Proposed policies affecting the division of employees between the Pulaski County Special and the new Jacksonville/North Pulaski school districts would leave teachers and staff now in Jacksonville schools largely ineligible for jobs elsewhere in the Pulaski County Special district and vice versa.
Jerry Guess, superintendent of the Pulaski County Special district, is recommending the policies calling for separate employee seniority lists -- called "seniority centers" -- for the 10 new Jacksonville/North Pulaski schools and for those remaining in the Pulaski County Special district.
"What we are proposing is what we believe to be the most reasonable way to manage the detachment of the Jacksonville/North Pulaski in terms of staffing," Guess said.
The Personnel Policies Committee for certified staff in the Pulaski County Special District -- made up of teachers elected by their peers and administrators -- objects to the dual lists, Chairman Pam Fitzgiven said.
The committee will advocate giving teachers a choice of districts in which to work.
"The teachers in the district are very anxious about it, about the staffing," said Fitzgiven, who is a fifth-grade teacher and president of the Pulaski Association of Classroom Teachers.
The Arkansas Board of Education last November ordered the establishment of the Jacksonville/North Pulaski School District to be carved out of the Pulaski County Special system. The state Education Board order followed a September election in which 95 percent of Jacksonville-area voters favored creating a new district.
The new district, however, remains a part of the Pulaski County Special district until planning for the division of employees, assets and liabilities between the new and existing districts can be completed. Pulaski County Special district leaders anticipate that July 1, 2016, will be the detachment date for the new district.
Separate employee seniority lists for the two districts would minimize widespread staffing changes in schools in the Pulaski County Special district, Guess said.
But the draft plans, if approved, could also prevent veteran Pulaski County Special district employees who work in Jacksonville-area schools from continuing as Pulaski County Special employees and earning Pulaski County Special district pay and benefits.
If the policies are approved, Jacksonville-area school employees -- both educators and support staff -- would be ineligible to "bump" their peers with less seniority for jobs elsewhere in the Pulaski County Special district. Nor could district employees outside Jacksonville use their years of seniority to bump a current Jacksonville-area employee for a desired job in Jacksonville.
The contracts for the Jacksonville-area employees would likely not be renewed by the Pulaski County Special district for the 2016-17 school year if the policies are approved. Those people could apply for employment in the new Jacksonville/North Pulaski district, which may not have the funds to match the salaries and benefits paid in Pulaski County Special.
"Beginning immediately [on the first day of the new 2015-16 school year] those schools that will become part of the new JNPSD, on the one hand, and those schools remaining within PCSSD, on the other hand, shall be treated as separate seniority centers so that there will be no movement of personnel between the two seniority centers," the proposed policies for certified and support staff say.
"The intent of this provision is that a person assigned to one seniority center can exercise seniority only within the seniority center to which that person is assigned regardless of the purpose for exercising seniority," the proposals continue.
Guess said the Pulaski County Special district is going to have to reduce the size of its staff by a number equal to what it will take to staff the Jacksonville/North Pulaski district schools, which will serve about 4,000 students.
"If there is a single seniority system and we [implement a reduction in force] or sever our contracts with [a certain number] of people, then those people will have the right to bump people in the rest of the district out of jobs," Guess said.
"You can see a lot of movement and a lot of turmoil in PCSSD," he said. "What we are trying to do is propose a way for the Jacksonville people to manage staffing their schools in a reasonable way and a way for PCSSD to avoid turmoil."
Guess said he has talked to Jacksonville/North Pulaski Superintendent Bobby Lester and Chief of Staff Phyllis Stewart about the Pulaski County Special proposals.
"I think they want as much flexibility in staffing their schools as possible, and I think this would give them that flexibility," Guess said.
Stewart said the proposals are those of the Pulaski County Special district, and the issue is between the Pulaski County Special district and its employees. The new Jacksonville/North Pulaski district has not taken a position on the Pulaski County Special district's proposed policies.
"We are a brand new district," Stewart said. "We have no employees, and we hold no contracts. We are not bound by anything in regards to Pulaski County Special district's reduction-in-force policies."
Stewart said she anticipates that the Jacksonville/North Pulaski County district will hire a permanent superintendent this spring who will lead efforts to hire critical central office staff, including a personnel director and others necessary to prepare the new district.
"We hope to have principals named for the schools by early 2016," she said. "I'm not saying there will be changes at the schools. I don't know. Nothing says we have to employ those Pulaski County Special folks. We are going to need employees, and those employees are going to need jobs. It's our hope that we will be able to employ at least 60 or 70 percent of those folks.
"One thing to consider is ... we won't be able to have the same salary schedule as Pulaski County Special, and our fringe benefits package will not be competitive with Pulaski County Special," she said.
"We are going to plan to do the very best we can for our employees, but it won't look like Pulaski County Special's salary schedule. Some of those people may choose to not work for this amount of money, or they may not want to work for any less dollars applied to their insurance benefits."
Guess recommended the policies and the seniority centers to the district's Community Advisory Board last month, which sent them to then-Arkansas Education Commissioner Tony Wood. Wood, who acted as the school board in the state-controlled district, signed them and sent them for review to the district's personnel policies committees.
Fitzgiven, the chairman of the committee for the certified employees, said the committee has rejected Guess' recommendations. Her committee will make a presentation this month to the Community Advisory Board in support of an alternative plan.
"There would be one seniority list, and the teachers in the 10 schools in Jacksonville would then be able to choose whether they want to stay in the Jacksonville schools or do a voluntary transfer to a Pulaski County Special district school, and vice versa," Fitzgiven said. "We have teachers in the Pulaski County Special schools who have said, 'You know, I might want to go to Jacksonville.'
"There would be a choice for teachers this next year," she said. "Teachers would have the option to choose the area they would like to be in. And it would be based on one seniority list instead of the two."
The Community Advisory Board's decision on the matter would be sent to Arkansas Education Commissioner Johnny Key, who replaced Wood on March 26. Key has the authority to make a final decision on the issue.
Guess said the district remains under federal court supervision of its staffing efforts as part of a long-running school desegregation lawsuit. The district, he said, is seeking to employ as many black and other minority-group employees as it can.
"We are not unitary in staffing," he said of the district's status with the federal court. "We have to be aware of the possible effect on staffing in both Jacksonville and Pulaski County Special. We are obligated to the federal court to guard very carefully any changes that could affect our quest for unitary status."
"We've said all along that this is a much more complicated problem than most folks had understood or predicted," Guess said about the separation of the districts. "This is further evidence of that."
Metro on 04/06/2015