Hite suspending seniority rules for September, going to Supreme Court
by Dale Mezzacappa on Mar 24 2014 Posted in Letters
With labor negotiations stalled, Superintendent William Hite said Monday that he intends to impose a system for assigning teachers to schools next year that eliminates seniority as a factor and instead gives principals the power to fill all vacancies and assemble staff.
“It is our intention to implement a range of work-rule reforms, and these include teacher assignment and transfer, layoff and recall, staffing levels, leveling, and the use of prep time,” Hite said in an interview.
The District is filing a motion asking the state Supreme Court to affirm its legal right to make such changes unilaterally, Hite said.
Come September, “all openings ... will be filled through the site selection process,” Hite said. Now, only some positions – about half, Hite said – can be filled that way. Under the contract that expired in August, schools had to vote each year to become or remain a “site selection” school.
Since the ability of schools to choose site selection was introduced in the 2002 contract, dozens of schools have chosen to do so.
The rules will also give principals “flexibility” to use teachers’ daily 45-minute preparation period for professional development or instructional activities, meaning group discussions of student performance data, teaching methods, and other matters. Currently, principals have no control over individual teacher-prep periods, but some buy "extra" preps for the purpose of teacher meetings and