Due to budget constraints Montgomery County is facing, teachers from each of the departments in this school have been involuntarily transferred, leaving students and staff frustrated.

Every year, the county allocates the staffing each school receives based on enrollment. Student course selections then determine how that staffing is allocated at the school level. “We are seeing a downtick in the number of folks that are taking band and instrumental music courses because they are the children that who during the pandemic a lot of the instruction shifted to Zoom, there wasn’t as much interest, we are seeing this downtick, sort of a dip, in the overall school program. Couple that with the reduction in overall enrollment at Wootton High School over the past few years, we are seeing less and less of students enrolling in the courses. That doesn’t take away from how amazing the courses are, that will never take away from how amazing the teachers are, but the reality is, this is how staffing works,” Director of Office of School Support and Improvement Gregory Mullenholz said in March PTSA meeting.

While the school cannot name the teachers who have been involuntarily transferred, teachers who themselves have confirmed this include science teacher Miranda Custer, gym teacher Paul Kirk and English and theater teacher Julian Lazarus.

Custer, who has taken up the job as coach of both flag football and JV girls’ lacrosse, and has also volunteered for the trip to Ireland taking place this summer, said she is frustrated about losing her position here. In her two years of teaching she has been involuntarily transferred twice despite the roots she has tried to place in the schools she’s taught at. Custer said she feels that it’s hard to make genuine connections and settle down in a school, especially when the risk of losing her job comes around every year when staffing changes occur.

One of the biggest issues that staff and students say is being neglected is large class sizes. “I think [cuts] are necessary more than fair. There’s a budget, right, there’s only a certain amount of money, only a certain amount of positions for the enrollment in a school so we have to go by that system. My concern with this situation [is that] our numbers are high, all my P.E. classes are full. Oftentimes P.E. classes can be sort of the dumping grounds too, where if a kid is struggling in an A.P. class, struggling in an honors class, they need a break, they’ll take them out of that class and put them in a P.E. class, so if our number starts already where the classes are overloaded then we get more kids as the semester goes on,” Kirk said.

The threat of losing teachers in the arts department has caused backlash from students, staff and parents, which led to a protest that occurred on Mar 24., to try to protect the positions of Lazarus and band teacher Susan Eckerle. “So as stated it is a numbers game. At a school like Wootton that is so academically focused an elective class like theater often loses students after freshmen earn their arts credit. I often don’t see those students in class again until senior year. As a certified theater teacher, this becomes a tricky balancing game as I am allowed to only teach so many classes ’outside of my certification’ before my contract states that I must be moved to a place where I can teach 50% or more of my classes in my certification. This is why I implore students to take more electives as well as for their own sake to balance out their schedules and for their own social emotional learning (SEL),” Lazarus said in his email to theater students.

While these changes will have an impact on the school, administration said that these changes are made with the school’s best interest at heart. “Staffing decisions are never taken lightly and are guided by student enrollment numbers, course demand, and other factors. The process follows established guidelines and considers factors. Our priority is always to minimize the impact on students and maintain the highest quality of education possible,” Acting Principal Doctor Joseph Bostic Jr. said