Town of Wallingford losing 12 teachers — with centuries of experience

As published in the Record Journal on Sunday March 17, 2013

By Eric Vo
Record-Journal staff
evo@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2235
Twitter:@ericvoRJ

WALLINGFORD – The town won’t just be losing 12 teachers to retirement at the end of the year. With the retirements, the school system will also lose a total of 315.5 years of teacher experience.

The retirements were announced during the Board of Education meeting early last week.

School Superintendent Salvatore Menzo recognized that the school system would lose more than three centuries of experience, but he said the retirements also provide the opportunity for continuing development of current teachers.

“There is institutional knowledge that has to be restored by fostering growth of teachers that continue to be with us year to year,” Menzo said.

While making the budget for the 2013-14 school year, Menzo said he was aware of the number of teachers retiring by the end of the year. The 12 jobs will not be eliminated but have been included in next year’s budget, he said.

“This is a tremendous loss for our students — they were exceptional professionals,” Menzo said. “These positions aren’t going away. They remain in the budget with the idea that new people will be hired.”

With 12 open positions, administrators will be looking internally to fill the vacancies.

“First, we look at the positions that are being eliminated because of enrollment changes. Anybody impacted by that can look at these vacancies,” said Assistant Superintendent for Personnel Jan Guarino. “We do our best to keep people employed.”

After this, if there are any open positions left, Guarino said, employees have the option to apply to transfer to a new job.

The number of teachers retiring wasn’t surprising to administrators or board members. On average, Menzo said, the number of retirements has been steady. Board of Education Chairwoman Roxane McKay said the only thing she found strange about the retirements was the fact that the announcements were being made so early.

“It’s unusual that they announced it this early,” she said. “In the past they’ve announced (the retirements)in April or May.”

But Menzo said the announcements were made later in prior years because teachers have the option to have their retirements remain confidential.

“Employees can request their retirement be confidential and we honor their request,” Menzo said. “That wasn’t the case with these individuals.”

Despite losing so much experience, Menzo said, it is administrators’ responsibility to make sure the value of education doesn’t decrease.

“It is a challenge,” he said, “but it’s something all districts like Wallingford try to address by continuing and fostering growth of all our teachers.”

Set to retire at the end of the year are James Lynch, a social studies and physical education teacher at Lyman Hall High School; Ann Lynch, a special education teacher at Moses Y. Beach; Roseann Bilodeau, a teacher at Highland School; Susan Calaluce, a special education teacher at Highland School; Margaret Fusco, a teacher at Pond Hill School; Nancy Maynard, a teacher at E.C. Stevens School; Camille Golod, a speech and language pathologist; Lynn Mullally, a teacher at Yalesville School; James Sygrove, a technology teacher at Moran Middle School; Mitzi Allen-Harris, a special education teacher at Lyman Hall, and Karen Closek, a physical education teacher at Sheehan High School.