How big a deal are the recent teacher involuntary transfers?
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
| Apparently MCPS involuntarily transferred teachers in the last few weeks. Which violates their contract. How many were affected and will MCPS have to roll that back since it violates the mcea contract? I do understand why they moved teachers from overstaffed to understaffed schools. From the report I heard on the news, I think it was WUSA maybe, Sherwood high school was particularly impacted. |
Anonymous
I am an MCPS teacher, and involuntary transfers are not against the contract. If your school loses teacher positions, they transfer teachers, and they start with the teachers who have the least amount of years in MCPS. It happens all the time, so I am not sure why this is any different than in previous years. |
Anonymous
| I'm worried we're going to lose even more teachers. |
Anonymous
| How many affected? |
Anonymous
| Involuntary doesn’t mean “against the strong wishes of the teacher.” It just means the system initiated it. It happened to my spouse a few years ago and he was slightly bummed but nothing more - he had to learn a new building/community but got a slightly shorter commute, and it’s worked out fine. I wouldn’t assume a bunch of people would quit over this or anything dramatic. |
Anonymous
That’s not the definition but that’s what it means for a teacher. It is not a request or a choice. |
Anonymous
It's correct that its not a request or a choice. But teachers know its a possibility. It happened to me earlier in my teaching career, and was difficult, but your first few years teaching it is a very real possibility. I know of a teacher a few years ago who was transferred during teacher preservice days. A few kindergarten students went to private school, and it was enough to lose a teacher position. |
Anonymous
| If the teachers dont want to transfer, every neighboring district is hiring |
Anonymous
| Does that mean that any people they newly hire will be up for involuntary transfer? 400+ jobs will be that much harder to fill, eh? |
Anonymous
Leaving now would be a breach of contract. Teachers have to resign or file paperwork to go on leave by July 15. Violating that means you are never coming back to mcps. Involuntary transfers happen every year. Ideally they happen in the spring and people have more options but this year has been anything but normal. |
Anonymous
+1. And the reason your school would lose teacher positions is if the enrollment for next year has dropped from what it was last year.... |
Anonymous
|
I'm copying my post from the other thread, since this one appeared while I was typing (very slowly apparently):
Sherwood and Damascus HS are the only two HS without any open teaching positions. A couple others have only 1 or 2 spots, but most have 3-8 open positions. (74 1.0 FTE, 118 total HS teaching positions right now.) When principals get staffing allocations in February, it is based on projected enrollment. Then they use their course requests to assign that staffing. There is flexibility in how they do the sectioning and decisions they can make about under enrolled and over enrolled courses that influences who they need to involuntary transfer. If enrollment changes later on, or course sectioning needs to be adjusted, that can affect teacher assignments within the school. I wonder if enrollment at Sherwood dropped significantly, or if this is just an attempt to balance staffing and solve some of the worst problems at other schools. During the pandemic, with the advent of the virtual academy, they had to shift staff between schools - that was covered under the MOU I think. It seems that the same idea is being applied here, but without an MOU in place. The article is misleading because it doesn't distinguish between teachers assigned to a different school (which is not normal and not covered by contract) and teachers reassigned within the building (which is allowed). |
Anonymous
Yes, new hires would be the first to be transferred. The year I was transferred, another teacher and I were first year MCPS teachers. Her hire date was July 16, mine was July 17th. So I had to be the one transferred. Sometimes they even have to go to the time of the hire! |
Anonymous
There are a lot of comparable counties in close proximity. Getting hired elsewhere now means you get to choose the school you teach in. |
Anonymous
| While this sucks for the teachers involved (I've been on the receiving end of a hodge podge of classes right before school starts), I think rebalancing is the best thing for the system and for the students. If one school is short 10 teachers and has 35+ classes, while another school has classes at 25, that would not be good for students. |