High School Students Fight For Science Teacher On Chopping Block

Erin Devoy’s shot seemed a bit off leading up to the Nanuet High School field hockey team’s most recent season, and Coach Allison Ammirati called Devoy aside one day for a chat.

She asked the junior what was going on, but Devoy didn’t want to talk. Ammirati told Devoy she could confide in her. What Devoy originally didn’t want to tell Ammirati was that Devoy’s mother, who battled cancer earlier in her life, was having another cancer scare and the family thought she might have to undergo chemotherapy. Before talking to her coach, Devoy didn’t talk to anyone else about the situation.

“For me to be able to talk to her and pour my soul into a coach, the relationship I have with her is just amazing,” Devoy said. “To see her go, because I know that she’s been there for so many more people, she’s the best teacher [and] coach anyone could ask for.”

On Tuesday night, Devoy fought back tears as she shared this story with the Nanuet Board of Education. She was part of a group of 15-plus students from all grades in Nanuet High School who attended the board meeting to fight for Ammirati.

At a meeting last month, Nanuet Superintendent Mark McNeill went through proposed cuts for next year’s budget, which included 9.6 full time equivalent teaching positions. Of those cuts, there is one science teacher and that's Ammirati.

At a meeting two weeks ago, McNeill announced the board was restoring music teacher Alex Fung’s position to the budget thanks to unexpected state aid the district received. In Fung’s case, parents and students came out in support of him after it was announced his position was proposed for elimination.

Ammirati is an earth science teacher at the high school and received tenure in May 2012.

The idea for the students to come out and speak in support of Ammirati came from senior Morgan McCarney, who never had Ammirati as a teacher.

“The fact that I’ve grown so close to her speaks volumes about what kind of person she is, that I was able to approach her and become so close to her having not even known her my freshman year,” McCarney said.

Another senior who never had Ammirati as a teacher, Shavonne Davis, was one of seven students to stand up and speak at the meeting. Davis said that as a junior she ran for class president and won, which is when she started working with Ammirati.

“Everybody thought that I only won because of a popularity contest and I was going to take it as a joke,” she said. “Ms. Ammirati said to me, ‘Prove them wrong.’ She gave me that confidence to go out there and prove to everybody that I can be successful. She’s done so much for our grade. She’s the senior class advisor. Junior year, every basketball game and football she was there helping the junior class at the concession stand. Senior year, she organized and supervised the homecoming dance. She did a great job. We were so successful.”

Those who had her as a teacher also spoke in favor of Ammirati. Natasha Castello, a senior, had Ammirati as a freshman in her earth science class.

“As a teacher, she was great. She was one of the best teachers I’ve had at this school,” she said. “I have a brother and sister coming up from the middle school, and she’s one of the teachers in this school that I’d want them to have.”

Junior William Orrego praised Ammirati for her role in the classroom, as well as outside of it.

“For a teacher to be able to pull you through the hard times is important because not only can she teach you and get her point across and help you pass her class and her test, but she can also be there as a support system for you when you may not have that,” he said. “She’s actually the reason why I’m going to be a high school teacher in earth science. I’d really hate to see her go.”

Board President Anne Byrne praised the students for speaking up and said it takes courage to talk in front of a board. However, Byrne told the students the reason Ammirati is being let go isn’t because of performance or anything like that. It’s simply due to numbers.

“The way the system works is the last person hired is the first person who has to leave,” Byrne said. “Because of the number of kids in the high school next year, we will need one less science teacher, and she is the science teacher with the least amount of seniority. Therefore she has to be the person to leave, but my heart breaks to hear what you’re saying because she’s obviously not just a teacher and coach, but a wonderful person.”

McNeill said he felt the students deserved a bit more background on the situation. He spoke to them about the tax levy limit law, which says the district can’t raise its tax levy more than 2 percent from the pervious year’s levy. That, however, doesn’t mean the tax rate increases 2 percent, though.

In addition to the tax levy limit, McNeill said the district received word from the state that it is facing around $3.6 million more in costs than was expected.

“We have to pay for costs that are extraordinary and we cannot raise taxes to pay for them and keep everything that we have,” McNeill said. “We cannot just take everything that we have for this year and have it for next year and also pay for the increases in these bills that the state’s giving us.”

McNeill added that the board has discussed how to navigate the situation over the last few months.

“The only way we can operate next year is making personnel cuts and other cuts in order to be able to take the money that we’re going to collect from parents and taxpayers and run this district,” he said. “It’s a new era, it’s a new climate. We’ve never been in this situation before. Prior to this levy limit, prior to this legislative law, the board every year would say to administration and to department chairs and principals, ‘What do you need for next year?’ We would develop a budget, as opposed to taking it apart.”