Gilbert Schools retains Reduction in Force policy

Written by Varun Bajaj - Staff Writer

The Gilbert School Board has decided to continue the Reduction-in-Force (RIF) program as it was used in the 2008-2009 school year which uses seniority as the primary factor in determining which staff and faculty to release. This year, the RIFs depend on factors including budget cuts, Proposition 100, and House Bill 2011.

Budget cuts have been pressuring the district each year, and this year, the board has ruled to cut classes and increase the number of students each class must have. With certain classes not surviving the cut, teachers who will be teaching four classes instead of five will be considered “part-time workers.” This will affect their salary and benefits with the district.

On top of saving money by switching teachers to part-time jobs, the district has been forced to lay-off teachers. According to Dr. Charles Santa Cruz, the full-time staff  of Gilbert High will drop from 119 to 115, in the best-case scenario. In the worst-case scenario, the full-time staff would drop to 94.

“We’ve created a group of scenarios with a student load factor of 27 to 1 and a student load factor of 31 to 1.That number floats depending on student population,” explained Dr. Santa Cruz.

The decisions about which teachers stay and which go depend mainly on seniority and hire date. Other factors may be teacher certification and special program areas that need certain teachers. Recently, House Bill 2011 was passed that legally outlawed RIFs based on seniority. The Gilbert District opted to begin that program next year, because contract law requires it to use the Memorandum of Understanding in effect in 2009 when the teachers signed contracts.

The RIFs are decided by Human Resources and the Superintendent in collaboration with the principal of each school, but may affect one school more than another. Then the district will pool the remaining teachers and spread them equally throughout all of the high schools in the district.

The list of RIFed teachers will be notified in April. According to district personnel, even though a teacher receives the pink slip on that day, he may be retained depending on whether or not Proposition 100 is passed. Prop 100 is a temporary sales tax that will directly help education. This bill, if passed, will improve the budget and the district will be able to afford to keep more teachers. House Bill 2011 also changed the retaining policy. The new retaining policy says that the district does not need to notify an employee whether or not that teacher has a job until the last day of summer vacation. The Gilbert District has not informed its employees on whether or not this policy will be in effect this school year.