Allentown School Suprintndnt Offered Fewer Teacher Layoffs If Union Said Nice Things About His Ideas

[JPZenger]

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/mc-allentown-schools-teacher-cuts-20110623,0,4717588.story

This the latest chapter in the saga of the Allentown School District Superintendent, Gerald Zahorchek, who used to be PA. Secretary of Education. His meglomanic and vengeful ways keep bubbling to the surface.

The Superintendent offered to reduce the number of teachers who would be laid off IF the teachers union agreed to come out publicly and say they endorsed the many changes he wanted to make in the School District. If they said nice things about his ideas, fewer of the teachers would have to hit the street looking for work. (By the way, no public schools are hiring in PA or NJ this year).

All urban school districts in PA are suffering layoffs because of Corbett's budget. However, in Allentown, the process has been particularly confusing, secretive and messy. There is a complete lack of trust between the Superintendent and everyone else (including some school board members, parents and all of the teachers).

As described in the link, the Superintendent made contract offers to the teachers union, through his assistant. The goal was to get teachers to agree to a pay freeze (giving up raises that already were in their contract), and for the District to offer early retirement incentives. In return, the number of teacher layoffs would be greatly reduced. That should have been achievable if rational offers were made. However, the negotiations became much more complex and convoluted because of the way the Superintendent handled them.

The issue was complicated by the fact that the Superintendent wanted to replace many teachers with part-time adjunct instructors from the community college. The adjuncts were much cheaper. They would have taught "dual enrollment classes" to 11th and 12th grade students. The honors level classes were eliminated. Then, at the last minute, it turned out those most of the 11th grade students who were pressured to sign up for these classes could not meet the minimum test requirements of the community college, and therefore could not take them. Therefore, the school district must go back and offer the honors classes after all (and bring back some teachers to do it).

The Superintendent's pride and joy was his proposal a few months ago to segregate all of the best students into a separate building (which was not near either of the 2 high schools). After a massive uproar from students, teachers and parents, the School Board killed that idea. So he was a little sensitive.