waited for more than two hours while the board deliberated in closed session whether she would still have a job.

“I just want to know if I’m on the list,” Justice said.

The board did not announce the names of those who were laid off. Notifications of termination were sent this morning, according to DeRay Cole, assistant superintendent of Human Resources.

Justice said that she would be up all night worried about the board’s decision.

“It’s just so frustrating that that group of people in there can decide whether I have a job or not,” Justice said.

The 571 teachers assistants in the school system will have to wait until today or Thursday to find out if they are among the lucky 336 who will remain employed.

The cuts are being blamed on the General Assembly, which recently approved a budget that critics say underfund education. The Public Schools of Robeson County lost about $10.5 million from the state when compared with the 2010-11 budget.

“We deeply regret that … anyone has to lose their jobs,” Cole said.

Erica Setzer, chief finance officer with the school system, said that other cuts were made before Tuesday night in order to reduce the number of teachers assistants laid off.

“That number may seem large compared to what other systems are seeing, but the other systems have already made cuts last year,” Setzer said. “This is the first year that we haven’t been able to bring everybody back.”

Setzer said that the board also decided in closed session that about 10 positions that are currently vacant will not be filled this coming school year.

Also on Tuesday night, the board announced the list of new principals and those principals who were transferred to other schools.

Charles Locklear will take the reigns of Fairgrove Middle School. Ronald Parter was named principal of Fairmont High School. The new principal of Lumberton Junior High is Erica McComb. Melissa Rogers was named principal of J.C. Hargrave Elementary School, taking the place of Shelia Gasque, who will move to the Early College High School. Melissa Flowers, principal of Early College, will move to East Robeson Elementary. Christina McMillan will be Magnolia Elementary School’s new principal. Robert Locklear will move from Magnolia Elementary to St. Pauls Elementary. Joanna Cummings will be the principal at Tanglewood Elementary. Mark Smith, former principal of South Robeson High School, was named principal at Robeson County Career Center. Tina Coleman, principal of Parkton Elementary, will switch places with Melinda Sellars, principal of Carroll Middle. Larry Brooks will move from Rowland Middle School to South Robeson High School.

In other business Tuesday night, the board:

— Elected Joann Chavis-Lowery as the new chairman of the board. She takes the place of Loistine DeFreece. Mike Smith was elected vice chairman of the board.

— Told Superintendent Johnny Hunt to apply for a waiver for the five additional instructional days, which were added to the state’s school calendar. The system will use the days to train its educators on the newly-adopted Essential Standard Common Core, a nationwide set of educational standards that emphasizes critical thinking and hands-on learning.

— Gave a special recognition of excellence to Krystal Brown, the valedictorian at Lumberton Senior High School. Brown graduated with a grade-point average of 5.028 on a 5.0 scale and was the state’s youngest valedictorian.

— Heard from James and Effie McEachin, residents of Maxton, who asked the board to reconsider its decision to use the former Townsend Middle School gym as a storage facility. The McEachins asked that the board turn the gym over to the town to use for recreation.



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Comments
(32)
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BBBD
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July 18, 2011
Justthinking- Think harder. I am a teacher.
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Lastlock
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July 18, 2011
Facts: The lottery pays for construction, rather than salaries/benefits. 30yr workers earn 20-30K more than new teacher hires and hinder the hiring of new teachers, until they retire. NC teachers are some of the lowest paid in the country, yet still paid on average better than regualar state workers who are not on yrs of service or education pay plan. Last, the schools in this county are easily 2-5yrs behind good schools districts out of state, yet people in this county would still support laying off more teachers vs. paying higher taxes and still complain about thier kids not getting into a good college.My advice, teach your kids to make a shank for school next week.
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justthinking2
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July 18, 2011
BBBD:

I think you are just trying to be argumentative and not willing to understand the fact that teachers are only employed 10 months.

Come and join us if we have it so good.
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BBBD
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July 18, 2011
Dave, I love my job and I don't see any teachers complaining about teaching. I do see ignorant remarks about teachers having it good because they're paid to stay home in the summer. That is false and if you can't understand that, I'm glad you are not a teacher. As you said, salary is salary and we are paid for 10 months of work. PERIOD.
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DaveD
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July 18, 2011
BBBD; That's a stupid argument and the question shouldn't be why am I not a teacher, but why don't these people do something else if they don't like it. I'm not complaining about my job. They all know what the benefits and pros and cons are before even entering this profession. Don't like it? Quit whining and find something else to do. And no, it's not two months off without pay. Salary is salary. As stated, and as SOME OF MY FAMILY MEMBERS do, you can get paid over the entire year.
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Ex-Lumbertonian
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July 18, 2011
Bottom line is this...Many chose a different profession than teaching because it would not pay enough to make ends meet for our families. I liken this to some of the former military personnel who were as silly to complain for being put in harms way to defend our country when THEY swore the Oath. They wanted the benefits but their hearts were not in it to do their job. Teaching is a tough job and I do respect those teachers and I also have never forgotten the few teachers that did an outstanding job. (I feel for those specific teachers) If teachers work so hard on a consistent level, why do the smart parents have to move all around into specific school districts for their kids to get a decent education or choose a private school where 99% graduate and go on to college? All laughable political rock throwing aside, once the government will step aside and allow the market to reset properly, revenue will climb again. These teachers who have lost assistants will have learned to be even more efficient to get the job done and then we'll have assistants hired back thus making education stronger.
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BBBD
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July 17, 2011
DaveD, would you give up two months of your salary to have the summer off? If so, ask your boss if you can take two months of vacation without pay, and see what he says. Or better yet, if teachers have it made having to live 12 months on 10 months worth of pay, why don't you quit your job and become a teacher? If it's such a cake job, what's stopping you?
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wanda45
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July 17, 2011
I want to know why we cannot go to a four day school week? HERE in good ole boy county it would save money hopefully keep all our education in tact.
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justthinking2
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July 17, 2011
Any way you slice it. It is two months off without pay.
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DaveD
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July 17, 2011
Some of you make me laugh. Regardless of how you want to slice your paychecks, the point is you have the summers off. Two months! What, do you think we're stupid or something? After all, we were educated in the public school system. Sheesh.
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tomthumb
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July 16, 2011
Thank you, graceofayak ! Please excuse Exlumbertonian.. as a right wing tea bagger he will not show any respect or concern for ANY state employee... no matter that your job is the hardest and the most important in our society. Remember. these are the same people that think teachers unions are of the Devil... also, Exlumbertonian never passes up an oppurtunity to pin roses on himself and how much harder HE works and how special he is.It's a littel sad , really. In this economy ( that his party created )Let's just remember NOBODY is safe from getting a pink slip ..
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justthinking2
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July 15, 2011
graceofayak:

