Levittown ready to propose teacher layoffs

More than 450 people, many of them teachers, packed a Levittown school board meeting last night to mostly voice opposition to the board's plan to trim some 70 educators' jobs.

Therese Rogers, head of the teachers union, got a standing ovation when she told the board it created its own financial problems and that it planned to solve those woes on the backs of its teachers.

"In the face of the recent budget crisis facing the district, the union and its members have been subject to public abuse and scorn, much of which has been with the tacit approval of, if not instigated by, the district," she said.

District officials have said reductions are being forced by a $3.5-million cut in state aid and by pressures to curb property taxes. Under the budget approved by voters May 17, they added, class sizes will rise next year and there will be reductions in high-school elective courses, fine arts programs and sports.

"I feel sorry for some of these younger teachers," said James Ward, a board member who is stepping down at month's end. "But we just have to bite the bullet."

One district administrator, Darlene Rhatigan, told Newsday late Wednesday afternoon that she expects a roster of 88 individuals tentatively slated to lose their jobs to be whittled down for a variety of reasons, including decisions by administrators to resume former teaching jobs.

Layoffs will include seven or eight reading teachers, six elementary librarians and five physical-education teachers, Rhatigan added. Next year, Levittown is expanding kindergarten classes to full-day sessions, and the district expects its additional kindergarten teachers to pick up some work now being done by others.

In addition, Rhatigan said, the district will issue a list of 60 staffers who are being terminated because they have completed temporary assignments. The list includes employees working on special grants or those filling in for regular workers taking leaves of absence.

Gale Glicksman, 58, a teacher's assistant from Rockville Centre, said she came to Wednesday night's meeting in support of the elementary school librarians and reading specialists whose jobs could be cut.

"They really instill a love of learning in the students," she said of the reading specialists, who tailor their lessons to the needs of specific students.

While most of the people in the audience supported the teachers, about a third applauded when resident Tom Kohlman, 59, of Wantagh, told the teachers union they should be prepared to make concessions.

Kohlman has a son in the district and held up a sign posted in his community urging parents to vote in favor of last month's school budget. The community complied, Kohlman said, but he's worried the union won't meet residents half way and agree to cuts.

Teachers are due raises of 3.25 percent next year, plus automatic yearly "step" increases built into their salary schedule.