Hundreds of Students Rally Against Staff Layoffs in Whitman-Hanson Schools
Whitman-Hanson Regional School District is currently facing a budget deficit of approximately $1.4 million. In order to manage this deficit, the school district laid off 23 staff members the week before Thanksgiving. In all the district has cut the jobs of five teachers, two long-term substitutes, 11 paraprofessionals, and five non-union staff members.
Superintendent Jeffrey Szymaniak took the full blame for the cause of the deficit, citing that he did not pay enough attention to the payroll during the 2025 fiscal year. These cuts were made to prevent that deficit from continuing into the 2026 fiscal year.
However, the Whitman-Hanson community has made their opposition to this cut clear. On November 17, hundreds of students across the district walked out of school and went home in protest of these firings.
“It just hurts that the teachers that do the most for us are getting cut at a time like this,” one student remarked when asked why they walked out.
The walkout was organized by a student named Ella Leach, a junior at Whitman-Hanson Regional High School. Leach hoped the walkout would show those on the school committee how the student population felt.
For Ella Leach these layoffs have been particularly upsetting, as one of the cut staff members was someone who had been a huge support for her throughout her time in high school.
“I was very depressed freshman and sophomore year, and she is someone that really helped me through all that I went through, and I just can’t stand to see her leave before I graduate,” Leach explained.
The laid-off staff members’ last day was November 21, and now, so many students and staff are adjusting to these changes. Kevin Kavka, the current president of the Whitman-Hanson Education Association and a history teacher at Whitman-Hanson Regional High School, expressed his concern for the students that he and other teachers are feeling surrounding this sudden shift.
“There are going to be kids who, all of a sudden, have a new teacher, so we want to continue to support both the staff and the administration in that process,” Kavka said.
