BOE Candidates Agree on Need for Teacher Tenure Reform

The four candidates seeking seats on the Westfield Board of Education agreed Thursday night over the need for the state to revise laws governing teacher tenure.

Answering a question at the annual BOE candidates' night, the four - incumbents Ginny Leiz, Richard Solomon and Julia Walker and newcomer Mitch Slater - said they want to see the tenure time period extended, potentially to five years from the current three years, to allow the BOE a longer period of time to review teachers. Current state law dictates that all public school teachers in New Jersey are granted tenure following three years and one day on the job. Tenure granted teachers a job with the district until retirement, resignation or death.

Leiz said it is difficult for the board at times to determine tenure in the current time frame and that teachers need time to develop in their jobs. Current tenure reviews starts in their second year and are finalized by the end of the third year. Leiz said new teachers need a few years to develop their skills and will be better prepared to be judged in the time frame needed for a decision to be made in granting the near lifetime job protection for a teacher.

"It takes time to develop the real skills that an individual brings to their job," she said.

Solomon proposed a five year time frame for tenure review, saying that this gives the BOE and school administrators plenty of information to judge tenure candidates. He noted that the first year is not the year to judge many new teachers.

At the same time, Solomon noted that the decision is not one that the Westfield BOE can make on their own. He noted that tenure is governed by state law and not by the individual school districts.

"That's not something we can do unilateraly, it is mandated," he said.

Tenure reform is considered one of the third rails of education politics nationally with teachers' unions looking to keep the current system in place. U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan has called for a national discussion on tenure issues.

Slater agreed with the need to review tenure laws and said that he believes the teachers in Westfield do a good job and do not need to be worried about tenure issues. He noted that the tenure issue is a one centered primarily on the public sector.

"There is no tenure in the private sector," he said. "We are all at will employees."

Walker, who said she supports the concept of extending the tenure period, centered many of her comments on the process it takes for a Board of Education to remove a difficult teacher from their job. She said the current process can take two years and cost a local school district $250,000, which she believes is too long and too expensive. She said at times there is a need to remove a teacher.

"Sometimes it needs to happen and it should not be a difficult task," Walker said, citing the possibility of a teacher staying on the job after developing Alzheimers as a potential need to remove a tenured teacher.