Case of former coach inspires proposal to change the state's teacher tenure rules
The case of a former Madison County, Alabama, high school cheerleading coach still being paid by the school system two years after she was fired has helped inspire a proposal to change the state's teacher tenure rules. A bill backed by the Alabama Association of School Boards would immediately remove terminated school employees from the public payroll. It also calls for appeals to be heard by Alabama lawyers familiar with education law, rather than by federal arbitrators with a collective-bargaining background. Critics of the three-year-old arbitration system say it rewards fired teachers by allowing them to sit home and collect paychecks while they seek reinstatement through the courts. They point to the case of Laura Wilson, who was accused of violating 14 school system rules, including using school money to fly friends and relatives to Florida for a cheerleading competition, as a prime example. The county school board voted 4-0 to fire her on April 7, 2005. The arbitrator who heard Ms. Wilson's appeal agreed that she broke numerous state laws but reversed her termination. Last August, the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals overturned the arbitrator, saying he wrongly based his decision on collective-bargaining principles rather than teacher tenure laws. Ms. Wilson appealed to the state supreme court, which has yet to rule. She continues to draw her $50,847 teaching salary despite not having taught at the school in more than two years. Arbitration "couldn't have been a greater failure," says Sally Howell, the school board association's assistant executive director. "It's not easier, it's not cheaper, it's not faster."
But it is more fair, says Joe Reed, associate executive secretary of the Alabama Education Association (AEA). Before July 2004, appeals were heard by the state Tenure Commission, which rarely overturned dismissals, he says. The next petition was to a local circuit judge who might know the school board members in the case. Now, appeals are heard by federal arbitrators who typically live outside Alabama and do not know anyone in the case, he says. The losing side can go directly to the state court of civil appeals. He says under arbitration, hearing officers have upheld firings in 34% of cases, ordered a lesser punishment in 43%, and ordered no discipline in 23%. Ms. Howell says arbitration has made it increasingly tough for school boards to get rid of problem employees. She says an arbitrator overturned the dismissal of a teacher caught helping students cheat on a standardized test. The teacher will return to the classroom after an 18-month unpaid suspension. "If you're not successful firing a teacher who has cheated on the Stanford Achievement Test, how are you going to fare with a teacher who's just mediocre?" she asks.
Under the bill, a school board's vote to dismiss an employee could be reversed only if evidence shows the decision was "arbitrary, capricious or the manifest result of an abuse of discretion." The employee's salary would stop immediately, although a teacher could receive back pay if reinstated. County school board president Kenny Johnson said he's rooting for the bill to pass. Arbitration gives fired employees a "financial incentive" to exhaust their appeals, he says, and the school board catches flak for having to keep the person on the payroll. "We've had employees make the remark, 'Go ahead and fire me, I'll sit home and draw my money,'" Mr. Johnson says. "Employees now know that they can do almost anything and not be fired." Mr. Reed says the AEA is working just as hard to kill the proposal. "The Tenure Commission had gotten so captured by the school boards that they could never see anything that a school board did wrong," he says. "The new law is a different approach to forgiveness. It allows punishment without the death penalty."
Huntsville (AL) Times
By Steve Doyle
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