The Mesa Unified School District notified 21 teachers Friday they will not have jobs next year because there will be fewer students.
The reduction-in-force notices were given to both full-time and part-time teachers, according to district spokeswoman Kathy Bareiss. All of the positions are at the secondary level - seventh through 12th grades.
The district currently has 3,780 teachers.
Next school year, the district predicts it will have 2,800 fewer students. This year, there were 2,400 fewer students than the previous year. For Mesa, it will mean enrollment of about 62,000 students. Just six years ago, the start of the 2005 school year, there were 74,000 students in the district.
Mesa determined it needed to eliminate 21 positions after it also calculated how many teachers are retiring or resigning at the end of the year, Bareiss said.
devils66 posted at 7:45 pm on Fri, Apr 15, 2011.
I hope everyone that supported that 1 cent sales tax see's what a lie it was now. Teachers have been let go non stop since the tax went through. Nothing has changed at all, the school system is as broke as it was when they decided that all these pennies would make up the difference. So what is all that money being used for then?
vive la USA posted at 7:58 pm on Fri, Apr 15, 2011.
Way to go Mesa Schools. I love how you waited until the AIMS test was over to announce all these wonderful staff changes. I heard some rumors that Mesa is offering all its teachers and staff a free ride on the Titanic? [beam]
TruthSeeker posted at 8:33 pm on Fri, Apr 15, 2011.
When business drops off in the private sector, employees are laid off. Why should we keep teachers on the payroll if there are no students to teach? Welcome to the real world.
donein11 posted at 8:48 pm on Fri, Apr 15, 2011.
Mesa laid off 21 teachers with education degrees and have met the requirements to be highly qualified, but kept "teachers" hired through Teach for America who do not have degrees in education or met the requirements for being highly qualified by the state of Arizona. Why is that? Should make parents ask "Who really is teaching my child?"
mesateacher posted at 10:29 am on Sat, Apr 16, 2011.
What is not stated in this article, and the superintendent doesn't want to admit, is that of the 250 or so retirees, there will be many positions for which no one will be hired. Declining enrollment and declining budget means larger class sizes, more stress on campuses, burned out teachers, and ultimately less learning, but then, that's not a concern of the present "leadership" in MPS. Higley let a large number of administrators go. How many is Mesa turning loose? Why does Mesa cut classroom teachers and still maintain less important positions like Diversity Director? Mesa's school board needs to grow a pair and take the position that if your job isn't teaching students all day, every day then your job is on the line. Period. You could get rid of every so-called specialist in the district and it wouldn't make a difference. In fact, teachers would probably be better off without those bureaucratic idiots getting in the way.
Leon Ceniceros posted at 10:52 am on Sun, Apr 17, 2011.
"BURNED OUT TEACHERS"....WELL.....THESE "BURNED OUT TEACHERS".....WILL HAVE ..."71 CONSECUTIVE DAYS OFF"....THAT'S TEN WEEKS FOLKS............10 WEEKS....HOW MANY OF YOU HARD WORKING TAX PAYERS WHO'S MONEY PAYS THESE .."BURNED OUT TEACHER'S" SALARIES.................GET............10 WEEKS VACATION............ON TOP OF 2-3 UNION NEGOTIATED VACATION WEEKS AND 10 "PAID" SICK DAYS A YEAR.....EXCUSE ME FOR NOT.....CRYING IN MY BEER FOR THE PLIGHT OF THE POOR MESA.........."BURNED OUT TEACHER".
vive la USA posted at 3:33 pm on Sun, Apr 17, 2011.
Hey Leon,
maybe one of these mesa teachers coulD take one day in the sUmmer to teach you soMe proper typing skills when posting your Beliefs About different topicS?
thankS for the consideration. [wink]
Leon Ceniceros posted at 7:58 am on Tue, Apr 19, 2011.
MAYBE IF THE MESA UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT DIDN'T HIRE A ....
"COMMUNITY LIASON" TO .........REACH OUT TO THE ....HISPANIC (READ = ILLEGAL ALIENS STUDENTS FROM MEXICO AND POINTS SOUTH) FAMILIES...........THAT A ....100%, LEGAL AMERICAN TEACHER COULD HAVE KEPT HIS/HER JOB.
TRY BEING AN.......AMERICAN.........FOR A CHANGE.