Mikayla's Teacher

I picked her up from Kindergarten just now and her teacher stopped me to tell me that Mikayla cracked her up today. She said that they were doing routine school district testing where they had to time the kids on saying the letter sounds. She was testing Mikayla and when they reached the letter "F" Mikayla said, "I'm sorry, I can't say the letter F today." "Why not?" she asked Kayla. "Because I wanted to look nice for school today and put on some princess lip gloss and saying the letter 'F' might rub it all off."

On a sad note, I just received this article from Nate from the Post Bulletin. I can't understand why the city can't budget the needed money for education. If you don't have education, then I think everything else goes...I hope that Kayla's teacher wasn't just laid off because she is incredible!

78 Rochester teachers to get pink slips

By Elliot Mann
Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN

Rochester public schools have sent layoff notices to 78 teachers, in what is believed to be one of the largest job cuts of teachers in district history.

The first pink slips went out late Wednesday and continued today. The cuts -- part of $9.3 million in district reductions -- will hit 33 secondary level teachers and 45 elementary level teachers. The school board will need to finalize the cuts when it meets Tuesday.

"I'm devastated," Rochester Education Association President Kit Hawkins said this morning.

A few weeks ago, she received information from the district that about half as many teachers would be let go.

"I'm feeling very sad, because we tried to prepare our colleagues for what was coming and we thought the information that we had a few weeks ago was accurate," Hawkins said.

Rochester school district superintendent Romain Dallemand said the upcoming year will be difficult, and commended the teaching staff for their continued commitment in helping and supporting students.

"It will make everything more difficult, including closing the gap," he said, responding to a question about how the layoffs will affect the district's efforts to close the achievement gap.

In addition to teaching staff, the job cuts also carved deep into other areas.

Twelve clerical positions were cut and 16 more clerical staff members had their hours reduced. The maintenance department lost at least 14 open positions that will not be restaffed. Numbers of paraprofessional staff that could be lost were not available this morning.

In 2001, the district cut 75 teachers, but was able to bring many back before the next year. But this time there are troubling budgetary scenarios sitting before both Rochester schools and the Minnesota Legislature.

"That won't be the case this time," Hawkins said.