SILVER CREEK, N.Y. — Families in the Silver Creek School District are shocked about the sudden announcement that some teachers will lose their jobs at the end of the school year.
To try to prevent that from happening, some students have set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for those teachers' salaries.
“They’ve made a really big impact on our lives, even though it’s our first year of high school. They really mean a lot to us,” said Riley Herling, a freshman at Silver Creek High School.
Students in Silver Creek say they are frustrated by the district’s decision this week to make teacher cuts across the district -- two teachers, two assistant teacher positions, and not filling two retirements at the end of the school year.
REPORTER: It must be tough when you’re talking about jobs and futures to make this decision?
“It’s gut-wrenching by far the hardest decision I make as a superintendent,” said Silver Creek Superintendent Todd Crandell.
REPORTER: Why is all this happening? Is it because of rising costs?
“Costs rise, we know everything even in our own lives utilities, fuel bills, electricity, transportation, fuel, employee retirement system, teacher retirement system, health care is a huge driver for us,” he said.
Crandell says those rising costs have created a $1.3 million budget deficit that needs to be filled. Students are trying to prevent the cuts from happening, creating a GoFundMe page to raise money to pay teacher salaries. The Go Fund Me seeks to raise $400,000.
“To help them get a new job and make sure they can support their families,” Herling said.
The district confirms that about $400,000 would need to be raised to keep the teachers. The GoFundMe says at least 18 teachers are losing their jobs, but the superintendent disputes that part.
REPORTER: The students are also raising points about some savings within the classroom whether it be to electricity or not having as many iPads could the district make changes to savings that way?
“We have cut everything we can out of this budget, the last resort always is to make cuts to staff,” Crandell said.
The superintendent says that budget talks have been ongoing the last couple of months and that the news about the teacher cuts came up in a board meeting Thursday. The district says it will work with those teachers impacted to find them new jobs.
On Friday evening, the Silver Creek Teachers Union president, Daniel Tomaszewski issued a statement saying:
As president of the Silver Creek Teachers' Association I, along with the rest of our teachers and students, was saddened to learn of the Districts’ plan to make teacher cuts. I was not informed about the District's teacher cuts until about 1:00 p.m. on Friday, March 22; roughly an hour before the affected teachers were informed that they would be laid off. The District is moving forward with 5 proposed cuts; two active teacher positions, one retiring teacher will not be replaced and 2 Teaching Assistant positions (one vacant). At this time the Silver Creek Teachers’ Association is still gathering information as to the District’s exact financial or budgetary need for making these cuts, however, I can say that the SCTA and the District are headed into contract negotiations before the end of the school year. Other than that, I have no good guess as to the reasons for the District's actions or failure to indicate that cuts would be coming prior to an hour before the cuts were actually made.