Wednesday, March 21, 2001

Teachers' dismissal policy delayed By DAVE HAMRICK dhamrick@TheCitizenNews.com The Fayette County School System isn't quite ready to move forward with a non-renewal policy for teachers. The Fayette County Association of Educators presented a "fair dismissal" policy to the Board of Education last month and urged its adoption as an incentive for recruitment and retention of teachers. Board members agreed, but want to fashion their own policy. They had intended to discuss the policy during Monday's board meeting, but board attorney Phil Hartley hasn't finished looking over the proposed policy yet, said school Superintendent John DeCotis. Under the proposal, a teacher would receive "quality teacher" status after signing a contract for a fourth consecutive year. Those teachers would then be entitled to renewal of their contracts unless there is just cause for non-renewal. If the plan is approved, the board would have to notify a teacher by April 15 of his or her third full year of employment to avoid attainment of the protected status. In that case, the teacher would be on probation and the administrator involved would be required to develop an improvement plan to help that teacher achieve quality status. Once that status is achieved, the teacher would be entitled to a series of notices and hearings if the board intends to end his or her contract. If enacted, this policy would affect 114 teachers already employed, according to comments made at a recent school board meeting. The matter will be moved to the board's next meeting, April 2.   What do you think of this story? Click here to send a message to the editor. Back to News Home Page | Back to the top of the page