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Teachers urge Saranac Lake board to preserve jobs, warn cuts will harm students
Summary
Members and leaders of the Saranac Lake Teachers Association urged the Saranac Lake Central School District board to avoid proposed layoffs, noting a net reduction of nine SLTA positions (about 5.73%) and asking the board to use reserves and anticipated grants to fund three unfunded positions.
SARANAC LAKE — Teachers and union leaders spoke at the Saranac Lake Central School District board meeting to plead for protection of instructional positions threatened by the district’s budget reductions.
Sarah Shatra, a third-grade teacher at Petrova Elementary and a building representative for the Saranac Lake Teachers Association, read a statement from a colleague saying her AIS position was eliminated “due to budget cuts and unsettling times in education.” Shatra said the loss was “heart-wrenching” and expressed hope the teacher could return to the district.
“Imagine you create a successful sports program...and then are cut due to budget issues and you have officially just become a number after all,” Janelle Bennett, a member of the SLTA executive committee, read from a faculty letter urging the board to consider the human and community effects of reductions.
Karen Beimis, co-president of the SLTA, told the board the district faces a net reduction of nine SLTA positions — which she said is 5.73% of association membership — from two retirements, one resignation and six potential layoffs, partially offset by three anticipated teaching assistant placements. She asked the board to “seriously consider fully funding these crucial remaining positions in the 2025–26 budget” and suggested using a percentage of unassigned reserves plus anticipated state and federal grants to preserve those salaries.
A retired teaching assistant and former member of the district’s budget advisory committee urged reinstating that committee to increase transparency and identify possible savings before further cuts.
The public comments preceded board budget deliberations; the board did not make a separate public-action decision during the comment period. Board members acknowledged the appeals and several expressed sympathy, while also describing multi-year structural shortfalls driven by declining enrollment and higher operating costs.
What happens next: the public appeals were considered as the board moved into its formal budget discussion and votes later in the meeting. The board approved the district’s proposed 2024–25 budget during the same session; speakers who urged protecting positions asked the board to use reserves and grant funding to reduce layoffs going forward.
