JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Parents of students at a Mandarin elementary school have been flooding the Duval County School Board with e-mails as they try to keep the school from losing two popular teachers.
Students at Greenland Pines Elementary said the school?s Tinikling performance is one of the highlights of their year. However, the man behind the unique performance, gym teacher and coach Jack Hughes, will soon be out of a job, and so will music teacher Brenda Chapman.
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Five years ago, the two teachers signed up for a program to retire at the end of this year. However, after parents caught wind of the agreement and learned the school would soon lose the educators, they have begun fighting for them to stay.
?It's just a total shame. These are two teachers that actually want to be here teaching the kids. They?re a positive influence and they have the approval of the principal, so I just don?t understand,? said parent Laura Thompson.
In an effort to keep Hughes and Chapman onboard, parents at Greenland Pines have begun passing out a notice and e-mailing the school board.
The school board said it has received more than 50 e-mails and calls from parents wanting the teachers to stay on the job.
Nonetheless, school board officials said even if the teachers want to stay, their retirements are something to which they agreed years ago.
Both teachers signed up for the district?s drop program, which allows them to retire but still work for a limited time. For as many as five years, the teachers in the program are allowed to continue to accumulate retirement benefits, but at the end of those five years they have to terminate their employment and retire for good.
School board spokeswoman Jill Johnson said the teachers all know the rules for the drop program before they agree to sign up.
?We have a number of really great teachers that are ready to take those positions. We do have a lot of other great teachers in Duval County, so we?re excited for the next year. Transition is good. They?ll make sure all of the students at Greenland Pines have the great education that they?ve been getting under these two great teachers,? Johnson said.
The school board stressed that the positions are not being eliminated and that the open gym and music teacher positions at Greenland Pines will be filled.