Lack of TAs in Springs Opens Discussion About Its Effects, Plans To Hire and Retain Staff

Springs School Superintendent Debra Winter said the district needs to increase its budget by about 2 percent, or $600,000, to be competitive as it seeks to hire in all staffing areas.

That number stunned some parents and employees in attendance during Tuesday night’s work session, who sat in following recent discussion on a lack of teaching assistants, or TAs.

“It’s crazy that is the number and we can’t find that 2 percent. I’m shocked that’s all it is,” second grade teacher Monique Sullivan said on September 26. “TAs are going to other districts or becoming substitute teachers because they get paid at a higher rate. It’s such an easy fix. We can’t pay more for subs than TAs. We’re saying these TAs are invaluable to us, but we’re saying they’re not as valuable as substitutes. It doesn’t make any sense.”

The district is currently down seven teaching assistants — four to work in special education classes and three to service the first grade. The issue was initially brought up at a September 12 board meeting, where it was unveiled that, at the time, six students were on a prekindergarten waiting list due to a lack of teaching assistants, and all first grade TAs had been pulled to work in other classrooms.

Principal Erik Kelt said the effects have been felt beyond the first grade. “They are here early and they stay late. They’re the worker bees. They’re invaluable,” he said of the TAs. “If we just take one away, it impacts all different areas of the school.”

Teaching assistants, which start at $23,874.75 per year, are used not only in classrooms but as monitors during lunch and recess. Some TAs, the principal said, have even covered classes if a teacher is out.

“There’s so many hats that TAs wear, and the general flow of the school has been impacted with the lack of TAs,” Kelt said. “It’s a growth area and a priority for us. Perhaps the No. 1 priority. We want to help our children and our teachers.”

He said academic areas like English as a new language have been negatively impacted, because students need to work in smaller groups, which requires more adults in the room.

“We could have been pulling our kids and really providing the intervention and that differentiated instruction that would help students get to the next level,” Kelt said. “We need those seven, and we needed those seven a month ago. If we just look at kindergarten to first grade, every day is sort of a scramble managing groups of kids here, there and everywhere. It’s more than just having an extra body in a classroom to help out. It’s impacting the entire flow of the school.”

It was a driving force behind the district holding a special meeting before its work session Tuesday to hire six substitute teachers at $135 a day — making up to $24,000 annually — to not only assist in teacher absences but alleviate the burden currently being placed on teaching assistants.

“We need to retain our great staff, so any way to help them,” said Summer Romeo, a mother of three who is also the new corresponding secretary for the Springs Parent Teacher Association. “Let’s get as creative as possible, because what we’re doing right now is not working.”

Board member Pat Brabant said while the district knows the system is broken, it’s how to fix it that’s the question.

“Staffing is certainly an issue. … This is definitely a tough time,” said board President Barbara Dayton. “We know what we’re battling here, which is budgeting and other issues in general. We have to hope for the best and plan for the worst.”

Kelt said the salary is the place to start.

“No one is going to be able to live here on the salary that we offer at this point, unfortunately, so we’re looking for people to commute — and who is going to commit hours for 180-something days for what we’re offering?” the principal asked. “This situation is a square peg in a round hole.”

Winter said the district understands the cost of living anywhere on Long Island is high, and, with the Springs School spending nearly half of its budget on tuition, is why an area with a high wealth ratio would be seeking additional state aid. The superintendent said in her seven years with the district she’s never had to pull teaching assistants, which she added are preferred over substitutes.

“That continuity is so important,” she said, adding that there are little to no incentives for anyone to even pay to get fingerprinted — $110 in itself — and take the test to become a teaching assistant.

Trustee Kate Sarris suggested seeking parental help to bridge the gap. Winter said even two to three hours a day would be a big help covering lunch and recess. Board Vice President Erik Fredrickson suggested putting out a message on the school-to-home communication platform ParentSquare to gauge interest.

The superintendent said she will also attempt to recruit during an upcoming book fair, which is where she was able to enlist two clerical staff members in the past.

“It’s our responsibility to address this and make it a very high priority,” Fredrickson said. “And it’s not just hiring but putting retention tools in place once the numbers are up.”

That problem even spurred the district to create full-time bus driver positions, to offer employees benefits while also being able to assign them lunch and recess duties, which proved beneficial during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Look to parents to do the early morning program. Parents can do that and still go to work,” said Romeo, who added communication was once again an issue. She said welcome letters sent to parents at the beginning of the school year stated teaching assistants would be there, and that parents found out several had left through their children. “Some parents probably still don’t know there are no teaching assistants in the first grade,” Romeo said. “We’ve worked really hard for communication and we’re still not communicating. That would have gone a long way.”

Sullivan said the district also needs to be more upfront in its job description, asserting it’s not the same hours as children, which she said ads have stated as a sort of marketing tactic.

“You’re going to lose them,” she said. “We need people to take on the tough job. They need to be dedicated to the profession. We didn’t get into this profession for the pay, but it has to be something you can live off of.”

Winter said current contracts with teachers and custodial members are up next year, while teaching assistant and East Hampton School District tuition contracts need to be renewed in 2025.

For the time being, former board Vice President Tim Frazier, who is the executive director of the East Hampton-based Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center, offered to take up to six pre-K students for $5,400 each, which is the state universal pre-K rate that the district receives funding for through grants. Previously, the district had six students on a waiting list, but now has four. Winter said after the board approved entering into a contract with Eleanor Whitmore Tuesday night, the center’s current class of five students will become nine with Springs School’s additions.

“I greatly appreciate that — especially that he’s willing to accept our rate, because theirs is much higher than that,” the superintendent said. “This rate that we have through the grant won’t cost anyone extra money.”

Parent and teaching assistant Larissa Davidson said she still hopes more can be done as nine TAs share the burden of the seven the district is lacking.

“I love my co-workers and the job and teaching the kids,” said 18-year teaching assistant Carla Desiderio. “I love being out here. I want to be out here. I want to stay out here. If the pay would come up, it would help.”

Margaret Doyle, who said she began working in the district doing recess monitoring before becoming a first-grade teaching assistant, which she was pulled from this year to assist the special education program, added TAs are being stretched thin. She begins her day at 7 a.m. greeting children off the bus, monitoring the playground and the car line while also ushering young students into the school, helping those who need to use the bathroom and dealing with others who fall and scrape their knee. She said while the district used to have four staff members monitoring the playground and another four on car line, there’s now only two staff members overseeing each area.

“We really, really need to have extra help,” Doyle said. “We very rarely take a full lunch because we know our colleagues need us. We do the best we can, but it’s very tough. This is a wonderful school to work in and I love the job — we really love what we do and we wouldn’t be here if we didn’t, and that’s why we’re staying — but it’s heartbreaking for a lot of us to see what’s going on. It’s sad to see what has happened.”

This version corrects the starting salary of teaching assistants.