Note: This press release was written jointly by AFSCME and CEA, the union that represents East Lyme teachers.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FEBRUARY 6, 2023
Press Contacts:
Nancy Andrews, CEA Communications Director, [email protected]
Lauren Takores, AFSCME Council 4 Communications Coordinator, [email protected]
EAST LYME — Unionized educators joined parents and students Monday to urge the town’s Board of Education to retain more than 18 positions slated to be cut from next year’s education budget.
A reduced instructional staff would hurt students, union leaders representing East Lyme teachers and school support staff said.
“The result of these proposed cuts will be felt well beyond a particular classroom and will be harmful to all the students in East Lyme public schools,” East Lyme Teachers’ Association President Scott Mahon, a high school English teacher, said.
“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 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 told they are no longer needed,” Mahon said.
The cuts, announced earlier this month ahead of the town-wide budget referendum scheduled for May 18, would include elementary school teachers, paraprofessionals, an instructional technology coach and library aides, as well as positions within the Coastal Connections alternative high school program.
Members of AFSCME Council 4, the union representing the school district’s paraprofessionals and school secretaries, and the Connecticut Education Association, the school district’s teachers’ union, say additional services are needed to make up for disrupted learning caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has impacted academic achievement and emotional growth of students.
“Now more than ever, our students need us to advocate for them,” Chris Majchrzak, AFSCME Local 1250 President, the union of the East Lyme schools paraprofessionals and TA at the middle school, said.
“I have firsthand experience with how this is affecting learning in the classroom,” she said. “It can be challenging for the classroom teacher and myself to provide the individual classroom support and instruction needed by so many. The children of East Lyme deserve better.”
The unions urged board members to stand up and do the right thing for students and propose a budget that maintains the level of services our children need.
“The positions threatened with cuts are those who interact daily with students — they know their names, they know their parents, and they know when they’re having a hard time,” Patricia Hesney, AFSCME Local 1303-138 East Lyme school secretaries union president, said.
“These layoffs will have a long-lasting negative impact on our schools, school libraries, teachers, and most importantly, our students,” Hesney said. “They will affect student learning, educational quality and educator morale. Layoffs are so often as a short-term, cost-saving solution but they create more problems than they solve.”
Mahon said that as Board of Education members continue to deliberate about how to meet budgetary needs, they should consider the potential impact to student welfare and achievement.
“We encourage them to focus on what our students need to succeed — highly trained, highly regarded educators who make a calculable difference in the lives of East Lyme children,” he said.
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AFSCME Locals 1250 and 1303-138 are affiliates of Council 4 of the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees (AFSCME). Council 4 represents 30,000 workers in Connecticut. Find us on the web at www.council4.org, or on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
The Connecticut Education Association is Connecticut’s largest teachers’ union, representing active, retired, and aspiring educators across the state. Visit us at cea.org or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
