First Wave of Lay Offs Sweeps Through Fort Bend ISD

The first wave of lay offs swept through Fort Bend ISD today as principals were called into emergency meetings, sent back to their campuses to call teachers in to let them know that they had been laid off.   Most teachers were pulled out of classes, told they were being let go and sent back into the classrooms to go on about their day.  This is just one example of the insensitivity of Fort Bend towards its employees and their respective students.  Yes, tough decisions have to be made, but there is a right way to implement them, and laws have to be followed (that aspect will be discussed later).

This "reduction in force" is happening for the second year in a row to help Fort Bend ISD recover some of it's lost income.  Some one hundred and sixty teachers were told that they would no longer have a job come next fall.  Good teachers.  Some teachers were still on their probationary period of two years with the district or were working to get their certification, and some teachers were experienced teachers with over thirty years in the classroom with near flawless records.  Some were coaches of both athletic and academic events and some were not.


Were they good teachers? Based on the reasons why they were laid off, it would only stand to reason that they were.  Having low test scores or a high number of parent complaints was not one of the criteria for being RIFed.  The principals of the schools had no say in the matter. Fort Bend administration was the only entity making these cuts and determining who was laid off.  Again, the principals, who know teachers' records and effectiveness in the classroom better than anyone in administration, had no say in who stayed or who left.

How did admin determine who was going to be laid off?  Teachers were told that Fort Bend administration first looked at who was on a probationary contract, then at their P.D.A.S. evaluation.  This would only make sense, since Fort Bend administration has been on a mission since the start of the year to encourage evaluators to lower their PDAS evaluations of teachers as much as possible.   PDAS evaluations have been well known for years to be arbitrary, subjective, and never an accurate evaluation of how effective a teacher really is in a classroom.

For example, Dr. Jenney said this to teachers at the beginning of the year: "Proficient is not a bad/poor rating to receive. In fact, Proficient is considered a high level of performance".  However, one high school teacher was laid off who had many years of experience, was an academic coach, and, by the way, was given all proficients in her most recent PDAS evaluation.  It didn't matter that her previous PDAS evaluations showed EXCEEDS in more than five areas.

English departments were some of the hardest hit.  With some classes already pushing over thirty students to a class, even more secondary teachers were told they would have to leave, meaning one of the fastest growing districts would have more kids, the same number of classrooms and much fewer teachers.

What is terribly sad and ironic is that FBISD offered an incentive program to encourage teachers to resign before the lay offs hit.  A teacher would be eligible for this incentive program only if they were not part of the critical need areas.  (See previous post).  If they WERE in one of those areas, the district wanted to keep them at Fort Bend.  Until now.  The sad thing is, those that were part of the critical need areas are not eligible for the incentive program, even if the district has changed its mind and decided that now it DOESN'T need them. 

When a teacher gets laid off, they are first told to sign a form confirming that they have been informed.  Then, teachers were given two choices.  They can either resign on their own or they can accept the non-renewal of contract that would come not long after.  The district obviously encourages its teachers to resign because at that point any options on the teacher's part are limited and the district doesn't count that person as one of their official lay offs.  Human resources will gladly tell a teacher or employee that the last thing a teacher would want on their record is a non-renewal of contract.  This isn't exactly true.

There are other options.  First, if a teacher resigns, they cannot gain unemployment benefits if they had trouble finding a job the next year.  Also, if they resign, filing a grievance would not be an option in most cases because the employee willingly left on their own.

There will be more information posted here on what to do if one is laid off in a school district in Texas, especially in Fort Bend.