Licensed Employee--Probationary Contract Renewal

Earlier this week we let you know that 160 teacher positions might be eliminated district-wide due to proposed budget reductions from the state. Most of these reductions would be caused by increasing class size K-12 by one student. Please keep in mind that the state legislature is considering increasing the teacher-student allotment formulas by two students. By cutting 13 percent from central office budgets, GCS hopes to reduce this by one student per for our district.

We will be working with principals during the next two weeks to determine specific positions and employees impacted by these reductions. We are not eliminating all interim positions. Currently, GCS has more than 570 employees on interim contracts. So, if you’re at school X and there are 11 teachers on interim contracts at your school, it does not mean that all 11 of those teachers will lose their jobs.

We have three categories of employees on teacher contracts: 1) interim; 2) probationary; and, 3) career status (tenured). Interim employees are those individuals who serve on a temporary contracts, which are revisited annually. They are provided a contract that stipulates a beginning and ending of their employment status (June 16 or the last day of school). Interim employees include those who are not in fulltime positions; have been employed for less than 120 days; are on emergency, provisional or lateral entry licenses; are retirees, or are Visiting International Faculty (VIF) teachers. Our probationary employees are those with cleared licenses working toward career status (tenure). Career status employees have tenure.

Our career status or tenured teachers have the most legal protections when it comes to position elimination or any possible reduction in force. Employees with interim positions have the least. ALL employees are important and provide valuable service to our students and our schools. Originally, we planned to ask the school board at their June 9th meeting to approve contracts for both interim and probationary employees that have been recommended for renewal. Because of the budget situation in Raleigh, we decided to delay bringing the interim contracts forward for renewal at this time. However, contracts for probationary employees will proceed as planned on June 9th. Contracts will be forwarded to these employees following the June 9, 2009 meeting. We do hope to offer contracts to many interim employees as well. We simply have to wait and make sure that career status and probationary status teachers are placed first.

I hope this clarifies some questions and concerns you may have. This is a difficult time for everyone involved, and the uncertainty caused by the changing proposals at the state level simply add to the challenge. We will do our best to keep you informed as decisions are made. We will have a clearer picture regarding actual position cuts within the next two to three weeks, after principals complete the staffing workbook process (for the second time), and after central office department and division managers turn in their plans for cutting their budgets by 13 percent.

In the meantime, if you have questions about your particular situation, please contact your supervisor or human resources. If you have a more general question, please feel free to send them to feedback@gcsnc.com.

Sincerely,

Maurice “Mo” Green
Superintendent