It's a tense time in Lorain. Even though, the Lorain City Schools recalled 67 of the nearly 250 teachers laid off earlier this summer, confusion and frustration continued at this week's school board meeting. Many in the audience protested the elimination of fine arts teachers in the elementary schools. Art will now be handled by regular classroom teachers. Some parents and teenagers complained about the shortened school day for elementary school students,. The board says it's doing that to give teachers more class preparation time. And, nearly everyone wanted to know when the district will get back on its financial feet.
Two dozen teachers and community members rushed to get in line to address the board.
VOICE 1: I live in Lorain, I no longer work in Lorain. Huh, that one's a hard one.
VOICE 2: You're telling me that 45 minutes less a day is going to help these elementary kids get the same education as anyone in the surrounding districts?
VOICE 3: When, oh when, will this nightmare end?
Cheryl DeFranco is a 12-year veteran of the Lorain schools, When she got her turn she took a different tack.
Cheryl DeFranco: We will have our classrooms organized. We will have plans drawn up. We will have a game plan. We will close our doors and have our game faces on. We will do this despite the financial mismanagement, despite the last minute changes in staffing, despite the lack of foresight and poor planning of which none of us has any control.
Clearly, this is a tough welcome for new Superintendent Cheryl Atkinson. This was her first school board meeting. She's only been on the job in Lorain for 9 days, and is working to restore confidence, though she stayed relatively quiet this night.
The good news remains that 67 laid off teachers once again have jobs in Lorain. Treasurer Ryan Ghizzoni said the district is using federal funds to pay the recalled teachers. The district is also hoping to receive another grant that could provide the funds to return some art teachers to the elementary schools.
Skepticism, remains though. Christine Miller heads the Lorain Education Association.
Christine Miller: We still don't have plan. There's no plan as any direction that we're going. And if they do have one, they need to share it.
Outside the meeting, Brian Hazellett helped arrange a low-key rally. He says the board can't get its act together.
Brian Hazellett: You cut 250 and teachers, and all of a sudden we're bringing back 100 of them, no, we're bringing back 60 of them. They have no idea what they're doing!
Some parents and laid-off Lorain teachers were are trying to get signatures on a petition to recall the school board. So far, they have upwards of 2000 signatures, which is several hundred short of what they need to get a recall in motion..
There's a lot of anger at the board but some acknowledged the public's frustration. This is board president Jeanine Donaldson.
Jeanine Donaldson: The key is, we have to get through this year. No one is pleased with the choices we have to make this year, but we gotta get through this year.
And that year begins in just two weeks. Dan Bobkoff, 90.3.