Your comments are spot on. It appears far too many think that teaching is a job in which one has it made. For those of that mind, why do you not join those of us that teach, and have taught for years. I know you would be in for a rude awakening.
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graceofayak
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July 15, 2011
Ex-Lum as a teacher it really is a slap in the face that someone who works in the private sector would think education jobs are defined by the school day and that we get paid for staying home during the summer. Teachers and teacher assistants alike take work home daily to complete for FREE as well. Next our pay is only for 10 months. We elect to get less on our checks during the school year in order to receive it during the summer to budget for our families. Another thing is our pay. We have not had a pay, cost of living or any kind of increase for 3 years and it will be about 3 more before we do. However, we have been hit with more health care cost, more insurance hops to jump through and less classroom supplies. The classroom supplies that the school can't pay for normally comes out of our already empty pockets to ensure our students have what they need to be successful. Teacher assistants are critical to education. Most people think about teacher assistants as an elementary school helper, but that is not true. Teacher assistants are critical in special needs classrooms. These children need more than just a regular classroom teacher there for them. Ex-Lum I really hate that members of society would think so little about the teaching profession. You need to stop and think. Without teachers you wouldn't be working in the the private sector!
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Eagle11
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July 15, 2011
And when you cut the teacher with the 30 years you will be getting sub-par teachers in return. I used to trust the word of a teacher when they said my child had did something at school and would give them the authority to blister his hide just as when I was in school. However, those days are over with this new crop.
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BBBD
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July 15, 2011
Justthinkin, experience determines pay. Teachers at or above retirement level make the most money. What one 30 employee makes is almost enough to pay for two first year teachers.

http://www.ncpublicschools.org/docs/fbs/finance/salary/schedules/2010-11schedules.pdf
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belleinrobco
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July 15, 2011
If people who had 30 years or more retired it would save money because for example; someone just retired from the board making 100k. They filled the position with someone making a little over half of that salary. That would have been a TA salary or two with the remaining money.

Don't fear, all of the top cabinet members had their contract renewed. They're not going anywhere. Would you if you were making 100k or over to do nothing?? You need to seriously take a look back in time to see the buddy system in place at the board. And they are CLUELESS.
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justthinking2
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July 14, 2011
Please:

Someone explain to me how having the 30 year or more employees go home will help with these cuts?
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BBBD
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July 14, 2011
Ex-Lum, summers aren't paid. We are only paid for the 10 months we work in the classroom. We can elect to have our salaries parsed out over 12 months, but don't make the mistake of thinking we are paid to stay home in the summer.
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Ex-Lumbertonian
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July 14, 2011
First, I am upset More jobs are being lost in Robeson Co. We all saw this coming however. It's no surprise! The lottery is a mirror image of Social Security. This may upset some of you, but I routinely take work home and work late into the night for FREE. The reason is there could be someone out there who "thinks" they want my job worse than I do. I usually am the best at what I do for my company but I never let up! I will Never let up. One day I will retire knowing that I hustled and more times than not, did two peoples job (sometimes three). No matter what you hear from the media, most successful companies these days never hired back those folks laid off during the Recession. We are working with 3/4 of the workforce we had before and working much harder for the Same money. To summarize, we can't afford to pay people who are not ready to hustle in the classroom and multitask. You have plenty of days off and with pay in the summer to recuperate unlike many of us in the private sector that earns their keep year around. Also, i never saw a TA in a classroom in my life growing up either.
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BBBD
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July 14, 2011
Dareal, I hate that anyone lost their job, and I agree that those who have worked 30 years or more should be strongly "encouraged" to retire. But to put this on the politicians that passed the state budget is a little misguided. To borrow a phrase from our President, they "inherited this mess." The state is broke, and that's a fact. However, it was 100 years of Dem/Liberal leadership that got us here.

Cuts had to be made because the state simply doesn't have the money. The state is required to balance its budget, and voting out those who have done what the state's constitution requires doesn't make much sense. Now that the dirty work has been done, we watch to see what they will do to help turn around the economy in this state (allowing offshore drilling would be a big help). When the economy starts growing and the state is on the plus side of the balance sheet, then hopefully they'll re-hire these assistants. If they fail to help improve conditions to grow the economy, then voting against them would make more sense.
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