Superintendent Berman reverses plan: Won't recommend closing Frost Middle School

I hate to say I told you so.

Jefferson County Public Schools Superintendent Sheldon Berman is already backing off the originally announced plan to close the terribly under-performing Robert Frost Middle School.

Now, he says he will just remove the principal and 50 percent of the teachers.

There is a MAJOR problem with this new approach in any Jefferson County school.

The teachers' union contract ties Berman’s hands tightly on staffing changes through its seniority rules. Berman does not have a free hand to shift teachers around.

This move will probably just load up Frost Middle with a lot of low-experience teachers.

It already happened in the Fredrick Law Olmstead North and South Middle Schools. Berman controls those schools now as a result of a decision from the Kentucky Board of Education. That decision transferred control of the School Based Decision Making Councils several years ago. Those schools saw extensive staffing changes but still wound up with a lot of inexperienced teachers.

Why should we expect anything different this time?