Coping with closures

Thursday was like most days in first-grade teacher Sharri Stewart’s Crest Drive Elementary School classroom. There were piles of pretzels on each student’s desk for a midmorning snack. There was a 30-minute break for P.E. And there was plenty of enthusiasm from both Stewart — “You guys are awesome!” — and the students, who shot their arms into the air when Stewart asked them to name some “big words.”

“I have a big word — transformation!” a student named Audrey said.

Fitting.

Could there be a better word to describe what Stewart and her colleagues have been through this school year? What the entire Eugene School District is going through right now?

Thursday might have been a typical day in Stewart’s class, but 2010-11 has been anything but a typical year for the school district. Stewart and the rest of Crest Drive’s teachers were informed Tuesday by the district’s human resources administrator, Jeralynn Beghetto, of the positions available to them at other schools this fall. That became known after school principals last month turned in their 2011-12 staffing plans — based on the Eugene School Board’s mandate to increase the student-to-teacher ratio by a base of four students at each school.

There certainly won’t be any teaching positions at Crest Drive come September; it’s one of four elementary schools the school board decided to close in the face of an estimated $24 million budget shortfall. In addition to Crest Drive, Beghetto also made presentations this week to the staffs at the other three elementary schools slated for closure: Coburg, Meadowlark and Parker.

Stewart, 61, is a veteran teacher who has seen a lot. But that hasn’t fully prepared her for what’s transpired in the past year.

“This has been an excruciatingly painful process for us,” she said Thursday. “I couldn’t ever use a better word for it. Last spring, when we were told we were possibly going to close, I had a physical reaction, like being kicked in the gut. I wept.”

It was like receiving a prognosis of ill health, but not knowing for months if it was terminal, Stewart said. “And finally — boom! We’re closing.”

While most teachers have moved to the acceptance stage, at least one Crest Drive colleague remains in denial and still “wants to rail!” Stewart said, clenching her fists and shaking them above her head. Crest Drive teachers are frustrated, she said, because they have worked for years to build a distinctive school environment; worked at fundraising $30,000 or more each year; worked at helping students achieve some of the best reading and math scores in the district.

The district’s downsizing for 2011-12 began Feb. 2 with the school board’s vote to follow outgoing Superintendent George Russell’s recommendations to tackle a record shortfall by closing the four elementary schools, increasing the student-to-teacher classroom ratio, using up to $5 million in reserve funds; and seeking up to $10 million in compensation from employee groups through concessions this spring, among other cost-saving measures.

Forty-eight teachers and other licensed staff (school psychologists, counselors, etc.) at the four closing elementary schools are part of the district’s closure/consolidation process, Beghetto said. The vast majority will find themselves at other schools this fall, most of them following their students to their reassigned schools, she said.

Thus, most Crest Drive teachers are planning to request to teach at Adams Elementary in the fall, since that is where Crest Drive students are heading. And Parker teachers have first preference for open spots at Edgewood and Camas Ridge elementary schools, which are taking in Parker area students in the fall. Likewise, most of Coburg’s teachers may be looking at Gilham Elementary, and most of Meadowlark’s teachers could end up at Willagillespie Elementary.

Stewart, however, said she is the only Crest Drive teacher whose first choice is not Adams. Rather, she has selected McCornack Elementary in southwest Eugene. “Most people just wanted to go to Adams,” Stewart said of her fellow Crest Drive teachers. “They want to go ahead as a group.”

Stewart has been at Crest Drive since 1999 and teaching in the district since 1987. Thus, she has the most seniority among Crest Drive teachers. If she had listed Adams as her first choice, another Crest Drive teacher with less seniority would likely not get to teach at Adams, she said. There are seven full-time teaching positions open at Adams in the fall as a result of the Crest Drive students moving there, according to district staff allocation plans.

Stewart said she did her research and is excited about McCornack, its programs and the fact that it could merge with Twin Oaks Elementary in 2012-13 and get a remodel, if voters pass a $70 million school facilities bond measure in May. She also plans to retire in four or five years, and wanted to give less-experienced Crest Drive teachers a chance to remain together at Adams.

Teachers and other licensed staff at the closing schools are allowed to select vacancies at other schools for which they are licensed and qualified, Beghetto said. They have 10 days after notification to submit their preferences to the district, she said. If two or more teachers who apply for the same vacancy are “tied” based on licensing, qualifications, experience and other criteria, they will have to interview with the principal at the prospective school, Beghetto said.

Another 97 teachers and licensed staff throughout the district received notices of displacement this week, Beghetto said. Displacement is an annual process in which teachers receive notifications that they have not been assigned yet to a particular classroom for the fall, based on the coming year’s staffing plans submitted by principals. Displaced teachers are placed in other positions based on their preferences, available openings and their licensure/qualifications, Beghetto said. If the district doesn’t have enough vacancies for teachers for which they are licensed and endorsed, additional teachers could be laid off, she said.