Fayette County Teachers' Contracts

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the teachers' contracts that Fayette County has offered teachers for the 09-10 school year appear to state that the board of education can adjust salary, can assign and reassign employees to various work locations, can require employees to submit to physical examinations to assess fitness for their jobs, and can release from employment those with inadequate certification. Yet, employees receive no guarantees from the school system. Thus, employees are indentured to the board of education, under these contingencies, but the board of education bears no responsibility or accountability to its employees!? Theoretically, then, let us say a principal takes a disliking to a particular teacher and reassigns her to a school or a position for which she does not have certification or fails to meet the physical requirements for the assignment. Is this teacher now in violation of her contract, and does she now present grounds for contactual dismissal? We would certainly hope such nastiness would not prevail, but be assured the shady side of politics rears its ugly head even in the public school system.
Final questions: In general, how do employment contracts look in the business world? Am I just nitpicking in relation to how the outside world operates? Thanks for any contributions.

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Does anyone have an answer to this question
Submitted by fayette911 on Mon, 04/20/2009 - 8:40pm.

Is Fayette county the ONLY county in the state of Georgia that has made it's staff take a pay cut?
I have heard several people say such things but am not able to verify?

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In the teachers contract ...I love the catchy little
suggarfoot's picture
Submitted by suggarfoot on Sun, 04/19/2009 - 9:06am.

"can assign and reassign employees to VARIOUS WORK LOCATIONS, can require employees to submit to physical examinations to assess fitness for their jobs, and can RELEASE FROM EMPLOYMENT THOSE WITH INADEQUATE CERTIFICATION."

It is very SICK that more knowledgeable teachers were given the shaft and not allowed to transfer, when someone's child with less seniority, knowledge, and honest right to their position, was used to keep them their job.

This new verbiage, I think, is partially to give certain inept control freaks more power and instill fear in the teachers left.


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Watching out for the teachers
mapleleaf's picture
Submitted by mapleleaf on Sun, 04/19/2009 - 11:01am.

We may have a little difference of opinion or perspective here.

I think it is important to protect the students from teachers who are too inflexible or not quite up to the task. Employers should have the right to send teachers to the schools where they are needed. Teachers who show signs of being unable to physically perform their jobs should properly be tested (through physical examinations). And those whose certification turns out to be inadequate should be released from employment. That's all for the protection of the students, and I believe it is good.

Schools are not about the teachers, they're about the students!


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agree!
Submitted by allegedteacher on Mon, 04/20/2009 - 8:51pm.

You are absolutely right! Schools ARE here PRIMARILY for the students. Schools are here to serve the community, at large, through their direct service to students. And this blog was my little indulgence, requesting some perspective from the public. I can tell you that teachers are the closest to the students in our schools and are the ones who go to bat for the students, often against numbers- and test-score-driven adminstrators. So, the separation of the welfare of teachers from that of students is a false one.

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Teachers' contracts
mapleleaf's picture
Submitted by mapleleaf on Sun, 04/19/2009 - 7:31am.

Most people out there in the real world are employees "at will." That means they can be fired whenever the employer sees fit to fire them, without giving a reason. (If the reason is based on age, sex, race, national origin or religion, the employer had better not mention it, as that would be illegal.)

Conversely, employees at will can also leave at will. If you get disgusted with your job, or find a better one, you can quit. There's nothing holding you back.

Our school systems can't afford to have teachers who can quit on a minute's notice, so they offer them written contracts, with provisions that commit them to staying for the entire school year, with some appropriate exceptions (illness, for instance). In the process the contracts attempt to spell out what each party is committing to do for the other, although it is hard to anticipate everything.

It is smart of the school system to protect itself against loss of funding. You can't pay money you don't have. We live in extraordinary times, and the teachers had better adjust. Everyone else has to.


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