'Internal chaos': School board OKs unusually high Muncie teacher resignations
Seth SlabaughMUNCIE, Ind. — The Muncie Community School Board approved, without discussion, the resignations of 14 teachers on Monday night.
The board also OK'd six layoffs, including four library media specialists, a music teacher and a German teacher.
While teacher resignations/retirements at school corporations are not uncommon, the number of teachers who have left MCS since school started last year is unusually high, according to Pat Kennedy, president of the Muncie Teachers Association.
Speaking to the state's Distressed Unit Appeals Board last month, Kennedy attributed a spike in teacher resignations to a "slash-and-burn approach" to deficit reduction, "internal chaos," polarization, lack of transparency and other factors.
Before Monday night's meeting, she told The Star Press teacher resignations/retirements had averaged about 35 a year over the past several years — when 550 or so teachers worked at MCS.
During the current school year, there have been about twice as many resignations/retirements, when only 408 teachers worked at MCS, she said.
Typical reasons in the past for teacher departures were a spouse relocating, a young teacher who wanted to return home to teach and a young teacher who wanted to live in a bigger city like Indianapolis.
Now you have those reasons plus people saying "'I can't do it any more; I'm not valued as a teacher or trusted as a teacher' … and just the constant uncertainty of what's going to happen with paychecks and health insurance," Kennedy said in an interview.
An example of not feeling valued is a kindergarten teacher recommending that a student be retained but the student is passed on anyway, despite parental agreement with the teacher and hard evidence for retention, Kennedy said.
"The school board also doesn't value years of experience and additional education," she added.
REWIND: Fact finder rules in favor of teachers, blasts MCS
The teachers union and the school board have been locked in a collective-bargaining impasse for two years.
Debbie Feick, school board president, said she hoped the six employees who are being laid off can be re-hired before the start of school through attrition or the retirement/resignation of other teachers.
The four certified media specialists who were laid off are Kim Carr, Sonya Huser, Joyce King and Elaine McDonald, all of whom were first hired between 2005 and 2011. Also laid off were music teacher Alyssa Cabrera, hired in March, and world language (German) teacher Colleen Taber, hired in 2011.
Among the 14 teachers who resigned, three of them had been with MCS for only a year, but the tenure of eight others exceeded 10 years, including one who had taught at MCS for 30 years.
Those teachers, and others leaving, are Sarah Anderson, world language teacher, Northside Middle School (4 years with MCS); Jay Bendes, English and language arts teacher, Central High School, 7 years; Rebecca Cairns, instructional aide, North View Elementary, 18 years; Crystal Cooper, English and language arts teacher/data coach, Southside Middle School, 6 years;
Deena Dinkins, alternative education teacher, South View Elementary, 5 years; Marla Drake, guidance counselor, Southside Middle, 30 years; Todd Gibson, social studies teacher, Central, 30 years; Christa Hensley, special education teacher, Storer Elementary, 15 years, Joshua Hittle, math teacher, Central, 14 years; Karen McKinney, English as a second language teacher, corporation wide, 18 years;
Christy Myers, elementary teacher, West View, 10 years; April Pickett, elementary teacher, West View, 7 years; Amanda Prifogle, elementary teacher, East Washington Academy, 1 year; Mary Snyder, instructional assistant, Sutton Elementary, 1 year; Rachael Story, elementary teacher, East Washington Academy, 1 year; Brooke Wingert, English and language arts teacher, Northside Middle, 3 years, and Anne Wuthrich, elementary teacher, South View, 16 years.
Contact Seth Slabaugh at (765) 213-5834.
Muncie teachers prevail over school board in collective-bargaining dispute
The Indiana Education Employment Relations Board on Tuesday dismissed an appeal filed by Muncie Community Schools in the school corporation's collective-bargaining dispute with the teachers union.
That means the Muncie Teachers Association's "last best offer," which was chosen by a fact finder over the school corporation's proposal, will become the terms of the employment contracts for the past two years.
For more on this story, go to thestarpress.com and see Thursday's print edition.