Since when is it just and fair for all Certificated Teachers from Kindergarten through High School (including School Librarians and Counselors) to be thrown into one "Certificated Teacher Layoff Pot?" Are our personalities and teaching styles so similar that we will be instinctively molded and shaped into the best teachers for our students in any teaching assignment that comes our way?
Although an experienced Middle School teacher has a Multiple Subjects Credential, does that make her an outstanding Elementary School teacher? Does this upper grade teacher know how to relate to the mind of a Kindergarten student? Let's take it one step further, how about a High School teacher? Should he/she be able to "bump" an Elementary School teacher out of a teaching position due to District-Based Seniority over that teacher?
All of the above happened during the Long Beach Unified School District Certificated Teacher layoff process and the Teacher's Association of Long Beach was the driving force behind it!
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| A Teacher Union's Heavy Hand |
Here in the State of California, Seniority is not based upon how many years you have been teaching within the State, rather how long you have worked for a particular School District. Sadly, when I left my former employer to move to Catalina Island, I was unable to transfer my prior 15 years experience to my total years of service. Even sadder is that although LBUSD gave me 12 salary years credit when I began working for them, TALB refused to acknowledge those years during the layoffs! When the hearings were over and TALB got their way, I realized if I had been teaching in another State, I'd still be employed!
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