Pink slips for 240 teachers in Snohomish County

More than 240 teachers are getting layoff notices across Snohomish County as state budget cuts and declining enrollment take a toll on classrooms.

Friday is the state’s deadline for school districts to tell teachers whether they have a job next year. Some may be rehired when budget projections become clearer; others will not.

“I’ve been in education all my life,” said Robin Appesland, who is losing her teaching job at Lake Stevens High School. “I thought this was going to be steady and reliable. I really hadn’t thought to think about anything else.”

In addition to laying off teachers, many Snohomish County school districts plan to leave vacant some teaching positions that they would have filled in better times.

Because of seniority protection in union contracts, most of the teachers being laid off are in their first few years in the classroom. In Everett, for example, the 28 layoffs represent all of its first-year teachers hired last summer. Countywide, most who are losing their jobs are full-time teachers, but some work half days.

“It’s grim,” said Larry Johnson, Darrington School District superintendent. “It’s no fair — no fun.” Other districts in the state are facing deeper cuts. The Bethel School District in Pierce County sent out 220 layoff warnings and the Issaquah School District in King County 158.

With fewer districts hiring, teachers are holding on to their jobs, meaning fewer openings for their unemployed colleagues.

Three times as many county teachers retired or resigned last year compared with this year. Afraid of losing retirement money tied up in failing stocks, some teachers decided to put off leaving. In Everett, nine teachers plan to leave this year, compared with 58 last year.

State cuts tell only part of the story.

Enrollment losses are a big part as well for many local school districts. Edmonds, Marysville and Stanwood, for instance, each expect to lose more than 200 students. Each student represents about $5,200 from the state to a school district.

The cuts have hit schools differently. In Darrington and Granite Falls, roughly one out of every six teachers is being laid off, while no teachers are expected to lose their jobs in Mukilteo and Snohomish. In Snohomish, however, there will be 20 fewer positions next fall through attrition.

Local districts also expect to reduce nonteaching positions, such as educational assistants, custodians and maintenance workers.

Jason Gooding, 33, is one of three counselors at Arlington High School to receive a layoff notice. The father of two young children, Gooding is in his fifth year at the school and is the counselor for this year’s graduating class of 342 seniors.

“This is impacting more than just me as a counselor,” Gooding said. “In general, our role is really about relationships. It’s building the trust not only with students but also with their families.”

Shawn Bennison, 42, a first-grade teacher at Monte Cristo Elementary School in Granite Falls, recently received her pink slip.

Bennison graduated from Western Washington University three years ago. She subbed her first year and filled in for a teacher on a leave of absence in the Snohomish School District last year. Her job at Monte Cristo was her first contract.

The mother of two was excited because the job has medical benefits, something that her husband doesn’t have as a self-employed photographer.

Bennison figures she will return to subbing next fall.

“There are going to be a lot of us out there looking for those sub jobs next year,” she said.

Granite Falls Superintendent Karen Korschak said she believes the district will be able to hire back some of the teachers who received layoff notices.

“This is my 37th year in education and this has been the most difficult year of my career,” Korschak said. “There have been the budget cuts and reductions in staff, but the other side of it is the uncertainty.”

Korschak meets monthly with first- and some second-year teachers to discuss education-related practices. She tried to brace them early on for the possibility of layoffs. She even advised one against buying a home.

“These aren’t numbers to me; they are faces with families,” she said.

Korschak also has been on the receiving end of a layoff notice in a down economy. As an elementary school teacher in the early 1970s, she received a notice each of the first five years she taught, but was rehired every time.

At schools throughout the county, fewer teachers means fewer class options. Foreign languages, art and music are being cut, as are programs aimed at helping struggling students.

Appesland is losing her job as an American Sign Language teacher at Lake Stevens High School because the program is being eliminated. In addition to her seven years of teaching at Lake Stevens, she also has interpreted at the school for three years.

Appesland, 53, has seven grown children and a husband who was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in February. He has to take several months off work this summer to recuperate from surgery, and Appesland said she doesn’t know what to do.

“Things are not looking very pleasant for me,” she said. “I think it’s hard enough to go through the cancer stuff without having to worry about losing my job. I’m shocked and upset that they canceled the program. I’m just shocked.”

Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446, stevick@heraldnet.com.