Save Doyle Elementary Teachers!


UPDATE: October 9, 2009

We have closed the petition. There will be a meeting at Doyle Elementary on Monday, October 12, with Board Member John Lee Evans, at 10:15 in the morning in the teachers' lounge.

As you know, the teachers at Doyle have already been transferred, but parents at Doyle will have a chance to engage in a constructive conversation with a member of the board, and discuss new ideas to improve the school. Please attend if you wish to share your thoughts about the recent teacher cuts, but above all, please bring your ideas of things we might be able to do to improve the school for our kids.


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October 1, 2009

Three teachers positions are being eliminated at Doyle Elementary School. These cuts would affect the Kindergarten, 2nd, and 3rd grade classes.

The parents at Doyle have been informed by the school administration that the reason this is happening is because an enrollment shortfall has occurred this season due to factors outlined below (see ENROLLMENT FACTORS).

However, the parents at Doyle Elementary feel that our particular school site has unique circumstances surrounding the issue of enrollment, namely that enrollment is likely to increase again in the late fall, and possibly again in the early spring. In addition, it seems as though the school loses a certain amount of funding with its lower-grade class sizes being over the 20:1 ratio.

With these factors, the parents of Doyle would respectfully like to petition the Board of Education to request a cost-analysis of the following scenarios, towards the goal of finding a way to NOT HAVE TO eliminate three teacher positions at the school, which in turn affects the youngest and most vulnerable students at the school:

- how much does the administration hope to save by taking the three teachers off the Doyle site?

- how much does the administration currently pay at this school site for its K-3 classes to be at the 25:1 ratio?

- how much will the administration have to pay if the three teachers leave Doyle, and K-3 class ratios increase to the projected 26:1 or higher?

- how much in administrative costs, hiring costs, materials, and teacher salaries will need to be spent if the administration will have to accommodate more students come late fall / early spring at Doyle? Just WEEKS after the currently slated eliminations and class reorganizations are to take place?

- parents at Doyle feel they should have the right to have the opportunity to help close whatever budget shortfall is discovered after the cost-analysis, either by voluntary donations, or fund-raising, or by getting to have a say in how funds and programs might be reallocated at the school.  

Remember, the biggest cost of all is to the little ones who have just started school. Can't we come up with a better solution for our enrollment issue for their sake?


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ENROLLMENT FACTORS / BACKGROUND INFORMATION

At a meeting on Tuesday, 9/29, Principal Moore, Vice-Principal Saipe, and three officials from San Diego Unified including School Improvement Officer Jennifer White were kind enough to hold a meeting to inform parents of the reasons behind the class and teacher eliminations at Doyle this fall. Parents learned that:

    1)    The enrollment at Doyle has been steadily increasing year after year. Principal Moore explained how fall enrollment, class size predictions, and staff position numbers were determined this year, as well as in years past.
    2)    Last year, enrollment was at an all-time high. Neighborhood families had to be turned away and the teachers' lounge had to be used as an additional classroom; which is why Principal Moore felt she had a responsibility to neighborhood families to no longer accept CHOICE students at the Doyle site.
    3)    That AFTER the principal made this decision, the school learned that it was losing its bus funding, which meant that VEEP students, some of whom had been attending Doyle for years, were now no longer going to be able to attend the school.
    4)    That a decision was made to restructure the controversial multi-model GATE program as it had been implemented at Doyle in favor of a model that the school administration felt would benefit a greater portion of the student population at Doyle. This decision caused some families to leave the school in favor of neighboring schools Spreckels and Curie which had GATE models more similar to the old model at Doyle.
    5)    That economic factors at local universities and research institutions like UCSD, Scripps, and Salk in turn played a large role in a lower-than-anticipated fall enrollment at Doyle Elementary.
    6)    That due to budget constraints, the board administration had worked out an agreement that class sizes throughout San Diego Unified would be increased this school year. In Doyle's case, that meant that K-3 classes, once mandated at a 20:1 student/teacher ratio, would now be increased to 25:1.
    7)    That all of the above factors contributed to a lower-than-expected fall enrollment at Doyle. By a difference of approximately 114 students.
    8)    That the school now, according to the new mandated class sizes, was now overstaffed by 4 teachers.
    9)    That teachers' union rules outlined that for the protection of teachers, criteria for eliminating teaching positions in the case of a budget shortfall had to be determined by seniority.

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          PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION TO ASK THAT THE BOARD PROVIDE A COST-ANALYSIS OF THE ISSUES SURROUNDING THE SCHOOL CUTS AND RECONSIDER ELIMINATING THREE OF OUR  BEST TEACHERS AND BREAKING UP THREE CLASSROOMS OF K-3 STUDENTS AT DOYLE. UP UNTIL NOW, THE SAN DIEGO UNIFIED BOARD HAS DONE AN INCREDIBLE JOB OF KEEPING BUDGET CUTS AS FAR AWAY AS POSSIBLE FROM THE CLASSROOMS. AS PARENTS, LET'S HELP THE BOARD FIND A WAY TO HELP OUR SCHOOL.

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