DoDEA union opposes staffing changes - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

DoDEA union opposes staffing changes

The union that represents teachers and staff in Defense Department schools is criticizing a move by the school system to eliminate full-time aides for kindergarten teachers, as well as a proposal to increase class sizes in middle schools.

Department of Defense Education Activity officials announced that they expect to increase the number of full-time kindergarten teachers in order to reduce the pupil-to-teacher ratio to 18 to 1. However, kindergarten teachers no longer will have full-time aides.

Michael Priser, president of the Federal Education Association, which represents DoDEA teachers and staff, called the move “completely deceptive.”

In a statement, Priser said DoDEA director Shirley Miles “would like parents of kindergarteners to think she is promoting education by lowering” the pupil-to-teacher ratio.

“But by getting rid of the classroom aides in most of the kindergarten classes, Dr. Miles is actually reducing the amount of face-to-face contact students will have with a qualified instructor,” he said. “Instead of having two instructors serving a maximum of 29 students, as is the current standard, Dr. Miles wants to make 18 kindergarteners dependent upon just one teacher to get all the instruction and attention they need.”

According to DoDEA, the kindergarten staffing changes will be made in the 2009-10 school year if enough classrooms are available. Schools may need more classrooms because fewer students will be in each class.

If enough classrooms are not available, the current staffing scenario will not change.

DoDEA spokeswoman Elaine Kanellis said it is too early to know how many aides there will be or how many teachers will share an aide.

DoDEA also is considering a proposal to increase class sizes in middle schools, Kanellis said. Officials have asked for data and information from principals and superintendents, and a task force would evaluate class size, curriculum and programs before a decision is made.

The proposal would entail adjusting middle-school grades six through eight to classroom sizes of 25 pupils for each teacher, up from the current 16-to-1. The 25-to-1 ratio would not affect physical education, health, music, art, English as a Second Language, or Advancement Via Individual Determination classes, officials said.

Evaluation of the proposal will be conducted during the 2009-10 school year, Kanellis said.

The union contends that increasing classroom size in middle schools would result in the elimination of more than 350 qualified teachers throughout the school system.

In the meantime, DoDEA is creating new nonteaching resource manager positions to help principals in their day-to-day logistical duties related to school operations.

Officials plan to put these resource managers in schools with enrollments of more than 250 students, to allow principals and assistant principals to focus more on student performance and achievement.

“Cutting 350 teaching positions and eliminating instructional aides for kindergarteners, all so DoDEA can hire another batch of redundant administrators, will result in less instructional time for each student,” FEA’s Priser said.

DoDEA officials said both evaluations are being done to ensure that the educational environment for DoDEA students “is commensurate with the educational environment students will most likely encounter during transitions in and out of stateside public schools.”