Judge tells JCTA "No"

Kentucky children are guaranteed a fundamental right to an adequate education by our Constitution. But teachers have no such guarantee of employment - especially when they are under a one-year contract - and especially when their performance is generally lousy or specifically harmful.

This from Toni at the C-J:

Judge rules against request to rehire teachers
Judge denies request for immediate action

Jefferson County Public Schools will not have to rehire 18 teachers who were let go for alleged disciplinary and performance issues, at least for now.

Circuit Court Judge James Shake refused yesterday to grant a temporary injunction that would have given the teachers their jobs back, saying the law "does not provide for a right of employment as to these employees."

But an attorney for the teachers' union said he was disappointed with the judge's decision and will continue to work to have the teachers reinstated.

"This is a preliminary stage of the lawsuit … a final decision on whether they can be hired is many months away," said Everett Hoffman, representing the Jefferson County Teachers Association. "At that time, the court will decide whether they have a right to be reinstated and if they deserve back pay and other damages."

Tyson Gorman, the attorney representing the school district, said he has filed a motion for summary judgment and hopes the case soon will be dismissed.

"We are pleased with the judge's decision today," Gorman said. "This is a tremendous step in the right direction and a great victory for he district and the children of Jefferson County." ...

...According to documents filed in court by the school district, 14 of the 18 teachers had significant misconduct or disciplinary problems in addition to having received a poor evaluation for the 2007-08 school year...

...In his ruling, Shake said the plaintiffs "have failed to meet their burden of supporting the motion for injunctive relief."

He added that "while there is clearly a substantive question of law at stake, there has been no showing that a concrete personal right is in jeopardy and no showing of injury that is not compensable by monetary damages."

Two teachers in the lawsuit, Bryan Beeler and Cynthia Norton, said they were disappointed with the ruling.

Beeler, whose contract was not renewed for failure to maintain a learning environment and poor performance, received two excellent evaluations from Southern Leadership Academy before his arrival at Knight Middle School last year.

"I am not a bad teacher and I believe that my record shows that," he said. "I received one written reprimand in three years. It never even crossed my mind that I would be looking for another job at the end of the year. When I got my nonrenewal letter, it came as a complete shock to me."

Norton, who taught at Doss High School, received reprimands for tardiness and failure to follow proper procedures in securing a substitute when absent. She also was suspended for five days for calling students a "bunch of assholes."

In her file, Norton admitted it was an "inappropriate thing to say."

Yesterday, she said the incident was "completely mischaracterized."

"I know that I have things that I needed to improve on, but they never gave me the chance … I didn't know that it would be the end of a career," she said.

In a related story, the Courier-Journal ran the word "assholes" on the front page of the paper, above the fold.

JCTA Argues: Poor Performing Teachers are owed the Chance to become "the Best Teachers We Have"

Public schools are in the people business. Educators do a lot of good for a lot of folks every day - but the school system is not a benevolent society. Neither is it a employment agency for adults.

Countless teachers enhance the lives of Kentucky students in immeasurable ways every school day.

But a relatively small number of Kentucky teachers don't.

Some are simply lousy instructors who lack the skills needed to be effective with kids. Some could be effective, if they weren't so lazy. And some are abject disasters - acting inappropriately toward students and doing great harm in the process.

The public is best served by building the capacity of every school faculty in the state. Keep the best teachers. Keep the average teachers and help them get better. But discard those who can't cut it.

This from Toni Konz at C-J:

Judge asked to order teacher rehiring

A Jefferson Circuit Court judge will likely decide this week whether to grant a temporary injunction that would force Jefferson County Public Schools to rehire 18 teachers who were let go for alleged disciplinary and performance issues.

Judge James Shake heard three hours of testimony yesterday and arguments by attorneys from the school district and the teachers union.

The request for an injunction, filed in May as part of a lawsuit by the Jefferson County Teachers Association, would force the district to rehire all 18 teachers and reinstate their health and insurance benefits, which are set to expire July 31.

Everett Hoffman, an attorney representing the union, said Superintendent Sheldon Berman decided not to renew the contracts of the 18 teachers without giving them a chance to correct deficiencies.

"The district's policy and the labor agreement with JCTA requires that a teacher be given a 12-week opportunity to address their deficiencies before they are nonrenewed," Hoffman said. "That did not happen."

Berman has maintained that the district doesn't need to follow those procedures because it did not terminate the teachers but simply chose not to renew their one-year contracts.

He also said it is his responsibility to ensure the district has the highest-caliber instructors.

Hoffman said the 18 teachers will suffer irreparable harm if they are not rehired. "Some of these teachers have medical conditions; some are taking care of family members; some are single mothers or single parents; some could lose their homes if they do not get their jobs back," he said.

But Tyson Gorman, representing the school district, said the job loss doesn't rise to the level of irreparable harm.

"We don't doubt that there are hardships that will be faced by the plaintiffs through the loss of their employment and loss of income … but at the end of the day we are talking about things that are ordinary and economic," he said.

Gorman argued it's the students who are facing irreparable harm, on the "verge of getting back 18 teachers … who don't have very good performance and documented misconduct issues."

Hoffman said the lawsuit is not about "trying to keep bad teachers in schools."

"This is about the policies that are designed to help teachers become the best they can be," he said. "And when the superintendent and district bypass those procedures, they are denying our teachers that opportunity, but they are also denying the students in Jefferson County the opportunity of having some of the best teachers we have."