Providence teacher dismissals seen as blow to seniority system

[NewEngland4Obama]

ROVIDENCE — No matter how you slice it, school experts say, the decision Thursday by the city School Board to notify teachers that they might be terminated at the end of the school year strikes at the heart of their union contract’s seniority system.

Mayor Angel Taveras says that the decision he recommended to the board is strictly about balancing the city and the School Department budgets. He says that termination will save money because teachers who are dismissed and not rehired will not end up in a substitute teaching pool.

But David V. Abbott, the state’s deputy education commissioner, said the difference between layoffs and dismissals is this: When a teacher is laid off under state statute, he or she is put on a recall list. Although that teacher is no longer working and no longer paid, that person exists in an employment “limbo.” The teacher hasn’t been actually dismissed.

If a job becomes available for which that teacher is qualified, that person must be rehired based on seniority.

“If you are laid off, you have the right of recall,” Abbott said Friday. “You still have one stick in your bundle. If I’m dismissed, I’m out of work and I need to be rehired.”

In effect, every teacher who is terminated has to reapply for his or her job as would any new teacher entering the system.


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http://www.projo.com/news/content/whats_next_providence_02-26-11_MCMN0FP_v24.193f436.html

[Starry Messenger]

1. If they can't oppress you outright, they'll just kill you with semantics.

Note to hair-splitters: being technically not-fired but unable to earn money teaching isn't any better than being fired.

[madrchsod]

2. duncan did this in chicago....

and he got his ass handed to him.

http://brianlbanks.posterous.com/black-chicago-teachers-win-discrimination-law

remember rhode island?

http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=1218§ion=Article

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/education-secretary-duncan/obamas-unfortunate-comments-on.html

and here`s one more on a long list..

http://www.good.is/post/results-at-arne-duncan-s-first-chicago-turnaround-school-raise-efficacy-and-legal-questions/



but you noticed this did`t stop obama from giving his buddy the ability to do this to our nation.

[provis99]

3. that way the can pay them as though they were rookie teachers.

[Igel]

4. Depends on the school district.

A lot of them have built-in seniority systems. You have college credits beyond your bachelors, your masters, or --most importantly here--so many years teaching experience and your pay gets bumped up.

It's how school districts recruit from other districts. If you have an opening in physics and the best applicant is from a neighboring district with 10 years experience, you don't want to ignore that in making a pay offer. You'd be stuck always recruiting either newbies, the desperate, or refugees from just poor states.

Ignoring seniority probably has nothing to do with paying old teachers new-hire wages. Probably has to do with rehiring younger teachers that have lower salaries.

I also think it has to do with salary classification. Around here they're hiring a lot of certified young teachers as paraprofessionals, explicitly saying that they're doing this because they think they'd be good teachers. If they didn't get work as teachers they'd get some other job and leave the field. If they're poorly paid paraprofessionals they can be hired as teachers next year or the following year and the district gets their skills this year.

[yurbud]

5. how is that legal if they have a contract?