When admins screw up, they take it out on teachers

[proud2BlibKansan]

Emergency declaration proves divisive for KC school system

By RICK MONTGOMERY

With the first academic year of a transformed Kansas City school system only weeks away, detente among Superintendent John Covington, the teachers union and some board members appears to be cracking.

Unexpectedly, the superintendent this week exercised an option that school officials were hoping to avoid — declaring an “emergency” relating to the teachers’ contract.

Needing a unanimous vote of the school board to allow parts of that contract to be renegotiated, the superintendent didn’t even get a chance to explain his proposal at a meeting Wednesday night.

That’s because nobody seconded board member Arthur Benson’s motion to take up the proposal.

Benson said later that the emergency declaration was necessary to allow principals at several schools to hang on to non-tenured teachers who otherwise may be terminated under contract rules.

“Unless something can be worked out, it is in my view a substantial setback to the administration’s ability to staff schools in the best interests of the students,” Benson said.

More ... http://www.kansascity.com/2010/07/15/2086938/emergency-declaration-proves-divisive.html