THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 27, 1995 TAG: 9507250117
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines
THE LORD GIVETH and the Lord taketh away, the Good Book says, but sometimes mere mortals try to get into the act, too.
More than 200 teachers' assistants and other aides needed the patience of Job this month when the school system's personnel office first gave them assurances of jobs, and then seemed to take them away.
The employees, their jobs threatened by budget cutbacks, were elated after receiving a July 6 letter saying they could expect a job contract for the upcoming school year.
Then the bottom fell out: The same employees got another letter dated July 10 notifying them that they had been ``terminated.''
Somebody had some explaining to do.
Senior Personnel Director Eddie P. Antoine II accepted blame for the mix-up. He acknowledged that the matter was poorly handled and created undue concern: Most of the employees will have jobs waiting for them this fall.
``It was an unfortunate set of circumstances,'' Antoine said last week.
The confusion came down to a matter of timing. By the time school officials had decided which people would have jobs, the contracts for all of the aides had lapsed. That went unnoticed, however, until after the letters for fall contracts already had been mailed out.
The presidents of the Norfolk Federation of Teachers and the Education Association of Norfolk were not pleased.
``To receive a letter saying you are and will remain a member of this educational family today and then receive a letter of termination the next day is the most inhumane move I have seen in all the years I have been in the Norfolk school system,'' EAN president Shirley George told the School Board last week.
Marian Flickinger, president of the NFT, said later: ``If we had known how these people would've been treated, we would have raised a lot of heck over it.''
At least 30 jobs were on the line as the personnel department wrestled with a directive from the superintendent's office to eliminate teacher assistant positions in special education and the federal Chapter 1 program.
The cutbacks followed a 21 percent reduction in Chapter 1 funds and a decision to reduce the number of assistants in special ed classes for severely and profoundly disabled kids.
Even though state guidelines require only one assistant in those special ed classes, Norfolk had been staffing them with two aides. Administration officials saved $185,000 by cutting 15 positions.
Antoine said it took extra time to identify which employees would be rehired partly because personnel officials worked with the two teachers' groups to develop a point system to evaluate the workers. The system included seniority and performance on job evaluations.
By the time the personnel office had worked out specific staff reductions, however, the fiscal year had ended on June 30. Technically, Antoine said, that meant the employees were not on the payroll and thus were considered terminated. When that came to light, Antoine wrote the second letter in an attempt to clarify the matter. But it only upset people.
``I didn't write a good enough letter, and I didn't put myself in their shoes,'' Antoine said.
The employees, who work 10 months but are paid over 12 months, got a lump sum payment and were told in the July 10 letter that they would not be paid again until September - if they were rehired.
Antoine last week was doing penance.
``I'm going to have to figure out some way to apologize to them,'' he said.
But, he added, he probably won't do it by letter. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
LETTER EXCERPTS
These are excerpts from the July 6 and July 10 letters that more
than 200 teachers' assistants and parent technicians received from
Senior Personnel Director Eddie P. Antoine II. The first letter
congratulated them for qualifying for a contract. The second
informed them that they had been terminated. ``The timing was all
bad on that,'' Antoine acknowledged last week.
The July 6 letter:
``Congratulations! You have scored a sufficient number of points
to be awarded a contract for the 1995-1996 school year. Your
contract, along with your assignment and reporting date, will be
sent to you before Aug. 1, 1995.''
The July 10 letter:
``Thank you for your patience while we had to delay offering
contracts to you and more than . . . (200) others because of our
reduction in force efforts. Because of that fact, your employment
with Norfolk Public Schools was terminated effective 7/1/95.''
by CNB