By MARY WINN GRANUM – Viewpoints Writer
With the Career, Technical and Agricultural Education department moving to the Athens Community Career Academy, the Clarke Central High School CTAE teachers are waiting to learn the future of their jobs.
Each spring, the Clarke Central High School community eagerly prepares for the end of the school year. Students arrange their classes for the following year, seniors anxiously make their post-graduation plans and teachers begin winding down the year, many as excited for the last day of school to arrive as their students are.
The Clarke County School District’s decisions affect the futures of the teachers they employ, but until the decisions are made public, the teachers are left to wait and worry. Cartoon by Katie Downs.
This year, however, some teachers within CCHS are dreading the end of the school year.
Most Career, Technical and Agricultural Education department classes will be transferred to the Athens Community Career Academy at the start of the 2012-13 school year. Because 10 CTAE teaching positions are being eliminated from CCHS and Cedar Shoals High School, many within our building are now forced to question whether or not they will have jobs in the fall.
“I will not be here next year, (Sedaris) Sharp will not be here next year, (Vickie) Shell will not be here, (Kenneth) Gibbs will not be here, (Carolyn) Jackson, (Vera) Giles, (Jeff) Holland. No, we will not be here,” CTAE department teacher Sondra Moon said. “That hierarchy consists of not only CTAE at CCHS, but also at (CSHS). Some teachers will lose their jobs. Who, we do not know yet.”
The Clarke County School District has made it clear that CTAE teachers will not be returning to CCHS to teach their subjects, but the teachers have not been given crucial information about what will happen to them next.
“As a teacher who has been here 11 years, change is difficult, and it is hard to think that next year I will not be here at CCHS,” Moon said. “I will miss the kids, I will miss my co-workers, and it is really difficult.”
When CTAE classes — with the exceptions of Military Science, Graphic Design Pathway and the Plant Science/Horticulture Pathway courses — move to the ACCA, they will no longer be under the sole instruction of CCSD employees.
“My classes, marketing classes, won’t be (at CCHS), but there will be marketing classes available at the (ACCA) through (ATC). You’re going to be taking the marketing classes that are traditionally taught by the (ATC) marketing department,” CTAE department teacher Vickie Shell said.
As the end of the 2011-12 school year approaches, they still have not been told where, if anywhere, they will be employed for the 2012-13 school year.
The teachers need to be informed of their job status in order to make plans for next year.
Some teachers may be transferred to the ACCA to teach their same subjects to students from both CCHS and CSHS, but decisions about who will be transferred and who will be fired will not be available until after student enrollment information is released.
Until the CCSD collects those numbers, the teachers are without answers.
“I hope we have good enrollment because that tells you how many teachers you need in the high school section. If (the ACCA does not) have good enrollment, you won’t need as many teachers,” CCSD Superintendent Dr. Philip Lanoue said.
ATC instructors may be favored for teaching positions over CCSD teachers, leaving those who have already been teaching CCHS students to seek jobs elsewhere. But without information about the security of their jobs, the teachers are still unaware if they need to be searching for new jobs or even new career fields.
“I am basically just waiting,” Moon said. “I really do not want to leave education, but if I have to I will.”
With each new development that CCSD undergoes for the sake of progress, problems arise. But when this affects the jobs of CCHS teachers — when the futures and livelihoods of those who are working for the wellbeing of the students are being questioned — answers need to be readily available.
“There’s still so much stuff that’s up in the air. We don’t really know (what will happen),” Shell said. “You can ask any one of us in this department, but we don’t really know.”
It is unfair to the teachers that their jobs are being altered or taken away, but to avoid informing them about their own futures is inexcusable.
“We do not know when teachers will hear about their decisions. We are just waiting and that makes it the most difficult thing,” Moon said.
