110 teachers -many young & energetic - about to be laid off by high poverty Reading School District

http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=391789

350 jobs are being eliminated in this poverty-striken school district, which has a huge percentage of students who are not fluent in English. 170 of those jobs are teaching positions. 110 are layoffs, with the rest being positions lost by attrition.

State law and contracts require in most cases that layoffs occur based upon seniority. As a result, then state budget cuts force major teacher layoffs, if it often the teachers who are the youngest, most energetic, most bilingual and most well trained in new methods who lose their jobs. This year, they probably won't find any other school district that will be hiring in PA. Even the richest districts are shrinking staff by attriction.

Keep in mind that school districts often went to great lengths to try to recruit motivated young people to teach in inner city students. School districts also had put much effort into recruiting minority teachers to serve as role models and teachers who are bi-lingual. All that progress is being lost. The same thing is happening throughout PA.

Excerpts:

"I didn't want to break down in front of them," Manbeck said. "These kids are losing people who believed in them when they may not have that at home." Manbeck has taught third-grade English as a second language classes for 21/2 years at 13th & Union. She said she knew her seniority ranked somewhere near the cutoff for the layoffs. When she received her notice of termination, she realized just how close.

Esme Santiago knew her three years teaching English as a second language students at the Gateway School for International Business & World Language put her close to the cutoff as well. "All of the young teachers have been nervous," she said of waiting for news of who would stay and who would go. "I didn't know exactly where I stood, so I was still holding out hope."

Santiago, 26, who grew up in Reading, was floored. Too distraught to go back to her classroom, she was allowed to leave for the day. "I was too devastated; I couldn't go back to my classroom," she said. "I was thinking about my kids. I honestly love my job. My passion is teaching kids in Reading."