Cuts to specialty areas are already reducing school programs as districts batten down the hatches in the face of large-scale losses in state funding.

Elementary librarians, art and music teachers — not mandated in all schools — and other specialty areas such as substance abuse counseling and driver education are being targeted. Some bus drivers have been let go.

In Saranac Lake, TA President Melissa DeVit said three substance abuse counselors and a part-time counselor were recently laid off in this Franklin County district.

Two teachers also have been laid off because the district is closing an elementary school due to declining enrollment.

Projected state aid cuts to the district are close to $1 million, while surrounding districts are facing cuts hovering around $400,000, she said.

Awareness in Albany

When Devit attended her first-ever lobby day for NYSUT’s Extraordinary Committee of 100 this month, she said state Sen. Betty Little, R-Queensbury, immediately acknowledged to the 22 North Country educators visiting her that she knew Saranac Lake was being asked to take a heavy hit.

Devit’s team sent her a letter as soon as they got home. “We thanked her for recognizing us.”

In addition to lobbying state representatives, Devit has called a meeting for all members in her small, rural local to brainstorm ways the district can save money without losing more people.

When Nancy Smith was offered an incentive to retire Jan. 30 after 22 years as an elementary school librarian in the Albany suburb of Bethlehem, she took it.

“At the very last minute they decided not to replace me and reorganized all my colleagues’ schedules,” said Smith, a member of the Bethlehem Central Teachers Association.

Four librarians from other Bethlehem elementary schools now rotate duties at the Elsmere Elementary school.

The district said it is a cost-saving measure because of current fiscal concerns, as is the freeze in non-essential spending it enacted earlier this year.

While the visiting librarians can skillfully continue to provide classes for the students, Smith wonders who will order and track books, or pull resources for teachers working on specific units.

Librarians teach elementary students how to use the library and materials; how to evaluate information; and how to think critically.

But there’s much more that happens to cultivate literacy, Smith says.

“You get to know them and suggest books for them on their level,” she said. As a result, students coming to the library “feel like they belong. They have a vested interest in it.”

Bus driver blues

In western New York, the Churchville-Chili district recently laid off five bus drivers. Then, on Feb. 11, the district announced it would be laying off four teachers in June, citing declining enrollment.

“They’ve eliminated a complete team in 7-8 middle school,” said Doug Becker, Churchville-Chili TA president.

Just last year, the district reorganized and hired 10 new bus drivers, although that move did reduce hours of some of the other drivers. Now, Monahan said, they have rescheduled again and laid off five of those drivers.

Problems mounting

Schools already in precarious positions due to austerity budgets face alarming challenges in the proposed state budget cutbacks.

In Mount Vernon, a large-city district bordering New York City, local president Jeff Yonkers reports 32 teaching positions were already cut last year by September when the budget failed to pass.

Yonkers, who leads the Mount Vernon Federation of Teachers, said secondary math and occupational education teachers have been let go. At the elementary level, “Half the schools have no librarian. Some buildings lost their art teachers.”

He said it is especially discouraging to lose librarians since the district made a big push about five years ago to have a certified librarian in each elementary school after realizing some students entering the middle level did not know how to do research or use a library.

In Mount Vernon, elementary hands-on musical instrument teaching and vocal programs have also been eliminated, Yonkers said. Music teachers must now focus on music appreciation or history to accommodate large classes.

Yonkers is braced for more bad news. State funding provides almost half of Mount Vernon’s budget, he explained.

The district has a high poverty rate, and 80 percent to 90 percent of school enrollment is students of color, he said.

— Liza Frenette