A new report shows the Jefferson County Public Schools’ teachers’ union contract has many problems and is well behind current policy in more progressive school districts in Kentucky.
According to the recently approved “Analysis of Collective Bargaining Agreements in Kentucky Districts,” Jefferson County’s union contract:
• Is the most “cumbersome”
• “Strongly dictates the process for staffing schools in the district,” unlike other district agreements
• Unlike the other eight district contracts, remains “seniority driven”
• Constrains principals and school councils from retaining quality, newly hired teachers, allowing senior teachers to bump new hires with a “paper transfer” even if no opening is available at the school
• Might run afoul of Kentucky statutes
• Uses dubiously administered “Memorandums of Agreement” that might hide important contract modifications between the superintendent and the union from the visibility of school board members who are supposed to approve the document
• Prohibits using student performance data as part of the evaluation process for teachers
Staffing is key
Most of the eight other Kentucky districts with union contracts used to have similar staffing restrictions, but the new report from the Kentucky Office of Education Accountability (OEA) says all the other districts have moved on in the past decade to more progressive staff management agreements with their unions.
Under those much better agreements, superintendents, principals and school councils face far less interference in teacher hiring and placement due to outdated seniority rules. The OEA reports that administrators in districts that have dropped contractual seniority transfer guarantees find the current process to fill teacher vacancies to be far superior to past policy.
In stark contrast, contractual interference resulted in Jefferson County doing a terrible job in re-staffing its Persistently Low-Achieving Schools. Many of the new teachers in those schools are brand new and inexperienced. That is a recipe for continued failure that can be laid firmly at the feet of the uncaring union leadership in Jefferson County.
There is a lot more of important information in the new OEA report – especially regarding more problems in Jefferson County. The report was approved last Tuesday by the Kentucky Legislature’s Education Assessment and Accountability Review Subcommittee but still has not been released in the Legislative Research Commission’s web site. I’ll let you know as soon as it is.