Seniority issue raised in teacher layoffs (Feb. 22)
By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune
It would appear that in Madera, as much of the rest of the country, some teachers might be losing their jobs next year due to budgetary constraints.
Put another way, fewer dollars will be coming to the school district, and because of that and the fact that most of the school district’s expenditures go toward wages and benefits, there may be no other way to make cuts.
In other parts of the country, such reductions are a foregone conclusion, and school administrators have begun wringing their hands over which teachers to let go. They know that to some extent, their hands are tied. Most teacher contracts have seniority clauses — which is to say, “last hired, first fired.”
Administrators hate that. They would like to use this opportunity to get rid of older, more expensive teachers, rather than firing younger, less expensive teachers. School unions are resisting any change in the seniority language of their contracts.
“Unions say that seniority rules are the only objective way to carry out layoffs,” reports The Wall Street Journal in a story on the issue, “and that they protect teachers from the whims and bias of managers.”
School administrators would like to see seniority eliminated for another reason. They say seniority rules have protected poor teachers and rewarded them with years-in-service step increases.
You can’t blame the unions for trying to protect seniority language in their contracts. It has been good for their members. And, you can’t blame administrators for wanting to dodge the seniority speed bump when it comes to cost-cutting.
But the argument that seniority rules have protected poor teachers raises the question of why administrators didn’t move early on to identify and terminate less-than-adequate teachers. Perhaps the practice of winking at poor teacher performance is coming home to roost at a bad time.
I have to be a little on the Union side with this one. After jumping through all the required hoops to become an educator, I find that seniority is fair and just.
Yes, there are some “bad” teachers out there, just like there are parents that should never have children, actors that run for and get elected to public offices they should never hold, or commentators that know nothing about the issue in which they base their opinions on.
I have been in that last hired, first out the door in layoffs many a time. I understand that and accept that it goes with the job. However, our governor has signed a bill that will give school districts more say in who they can let go. Is it fair? Depends on which side of the fence you are on.
School administrators want cheap labor, in the form of first year teachers. The kind of persons that still live in apartments and will travel to other jobs at the end of their two years before they get tenured.
Older, veteran educators cost more, tend to have more experience and make their home in the community in which they work. Their professional education, and services they provide, is a positive investment in their community. Why on earth would you want them to pack up and move on every nine months? How will teachers that have no experience, hired and fired at the districts going to bring a better education to your child? They answer is that they are not.
I agree that really bad teachers should be fired just like any employee; (that is what the two-year probation period is for) but not just because the school district wants to save a few bucks.
I have been a teacher for going on six years now. Being a teacher is a very difficult job. We are parents, teachers and friends to our students. We are with our students 6,300 hours a school year, many students more than that.
There is so much training that we do and so much that we prepare. We may get a salary, but the amount of time that we spend in the classroom teaching and the amount of time we spend out of the classroom either preparing or learning to be a better and productive teacher is more than most people say they do in their jobs. The seniority list is one of the things that makes us feel secure in a job that we put all of our hearts into. We worry about so much during the school year, that having a secure job; is one less thing on our minds and allows us to focus towards the students.
It is very difficult to be a great teacher when you are worried that your job is being pulled. Seniority lists give us peace of mind. Yes there are teachers out there that probably shouldn’t be. But the administrators were given a chance in the beginning to get rid of them and there is also a process (although it may be a long one) to get them out. Maybe it isn’t that they are bad teachers, maybe it just isn’t the grade for them.
How come the principal at Madison leaves everday to go take an hour lunch. I have been by their twice, waited my whole lunch and she does not show. I had to get back to work, doesnt she?
Dixeland school is much needed. Madison on the other hand is so close to Alpha that it is not. Close Madison school and keep Dixeland open.