The term reduction in force has been tossed around a lot in the last several months of contract negotiations between the Kalispell Public Schools system and the Kalispell Education Association, which is the teachers union for School District 5. It’s mentioned in staff meetings, board meetings, and Superintendent Matt Jensen has mentioned it too many times to count in his discussions of balancing the budget.
As a third year in the district, special education teacher (even longer as a long-term substitute before that, which doesn’t count towards tenure) I am a part of this reduction in force. I, along with several teachers in my school building, have already been told we could be on the chopping block for the end of the school year, with 9 months left on our contract. We represent the ONLY solution that administrators in our district seem willing to consider in the struggle to balance the budget with an outdated and erroneous funding formula.
In order to be tenured, you have to be in your fourth year as a teacher and have good evaluation standing. I am in my third year and have good standing, but that’s not enough anymore. Many of my colleagues who are hard workers and who care deeply about students, in spite of low pay and seemingly expendable status, are too. We have been offered no protection and extremely limited rights, due to this non-tenured status.
What keeps hitting me every time I hear the phrase ”reduction in force” is that it sounds cold, clinical, and even easier to justify. When really it’s people. People from our community, people with faces and families, people who’ve given and given at the lowest wages in AA schools in the state of Montana, and by default the United States. Gifted, passionate, caring people who clearly aren’t in this profession for the compensation. We do it because we care about students and are passionate about education. We pour our hearts and lives into students. Our goal is to support kids and their families. Most likely because of a teacher in our adolescence that did the same for us.
My plea to the community, the union, and the Kalispell Public Schools administration is that they acknowledge and recognize that we are the incredible teachers that have sacrificed to be here. Please stop treating us as fodder for the educational machine and disposable to the negotiation meetings. This is and has been happening all over the state, most recently in Missoula and Helena.
I keep hearing Superintendent Matt Jensen mention the importance of balancing his budget for the district and I understand that, and in fact, I value that, but what about our budget? Take-home pay after the so-called “benefits” are taken out of my monthly check, is mere $1,800 a month. And that is as a fourth-year teacher with a bachelor’s degree in special education and additional credits towards my masters. I want to know if my budget matters to the Superintendent, as well? I have a family and a mortgage (that costs more than I make), too. I work a mere six blocks away from the school that I teach at.
Many of my colleagues have multiple roommates, are forced to still live in their parents’ basement, and/or are barely scraping by. All while potentially having crippling debt just for the necessary college degree required to do the job they’ve been hired to do. Some were even hired as recently as this year, only to be told that they’re superfluous and that we will be given notice possibly as soon as December (just in time for the holidays).
And Superintendent Jensen’s plan after cutting upwards of 40 teachers? He wants to have 30 students in EVERY class at a high school level. He said recently that Flathead and Glacier high schools will bear the brunt of that. As a parent of three high schoolers in the district myself, that is alarming! Especially since the state report card for both schools applauds the number of highly qualified teachers and the small classroom sizes as two of our notable strengths.
Our district’s budget has been in the red for quite some time. So why continue to hire teachers just to tell them a month later that they are most likely going to be cut? Why continue to ask us to volunteer for all of the unmanned and unpaid roles we fill around the school if we aren’t valued or secure?
Please remember that we are humans and matter the next time someone utters “reduction in force.” We aren’t being cut because we aren’t good at our job, or undeserving of earning a livable wage, or because we don’t show up every day to work hard and support students. We are being treated as expendable because we are the “easy” and “temporary” solution to a problem that has existed for years and no one wants to acknowledge or get creative to solve. And while those of us that are non-tenured teachers will be affected by this, it’s truly the students that will be affected and suffer ultimately and that should concern us all.
Sarah Lamb lives in Kalispell.