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Teacher seniority reform bill to have little impact in near future
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LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Gov. Brian Sandoval and prominent education reformers pushed hard to change the "last in, first out" rules governing teacher layoffs in Nevada.
In the end, the Republican governor won legislative support to end the policy, which protects veteran teachers during layoffs while younger and sometimes better teachers are let go. But the legislation is not expected to have much of an immediate effect in the Clark County School District.
District officials don't expect teacher layoffs will be necessary in the near future because the school system is getting about $250 million more in state funding than was anticipated for 2011-12.
The seniority reform bill, which still must be signed by Sandoval, wouldn't go into effect until Oct. 1.
Ruben Murillo, president of the Clark County Education Association, which represents district teachers, said the public should not be under the impression that seniority is at death's door.
"It's alive and well," Murillo said. "It will play a part in the reduction in force process. The only thing that has changed is how we do business."
The legislation mandates that seniority can't be the only factor in determining layoffs. Other factors, such as performance, the teacher's subject area, and criminal and disciplinary records, must be taken into consideration.
Creating new procedures for layoffs will be subject to negotiations between district and union officials.
The Clark County Association of School Administrators and Professional-technical Employees already has agreed that reductions affecting administrators that can't be made through attrition or resignations will be decided by merit. Those with unsatisfactory job evaluations would be among the first to go.
Murillo wouldn't comment on how layoffs for teachers should be organized. "That's for the negotiating table," he said.
Superintendent Dwight Jones has stressed holding teachers and schools accountable, but district officials would not comment on the new procedures, except to say that teacher performance will play a role.
There are 1,000 teachers waiting for job assignments for the coming school year. They're expected to be placed once the district restores class sizes to current levels and more job openings are created by retirements and turnover.
Teachers are not quite out of harm's way because the district still must close a $150 million shortfall in its 2011-12 budget caused by declining local revenues. Job cuts might be necessary if agreement on employee concessions, such as pay raise freezes, can't be reached by July 1, the start of the new fiscal year.
If layoffs become necessary, Bill Garis, the district's acting director of human resources, said the district would follow the current contract, which bases a reduction in force on seniority.
Victor Joecks, communications director for the conservative Nevada Policy Research Institute, thinks the reform is relatively minor. He criticized it for maintaining seniority as a factor and subjecting the procedures for layoffs to collective bargaining.
"A more substantive reform would be putting all teachers on one-year contracts," Joecks said. "Then it's not even an issue of having budget cuts and whether you should fire bad teachers. The issue should be if you have a bad teacher in the classroom, who's failing the students, that teacher needs to find another line of work."
Contact reporter James Haug at jhaug@reviewjournal.com or 702-374-7917.
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William924: You obviously are retired or independently wealthy. Otherwise I cannot see why anyone would want a union free state. That is unless you want to run everyone out of this state. I am not a union person, and I know of abuses, but unions SHOULD make sure that worker rights are not abused. I have seen many abuses. Go ahead and be a social darwinist, and at the same time try to fine qualified teachers to move here. They won't if they do not have any security. Go back and read about US History before 100 years ago and tell me with a straight face that is the kind of working environment you would want one of your loved ones to be exposed to. I doubt you would.
How many bad teachers are there in the CCSD? Are the poor achievement, test score results, drop out rates and graduation rates the result of only bad teachers? With Governor Sandoval's educational improvement plan to be in place in the very near future , just how soon will Nevada have only good teachers in all of its schools? Will we see the elimination of all bad teachers in 1, 2, 3, 4 years, more than that, or will this plan not work at all? He made his proposal like a little kid wishing for a special present for Christmas, not sure what he would get, only hoping he would end up with only good teachers in just a few short years. This is a pipe dream that will never be realized because it simply is not workable. Merit pay promises are hollow, empty gift packages that will eventually drive the better and more experienced teachers away from Nevada. The NY Yankees can offer ARod million dollar bonuses for hitting x number of homeruns in a season, but Merit bonuses for students meeting certain test goals or graduation goals depends on more unaccountable factors that hitting a ball out of the park. As of this date, no one has described just exactly how this merit pay offer will work, what will be considered merit and what is not, how much is a single merit pay bonus worth, is it for one season, is it permanently added to the annual salary of the worthwhile teacher, and what about those that do not teach in subjects required on the state competency exit exams for graduation, are they included as potential merit pay candidates? This is untenable, unworkable and so far a fairy tale to placate the education and teacher haters who want to end public education.
One of the things I hear educators complain about is the transiency of the students in Clark County. It is not uncommon for a 5th grade student to have attended 2-3 elementary schools. How can they tie that new teacher's pay raise to the performance of a student who a.) hasn't had enough educational consistency to make average progress and b.) who that teacher has not taught....? Just wondering about how they're going to work out those kind of details which will have a big effect on merit pay.
We need to make Nevada a Union free state. Set a real example for the rest of the US!
It seems rather strange to me that all of a sudden there is $250 million dollars for education after the republicans got what they wanted.
Enough taxation already. You say that it is so hard to get rid of bad teachers? No it's not. Not if you know how to do it. Most administrators are too lazy to do what is necessary to get rid of these poor teachers.
I have been with the CCSD for 11 year, and have watched administers move every two years. Maybe the news can look into the average length an administrator stays at a school. All this movement is bad. The administrator comes in with new ideas and programs, but is not there long enough to follow through.
Just a thought. . . . Administers are the teachers leader in other words the teachers teacher the one teacher’s look to for guidance, support, and motivation. I am for education reform, but it needs to start at the top. Teachers effectiveness is a reflection of the administers effectiveness. Under the system we have now bad teachers can be fired it does require the administer to do their job, and document, and try help that teacher. However, that is not what happens. It is far easier for the administer to make that teachers life hell, and go after them. So in the end the teacher transfers to a different school, and the problem has not been addressed.
I was not observed once this year, but my administer wrote my evaluation with 4 dates on it of when she had come an observed me.
Who is evaluating the administrators? Are they doing their job?
If part of teachers evaluations are going to be linked to student achievement . . . administers evaluations should be linked to their teachers effectiveness.
It doesn't take decades of experience to determine if someone isn't doing their job. Are there attitude issues? Attendance issues? Do their students consistently need remedial work? Much as any other line of work there are those that excel and others just watching the clock. The problem with government employees is how entrenched they can become and how difficult it is remove a bad employee. Some people have a natural talent to teach others, why should they be penalized because they're younger or newer? Better a newer, caring, enthusiastic teacher than a stuck in the rut, counting the days to retire, uncaring one.
How is it fair to have an administrator with fewer than 10 years of actual classroom teaching experience evaluate the teaching skills of teachers with far more experience? Some of the younger administrators that have been added as building administrators lack the background, experience and daily knowledge of what, how and why of teaching methods. No major league sports franchise would hire a player with 3-5 years as a manager of major league sports team. It is ludicrous to think that an inexperienced administrator with 'milk on his/her lips and wet behind the years' is capable of knowing the intricacies of teaching to the point of being able to evaluate more experienced cadre. Too many of these younger, inexperienced administrators are looking at advancement opportunities by harassing teachers to establish themselves as a strict, strong administrator.
H