The Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school system is close to adopting a reduction-in-force policy that would give points for experience and positive evaluations, should budget cuts require layoffs.
"This policy is a shining example of consensus-building, and, as a result, discord will be minimized considerably among the hard-working employees affected by the policy change," said Tripp Jeffers, the president of the Forsyth County Association of Educators.
The Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school board unanimously gave preliminary approval Tuesday to a revised version of its RIF policy that would include points for experience and positive evaluations. Final approval will come at the March 23 meeting.
Under the policy, most cuts would be made by eliminating a particular job category -- say, foreign-language teachers at elementary schools.
Should cuts within a category become necessary, other factors would come into play.
Certain issues, including having been suspended without pay for more than three days in the past three years, would put teachers at the top of the layoff list. After that, points received for work experience and for evaluations would be used to determine who would be cut and who would stay.
So far, the school system has been able to take care of staff reductions through attrition, and school-board members are working to put together a budget for the 2010-11 school year that would continue to avoid layoffs. With more cuts in state and federal financing expected in coming years, layoffs may become necessary at some point.
"The RIF policy is necessary in time of economic upheaval and constrained budgets, but one I certainly hope we do not need," said Donny Lambeth, the chairman of the school board. "But we need the criteria and a process to follow if this becomes a reality. We have not experienced this type of economic downturn in most of our lifetimes so just discussing these types of policies is uncomfortable and creates angst."
When an early proposal for a revised policy was introduced January, Jeffers objected, saying he thought that it didn't give enough weight to such factors as experience.
Board members said they thought it important to get input from the people who would be affected by the policy, and directed staff members to meet with Jeffers and teacher representatives. In February, school-board members looked at the revisions that came out of those meetings. For the most part, they expressed satisfaction with those revisions, and, after some fine-tuning, the policy was put up for a vote.
Jeffers was happy with the result. "This was no small task," he said, "but this policy proposal is a product of true collaboration and should be a model for significant changes in policy considered in the proposal."
kunderwood@wsjournal.com
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