Goodbye to Montessori?

The district budget cuts have caused a major hit for the Montessori program, where Owen is a student. Montessori has 7 teachers and 4 of them have received layoff notices (and one received a transfer notice). Owen's teacher is one who has been potentially laid off - the notices are not definitive right now, just word that it might happen. The district layoffs were based purely on seniority, and since it is a relatively new program it has a lot of newish teachers.

There was a meeting last night of the Montessori parents and someone from the district also showed up. I don't envy him as it was not the most friendly crowd. He made it clear that there will be at least 2 or 3 Montessori classrooms next year, but that the remainder of the students may be bumped from the program. It has the effect of killing the program if they are only going to have 40-70 students in it (right now there are 180).

The frustrating thing is that it is not going to save the district any money to do this, because the other students are still going to need to be taught by somebody. But the teacher contracts stipulate that seniority is it as far as these decisions are concerned. I asked whether the incoming teachers could be required to have Montessori training (a 2-3 year process which our teachers have all undergone) and the guy from the district said no.

We are feeling very frustrated right now but a lot is still up in the air. I haven't told Owen about all this. I am still hoping they can find some way to preserve the program.