FBISD Hits Series of Legal Snags

The Fort Bend school district has hit legal snags in its efforts to challenge state mandates on assigning grades to students and giving teachers raises.
In addition, the district has been found to be legally obligated to satisfy a district teacher union's request for information concerning the process of the district's decision-making on waves of layoffs that took place in the spring.
On June 28, state District Judge Gisela Triana-Doyal ruled that Texas public schools must give students truthful grades on class assignments as well as their report cards under a 2009 state law.
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http://ultimatefortbend.com/stories/7989-fort-bend-isd-hits-series-of-legal-snags

School Supt. Tim Jenney hired teacher to build his home and man had to sue to collect

This article was originally posted by the Virginia News Source in 2002

School Superintendent Timothy R. Jenney, is known for his abrasive, blustery style which included hiring one of his teachers, in an apparent violation of school board regulations,  to build his luxury home at Croatan Beach and then refused to pay him until the man put a lien on his house.  Jenney didn't want to discuss the case publicly.  It isn't the public's business, he said, and he refused to comment.  He refused multiple requests for an interview.

Another contractor also had to sue Jenney, still lost money and didn't get paid a cent for his labor, he said.  In addition, "One resident said, he's been a pain in the ass to his new neighbors, using his access to city resources to harass them."  

That issue and his hiring of former congressional aide Jeanne Evans, who had only a high school education, as an  executive assistant at almost $80,000 a year,  were expected to be topics of discussion at the School Board's annual retreat. 

Dr. Jenney Has History of Spending Taxpayer School Funds for Personal Growth

This Article comes from the Virginia News Source and was posted on September 1, 2001 when he was Supt. of Virginia Beach Schools.

In March of 2010, a local Virginia newspaper noted that Dr. Jenney had asked for his former colleagues from Virginia to move to Texas and work in FBISD.

Not Playing From The Same Sheet Of Music

Or it doesn't take an MBA to figure out Dr. Jenney wasn't qualified for job when the board hired him and now taxpayers have to pay for his education

What does Dr. Timothy Jenney and the teachers in the Virginia Beach Public Schools have in common?

Not much, according to the latest round of school board votes for funding his return to a school of his choice for an MBA at a cost to the taxpayers of $70,000. (Teachers would get only about $7272 for a similar degree).

By comparison, Old Dominion University’s MBA program for instate students is $202 per semester hour. Multiply that by 36 hours and you have an affordable and quality MBA for $7272. Makes sense. And also supports a local university. And doesn’t drain additional valuable tax dollars needed elsewhere, especially in the classrooms.

Special Education Layoffs Hurt Classes, Students, Teachers

The Reduction in Force, firings, transfers and changes in Special Education this year in the name of RIF and Highly Qualified are going to severely hurt teachers, classrooms, students and ultimately, parents.

Special Education students make up ten percent of all student population on average. Because they are considered a special population, like gifted and talented, they also bring in more state and federal dollars than other students. Employing teachers, therapists, paraprofessionals, diagnosticians, is a huge endeavor.

The buzz around the district headquarters and Human Resources was that Special Education was "overstaffed" in general - thus many teachers lost their jobs. While HR tried to make it seem as though many in administration also lost their jobs, this simply was not the case. Most jobs that were lost were teachers and paraprofessionals. 

Now add "highly qualified" into the equation.

Busted Administrator Gets Relocated While Teachers Get Laid Off

One high school assistant principal in Fort Bend I.S.D. last year was caught having sex on school property. No charges were filed and the incident was not reported. However, the story has been confirmed and verified by three employees and one administrator. It is said that eye witnesses were contractors working on the school site at the time.  The assistant principal was transferred to another high school within the district. That administrator is now evaluating teachers whose jobs now depend on good evaluations.

The point is that this kind of treatment of administration is common practice in Fort Bend. A principal gets in trouble, they get moved. A teacher has too many "proficients" on their evaluation, they get laid off. Bus drivers, paraprofessionals, and "at will" employees? They just get the life sucked out of them.

Teacher transferred in September without warning.

One teacher was recently transferred to another school across the district (we'll call her "Jane") because of the enrollment numbers at both schools. She was told on Tuesday that she had to pack up and leave her classroom and was in her new school and classroom on Wednesday.  There was no prior warning, not even a courtesy call to the principal.  Jane was transferred on the basis of how recently she had been hired on in the district - "last one in, first one out".  Though there were other teachers who had been employed by the district more recently, those other teachers were not chosen to be transferred because they had an extra curricular (coaching) period.  Ironically, it's those teachers that have multiple coaching periods that reduce the overall student/teacher ratio for a school, and are part of the reason why this teacher was transferred in the first place.  It's not the coach's fault.  It's how the very flawed system works.

The point: Fort Bend ISD has NOT followed the procedures that it established before the layoffs and makes decisions without the best interests of the students in mind.

