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Teachers, parents and staff urge board to reconsider proposed cuts tied to budget
Summary
Several staff and community members told the board that eliminating two full‑time positions (item 4.15) would stretch remaining teachers, cut electives and risk special‑education compliance; administrators said adopting the budget tonight would allocate funds but would not itself finalize staffing cuts.
Multiple teachers, staff and parents used the public‑comment period at the June 10 board meeting to urge the district to reconsider proposed eliminations of two full‑time positions due to attrition.
Anne Kelly, a digital media arts and computer science teacher, told the board that cutting one of two full‑time positions in her department would eliminate at least two classes, force other teachers to fill gaps, and jeopardize safe supervision of makerspace equipment. “Cutting this position will eliminate at least 2 classes and require teachers from other departments inside of the school to fill in gaps,” Kelly said, adding that the change would “degrade the school’s ability to deliver adequate computer science education.”
Kristen McNamara, the elementary librarian and vice president of the JEA, said the proposed elimination of an instructional-technology position represents a small percentage of the salary budget but would materially increase workloads and harm students. “Eliminating the instructional technology position is a savings of .86% of the salary budget, 0.36% of the overall budget,” McNamara said, and warned the board that responsibilities would be redistributed to already‑overloaded staff.
Lauren Azza, the district’s gifted special education teacher, and other commenters stressed that combining gifted and learning-support responsibilities would dilute services for students with Individualized Education Programs and could risk compliance with federal FAPE obligations for special education.
Administrators responded that adopting the budget tonight would set available dollars but would not itself finalize cuts; they described personnel and schedule reviews done by the administrative team to align staffing to enrollment and program needs. Superintendent-level staff said they are willing to remain for executive session to answer board questions about personnel and that many decisions are still subject to adjustments over the summer as enrollments and retirements change.
Board members and administrators acknowledged the difficulty of the choices and the need to balance fiscal responsibility with program continuity; some trustees urged more transparency and an articulated timeline for decisions affecting curricular and extracurricular offerings.
No final vote to eliminate the two positions was recorded in the public portion of the meeting; the budget adoption itself was presented as a funds allocation step rather than a binding personnel action.
