WEST SENECA, NY (WKBW) — West Seneca school teachers say they are very worried about potential job cuts and are demanding transparency from the school district.
“The lack of transparency by this district has been so very loud,” remarked Craig Ersing, treasurer, West Seneca Teachers Association.
The West Seneca Teachers Association continues to pressure the district to tell them the truth about potential layoffs.
I sat down with union treasurer Ersing on Tuesday. He tells me the district has blocked members out of budget talks and he calls it a “manufactured” budget crisis.
“The district has actually had a surplus of money for the last three years to the amount of $22 million, so they have also inflated their reserves from $14 million to about $23 to $24 million in the last couple of years, as well and reserves is money they have in savings, so for them to cry foul, to say that they suddenly don't have money, doesn't really ring true,” described Ersing.
In March, I was with West Seneca teachers as they demonstrated at all schools district-wide holding a teacher walk-in to draw attention to their concerns.
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“How worried are you about layoffs?” Buckley asked.
“We're worried about our colleagues. We want to make sure that they know that we're all together. We're unified together,” replied Carla Krusznyski, teacher.
“If positions are cut, those are layoffs, that means that class sizes are going to go up. That means that programs are going to be affected and the ultimate educational experience that the people in this community have come to expect is no longer going to be in place,” noted Ersing.
The district says it is facing a more than $5-million budget shortfall.
The district tells me the school board will adopt a tentative budget next Tuesday. A public hearing on that budget will be held on May 7.
“So ultimately, we need the community to come out and support us, but here's the reality. This budget does not save the taxpayers any money, so we still need the district to come out and support this budget regardless of how it looks because a ‘no’ vote on this budget would be catastrophic in this community,” Ersing responded.
The teacher’s union represents more than 600 teachers.
Ersing also pointed to the state comptroller's recent report on schools under “fiscal stress”, but if you look at West Seneca — the district — it shows no fiscal stress. The comptroller rates on a scale from zero to 100, 100 being at the highest stress for districts and West Seneca comes in at a rate of only 6.7%
“No fiscal stress whatsoever and that came out in January,” declared Ersing.
“We hope that this doesn't fall on the teachers. We hope that you know if there are going to be cuts that there are going to be cuts at all layers within the district and not just on the backs of teachers,” Ersing noted.
