Layoff Confusion

By Steve Poftak
June 25th, 2009

The fluid nature of the budget process and the semantics around layoffs and hiring freezes has left me confused.

The “final” BPS budget called for laying off 100+ teachers. Twenty-five teachers received “layoff notices” in May and a 105 provisional teachers were told they would not be invited to return. (I’m using quotes because it seems as if it is standard practice to give these notices to some number of school staff who are then rehired before the start of the school year.)

Then, the BTU objected to the Teach for America program, believing it displaces “hundreds of good surplus” teachers.

Yet, the BPS website has hundreds of open positions (not all teaching, to be sure) and BPS is actively advertising hundreds of teaching positions elsewhere.

Is this a change over time as the budget evolves? Is it a mismatch between subject area needs and availability?