CMS Preps For 600 Teacher Layoffs
Gorman said performance evaluations would be the driving factor that determines which teachers find themselves at the front of the line for layoffs. Tenure and job specificity would also play a role; barring low performance evaluations, for example, some teachers would be protected from cuts. Those positions include math, science, career technical education, health occupations, exceptional children, English as a second language, Montessori, and foreign language teachers where replacements might be hard to find.
Teach for America teachers ending their first year of a two-year commitment would also be protected, as would teachers who were recruited by principals to low-performing schools as part of the district’s strategic staffing initiative.
But Gorman stressed, “Performance comes first in all areas.” The board’s approval of criteria for a reduction in force, he said, was only the first step in the process. Layoffs might be mitigated if the district’s budget situation improves, or if the board decided to change direction and pursue other alternatives.
“It can be stopped and individuals can be brought back,” Gorman said. “However, if we don’t start this process by a particular date we lose the opportunity, which is probably not the best word, the ability to have it as a tool do that; we lose that opportunity if we don’t start this process.”
While the prospect of cutting teacher positions was painful, board member Trent Merchant said the approach Gorman was taking, based on performance in the classroom as a top priority, was appropriate and necessary, given the budget cliff CMS faces.
“Eighty-four percent of our budget is in people – salary and benefits,” Merchant said. “As painful as this is, you have helped us to keep our eye on of our commitments, which is to operate a school system that is fiscally sound and fiscally responsible and doing so in a way that will help us to best advance our mission which is to maximize achievement.”
McGarry, who slammed the teacher evaluation process CMS used last year to layoff teachers as “unprofessional, sloppy and unfair,” offered a different perspective.
“I think we’re at this point because CMS has been spending out of control for too many years,” she said. “So then, of course, the last two years it’s all of a sudden we have to do something to become more efficient and more effective.”
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