Teacher reacts to SISD staff reduction approval
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA)-- Ben Vincent has been a fine arts teacher with the Socorro Independent School District for about ten years. Last week he was called into a meeting with Interim Superintendent James Vasquez and told that his contract would not be renewed for next school year.
"He (James Vasquez) made it clear that this was going to be his recommendation and that our jobs were over. He couched it from the standpoint of that fine arts would be over for next school year, that this was going to be a hard conversation," Vincent told ABC-7.
He was told his last paycheck would be the end of July and his insurance would be up in June. Mr. Vincent was also told he could apply for other jobs in the district.
"But there would be no preferential treatment. We might get wind of those positions before they were generally released to the public. But that's all we would have. They told us they would pay for our certification tests, the exams we have to take for other disciplines," said Vincent.
Vincent was also told in that meeting the elementary fine arts redesign that is apart of the district cutbacks take up two million of 38 million dollar deficit.
"He (James Vasquez) told us that the fine arts specialists for art and music represent $2 million of that budget. Of the $38 million deficit, we represent a $2 million savings. They lumped it in with other figures to make it look like, oh, this is a lot of money," said Vincent.
