COMPETENCE vs: SENIORITY

, By TIM Me }OWELL

. “We want to keep the |

2 winners in our teaching
group,” said West
Vancouver . - School
Board trustee - Carl
_ Hunter. -at last week’s
board meeting. -

“The problem is,”
‘noted board chairman

Audrey Sojonky, “how.

these people are
selected.”

And one gentleman
in the. audience said:
“Everyone’ Ss «getting
mixed up.” -

The West Vancouver
Board. has a pool of 82
temporary teachers on one
year contracts.
teachers get. fired every
Spring, spend their summer
hoping for a new temporary
contract, or look for em-
ployment elsewhere. Some
of them have been doing this
since 1971.

- Superintendent Ed Carlin
has suggested 20 to 25 of
these teachers be given
continuing contracts for two
reasons: teachers ‘have

recently ‘left the system |

faster than enrolment has
declined, and he'd like to
give some of the “better”
teachers more job security.

Carlin claims it won't cos

the district more money to
make this switch in status.
“This board has more pupils
per teacher than any district
‘in the metro area,” boasted
Carlin. “We have the highest
elementary class size in. the
province with the exception
of Courtenay. The key is to
maintain quality teaching,
because the research doesn't
show that class size affects
achievement.”

“The Public Schools Act
permits dropping teachers
on continuing contracts if
enrolment declines,” Carlin
noted. These teachers would
be fired on the basis of
seniority.

AGAINST TENURE

“Continuing appointment
does not Bive lifetime ¢m-
ployment,” said Sojonky.
But she’s concerned about
how to promote the 25
temporary teachers, and no
one had clear solutions.

“I don’t care whether you
call it lifetime contract or
tenure,” said trustee Mark

These-

_audience
anyone on the board against .
this plan? Id like to hear the.

QUAUTY DOES NOT COST "IT PAYS”
FOR APPOINTMENTS

985-7455

“Sager: | “its “pasically “i a
' philosophical - ‘question, and

Pm : against. tenure for all

teachers. If ‘an’ employee
can’t measure up then he

shouldn't be retained.”. But.

Sager’s. concern with
competence only com-
plicates the issue, “because
competence is a “no-no” as

- Sojonky was quick to point

out.

“We're not talking about
competence,” she said.

-“We're looking .at teacher |

skills.” And she promised
that the board would
develop criteria for choosing
the 25 teachers soon. She did
not set a date.

But trustee Norman
Alban, personnel committee
chairman, asserted: “Of

. course we have criteria for

selecting the. teachers,”
seeming to contradict
Sojonky’s statement that
guidelines are still being
worked up. Alban did not
specify the criteria.

Carlin said he’d be ready
to make staffing decisions in

‘about three weeks, yet he.

didn’t say whose standards
he was following.

The board has been

swamped with letters of

concern . about the issue.
When a woman in the
asked, “Isn't

other side of the issue,” only
Sager answered directly,
coming out against “tenure.”

“DEMORALIZING”

Hunter took a “wait-and-
see” stance ‘saying: “The
téacher’s Association and
the board are working

together to try and mitigate

the upset among the tem-

porary teachers.”

The board seems to think
it can treat all the temporary
teachers as if they. were
being interviewed for the
first time, follow some ‘sort
of selection criteria, but
overlook
necessary.

Meanwhile the 82 tem-
porary teachers wait
anxiously to see who the
“winners” will be.

“It's hard to imagine
anything more demoralizing
than the frustrations of
temporary assignment,” said
Hillside teacher Patty
Boyle. “The board is abusing
people on temporary

seniority if —

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‘contract: “They have at least
"28 people on leave they can't
explain.” Boyle says these |

people should be replaced
by temporary teachers.

fimn Cook, president of the

“West Vancouver Teacher's

Association, claims at least
32 such teachers are on

leave, and the, association is”

pushing for, 35° temporary
teachers to be advanced to
continuing assignments. —

don’t have a clue as to when.
staffing for next year is going
to be done. The board has

_drawn up at least four

selection lists, and 70 per
cent of the same names keep
showing up. So why worry
about who's best?

“We've got lots of
teachers. Although district
needs and certain special
skills need to be considered,

much more weight should be -

given to seniority.”

“I hope our temporary
teachers don’t think their
association feels they're
expendable,” said Cook.
“We don't—see them as
cannon fodder. We expect to
be able to give them a.
rationale for who gets
selected.”

The pressure of declining
enrolment is likely to
continue fueling the long
unresolved debate over

quality feaching: .

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