The numbers are stunning: Malone, 15; Tupper Lake, 30; Salmon River, 29; AuSable Valley, 3; Ticonderoga, 7.5; Saranac, 31; Plattsburgh, 13; Peru, 25.
Those are job losses — administrators, teachers and non-instructional personnel — under discussion at local schools. Some contractual concessions and retirements can make this less painful, but people will lose their jobs.
By law, they will be laid off according to seniority, or "last hired, first fired." This could mean that some enthusiastic, energetic and innovative teachers will be let go, while people who should have found another line of work a while ago keep their jobs and continue their ineffective classroom performance.
The teachers union will do what it always does — argue to keep all its members employed but insist seniority determines who walks out the door.
Many people think seniority is an especially stupid way to determine who stays and who goes. In fact, New York City is trying to find another way to decide which 6,700 (!) teachers will be laid off.
Seniority's critics are sure there's a better system to keep the best and get rid of the rest.
Sometimes, they use a baseball analogy: "When a guy stops hitting, the Yankees trade him, no matter how long he's been with the team. That's why they keep winning."
POINT SYSTEM MAYBE?
The arguments against seniority start with the premise that it's possible, and maybe even easy, to grade teachers.
So how should we measure a teacher's value?
Kids take so many exams, such as the New York State Regents and the grade-level No Child Left Behind tests, that we could chart the results and thereby, perhaps, rate the teachers.
We could also count the number of days teachers have been absent and add that to the equation. Teachers who show up, and on time, should get more points than those that don't.
Then enumerate how often the teacher did something extra — like chaperone a dance or field trip. And weigh the significance of coaching a team or advising a club, even when the teacher is paid for the extra work.
Some points could also be given to teachers who make themselves visible between classes, keeping their eyes and ears open to tamp down problems before they escalate. They help the school more than those teachers who turn their backs on problems.
There are teachers who contribute their time to professional associations in their subject area, groups dedicated to the advancement of teaching math or music, English or foreign languages. Give these people some extra points.
And some points, too, for those who teach courses at the Teacher Resource Center.
FACTUAL CLARITY
Other teachers help the New York State Education Department develop its initiatives. They assist in designing the mentoring program or certification exams for future teachers, for example. They're contributing beyond their classroom, so maybe they shouldn't be treated the same as those who don't.
Should they get any points for being active in the union? Maybe. The union provides a single voice for the teachers, which makes it a lot easier for the school district to handle employment issues.
What else should be considered? Military service?
Well, this is more complicated than the Yankees realizing one of their players can't catch up with a fastball anymore. Even if standardized testing results reflect teaching skill, and that's questionable, the job entails much more than that.
Which is why I support seniority, the "first hired, last fired" policy. As imperfect as it is, it has a numerical, factual clarity absent from other systems.
And if a school works consistently to keep all of its teachers committed to the job and gives them the support to do it well, each teacher will be effective.
Then, when jobs are eliminated, those who remain will, indeed, be older and valuable.
Jerry McGovern, the Press-Republican's coordinator of Newspapers-in-Education, taught in New York state's public schools, and now teaches in the Communication Department of Plattsburgh State. He can be reached at gmcgovern@pressrepublican.com or 565-4126. This column is the opinion of the writer and not necessarily of this newspaper.
