Principals and Performance Should Have Say in Staffing at Minneapolis Schools

[Patricia Hawke]

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Article Title: Principals and Performance Should Have Say in Staffing at Minneapolis Schools
Author: Patricia Hawke
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Teachers at Minneapolis schools recently voted on a new contract that contained a provision that seniority alone would not determine teacher assignments or transfers. Principals can and should have a say over staffing decisions at their schools.

Minneapolis Schools Learn Something from the World of Business

Much like an efficient large corporation, the headquarters office usually doesn't look after staff hiring for the branch offices. Minneapolis may be considered something like a large corporation and up until now relied upon someone sitting in the school board office to determine which applicant for a certain position was going to be the best fit? Much of the time this was based solely on seniority. Basing staffing decisions in Minneapolis schools on seniority doesn't make for a competitive environment among teachers and eliminates incentive from the hiring or class choice mix. All seniority accounts for is that someone has an earlier hire date than other candidates but does not measure talent, enthusiasm and results some other members of the staff better equipped for the assignment might have. Promotion or assignment by seniority alone is process that stifles enthusiasm and reward for work well done.

Let the Best Candidate Get the Classroom Assignment at Minneapolis Schools

Any available openings should be sent to competition and that all candidates be considered on their own merits and not based on how long they have been teaching at Minneapolis schools. Additionally, the district should provide clear metrics for performance accounting to make the motivation of assignment awards transparent, clear to all those who applied. This is the fair way to get and keep quality and enthusiastic teachers working in the district.

Since principals should have a good understanding of their own school community, it stands to reason that they would be able to choose the candidate for a teaching position who would fit in well with that community. If it turns out that the best candidate is someone with less seniority than another teacher, then so what?

Adopting this type of policy means that teachers with a few years of experience under their belt will understand that they can't reach a certain level of experience and then coast through the rest of their earning years until it's time to retire. The rest of the world doesn't work that way, and it shouldn't be any different for people employed at Minneapolis schools.

No doubt the more senior teaching staff at Minneapolis schools won't like this proposed course of action. I say that anything that can be done to get teachers in class rooms who want to be there, interacting with students every day, is a good thing. We want to attract teachers to different available positions who actually applied for that posting, not ones that get the so-called "plum" positions because they have been around for several years. Like all school districts, the Minneapolis schools should be run more like a business, and a great place to start this new policy is in the realm of teacher assignments.


About The Author: Patricia Hawke is a staff writer for Schools K-12, providing free, in-depth reports on all U.S. public and private K-12 schools. For more information please visit http://www.schoolsk-12.com/Minnesota/Minneapolis/index.html

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