Teachers Push Back On ​“Right-Sizing” Schools

As New Haven teachers gear up for another push for the state to increase public education funding, New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) district leaders have begun shuffling staff between different school buildings as part of their ​“right-sizing” efforts — leading some local educators to feel like they’re being used.

Some NHPS staffers shared those concerns with the Board of Education and the superintendent Monday evening at the school board’s most recent meeting, which was held in the John C. Daniels School cafeteria. 

The teachers’ pleas for transparency from schools leaders came as Supt. Madeline Negrón recently resumed her ​“right-sizing” efforts, which involves transferring educators throughout the district with a goal of equitably filling different buildings’ staff gaps.

Meanwhile, last Thursday, city students and teachers and the superintendent made their most recent trek to Hartford to press the governor and lawmakers to boost education funding and help the district avoid expected teacher layoffs next year. 

All of this comes against the backdrop of a months-long public pushback to Negrón’s proposal to lay off 129 school employees — primarily teachers (including the arts), librarians, and math and reading coaches – next year in order to close an anticipated $16.5 million budget shortfall. 

At Monday’s Board of Education meeting, teachers like High School in the Community’s (HSC) Ben Scudder told the school board that many city teachers, including himself, have been happy to advocate for increased state funding, but want the school district to hear their voices as well. 

Scudder noted that he and his colleagues have responded well to NHPS’ public call for the community and school members to support the fight for increased education funding in Hartford. 

“It feels like we’re being asked to work together as a team, but then at the same time being pitted against each other,” Scudder said. 

He said that last week, during national Teacher Appreciation Week, district leaders visited schools to explain coming ​“right-sizing” changes. ​“Someone came in and said, ​‘Hey, you’re going to be losing some staff members,’ they’re going to be right-sized,” Scudder explained. 

He said teachers see through the term ​“right-sizing” and instead describe it as the involuntary transferring of staff. Scudder said that during last week’s right-sizing efforts, HSC learned it would have one less English teacher position. 

While the fight at the state level is one he supports, Scudder said the transferring of staff and proposals to lay off student-facing employees seem ​“so contradictory to everything we’re trying to do here.” 

He concluded that ​“schools, teachers are asked to make do with less all the time, and I think the feeling from a lot of teachers is that we want to make sure that the folks telling us to do that are also feeling the same pressure.”

NHPS Defines "Right-Sizing"

Reached for comment Tuesday, NHPS spokesperson Justin Harmon explained how the district defines its right-sizing work. 

“In the education field, ​‘rightsizing’ refers to the process of adjusting resources, staff, and programs to better align with the current needs and budget constraints,” he said. ​“It involves evaluating and restructuring the workforce, reallocating funds, or modifying programs to ensure that the educational institution operates efficiently while maintaining quality.” 

He explained that the goal with right-sizing is to optimize resources while attempting to not compromise educational experiences. 

He continued: ​“In our case, we look at the number of course sections and student enrollment to determine the number of FTEs [full-time employees] in a given department such as English. Instead of doing so with a total of 9 English certified FTEs, for example, the course load might now be carried with 8 FTEs, maximizing all available sections and allowing one certified English teacher to fill a vacancy elsewhere in the district.”

Harmon clarified that, so far, no positions were removed as of last week. The recent right-sizing work did, however, impact six high schools and six K‑8 schools. Those twelve schools were notified that any reductions planned for next year were identified based on the process described above. 

“In 4 of the 12 cases, no teacher transfers will be needed as the positions were expected to be vacant next year. In the remaining 8 cases, teachers will have the option to transfer to positions that will be vacant, based on their qualifications and the availability of vacancies.” 

Harmon noted that last year’s right-sizing process resulted in an estimated $1.1 million in savings. The current right-sizing process, including the Wexler-Grant/Lincoln-Bassett merger, is expected to save $2.3 million.

He continued that in addition to right-sizing, Lincoln-Bassett and Wexler-Grant were notified of specific classroom positions to be cut based on the schools’ upcoming merger. One classroom position at Betsy Ross will also be cut, Harmon said, as a result of its restructuring into a 7th-12th grade school, starting with grades 6th-9th next year. 

Physics Role To Be Cut At Career

In response to Negrón’s proposal to potentially lay off the school district’s 25 remaining library media specialists, FAME and East Rock School library media specialist Anneliese Juergensen said during her public comment at Monday’s meeting that she is ​“horrified” the the district is considering eliminating librarians. 

Juergensen, who lives in Westville, said the proposal does not align with NHPS’ core values and strategic operating plan to offer equitable opportunities for students. ​“Removing libraries would steer you far way from achieving the dream of true educational equity for our students,” she said. 

She continued that that state’s top performing public schools all have libraries staffed with librarians and noted studies that have connected students’ higher reading scores with their direct access to a library in a school. Libraries play a substantial role in closing students’ achievement gaps,” she said.

In response to other concerns mentioned by educators Monday, like feeling used by NHPS when it comes to fighting for state funding advocacy but then having buildings right-sized the next day, Harmon said, ​“We are all advocating for funding in order to reduce the need for staff reductions, as well as to find operating efficiencies for now and the future.”

Hill Regional Career High School English teacher Rose Murphy said Monday that she too is troubled by the superintendent’s proposed plans to cut student facing-teaching positions to reduce NHPS’ deficit. 

She proposed the district look at selling unused properties like the former Strong School across from Career’s building, which she said last year was appraised at $20 million.

She noted that last week district staffers visited to right-size Career as well and determined that the district’s only business- and medical-themed high school would eliminate five teaching positions next year, including an opening for a physics educator. 

Career’s current allied health and medical teacher already teaches all medical courses, CNA clinicals, and a sixth course, but is now working overtime to find alternatives for her students due to the lack of staffing. 

Murphy recalled that teacher telling her, ​“Every one of my students wants to go into health or nursing, I spent my prep today trying to find some kind of program so they can take physics for the summer because they won’t get accepted into nursing schools with physics as a prerequisite.”

Another position transferred from Career is an English teacher who teaches five sections of below-grade-level freshmen English and sections of sheltered-content English for first-years. 

She concluded that the reduction of staff will have an impact on teachers and students next year. ​“I do not have that experience or expertise nor does anyone else in my department,” she said, to fill those holes.

In response to educators’ mentioning that Career’s physics educator role was cut, Harmon clarified that Career had two existing vacancies. The school opted to backfill the biology role over the physics one, he said. ​“It’s important to mention that it is often more difficult to find a physics teacher than a biology teacher. As a district, we will continue exploring concurrent enrollments with our University partners as part of our Health Career Pathway to support our students.”

New Haven Federation of Teachers President Leslie Blatteau, meanwhile, asked a question at Monday’s Board of Education meeting that she has also asked the Board of Alders.

Her question: ​“For every dollar that New Haven Public Schools spends on our students, what percentage of that dollar makes it to kids in classrooms?”

She pointed out that teachers, students, and schools are having to bare the brunt of NHPS’ deficit from proposed layoffs to involuntary staff transfers. 

She added that the state fight is still necessary and called on the community to join educators and students for its next Capitol rally in Hartford, on May 21 at 4 p.m.

To avoid cuts to advanced placement (AP) courses, no access to a physic class, higher class sizes, and bigger case loads for instructional staff, Blatteau urged NHPS to consider selling properties, ​“right-sizing” central office and its newly created administrative positions, give parents the option to opt out of school-bus transportation, and restructure NHPS’ building permit pricing for community events. 

“Regardless of the outcome in Hartford, we as a city have to take care of our students, and that means prioritizing our staff at the school level,” she concluded.