Eight teachers lost their positions at Southfield High as result of budget cuts for the upcoming school year.
They are: History teacher Bruce Lenington, Civics teacher Emily Bailey, English teachers Darcel Stewart and Thomas Mason, math teacher Ravi Smith, special education teacher Sheila Robinson, and two teachers whose names were censored by new school Principal Marvin Youmans.
Some may be rehired if there is a spike in enrollment.
Many of the eight displaced teachers have used their seniority to bump other teachers in the district and take jobs at other area schools.
Those displaced were the ones with the least seniority in their departments.
Lenington is among those who will move to another school as a result of the cuts. He took a position at Southfield-Lathrup for next year but says he will still coach at SHS.
Bailey says she may go to Levey Middle School to teach eighth grade though she said she would prefer to teach high school.
Stewart is going to Southfield-Lathrup to teach television production. She says, “I’m looking forward to the challenge, and it will be a challenge.” Stewart has been working at SHS for two years but has been teaching since 1991. Before she came to SHS, she taught at Central High School in Detroit.
“I really wish I could continue here,” Mason said. But he was hired in January and had the least seniority in the English Department. He said he has a couple of job prospects. One job he called “promising” is at his alma mater, Mackenzie High School, in Detroit.
Junior Kristina Harris was among those students who were upset to hear Mason was leaving: “He is a good teacher,” Harris said. “I’ll miss him when he leaves.”
Robinson, who has seven years of teaching experience, says she’ll be moving to McIntyre Elementary School.
Smith will be going to Southfield-Lathrup next year, where he attended high school. The physics major will teach general science.