GUILDERLAND — High school English teachers turned out in force last Tuesday to object to a plan that would combine the jobs of English and social-studies supervisor into one.

It was one of three recommendations for administrative cuts, totaling about $185,000, made by Superintendent Gregory Aidala, and included as part of a proposed $79 million school budget for next year. (See related story.)

Currently, the high-school supervisor for English and reading is three-quarters of a full-time position, and the supervisor for social studies is eight-tenths. Supervisors oversee curricula and supervise faculty in their departments.

According to the superintendent’s proposal, one person would serve as the supervisor for both English and social studies in the high school, overseeing 41 teachers, and saving $85,000 in salaries and fringe benefits next year.
"The numbers in the administrative study...are compelling and so is the considerable pressure to make those and the dollars and cents numbers smaller," English teacher Michael Pipa told the school board. "I’m here not just to defend a colleague’s vital roll...but to tell you what the numbers...won’t."

Pipa said that the support he got as a new teacher at the middle school from the English supervisor has shaped all of his years of teaching.
"Every bit of extraordinary learning that has occurred for students with whom I have worked is directly traceable to the input and support my supervisor gave me," he said.
Without referring to the current high school English supervisor, Patricia Hansbury-Zuendt, by name, Pipa went on to say that her expertise is the "touchstone against which I continue to test my ideas and my emerging initiative."
He said he spoke for the entire department in its "unmitigated support" in keeping a supervisor exclusively dedicated to English language arts.
With increased state and federal testing, Pipa said, "More and more teachers will succumb to the pressure of teaching to the test" rather than continuing to teach the whole child, fostering a life-long love of literacy "that will far outlive the narrow purposes of any test."

Kathleen Sherwin, another long-time English teacher at Guilderland High School, urged the board to keep an English expert as the head of the English department.
Sherwin said she spoke for all her colleagues when she stated that the proposed change "will have a negative impact on the teachers and the students."
The rich curriculum in Guilderland’s English department, she said, is constantly evolving. "In the last 10 years, under our supervisor, we’ve added over a dozen new courses and 25 new books to help our students grow as readers, writers, and literate thinkers," said Sherwin.

The English supervisor, she said, identifies new trends, selects literature, makes great choices hiring new teachers, and forms links to the State Education Department.
"We have an increasingly large and needy special-education population," said Sherwin. The supervisor helps to select the best materials and best instructional practices "so all students can become more skilled as critical readers and effective writers that will help students succeed into the 21st Century," she said, echoing the district’s motto.

Superintendent’s proposal
"There really are no good choices," said Superintendent Aidala in presenting his 23-page report to the board. "We are looking at restructuring in regard to budget concerns."

Last year, as a cost-saving measure at budget time, the superintendent had proposed having English teachers each teach five courses, as most other high-school teachers do, rather than four. English faculty as well as students and their parents rallied to defend what they termed a rich program, describing the four-course load as a necessity if teachers were to continue to assign in-depth writing projects. A split school board backed the current four-course load.

Aidala’s report presented on Tuesday, which includes recent history of administration in Guilderland as well as comparisons with Suburban Council schools, concludes with three recommendations.

Besides combining the English and social-studies supervisors’ jobs, Aidala also makes two other recommendations.

One is to do away with the district’s two assistant elementary-school principals, jobs that were added in 1999 as enrollment increased at the two largest elementary schools — Guilderland and Westmere.
Aidala points out that, in 2002-03, full-time social workers were installed at all five of the district’s elementary schools and that "enrollment trends over the past five years indicate a steady decline which now appears to be stable...."

The plan calls for eliminating one post next year, and sharing the other between Westmere and Guilderland, for a savings of $95,000, Then, in 2007-08, both posts would be cut, for a savings of $105,000.

Finally, Aidala recommends returning the high-school associate principal position to administrator for special education while maintaining the full-time administrative dean post. This would save $4,500 next year in salary adjustment.

If the school board were to adopt all three recommendations, the total savings for next year is estimated at $184,500 with an additional reduction the following year of $105,000.
Aidala’s report praises the district’s 33 administrators and instructional supervisors, stating, "For a school system such as Guilderland to function at a high level, a team approach is needed."
He also writes, "This facet of school organization is not always understood by the community and public at large who sometimes cavalierly believe that greater resources must always be focused on classroom personnel."

School board views

Four of the nine school-board members Tuesday objected to the recommendation of merging the English and social-studies supervisors’ jobs.
"The two departments are simply too large," said Vice President Linda Bakst. She’d like to see individual supervisors for math and science at the high school, Bakst said; those two posts are currently combined.

In 2002, two long-time supervisors retired and the board discussed several plans, finally deciding to keep site-based supervisors. In other words, rather than hiring one supervisor for math in grades six through 12 and one in science for all the secondary grades, a single middle-school supervisor for math and science was hired and a single high-school supervisor for math and science was hired.

Bakst said she realized there wouldn’t be much support for adding a supervisor.
"We need to continue to have a level of supervision that gives guidance," said Bakst. "You need good administrators to be successful."
If that isn’t widely understood, said Bakst, "We need to educate the community."
At a school board meeting last month, a presentation was made on "a day in the life of a supervisor," highlighting the work of those administrators.
The English program sets Guilderland apart, said board member Thomas Nachod. "You need an English teacher to run the department," he said.
He also said that the amount of money that would be saved is not worth it to the community. "I would hate to destroy in any way our English department," he concluded.
"Their curriculum...is very, very fluid," said board member Peter Golden of the English department.

Golden, a writer, said that 50,000 books a year are published in the United States.

He said that a recent study showed half of the students entering college are unable to do the kind of reading required.
"I really have problems with the recommendation," said board member Barbara Fraterrigo. She stressed the importance of a supervisor’s expertise in his or her field.
Fraterrigo said that she has gotten feedback from teachers that, with math and science combined, it is difficult "to aid and abet the opposite field."

Fraterrigo said she would prefer a single English supervisor for all the secondary grades and a singe social-studies advisor, rather than combing the two at the high school.
"It goes against our culture," she said.

When the discussion ended, about two score onlookers seated in the gallery, many of them teachers, left the meeting.