Report: Owings Mills High Teachers Rallying for Furloughs Instead of Cuts

Several Owings Mills High teachers say they'd rather work on furlough days than lose their positions at the school, according to a recent Baltimore Sun report.

Guy Pritzker, wrestling coach and math teacher, and 16 other teachers sent a letter to Baltimore County Public School system dignitaries to request unpaid work days over a 9.6 percent cut to teaching positions, the Sun reports. The letter was sent to school board President Earnest A. Hines and Superintendent Joe A. Hairston.

"The solution is so simple. Just furlough. In these troubled days, you should be glad to have a job," Pritzker told the Sun.

OMHS is set to lose 12.6 teachers, which could have an adverse effect on how many English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESL) classes and electives are offered, principal Diane Garbarino told the school's Parent Teacher Student Association at its meeting March 2.

It's been a tense time for teachers, she said, echoing the sentiments of Cheryl Bost, president of the Teachers Association of Baltimore County, at the latest Board of Education meeting. Bost said "there’s a lot of angst right now" about how the proposal could impact successful schools.

Chief Financial Officer Barbara Burnopp said in January that the school system spends 85 percent of its budget on salaries,  so it is hard to cut elsewhere.

Hairston has stressed that his proposal--$1.3 billion 2012 fiscal year budget that includes a 5 percent cut in school and office budgets approved Feb. 8--would not result in furloughs or layoffs. Teachers cut from one school would be reassigned to other schools. Average class sizes are anticipated to increase by one or two students in some cases, while others could remain untouched.

The shows that while elementary schools in the area are overcapacity, Owings Mills High has room for 50 to 100 more students. could take on 100 to 500 more students, with it currently at about 68 percent capacity, according to the report.

If OMHS enrollment numbers add up to more than 1,000 students, the student-teacher ratio would increase from 1:27 to 1:28. Current enrollment numbers are projected to be 1,003, Garbarino said.