General Assembly Tackles Teacher Firings
Friday, March 11, 2011
The controversy over the firings of Providence teachers spilled over to the Statehouse this week, where lawmakers have filed competing bills to extend the statutory March 1 deadline by which school districts must notify teachers of possible layoffs.
The City of Providence—along with the state associations for superintendents and school committees—has argued that March 1 is simply too early to know exactly how many teachers will need to be dismissed.
John Pini, executive director of the Rhode Island School Superintendent Association, said school districts simply don’t have their budgets for the next year done by March 1. “It’s not just having a budget in place,” Pini added. “It’s about having all the financial information you need to make a sound decision.”
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThe House bill, sponsored by Rep. Russell Jackson, D-Newport, would extend the deadline to June 1. The Senate version is backed by Louis DiPalma, D-Middletown. Both bills are still before the Labor Committees in each chamber of the General Assembly.
Union bill would 'further cripple' Providence
However, the teacher unions are backing an alternative bill that not only extends the deadline to May 15 but also goes further than the other bills in mandating that laid off teachers have to be rehired on the basis of seniority. The bill is sponsored by Rep Scott Guthrie, D-Coventry.
Providence Schools Superintendent Thomas Brady says the bill could force communities to lay off teachers, rather than fire them because of budget cuts, which is what the city did.
He is warning that the bill could cost the city up to $20 million—something it can hardly afford when it is facing a $110 million deficit next year.
“[Given] this fiscal challenge the Providence School District will need to close some of our educational facilities in order to reduce the deficit,” Brady writes in his letter to the House committee hearing the bill.
He added: “If, for example, 200 teachers are to be dismissed as a result of these school closures, and if [the bill] is approved requiring that we instead lay them off, the legislation could cost the City of Providence upwards of $20 million; a cost that would further cripple the financial state of the city.”
That is because the Providence teacher contract has a provision requiring that any laid off teacher enter a special pool of substitute teachers—a status that entitles them to receive full salary and benefits, costing $100,000 a teacher.
The bill is supported by both the NEA Rhode Island and the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals.
The bill's sponsor, Guthrie, told GoLocalProv that he introduced it not just in response to the Providence terminations. He said he is also worried that once the new education funding formula takes effect, school districts that are receiving less money from the state may have to close schools and lay off teachers. He also said he believes it’s important to maintain seniority rights when laid off teachers are rehired.
Current deadline ‘not fair to educators, administrators, and students’
His bill is currently pending before the House Committee on Health, Education, and Welfare. The chairman of that committee, Joseph M. McNamara, D-Cranston, Warwick, told GoLocalProv that he prefers the bill that extends the deadline to June 1, rather than the Guthrie version. In fact, as his committee was holding a hearing on the Guthrie bill this week, McNamara excused himself so he could attend the House Labor Committee to testify in support of the other bill.
McNamara, who is the director of the Pawtucket Alternative Learning Program, said the focus needs to be on changing the deadline. “Changing the date is tremendous,” McNamara said. “It will help us as educators and administrators who have actually had to issue the pink slips on March to some extremely talented teachers.”
“To me that March 1 date is not fair to educators, administrators, and students,” McNamara added. “Students end up losing because of it.”
He said the concerns raised by Brady over the alternative May 15 bill were valid. And he said the other changes Guthrie wants to make to the existing law only “muddle” the main issue of changing the deadline.
The Rhode Association of School Committees also opposes the effort to preserve teacher seniority in the rehiring process. “It has a disruptive impact on a given school,” said Executive Director Tim Duffy. “It can wreak havoc on the system.”
He said seniority rules could force districts to rehire older teachers who may not be the best teachers for a position that opens up. For example, a laid off teacher who taught in the humanities, might be rehired on the basis of seniority to a math position—over another teacher who is more qualified but does not have as much seniority, according to Duffy.
General Assembly leaders split over bills
House Speaker Gordon Fox and Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed have sketched out different approaches to the issue.
Fox spokesman Larry Berman said the Speaker has yet to take a public position on any of the bills that extend the deadline. “He has not taken a position,” Berman said. “He has to review the testimony of the hearings that were held on the bills.”
Paiva Weed, meanwhile, is coming out in support of the extension. “I am supportive of changing the date by which teachers must be notified that their contract may not be renewed in the upcoming school year to later in the calendar year,” Paiva Weed said. “Such a change will give school committees and municipalities more time to realistically assess their budgets and avoid causing the unnecessary anxiety that inevitably accompanies a potential layoff notice.”
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