The Letter

                 Governor Christie’s Letter for Change

 

We received a copy of a letter sent out by Christie's office with the governors letterhead.  It starts out "Dear School Board Member"  and goes on to say.  " The time for reform is now...We must empower principals...We must...focus our efforts on teachers and children.  I propose that we reward the best teachers, based on merit, at the individual teacher level.  I demand that layoffs, when they occur, be based on a merit system and not merely on seniority.  I am committed to improving the measurement and evaluation of teachers...And perhaps the most important step in that process is to give schools more power to remove underperforming teachers."  He goes on after several 'fluff' paragraphs to say, "The seven bills I submitted to the legislature call for:

 

*     Implementation of a multiple measured statewide evaluation system by the 2012-2013 school year that required observation and evaluation of all educators at least twice per year with summative evaluation at the end of the school year using the rating categories of highly effective, effective, partially effective, or ineffective.

*     Tenure attainment only after ratings of "effective or "highly effective" have been received for the proceeding three years.  Tenure status is lost after an evaluation as "ineffective" for one year or partially effective for two years.

*Reforming laws governing reductions in force ("last in, first out") so that any layoffs are based on effectiveness--not seniority--and determined by an evaluation system established by the Commissioner of Education.

*     Mutual consent that calls for agreement by both the principal and teacher on all teacher assignments to schools.  Where a principal does not consent to a tenured teacher's placement inhis or her school, that teacher will continue to receive compensation for 12 months while searching for an assignment in the district, after which he or she will be placed on unpaid leave.

*     Reforming teacher compensation to focus on an educator's demonstrated effectiveness in advancing student learning, as well as whether the educator is teaching in a failing school or is teaching in a subject area that has been identified as a difficult-to-staff subject area.

*     Due process changes to eliminate a provision requiring a teacher against whom tenure charges were filed to begin receiving full salary and benefits after 120 days of start of the process as well as implementing a firm deadline requiring Administrative Law Judges hearing tenue revocation cases to render a decision within 30 days.

*     Allow for school districts to opt out of the Civil Service System."

 

He wrote the letter addressed to School Board Members to ask them for their support.  There is more to the letter. I didn't copy it all, because there was so much more fluff.