LAKEPORT — A chorus of honking horns bolstered the spirits of Lakeport Unified School District educators at a downtown rally of about 30 people Wednesday. The gathering was in protest of state budget cuts to education.
The Clear Lake High School (CLHS) chorus program stands to be cut, and a drama and English teacher will take on a larger load when English teacher Tenaya Hergert doesn”t return in the fall.
Hergert, 29, received notice she lost her job two months ago. After finishing out the school year, she doesn”t know what she”ll do. “This time last year if you looked online, there were 30 to 40 positions. Right now there”s nothing,” Hergert said, who came to California from Alaska to become a CLHS English teacher last fall.
Hergert lost her job because she”s at the bottom of the hiring totem pole. “I was the last to be hired, so I”m the first to go,” Hergert said.
She hates to think how it will affect students trying to get into college when chorus ? an elective ? is cut, and how her cohort, English and drama teacher Pam Bradley, will be landed with more students and will have to take over grading an extra 100 to 130 English papers Hergert typically tackles every two weeks, a task that takes Hergert an average of 14 hours to complete.
Doreen McGuire-Grigg, a special needs para-educator (aide) at Lakeport, worries there will not be enough money for standard supplies, such as pencils, crayons, drawing paper, tissue and hand sanitizer.
“Anything we can do locally will help the Governor and our lawmakers to see that the decisions they make affect people”s lives in a very personal way. We need to protect Proposition 98, the minimum school funding law. We also need to see that the state increases revenues so these cuts are not required. Today is ?Day of Action” all over the state of California. I certainly hope the folks in the Capital listen to what we have to say ? cuts hurt!” McGuire-Grigg said, who is also president of the Lakeport Unified Classified Employees Association.
In addition to Hergert, a total of eight classified employees received lay-off notices. Fortunately, only two of those will be without a job because the others submitted retirement notice.
Classified employees in the Lakeport School District are custodians, skilled maintenance workers, para-educators, secretaries, school bus drivers, cafeteria staff, groundskeepers, technology services and health clerks.
Carol Swaney, a special needs para-educator at Lakeport for 16 years, didn”t lose her job, but her husband Daniel is in danger of being laid-off. He is finishing his second year as a night custodian at Lakeport after 22 years working for the school district. She and her husband recently adopted three teenage children, and if Daniel loses his job, they stand to lose their benefits because Carol is just part-time. Carol and daughter Kassie Swaney, 15, were at the rally.
“They told him if someone else gets bumped, he could keep his job. But we”re like a family there ? you don”t want to take someone else”s job,” Carol Swaney said.
Nate Secrest, 16, a student in Hergert”s English class, was also at the rally with his parents, Andrew Secrest and Mary Miche.
“If you”re not part of the solution, you”re part of the problem,” Nate said. He and other students plan to rally against courses being cut at CLHS.
Hergert said no longer will there be money to pay for school sports” transportation, and with less teachers being hired as the student body increases, it”s more and more difficult for students to take the courses they need to get into college.
“Half the kids can”t get into Spanish and AP English. If they can”t get into Spanish, they can”t go to a four-year college. And if they can”t take AP English, it really hurts them,” Hergert said.
Contact Elizabeth Wilson at ewilson@record-bee.com
