A plan reworking how teachers are hired and move from job to job in Denver Public Schools is being voted on by union members.
Most teachers would no longer be able to vacate their positions for another job in the district, and principals would not be able to remove teachers based on personal issues.
Also, a change in the hiring process would make it easier to hire teachers from outside of the district — removing a three-step cycle for internal candidates before outside teachers can be considered.
The union and district have come under fire recently for how certain teachers are directly placed in schools. Critics say the process protects poor teachers by allowing them to be shuffled from school to school with no accountability.
“It allows someone who is a good teacher to find a better job,” said Sara Howell, union representative at Hamilton Middle School after a meeting with other representatives Tuesday night.
“But it makes me nervous, because I no longer have the right to vacate my position and be guaranteed a job,” she said.
Howell said she vacated her position at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School because she had conflicts with the administration.
She ended up being placed at Hamilton, but under the new system only teachers displaced by school closure, redesign, restructure or program change can vacate their positions.
Last year, 264 teachers were direct placements, according to DPS records.
“What we would like is to clearly have this placement system be a voluntary system, so teachers teach where they want and principals have teachers who they want in their buildings,” said Tom Boasberg, DPS’ chief operating officer.
The tentative agreement between the union and district must be approved by the union membership and the school board. Union votes will be counted Friday.
Boasberg also hopes a “rolling posting system” will improve the teaching stock in the district. Now, the district gives internal candidates three chances before posting the job for external candidates. By that time, many outside teachers have found jobs elsewhere.
“That puts us a couple of months behind competing districts who have an open-posting system,” Boasberg said. “The new system, they can post the job, if there is a good teacher in the district, they can hire (him). If there is a good teacher outside, they can hire (him). That makes us more competitive.”
Jeremy P. Meyer: 303-954-1367 or jpmeyer@denverpost.com
