THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 28, 1994 TAG: 9407260143
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
A local teachers union is incensed about a large cutback of school jobs.
The Norfolk Federation of Teachers last week questioned the fairness of the method used to eliminate dozens of teachers' assistants. The process may have discriminated against some older employees, the group said.
``If this is a sign of things to come, it certainly is cause for concern,'' Marian Flickinger, president of the union, said. ``It does not bode well for people in these positions.''
School officials defended their actions. They say they've tried to reassign the approximately 60 kindergarten through third-grade teachers who were notified this spring that their jobs had been terminated. The positions of about 80 special education assistants also were threatened but have been retained, school officials said.
The reduction in force, known as ``riffing,'' resulted primarily from a state initiative to reduce elementary school class sizes. As an incentive to local school districts, the state provided money to hire more teachers, reducing the need for assistants.
As of last week, all but about a half-dozen of the teachers' assistants had been offered other positions, Norfolk school officials said.
``To this point, I've been very satisfied with the way things have been handled,'' Superintendent Roy D. Nichols Jr. said last week. ``We didn't have to offer them these positions. Here we are getting bashed over the head trying to help people.''
But members of the teachers federation say the administration has ignored its past practice of using employee seniority whenever jobs had to be cut.
At least two of the affected teachers' assistants were in their 60s and had more than 25 years of experience between them, Flickinger said. Both had received ``proficient'' ratings during performance evaluations, she said.
Others with between four and 15 years of experience were edged out by employees with less than a year, Flickinger said.
``We have to know and understand what the standard is, and it should be applied fairly and equitably across the board, and we don't feel it has been,'' Flickinger said.
The group also is unhappy that some of the workers - about 13 of them, according to school officials - were offered lower-paying jobs or positions more physically demanding. One 64-year-old woman who lost her teachers' assistant job was offered a bus assistant post that would require she drive a bus.
``Classified'' employees such as teachers' assistants, custodians and food service workers have little recourse to challenge such reductions in force, union officials said. Flickinger said some of the older workers may have grounds to file an age discrimination complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
The cutbacks have lowered employee morale, federation members said.
``I guess they're worried about where the ax might fall next,'' said Barbara Howard, a teachers' assistant at Granby High School and president of the union's classified employee chapter.
Personnel Director Eddie P. Antoine II recommended which employees to cut. He said he followed a process that ``looked at the worth of the entire individual. Seniority was the tie-breaker, all things being equal. All of them are not necessarily going to be happy,'' Antoine said.
At last week's School Board meeting, Flickinger asked Nichols to ``investigate and analyze in depth what you were told and what happened.''
Nichols said he would ``double-check some of those things.'' But he stood by the administration's policy.
``I don't see the inconsistencies she's talking about,'' Nichols said of Flickinger's concerns. ``We've never been in a position of `riffing' this number - the practice is consistent with board policy and good business.''
KEYWORDS: NORFOLK PUBLIC SCHOOLS by CNB