Superintendent: Nahant may lose some teachers

NAHANT – Superintendent Philip Devaux warned that the community’s rejection of the $260,000 override for Johnson School would impact the school’s ability to retain teachers and staff this year and in the future.”Outmigration of the staff is not necessarily over,” he told the school committee at their meeting Tuesday night. “For some teachers, their career is probably better served in another district at this point.”School officials proposed the $260,000 override to fill a 2012 budget shortfall due to a $113,000 reduction in state and federal funds coupled with an increase in special-education costs.Saturday’s Special Election was the third time – and second election – where voters considered the proposal, which had passed the April 30 Town Meeting, but failed at that day’s election. Voters rejected the measure by a vote of 979 to 590 on Saturday, according to Town Clerk Peggy Barile. The proposal would have added approximately $189, or $3.50 per week, to the average tax bill, according to numbers from Town Accountant Deborah Waters.Devaux said Tuesday that the community has understandably been concerned about which teachers and staff will be cut. But he warned that this information “changes every day.” One factor that has affected this information this year is that uncertainty from the override has led to many teachers asking him to write recommendation letters for other jobs, he said.”[Teachers] don’t ever want to leave us, and even this year they don’t prefer to leave,” Devaux said Wednesday.But with next year’s pending cuts, Devaux said he couldn’t blame teachers – especially those who want to advance in their career – for seeking another school district.Devaux said he could not say how many recommendation letters he had written.But he said that Johnson School has only lost one teacher in the last five years who has voluntarily left Nahant for another district.Teacher Terry Brown said after Tuesday’s meeting that this message, although understandable, was hard to hear, especially because of what she said was “progress” in the school system.The override’s failure “is devastating for our small town and small school,” she said.”We’re very proud of our staff and program,” Brown said.Override opponent Pete Rogers, who attended the school committee meeting, also said that the message was difficult to hear. But he said Wednesday that he felt it demonstrated inflexibility on the part of school officials.”The thing everybody in this community wants is to lessen the impacts on the core mission of the school, which is teaching,” Rogers said. “I didn’t see the point of the comment ? overall that they just seemed to be repeating the same arguments that they had cited before the override and weren’t dealing with the new reality.”School Committee member Lissa Keane said that staff consistency, however, is a key component of teaching.”I think consistency certainly lends itself to strong morale,” Keane said Wednesday. “What I’m afraid of is low morale. The teachers need to feel safe that their jobs are safe.”Nevertheless, she said she understood teachers looking for other opportunities.”If you received a pink slip, what would you do?” Keane asked. “I don’t think you’d be sitting around waiting to see if you get your job back in three months. You’d be moving quick because you have to put food on the table.”