I sometimes envy the people who think they have boring, predictable lives, the ones who know exactly what is coming and exactly how to handle it and never have any excitement thrown their way. I sometimes envy them because my own life has so many unpredictable elements in it that are constantly shooting off like fireworks that I no longer even have a "routine" to vary from.
But it's not just people that have those issues - school districts can also, and this week a number of districts around the state are dealing with crises that have caused them to think fast and on their feet.
First up, Galveston ISD. As everyone around here knows, the island of Galveston was devastated two weeks by Hurricane Ike, and with the island the school district was also thrown into turmoil. Not only dealing with physical damage to it's facilities, but also with the complete closure of the island for a number of days and the dispersal of its staff and students to other places for an unknown period of time, the district also faces some financial issues as a result of severe shortages in its average daily attendance while students are unable to return to Galveston schools.
As a result, the district has secured an agreement from TEA that they will receive enough funds to pay all teachers for their full contracts, which is a great relief to those who work in a district that will need weeks and months to return to anything close to normal. There is no law that covers such a situation so thanks go out to all the on-the-ball administrators and TEA officials that went off-book to do what was right and needed.
Elsewhere, Dallas ISD is facing a different sort of financial crisis. A shortfall in the projected budget has led to a proposal to lay off over a thousand employees, including 675 teachers. While the school board has so far delayed making the final decision, it looks certain that at least some lay-offs will occur. For teachers, who work under contract, this means the district will have to select those to be laid off according to their previously adopted policy. While the teachers selected do have the right to a hearing, the only real defense they can make is that they were not selected in accordance with the policy. So if Dallas does everything correctly, teachers will lose their jobs.
And in Wichita Falls ISD, discussion in the community has begun over a four day school week. No district in Texas has yet tried this, although a number of districts in other states are on such a schedule. For teachers, contracts could be an issue, as the protections provided in law are largely based on five-day, full time status. so any waiver issued by TEA should include a plan to continue teacher contract rights as they are. If energy prices turn out to be a long-term issue, I suspect a lot of Texas school districts will begin considering this option, especially since a small buy growing number of employers are beginning to go to four day work weeks.
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