Hollister
– The Hollister school district will lay off two its vice
principals at Rancho San Justo and Marguerite Maze middle schools
in a move that will save about $1 million for the financially
strapped district whic
Hollister – The Hollister school district will lay off two its vice principals at Rancho San Justo and Marguerite Maze middle schools in a move that will save about $1 million for the financially strapped district which has also cut programs, raised class sizes and laid off 37 teachers.
All of the district’s vice principals received lay off notices last weekend, said Board of Trustees member Dee Brown. District officials could not be contacted to ascertain the exact number of vice principals who were laid off, but Brown said she thinks 10 or 11 were laid off.
“We’re all concerned. Vice Principals do a lot of counseling, it’s more than just supervision and handling
discipline,” said Brown who voted against the layoffs.
The move to layoff the vice principals from the district’s 8 schools drew fire from former Hollister Elementary School Teachers Association union president Michal Cook, who said losing them will make the principal’s job much harder and create safety problems for schools.
At lunch, “You have kids milling about, there’s no way one person can cover the grounds and manage that. Things have changed,” she said, adding that, while yard duty staff do a good job, they are no substitute for the authority that a vice principal wields.
“As good as some of the classified people are at their duty, it’s not the same as having an administrator,” she said.
HESTA is calling on it’s members to attend the district’s next board meeting to speak about the need for vice principals at district schools. Hollister School District Superintendent Judi Barranti did not return repeated phone calls seeking comment.
Hollister School District is struggling to close a nearly $2 million funding gap for the up coming school year because of continued declining enrollments, student absenteeism, rising costs and less money from the state government. It has made cuts to fine arts programs and other expenditures – such as district-provided cell phones and has laid off 37 teachers.
Brown shares Cook’s concerns, and said that, though schools may have security guards on campus, there is no substitute for a trained educator that students respect.
Losing a vice principal will make the job of a principal nearly impossible, Cook said.
“Unfortunately the attitude that comes from the top is, ‘if you as a principal can’t handle it, get another job,'” Cook said.
Vice principals perform myriad duties each day, ranging from discipline to administrative duties, said Sunnyslope School Principal Melinda Scott.
“They do pretty much everything,” she said. “My vice principal does pretty much everything I do as far as supervising students and evaluating teachers Primarily, she handles discipline.”
But the vice principal’s disciplinary duties go further than just punishing students who misbehave, Scott said.
“It’s not just saying ‘you’re in trouble, you’re losing recess,'” she said. “It’s helping students change behavior. It’s working with them, getting in touch with parents.”
Some parents were alarmed that their children’s schools would not have vice principals next year.
“I’m particularly dismayed because vice principals have a lot of duties from testing, bike safety, counseling and intervention,” said Jennifer Coile, who has a daughter at Rancho San Justo Middle School. “Without vice principals, what’s the substitute … teachers are strained to their limits, and more exhausted because of budget cuts and teacher lay offs.”
“Vice principals are not a luxury, they’re a necessity,” she said.
Without vice principals to shoulder a good deal of the of the administrative and disciplinary load next year, the job of principals will be doubly hard, Cook said.
“It’s going to make my job very difficult,” Scott said. “I’m going to have to prioritize things differently,”
Luke Roney covers politics and agriculture for the Free Lance. Reach him at 831-637-5566 ext. 335 or at [email protected].
