Marshall Tuck, chief executive of Partnership for L.A. Schools, smiles as ACLU Chief Counsel Mark D. Rosenbaum, at lectern, announces the settlement with L.A. Unified over the role of seniority in teacher layoffs. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times / October 5, 2010)
By Jason Song, Howard Blume and Jason Felch, Los Angeles Times
October 6, 2010
The Los Angeles Board of Education approved Tuesday what would be a landmark court settlement that radically limits the traditional practice of laying off teachers strictly on the basis of seniority. The agreement would cap the number of those dismissals at virtually all schools in the nation's second-largest district.
The pact, approved unanimously after a two-hour closed session, also would spare up to 45 struggling schools from layoffs. Many of those schools have disruptive turnover rates among teachers.
The proposed settlement requires approval by a judge. It comes in response to a lawsuit filed in February by several legal groups, including the ACLU, which accused the state and Los Angeles Unified School District of denying students equal access to a public education.
It lays out one of the most sweeping reforms to teacher layoffs in the nation's school districts, which generally follow a "last hired, first fired" approach.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lausd-20101006,0,375697.story