Allenwood Elementary School teacher Andrea Taylor loves being a pre-kindergarten teacher — a job that until earlier this month, she had planned to keep for the long-term.
After teaching for three years in Prince George's County schools, two of them at Allenwood, Taylor received a letter in the mail that she would no longer have a job next school year due to the school system's budget woes.
Taylor is a conditional teacher, meaning she was teaching on a year-to-year contract as she worked toward her teaching certification. All of the county's conditional teachers who have not met their requirements to become certified this month have had their contracts terminated due to budget cuts.
"It really just takes away from the children in the county, and it's really sad," said Taylor, who is one class away from certification and is in the process of purchasing a home just a few minutes away from Allenwood in Temple Hills.
Of the approximately 600 conditional teachers in the school system this year, 473 are slated to be let go because of budget cuts and failure to meet their requirements in time, but the number is expected to decline as teachers present their proof of certification, according to Robert Gaskin, supervisor of recruitment, certification and staffing for the county schools.
The conditional teachers whose contracts are not being renewed are in addition to the 290 school system employees who are expected to be laid off as a result of a $36 million budget reduction that was offset with layoffs, a hiring freeze and program cuts
About 120 of those laid off are expected to be parent liaisons, who work in each county school to encourage parental participation. The layoffs also include central office employees, teachers and administrators.
Mary Brady of Baden, a second-grade teacher at Baden Elementary and a parent of a student at the school, said she has written letters to school officials, lobbying unsuccessfully for the school's parent liaison, Raenette Taylor, to keep her job.
School officials have discussed having schools share the remaining parent liaisons, expected to be about 100, but the exact details of the plan have not been released.
"Everybody is willing to do whatever they can to keep her, and we don't want to be selfish, but we don't want to share her," Brady said.
Brady said Taylor has been a crucial part of the school's success — engaging parents through special events, getting monetary grants for the school, assisting a family whose house had been displaced by a fire, arranging food donations for needy families during the holidays and even keeping extra uniforms in her room for children who come to school without their uniforms.
"If children come first, it certainly doesn't seem that way when they're taking all these things away," Brady said.
For Raenette Taylor, who is no relation to Andrea Taylor, the hardest part of losing her job will be missing the camaraderie at the school and interacting with the students. Taylor attended Baden as a child and her two children went to Baden and now attend Gwynn Park High School.
"I don't want any child to have to suffer because of the budget cuts, and I'm afraid that that might happen," Taylor said.
The county school system has an approximately $1.6 billion budget, and when factoring in mandatory costs that go up each year, the school system has been forced to reduce its spending by $200 million in the past two years due to the recession and home foreclosure crisis.
School board members have said they sympathize with those losing programs or being laid off, but there is little they can do with such a drastic reduction in funding.
"I just wish we could do more and retain more of our workforce. It's just a really tough position to be in," said Board Vice Chairman Ron L. Watson (At large).
At Berwyn Heights Elementary, the music and technology program was originally grant funded, and the school system continued funding it when the grant ended four years ago. Yet, as school board members began scrutinizing the budget this year, the administration recommended the school board cancel the program, though the decision will not be final until the board votes on the reconciled budget tonight. The administration had allocated about $677,000 for Berwyn Heights Elementary and to replicate the program in a southern Prince George's school, but the board cut the money and moved it to cover other programs.
Beth Brittan-Powell, the school's PTA president, said the school would retain its music teachers, but losing the technology teacher would be difficult for students, who love the technology class.
"We have a wonderful school; that will remain. We will always have a wonderful school … but this part is a big part of who we are. It will be interesting to see how much of that we can preserve," Brittan-Powell said.
The school board also scaled back the Advancement Via Individual Determination Program, known as AVID, which helps prepare middle and high school students, mainly from low-income families or who are average students academically, for college. The program began in the 2007-2008 school year, and students take an elective course that focuses on communication skills, critical thinking, problem solving and college preparedness. This school year, AVID programs were available in 13 middle schools and five high schools, and included 1,000 students.
Diana Kendrick, an instructional specialist in the county schools, said the school system has not yet collected system-wide data on the academic performance of the students, but plans to do so this summer.
The board cut 16 positions and $2 million from the program for next year, but Kendrick said she could not comment on what effect that would have on the program or how many schools would lose it until the board reconciles the budget.
Charlene Cooper Langley, AVID coordinator at Kenmoor Middle School in Landover, said her program had 44 students this year, adding that they are more focused on what they need to do in high school academically to get to college. Kenmoor is not expected to have AVID next year due to the cuts.
"I believe that the students did benefit from the program, however, I feel the county has not given it enough time to see all the benefits they could receive," she said. "It was still new to us, and we're still a developing site. I believe given time and proper support and resources that we would see great results."
