Superintendent: Bad tenured teachers hard to fire

This from the AP by way of WTOP:

MIDDLE ISLAND, N.Y. (AP) - Few people know better than school superintendent Allan Gerstenlauer that disciplining a tenured teacher can be a long and expensive process.

An English teacher in his Long Island district remains on the payroll, earning an annual salary of $113,559, even after pleading guilty earlier this month to drunken driving charges _ her fifth DWI arrest in seven years.

The teacher will remain on paid leave at least until a disciplinary hearing in August, and it will be up to an impartial arbitrator to decide whether she needs to be fired as she faces a likely prison sentence.

"It is very frustrating that the process takes so long," Gerstenlauer conceded.

The case illustrates a nagging problem in school districts in New York and elsewhere around the country: firing bad teachers. It is also part of the ongoing debate over education reform and the role tenure plays in the process.

Advocates for reform cite a list of egregious examples they say demonstrate why teacher tenure rules need to be overhauled.

In New York City, it often costs taxpayers $250,000 just to fire one incompetent
teacher. Some teachers remain on the payroll even after being convicted of serious felonies, requiring districts to hold disciplinary hearings behind prison walls.

"Protecting jobs of adults without regard to how well their students perform almost certainly will lead to greater costs, stagnant academic achievement, and greater dysfunction of our public education system," says tenure foe B. Jason Brooks of the Foundation for Education Reform & Accountability.

Richard Iannuzzi, president of New York State United Teachers, counters: "Tenure provides the right to due process. It is consistent with the American way; a person is innocent until proven guilty."

The issue has been gaining attention in New York.

New York legislators and Gov. David Paterson agreed this month on a bill that will automatically revoke the certification of teachers convicted of sex crimes against students. The law would end what is now often a yearlong administrative process to revoke the licenses of teachers and other school employees convicted of sex crimes against students.

And earlier this year, the Center for Union Facts launched a $1 million ad campaign featuring a billboard in Times Square, offering $10,000 to what it considers the 10 worst teachers in the country to quit their careers. The group claims unions back policies that protect all but the worst teachers.

"Paying teachers and school administrators based on how well they do their job rather than how long they've had their job makes sense," said Brooks.

Because tenure laws are different in every state, comparisons on the time and expense involved in disciplining or firing teachers are difficult. In New York state, the process can take six to 18 months and can run into hundreds of thousands of dollars, including the teachers' pay and fees for lawyers, stenographers and arbitrators.

In New York City, the cost to fire one incompetent tenured teacher is about $250,000, said Education Department spokeswoman Melody Meyer. She said that of 55,000 teachers on staff, 10 were fired last year.

"The chancellor would prefer that teachers be taken off the payroll while going through arbitration," Meyer said. "If the decision is in favor of the teacher, that money would be paid back with interest."

Dave Albert, a spokesman for the New York State School Boards Association, said that from 1995 to 2005 there were 633 disciplinary hearings statewide, 60 percent of them in New York City. Of the 633 cases, 184 resulted in termination and 234 teachers were placed on unpaid suspension.

The Washington-based Center for Union Facts says that from 1995 to 2005, 112 Los
Angeles tenured teachers faced termination _ 11 per year _ out of 43,000. It also said 47 New Jersey teachers out of 100,000 were fired in a 10-year period.

New York teachers are granted tenure after three years. Before it is granted, Iannuzzi says, teachers undergo a constant series of reviews. "The reality is that during that process, all the cards are in the hands of the school district," he said. "When a teacher receives tenure, it is a real milestone. It is recognition that the person is qualified to be there."

Iannuzzi contends teachers should not bear all the blame. "Often the time and cost is the result of an excessive charge, or that the charges are baseless," he said. "It still takes a long time to weed through the case to learn this."

Gerstenlauer, the Longwood school superintendent, declined to discuss specifics in the case of the teacher with the drunken driving arrest, citing personnel confidentiality issues.

He said part of the reason for the drawn-out process is staff cuts in the state education department. Department representatives did not respond to calls seeking comment.

"I'm not looking to shortchange anybody's due process. I'm looking at a system that would allow us to move through at a reasonable pace, that would allow the district to move forward and the employee to move forward," the superintendent said.

Don't Just Sit There....Fire somebody !

David Adams at the Bluegrass Institute reported yesterday on an anti-union group that is offering to "pay the ten worst union-protected teachers in America $10,000 apiece to get out of the classroom - for good."

The Center for Union Facts presents state data on union activity, including financial resources, but focuses on the percentage of teachers fired by the states - as some magically omniscient measure of teacher quality.

The logic is - private school teachers are better because more of them get fired.

David would have to tell us how many folks at BGI were fired last year - but I'm not sure how that would relate to the quality of their work anyway.

This is clearly a cynical gimmick designed to ramp up anti-public school sentiment.

But having said that...there certainly are times when bad teachers have either been protected directly by unions or indirectly by union-won protections. Unions were the result of management abuses and they serve a useful purpose. Teacher tenure is not a bad thing...except that... sometimes it is.

Take for example a developing case out of northern Kentucky. The Cincinnati Enquirer has been reporting on a middle school music teacher who apparently has had inappropriate feelings for some of his female students.

A teenage girl at Holmes Junior/Senior High School said James Chase, then a music teacher there, was "making her feel uncomfortable."

She told a teacher that Chase had called her a "sexy lady" in December 2006, and that he entered the choir room at Holmes and put his arm around her on Jan. 11, 2007.

The teacher reported the two incidents to school and district officials the next day. They notified the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, as required by state law and district policy.

State officials declined to pursue action against Chase saying the complaint was a "school issue."

But as things sometimes happen, it was not the union, but the girls parents who complained that the issue had been "blown out of proportion" and they declined to assist the district's investigation. Chase was directed to stay away from the girl but received no reprimand.

Because Chase was tenured, when Holmes needed to reduce a music teacher, instead of being released, Chase was transferred to Two Rivers Middle School.

Since then it turns out,

Chase was arrested Monday ...following a four-month investigation into his alleged ties to a pornographic Web site. Police say they discovered hundreds of pornographic pictures of children ranging in age from toddler to 10 years old...

...He has been suspended without pay pending an investigation into the allegations against him by the school district. His salary is approximately $62,600.

Tenure, and transfer policies are designed for the reasonable protection of teachers who deserve that protection. But the unanticipated consequences usually include problem teachers being passed from school to school - an age-old practice known among school principals as "pass the trash."

Photo by Patrick Reddy at the Enquirer:
James Chase appeared before district judge Doug Grothaus on Wednesday via video link from the Kenton County Jail. Chase, a music teacher at Two Rivers Middle School, and choir director at Holmes for two decades, faces child-pornography charges. His attorney sought a continuance until Friday.