Portsmouth To Lay Off 29 Teachers
A total of 29 Portsmouth teachers will receive non-renewal or termination notices before March 1.
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The Portsmouth School Committee approved a request Tuesday night to send non-renewal and termination notices to 29 teachers.
The notices are part of an annual process. State law requires the school department to notify teachers of layoffs before March 1.
"Not every teacher will be called back," said Superintendent of Schools Lynn Krizic. "The call backs will happen anytime from April through August."
According to Krizic, there were several reasons for non-renewal notices and terminations, including uncertainty with federal and state funds, and declining enrollment.
Among the 29, 18 full-time teachers will receive notice. Three of the 29 teachers will receive termination notices. Under state law, says Krizic, teachers are given termination notices instead of non-renewal if they work 10 years or more.
The school district is also planning to reorganize the amount of sections for kindergarten, as well as physical education and technology sections at the high school. Krizic says the district is "optimizing resources."
A proposal to hire an assistant principal for grades 4 and 5 was tabled at Tuesday's school committee meeting.
To view the complete highlights from the meeting, visit the school district's Web site or view the pdf at right.
Original Islander
7:24 am on Thursday, February 16, 2012
Trading teachers for astro turf at 1.6 million sounds like a soylent green movie.
Tinker
7:47 am on Thursday, February 16, 2012
Shouldn't any donations for a "new field" be better spent for keeping the teachers????
Joyce Davenport
8:18 am on Thursday, February 16, 2012
It only has to do with filling astro turf kick back money to those who run Portsmouth... You know the rich folks.
getreal
10:43 am on Thursday, February 16, 2012
They want to make up a new Principal position but lay off teachers ? Nice, real nice and smart too...
Robert E
11:00 am on Thursday, February 16, 2012
Let's lay off all the teachers and we can build a new mega sports complex where the high school used to be.
ralph
1:57 pm on Thursday, February 16, 2012
So residents of Portsmouth continue to pay outrageous taxes and they are laying off teachers. To boot, your tax dollars go to huge eye sores like that un Godly wind turbine and now a huge sports complex. It may be time to vote some of these nitwits out and bring in people who have a clue on how to utilize tax dollars correctly.
Unbelievable
3:15 pm on Thursday, February 16, 2012
leave it to these people to "have to" lay off or terminate teachers yet talk about adding a principal! Not hiring the principal could probably save close to 2 teachers jobs Between the administrator salary + benifits that should equal just about the cost of 2 teachers. There is more than enough administrators if not too many! Where are the priorities in this town.
Phineus
7:12 am on Friday, February 17, 2012
i believe the cost to add the assistant principal is $35,000 to $40,000 extra because they would also eliminate the current house leader position. I heard the 4thand 5th grand parent/teacher/administrator give a very well researched presentation to the school committee three weeks ago that supports this change based on problems that have surfaced because of the former school committee and Dr Lusi's decision to move the 4th and 5th grade to PMS.
Phineus
7:15 am on Friday, February 17, 2012
Good riddance to Dr Lusi she and her old school committee stooges really messed things up for these little kids. I'm glad to see people fixing it.