Ross Taylor, other board members, and MPS community, What about the KIDS and the district's strategic goals of improving student achievement and closing the gap?
The district has a right and a duty to exercise discretion in setting minimum qualifications at a level that is "reasonable" and certainly at a level that is required to ensure the safety of its students. With respect to some Special Ed teacher positions, the district's failure to exercise discretion in setting minimum teacher qualifications higher than "holds a Special Ed license" could lead to loss of Medicaid funding and lawsuits from parents because reassigned teachers don't have and can't get the training necessary to provide a safe environment for all of the students in their charge by the start of the 2004-2005 school year. The district opted for procedures that maximized the number of high-seniority elementary teachers who would be reassigned to other areas. And if enrollment in elementary grades continues to fall as projected, few if any of those teachers will have the opportunity to bid back into jobs as elementary classroom teachers. If they follow the advice of Ross Taylor and give up their licenses to teach in other areas, it is unlikely that they will have a job in the Minneapolis Public Schools next year. If the district had actually followed procedures called for by the MN Teacher Tenure Act and the teacher contract, the district should have determined which jobs were likely to be "excessed," advised affected teachers that they would need to bid for available jobs as soon as possible, and opened up bidding as soon as possible after April 1, 2004. Realignment of senior teachers should be a *last resort.* As far as I have been able to determine, about 150 high-seniority elementary teachers have been realigned but only about 125 tenured teachers held teacher positions in 2003-2004 that are to be excessed. The district's 2004-2005 budget calls for a net reduction of 210 teacher positions from 2003-2004 due to an anticipated enrollment of 4600 K-12 students, yet the district laid off 608 teachers. That is certainly excessive, can't be good for the KIDS, and is clearly illegal. The MN Teacher tenure states that "...The board may place on unrequested leave of absence, without pay or fringe benefits, as many teachers as may be necessary because of discontinuance of position, lack of pupils, financial limitations, or merger of classes caused by consolidation of districts..." MN Teacher Tenure Act, 122A.40 Sub. 11 It is clear that the district did not place on unrequested leave of absence "as many teachers as may be necessary" because of cuts in the 2004-2005 budget. The procedures followed by the district clearly violated the law in this respect. Unfortunately, the district is not being accused of violating the MN Teacher tenure act in any way in a lawsuit filed by Gregg Corwin on behalf of a group of MPS teachers over the realignment process. By failing to dispute the district's claim to be following the law and the teachers contract, the lawsuit actually helps to legitimize the district's actions, and puts the district in a very strong position to defend itself in Court. -Doug Mann, King Field www.educationright.com Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] In a message dated 8/9/2004 10:50:22 AM Central Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: << Dear concerned citizens, I have received many e-mails from you and other citizens concerning process for realigning teachers as required by the Teachers, Tenure Law and the Strand Decision. I do appreciate your messages because you tend to be strong supporters of the Minneapolis Schools and you want to keep the good things that we have going. In your letters you tend to assume that the School Board has discretion that our Legal Counsel advises us we do not have. In response to your letters, the School Board directed the Administration to explore the possibility of expanding administrative discretion for realignment of teachers. The response of the Teachersâ Union to our request for greater discretion was that it was being asked to do something it cannot lawfully do. The Districtâs Executive Director of Employee Relations, Ratwik, Rozak (outside legal counsel) and the Districtâs General Counsel all advise the Board to continue the current layoff procedures required by the Teachersâ Tenure Law and the Strand Decision. We are advised that a legal challenge to these procedures would be easily defended. Your messages tend to be in opposition to the current procedures. I can see that the disruptions you report hurt excellent relationships that had been established in the schools. Nevertheless, there is another side to the issue. Last week a principal of a high-poverty school indicated to me that the realignment process prevented devastating layoffs in her school. For every teacher that was âStranded,â into a different field of licensure, a tenured teacher was continued. Thus the Strand decision process contributed to stability of elementary-certified teachers in her school. One of the most disturbing things to me about the present situation is that if teachers had seen it coming, they could have expunged from their records certifications that could have âStrandedâ them. At least, they will have a chance to do that for next year. These are trying times in which we must all stick together. For next year, we can work together to seek legislation that will both help our students and protect our teachersâ rights. The enemies of public education are happy when public education stakeholders fight each other. For the good of our students, we must not let that happen. Sincerely, Ross Taylor, Minneapolis School Board Member >> REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
