http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/5497907.html
Why did the district decide that it would ax 23 of its 88 music teachers in June?
Steve Brandt wrote that "vocal music teacher, Tara Stevenson, is gone from Field School in Minneapolis, another example of a talented young teacher lost to a seniority-driven layoff system." Blaming Ms. Stevenson's layoff on the seniority system does not tell the whole story. Before the seniority rules took effect the decision to cut vocal music in the district was made. No seniority rule or state law dictated that vocal music should be cut. That was an administrative decision made with varying amounts of parent and teacher input district wide.
Later in the article Brandt says, "The use of seniority to determine layoffs is mandated by state law. Its defenders say it's a fair system in the absence of another means of determining who stays and who gets cut." I'm not sure which state law Steve is referencing or why state law is being referenced. The seniority rules are a provision of the teacher contract which the administration helped write. I am not a defender of the seniority system; I would much rather see a system that took into account many more factors than seniority. The problem is that another system is not currently in place and putting one in place will take time and money - lots of both.
It's not news that the teacher tenure rules are being challenged. Ideas about what should be in place instead, would be news.
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