Tewksbury parents blast teacher cuts; board will try to reinstate seven

I cannot believe that EVERY class will have 32 students. We should be thinking of ways to work with the staff we have. They (teachers) should be flexible and movable. If you need teachers in lower grades then adjust to do just that. I am sure that there are classes with 20 while others have thirty. Work it out!!!. The early grades are the most important in the development of good habits for the students. As the get older and more mature(?) the class size should be less of a concern. Let's face it when they go off to college many will be in class sizes 2 to 3 times bigger than any class they are in now.

What needs to be done is to breakdown the student population and see where it is today and where it is going and adjust accordingly. In business companies make these adjustsments all the time successfully.

It is not always let's hire more because!

They’ve already moved teachers where they can when they can. It’s not as simple as moving a teacher from one grade to another. They have to be certified to teach particular subjects at particular grade levels.

The classrooms are busting at the seams at all levels.

Scenario... Are you telling me that if they eliminated a 5th grade classroom with a teacher (with 5 years service)... that they would not terminate a first grade teacher (with 1 year service) and have the 5th grade teacher teach first grade? Even if the 5th grade teacher was not qualified to teach first grade?

I doubt the union would let that happen.

It really is amazing how small the classes have gotten in recent years. In the 1970's we had 6 rows of 7 or 7 rows of 7 in elementry school.
We were never promoted simply because the teacher did not want to deal with us the next year.
The added advantage is we learned how to learn, a skill I use every day.

Moving Teachers wrote:

Scenario... Are you telling me that if they eliminated a 5th grade classroom with a teacher (with 5 years service)... that they would not terminate a first grade teacher (with 1 year service) and have the 5th grade teacher teach first grade? Even if the 5th grade teacher was not qualified to teach first grade?
I doubt the union would let that happen.

Who's post are you responding to?

huh wrote:

<quoted text>
are you telling me you had 42-49 kids in your classroom....what crappy school did you go to???NO WAY did that happen......
stop re-living the 70's....just because it "may" have happened...doesnt mean its best for our students NOW

I'm with you. Just because our HS grads aren't ready for college these days and many 3rd world countries are ahead of us in reading, math, and science, and just because our companies have to import engineers and scientists from India and other parts of Asia and Europe because out graduates aren't up to the task there is no reason to go back to the 70's. Hell, back then education was much cheaper, students were ready for college, we were world leaders and didn't have to import intelligence. Yup, NOW is better.

Thank God I got out of this crappy town. Between the high school falling down and being an embarassment (lord knows the town needed sewers more than new high school!!!) and garbage like this, Tewksbury is not a great place to live anymore.
The clowns running Tweedletown need to be run out on a rail!

Actually the way they taught in the 70's WAS better. We all did our own work and learned how to learn. There was no "social promotion" so if you did not learn multiplication in 3rd grade, you redid third grade.
Pupils under the new smaller classes and "team" approch do not know how to "figure things out' for themselves.
When I went to school in the seventies, there were no personal computers, excel, word powerpoint etc., but I was taught 'to think" as
a result when a new technology arose I had the tools to teach myself.

Maybe if the teachers were allowed to "teach" rather than to be restricted to only what is covered on the MCAS our children would have a great education. Kids can be taught to take tests as well as the information covered on them but they should also be taught much more than the MCAS covers. Tewksbury only covers what is on that test.

If large class sizes are necessary than they HAVE to be determined by the educational levels of the children. If all 30-35 kids are at about the same level it will be easier for them to continue progressing. It gets harder when the teacher has to teach to the lowest common denominator rather than the class as a whole. But them you get into "labeling" and some parent will complain that "Johnny isn't in Suzie's class and Johnny thinks he isn't as smart as Suzie".

I am so glad I got out of that to-bit-town-of-tewksbury. While living in tewksbury, my daughter of special needs got physically and mentally abused over and over again. I spent more time at the school than the principal, teachers and superintendants have in a course of a lifetime. I have so much DISRESPECT and DISGUST for TEWKSBURY and THEIR SO CALLED TOWN/AND/SCHOOL COMMITTES RUNNING THE TOWN....... I moved out 10 years ago and now live in Wilmington. A TOWN IN WHICH SHOWS NOTHING BUT RESPECT COMPASSION CONCERN AND CARING FOR EVERYONE IN THE TOWN..ESPECIALLY THE CHILDREN, YOUNG AND OLD, SPECIAL NEED ARE TREATED SPECIAL...

TEWKSBURY NEEDS TO LEARN FROM OTHER TOWNS: so wake up town committees of tewksbury, superintendant of tewksbury, and show respect compassion LEAVE THE KIDS TO THEIR EDUCATION...
IF YOU NEED MONEY TRY GOING SOUTH IN YOUR OWN POCKETS....

TEWKSBURY IS FOR LOSERS... WORD OF ADVICE MOVE OUT WHILE YOU CAN... LESS STRESS, PRESSURE... GET OUT WHILE YOU CAN....

TEWKSBURY IS THE TOWN FOR

Lisa wrote:

I am so glad I got out of that to-bit-town-of-tewksbury. While living in tewksbury, my daughter of special needs got physically and mentally abused over and over again. I spent more time at the school than the principal, teachers and superintendants have in a course of a lifetime. I have so much DISRESPECT and DISGUST for TEWKSBURY and THEIR SO CALLED TOWN/AND/SCHOOL COMMITTES RUNNING THE TOWN....... I moved out 10 years ago and now live in Wilmington. A TOWN IN WHICH SHOWS NOTHING BUT RESPECT COMPASSION CONCERN AND CARING FOR EVERYONE IN THE TOWN..ESPECIALLY THE CHILDREN, YOUNG AND OLD, SPECIAL NEED ARE TREATED SPECIAL...
TEWKSBURY NEEDS TO LEARN FROM OTHER TOWNS: so wake up town committees of tewksbury, superintendant of tewksbury, and show respect compassion LEAVE THE KIDS TO THEIR EDUCATION...
IF YOU NEED MONEY TRY GOING SOUTH IN YOUR OWN POCKETS....
TEWKSBURY IS FOR LOSERS... WORD OF ADVICE MOVE OUT WHILE YOU CAN... LESS STRESS, PRESSURE... GET OUT WHILE YOU CAN....
TEWKSBURY IS THE TOWN FOR

Thanks FOR the ADVICE and THANKS for LEAVING now YOU are WILMINGTON’S problem.