Bay Area Education Leaders Rally Behind New Haven

With pink slips given to more than 100 teachers, administrators and classified staff in the New Haven Unified School District this week, Bay Area education leaders rallied behind the district to protest what they say are poor decisions made by state officials.

“The funding models in our state need to be restructured,” said New Haven Superintendent Kari McVeigh during a press conference held Tuesday afternoon at . “Without strong public education, every member of our society is less valued, less important and less safe.”

McVeigh was joined Tuesday by representatives from the California Education Coalition, a body comprised of teachers, classified employees and education leaders. The coalition chose New Haven to serve as an example of how California’s funding of public education is impacting local schools.

“The gravity of the situation of our district … is horrific,” McVeigh said.

New Haven faces a nearly $11 million deficit for the 2012-13 school year. As a result pink slips were issued Monday to 85 teachers and more than 30 classified staff to make up for the shortfall. The reductions call for all science and music classes to be cut from for K-8 classes and electives to be eliminated from the district’s two middle schools. Pink skips were also issued to all library staff in New Haven.

Since 2008, the district has lost $15 million in state funding since 2008. The district has closed schools and reduced staff significantly in that time, McVeigh said.

“And that wasn’t enough,” McVeigh said.

McVeigh urged the community to support Measure H, the June $180 that would generate $3 million a year for each of the four years it’s in place.

But New Haven isn’t alone in its struggle.

California schools and community colleges have experienced more than $20 billion in funding over the last four years, coalition representatives said.

According to the coalition, California ranks 47th in the nation in per-puil funding, 47th in students per teacher ratios, 46th in students per principal ratios and last in students per school librarian ratios.

During the Tuesday rally, the education leaders demanded state lawmakers invest in schools and the future of its youth.

“We are united in our message that our students can not take more cuts and get the quality education they deserve,” said Terri Jackson, a member of the California Teachers Association’s Board of Directors. “We must act to restore the promise of pubic education.”

She said continued cuts to education are “like a thunder from the state that never ends” and have resulted in more and more layoffs each year.

According to Jackson, more than 7,700 pink slips have already been issued throughout the state with more than 1,200 in the Bay Area. More may come, she said.

“What sort of message are we sending to our students?” asked Alan Clark, president of the California School Employees Association. “Get an education so you can get a good job and get laid off?”

Pamela Sison, a teacher at for four years, was among the 85 New Haven teachers to receive a pink slip Monday.

Sison said teaching was her lifelong dream. Now it’s being taken away from her.

“I’ve seen schools close down … I’ve seen class sizes rise and I’ve seen supplies get rationed,” Sison said during the press conference. “Enough if enough

Quyen Bullard was also issued a pink, as she has each year for the last four years. Last year, she was rehired just a week and a half before the school year started.

“Each year you get rehired, you know you’ll have to worry about it again in March,” she said.

But this year the uncertainty of employment is more detrimental than ever for the teacher.

She now has a 9-month-old daughter, and the fear of not being able to provide for her looms overheard.

“We’ve got other priorities to think about now,” she said. “It’s not so easy to assemble a classroom and pack it up.”

Quyen Bullard and her husband, Jeff, a special education instructor at James Logan High School who was spared from the layoff list, have already started financial planning in the case that she isn’t rehired.

“It’s sad to see how things are going,” said Jeff Bullard, who grew up in Union City.

Charmaine Banther, president of the New Haven Teachers Association and teacher in the district for 25 years, said this is the worst that she’s seen the district.

“Much of what teachers, parents and this community have worked to build up the past 30 years — the magic and the promise of our schools — will be gone when students return to their classrooms in the fall,” Banther said. “Slashing music, art and science classes and raising class sizes will hurt the children here for years to come.”