VIDEO: Union President says SLPS sending “mixed messages” about rehiring teachers

As we reported yesterday, hundreds of teachers and staff at 13 city schools were given termination letters this week. They were offered the chance to reapply for their positions, but the president of the teachers’ union says that the district is not being clear on what the criteria will be used to rehire employees.

Mary Armstrong told PUB DEF that the teachers have been told that they will be rehired based upon “certification and seniority.” But Superintendent Creg Williams told the Post-Dispatch that seriority would not be taken into account.

Adding to the tension, Williams told the Post-Dispatch that many more teachers are getting termination letters than the number given to the union. Williams’ representatives told the union that only teachers at the schools being reconstituted would have to reapply for jobs. There are seven of those schools, and they employed about 350 certified teachers this year. Williams told the Post-Dispatch, however, that over 1,000 teachers will have to apply for rehiring.

We tried for two days to get a comment from SLPS spokesmen Tony Sanders and Johnny Little, but neither provided one.