CEA-Advisor_April-2023-issue_web

ORGANIZING

APRIL 2023 CEA ADVISOR 5

EAST LYME EDUCATORS: STUDENTS DESERVE MORE Teachers’ advocacy sways board of education to avoid budget cuts

With a proposal to eliminate more than 18 positions within East Lyme Public Schools for the 2023-2024 school year, CEA and the East Lyme Teachers’ Association (ELTA) have gone into high gear organizing members and community stakeholders to oppose the cuts. “We held meetings to inform members, and we established a coalition with parent organizations as well as unions representing paraeducators and secretaries,” CEA organizer Gloria Dimon explains. CEA also mobilized educators teaching or residing in East Lyme to email the town’s boards of education and finance and coordinated coffee talks where teachers could have one-on-one conversations with BOE members. In a show of solidarity and strength, union members wore #RedForEd to school and at public events, engaged in morning walk-ins, and packed the town’s BOE and BOF meetings, carrying signs and offering public comments. The cuts would include elementary school teachers, paraeducators, an instructional technology coach, and library aides, as well as positions within the Coastal Connections alternative high school program.

gaps for our children, when they continue to care for the social, emotional, and mental health of our children, when they continue to do the excellent work that makes the East Lyme educational system a household name, they are being let go.” “I’m disappointed in the proposed cuts,” parent Emily Shrader told the BOE. “With all that our children have been through the past three years and the negative effect it has had on their academic achievement and emotional growth, now is not the time to decrease our investments in our schools or reduce the services we offer our children.” East Lyme parent and educator Chris Majchrzak noted, “Classroom sizes have increased, student academic needs have increased, student social-emotional needs have increased, special education numbers have increased, disruptive classroom behaviors have increased, and educator expectations and responsibilities have increased, to name just a few. To make further cuts to teachers, paras, and support staff will only undermine our mission to prepare students academically, socially, and emotionally to be responsible, positive forces in this challenging world.”

East Lyme Teachers’ Association President Scott Mahon urges the board of education to reconsider cuts to educator positions.

be able to do math stations, which is something everybody likes.” The BOE listened, amending its budget to avoid educator cuts. Loud and clear Next, CEA members turned out before the BOF, asking them to put the proposed budget—without cuts—before East Lyme voters. “The Board of Ed heard the residents and heard the teachers, and they put forth a budget that is truly ‘children first,’” said educator Amy Farrior, an East Lyme parent and co-president of the Marlborough Education Association. She urged the Board of Finance to do the same. Supported by parents and other school staff, teachers again wore their #RedForEd and offered public comments describing how education cuts would come at a cost to the town. Before the BOF meeting got underway, they marched with signs that read, “Let the Voters Decide” and chanted, “Pay Now—or Pay Later.” At press time, the BOF had not yet begun deliberations on the budget. A decision is expected in mid-April, and a townwide budget referendum will follow on May 18. “If we hadn’t organized, East Lyme stood to lose almost 20 educators at a time when students need more adults and more stability,” says Dimon. “When the budget comes up for a vote in May, we feel confident that the people of East Lyme, who know these educators and understand the value they bring to their community, will do the right thing.”

Hidden costs “I’m an engineer and the father of two little girls, and I hope the board considers the costs associated with larger class sizes, lower test scores, less student attention, less special needs support, extra time and stress directly on teachers,” said parent Brian Zahnstecher (pictured at left). “I’d also like you to hear directly and look in the face of knowing just what this is—and these are not just line items—so I’ve asked my daughter Roxie to describe what it would be like if East Lyme looked more like where we came from, in California, where class sizes under 30 are considered small.” “It would be harder to teach,” the

young elementary schooler explained to the board. “Here, our teacher is actually paying attention to everybody, and if we didn’t have our helper in the morning, then we wouldn’t

Cuts hurt kids “The proposed budget document presented to the public concedes that such drastic reductions will be harmful to the students in East Lyme public schools,” high school English teacher and East Lyme Teachers’ Association President Scott Mahon told BOE members. “Making a cut in one area, the result is felt well beyond a particular classroom. To date, there are approximately nine teaching positions that have been considered expendable reductions, the majority of them in perhaps the most vulnerable of our learning community—the elementary level. That astounds me every time I think of it—that we are going to lose highly trained, highly regarded educators who make a calculable difference in the lives of East Lyme’s children. At a time when the stresses of the last few years have not eased for teachers, when they continue the struggle to close the learning