Facing deadline, school boards decide on jobs

South Texas school districts have started notifying dozens of employees who won’t see their contracts renewed for the next school year, in advance of a fast-approaching deadline facing all public districts this month.

In Mission, Superintendent Cornelio Gonzalez said “no more than a handful” of teachers would receive the notice, which every district under state law must give to contracted employees at least 45 days before the last instruction day.

“We are not recommending any kind of a group action,” Gonzalez explained Wednesday. “It’s more for individuals who are paid through grants, which when they end, their employment ends.

“It has little to do with (our) budget crisis,” he added.

In Austin, Republican lawmakers have eliminated millions of dollars in education grants from the state budget, including those for pre-kindergarten, which funds just three positions in Mission schools.

Gonzalez said the school board next Wednesday could propose not to renew the contracts of those pre-k teachers and “a few more individuals.”

La Joya’s school board took similar action last week. But administrators there hope to find new jobs for the 22 social studies, pre-k and college preparation teachers whose grant-funded positions end this year.

And on Thursday, the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo school board made its own non-renewal decisions but based them on performance and other evaluation measures, Superintendent Daniel King said.

“All of them were performance-based issues, and nothing to do with budgets,” he said. “The decision to terminate four probationary (first- to third-year) teachers and one term teacher was based on the most recent education information.”

Those five employees must now wonder about their future employability, but other districts’ employees who were let go because of budget constraints could see hope in a bill that unanimously passed the state Senate last month.

Senate Bill 912 would extend from 15 to 30 days the period in which non-renewed employees could challenge the decision, a move that Gonzalez said would grant relief both to teachers and the district.

“It’s good to have laws that give us flexibility,” he said. “It lengthens the process in such a way that you can change your mind. You can say, ‘You know what, we got the money. Come back.’”

SB 912 now awaits consideration in the House of Representatives.

But Sen. Royce West, D–Dallas, who authored the bill, said it offers a clear benefit to school boards and employees who need a final state budget, which lawmakers may not complete until summer.

“(T)eachers could plan their next steps, decide whether or not to request a hearing, and school districts will have more time to get real budget numbers,” West said in a statement.

His bill has won wide support from lobbyist groups, including the Texas Association of School Administrators, Texas State Teachers Association and Texas Association of Business.

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Neal Morton covers education and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4472.