Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Teaching changes at Lowell and Garfield next year

Lifting from the comments, an anonymous parent asks if anyone knows details behind expected teaching staff changes at Lowell and Garfield:
In the minutes for the April 5 APP Advisory Council meeting, it says the following:

"There will be many teaching staff changes in the APP program at Lowell next year. Tamra Hauge, currently teaching 2nd grade, is leaving. Kristen Anderson and Allison Fenzl, both currently teaching 3rd grade, are also leaving. Emily Betz will move from teaching 1st grade to 3rd grade and Gary Bass will move from Kindergarten to 1st grade. And Margaret Saunders, who taught 5th grade, retired in December. So there will be open positions in both 2nd and 5th grades and a .5 position open for 3rd grade."

Lots of changes. Anyone have any background on whether these are retirements, moves to other schools, or something else?

Also from the minutes, Garfield is getting ready to RIF 5-6 teachers due to decrease in enrollment next year. I think they are getting ready underfund/staff the school and we will see a encore performance of what happened last September. Wondering what the committee's response was to this information?

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

A 4th grade Lowell teacher is also leaving.

Anonymous said...

Why? Would be nice to have more information. I know that Tamra Hauge was job sharing with Ms. Chow who just had another baby. So maybe they are ending the job share since she wants to teach fulltime or the school wants to end job sharing. They did ask parents about what we think about job sharing.

Anonymous said...

Yes, Mr. Schilperoort is retiring. He has been a 4th grade teacher at Lowell for some time, and will be greatly missed.

Former Mr. Skippy parent

Laurie Clark Klavins said...

There's another 4th grade opening too at Lowell--Mr Drummond won't be back, as I understand it.

Anonymous said...

If GHS RIFs, would that open the door for TFAers?

Anonymous said...

If GHS RIFs, would that open the door for TFAers?

Perhaps even more troubling, with all the staff "retirements" and resignations/changes at Lowell, would that open the door for TFAers there?!!!

Formerly known as Cali said...

Pardon my ignorance: what's a TFA'er?

Anonymous said...

Teach for America. These teachers receive 6 weeks of training and then are placed in schools for two years then move on.
SPS has plans to hire TFAers for the 2011/12 school year.

Anonymous said...

From Lowell Thursday Note
...We also wanted to let everyone know about some of our staffing changes for next year as well. We have some teachers who will be moving or taking on different roles. Allison Fenzl will be moving to Cambodia this summer with her family, this is an amazing opportunity for Allison and we are very excited for her, but we will also miss her greatly. Kristen Anderson has decided that she would like to work closer to home as her children get older and she considers childcare and school choices for her kindergartner. Our beloved Bob Schilperoort has also decided that he would like to pursue other endeavors and has decided to retire. As we look towards next year, our goal is create and support collaborative teams. We are thrilled that Brent Hinson and Althea Chow have both decided to return to full time. Nancy Sears will be our full time librarian. She is planning on attending a national librarian’s conference as part of her professional development. Happy spring!

Formerly known as Cali said...

Thank you for the explanation. (Hmm)

Anonymous said...

Just got notice that there will be no second year of calculus at Garfield next year AND ther will be fewer AP Chemistry classes. If this is true - there is math for my child next year. He still has 2 more years of HS. Looks like no science for him next year as well. Anyone else in a similar predicament?

Garfield PArent

Anonymous said...

I meant no math - no math for my child next year.

Garfield Parent

Anonymous said...

just testing to see if I can leave a comment here

Anonymous said...

How many teachers is that now leaving Lowell, between who was there at the begining of this year to when school starts next year. I've lost count, is it about 15 staff members leaving?