Riffed Teacher gets Threatened by Principal

One teacher accepted a job at a middle school in mid July after being laid off and then transferred. After the Reduction in Force (being laid off), though,  this teacher was of course looking for a job and not waiting around to see what happened in Fort Bend. However, when this teacher called the Principal inform her of her promotion, the principal responded, "You can’t leave! If I would have known you were looking for another job, I would not have hired you. You will never work for Ft. Bend again." 

Fort Bend allows teachers to leave after the 45 day period before the start of school if they receive a promotion. Not to mention the fact that this teacher was first told that she no longer had a job in Fort Bend and then offered one in mid July. The principal then attempted to block this teacher's resignation in at Human Resources which was unsuccessful.

 

Essentially, the teacher
1) Was laid off in Spring 2010
2) Began looking for other jobs
3) was offered a job at a Fort Bend middle school in July
4) Accepted a promotion in another district

I guess some people think that Fort Bend must be the only "district of choice".

Teacher Removed From Position Sees Own Job Opening

One teacher was moved out of their teaching assignment this year and placed into a different teaching position at another school because the position was being removed (so they were told).  The teacher decided to look at the job postings on Fort Bend ISD's human resources web site. Sure enough, there was a vacancy for the exact position that he had been moved out of. When this teacher called Human Resources to see about getting his old job back (since FBISD had changed their minds about getting rid of the position), he was told that he would have to resign from FBISD first and then reapply.

The job market is certainly fickle these days.

FBISD does a 180 on reduction in Special Education pay.

In a recent letter dated Aug. 18, 2010 to special education staff at Fort Bend ISD, Rhonda McWilliams from the human resources department decided to change its policy on reducing pay for special education paraprofessionals who were forced out of the "severe" classrooms and into the "non severe" ones in late July.

The letter reads:
"After further review for the 2010-2011 school year, it has been determined that we will maintain the 2009-10 salary amount for non severe special education aides recently reassigned. Therefore, those severe aides who were reassigned to non-severe aides will continue with your 2009-2010 salary level for one year only. As of this week, principals have been notified that they must fill severe special education aide vacancies from the list of those who were reassigned from severe to non-severe aide..."

Union to File Grievances over Reduction in Pay

The Fort Bend Employee Federation (FBEF) is filing two grievances against Fort Bend ISD on behalf of their members who have suffered a loss in pay. Many Special Education Paraprofessionals were moved from "severe" to "non severe" which means they were working with students with more serious handicaps, but not anymore. Many were notified about this change as late as three weeks before they returned to work. As result, their salary was decreased anywhere from three to five thousand dollars. The FBEF claims that the district did not notify those paraprofessionals early enough or at all.

The second grievance is regarding Special Education Teachers who lost their stipends this year. They also were not informed of this reduction in pay.

As a side note, FBISD said that the reason for losing the Sp.Ed. stipend of $1500 was that the need for special education teachers is no longer what it used to be.

But overall, FBISD's respect for Special Education teachers remains about the same.

Teachers Getting Mixed Messages from Human Resources

One teacher at one Fort Bend ISD high school was told that they had to leave their teaching area (Life Skills) because that class required a teacher to be "highly qualified" in the four core areas, and this teacher was not.

Another Life Skills teacher at another high school was told that she would have to leave that class because Life Skills did NOT require a teacher to be highly qualified in the four core areas. This teacher was highly qualified in the four core areas ironically partly because she HAD been teaching life skills for such a long time. Human resources removed her from her position to place her in Applied Math and Behavior classes (classes which she had little to no experience in whatsoever).

Maybe human resources at FBISD thinks that rules and consistency only applies to discipline in the classroom.

Teacher with 30 years experience laid off

One teacher at an Fort Bend ISD high school was laid off by reduction in force (RIF) because, although they were certified and had thirty years experience in their field and had a history of taking students to State in their competition, they had more "proficients" on their evaluation than "exceeds". As a result, they were replaced by someone who is currently going through the alternative certification program.

Hey, if that doesn't save you some money, I don't know what will.

Longtime FBISD teachers not layoff-proof

If the Fort Bend school district has to lay off any teachers, how many years they have worked for the district won't pull a lot of weight.On Monday, the school board voted 5-2 to approved a change in policy that puts seniority at the bottom of a list of criteria used to decide who should go first if layoffs are needed.
Trustees Daniel Menendez and David Reitz, who is seeking a second term in May, voted against the change.

What are the criteria?

The four criteria had been in the following order: certification, performance evaluation, seniority, and professional background, which includes training and work experience related to the job assignment.
Before the vote, the board policy on layoffs placed seniority in the district above professional background. In other words, those with more years of service in the district had a better chance to be retained when the district cut its workforce.
But the administration recommended that the order be changed to give professional background more importantance than seniority.
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