DEL.ICIO.USCLAYTON COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD
Clayton rehires 100 laid-off teachers
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Monday, March 23, 2009
About 100 Clayton County teachers who were laid off earlier this month got their jobs back Monday.
School officials delivered contracts to 100 of the 400 teachers who were told two weeks ago that they would not have a job next school year. The board will vote later this year on the teacher’s employment contracts.
JESSICA MCGOWAN / jmcgowan@ajc.com
Morrow Elementary School teachers (from left ) Nancy Ojeda, Tamika Self and Stephanie Murphy listen to the news at the Clayton County School Board meeting that about 100 teachers are being rehired.
JESSICA MCGOWAN / jmcgowan@ajc.com
Ashley Holmes, a kindergarten teacher at Morrow Elementary, is all smiles during the meeting in Jonesboro.
“I’m ecstatic,” said Sid Chapman, president of the Clayton County Education Association. “It restores some sense of credibility to the school system. Many of these teachers were tenured special ed teachers.” Chapman said the teachers had been laid off without any consideration of their performance evaluations or input from their principals.
Schools officials said others of the remaining 300 teachers who were laid off could be brought back if additional teachers resign or retire. The district employs about 4,000 teachers and counselors.
“We do have to consider that the district is down 3,200 students,” interim Superintendent Valya Lee told the board. “We will not be in the position to bring everyone back unless this board decides to reduce class sizes.”
Former Superintendent John Thompson laid the teachers off two weeks ago as part of budget cuts.
Three days later, Thompson was terminated and Lee was named interim superintendent. The board said the layoffs did not contribute to Thompson’s termination.
Following her appointment, Lee met with union leaders and appointed a committee to review teacher contracts. The committee found dozens of special education teachers had been terminated without a review of their performance, said Douglas Hendrix, the acting chief human resources officer.
“At present, no certified tenured teacher with an adequate performance evaluation was denied a contract,” Hendrix told the board Monday.
Morrow Elementary School kindergarten teacher Ashley Holmes was initially told she wasn’t going to have a job next fall.
“I took the day off because I didn’t want to watch everyone signing their contracts. I wasn’t emotionally able to be at work,” she said. “I went home and started working on my resume.” Holmes said she was relieved to find she could keep her job in Clayton.
Chapman said the union wasn’t upset about budget cuts, but how it was done.
“No policies were followed,” said Chapman, whose group represents about 60 percent of Clayton school employees. “I think it’s sad the (human resources) director thought they could just do that arbitrarily without looking at the employees’ records or talking to their principal.”
Lee has transferred the district’s human resources chief officer to the transportation department.
.JPG)
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