Klein Pressures Principals Over Excessed Teachers

JOEL I. KLEIN: Spells out economic realities. Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein has imposed a Teacher hiring deadline of Oct. 30 for Principals, warning them in a letter that if the school system’s 1,000 remaining Teacher vacancies weren’t filled by then, he would withdraw school budget money allocated for those vacancies.

Mr. Klein’s threat is the latest in his efforts to spur Principals to draw from the Absent Teacher Reserve, a pool of excessed Teachers who were not hired after their schools were closed or their programs were eliminated. They continue to earn full salary indefinitely as they look for new jobs.

Hire 500 From List

The pool contained close to 2,000 two weeks ago but has shrunk to 1,500, while the number of Teacher vacancies has declined from 1,800 to 1,000. Schools opened their doors to students Sept. 9 but are continuing to hire, with some classes still operating without full-time Teachers, using perdiem substitutes.

Speculation has abounded that some Principals are hoping that the hiring freeze on new Teachers, which was imposed for most subjects, will be lifted before they have to hire from the ATR.

“The hiring restrictions that remain in place helped us avoid deeper cuts and have allowed you to retain your hiring power, even if they limited the talent pool,” Mr. Klein said in his letter to Principals. “If you don’t fill a vacancy and have that teacher finalized on your school budget by Oct. 30, we may be forced to take back the dollars budgeted for those positions to pay for the increase in Teachers in the excess pool.”

The DOE had agreed months ago to financially compensate schools for the difference between the salary of an ATR hire and a new hire, which could sometimes be more than $50,000 per year. But union heads have criticized the compensation as not enough, saying that while it helped with school budgets, it didn’t alter the school funding structure enough.

Borough Recruiting Fairs Set

Council of School Supervisors and Administrators President Ernest Logan has argued that his members haven’t been made aware of the individual ATR Teachers enough. In his letter, Mr. Klein promised “boroughbased recruitment fairs” that excessed Teachers would be mandated to attend.

“We are pleased that the DOE’s Human Resources Department will be stepping up to the plate by hosting Teacher recruitment fairs for excessed Teachers,” Mr. Logan said in a statement. “However, we would like to know more about what the DOE will do if appropriate licensing matches are not made or if excessed Teachers fail to show up at the recruitment fairs.”

“Nobody dislikes this situation more than I do,” Mr. Klein concluded. “Limiting your hiring freedom goes against what I stand for, but because of the economic reality we must control costs and protect our schools from deeper budget cuts.”