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Tenure
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retain teachers,” said Robley Jones, President of the Virginia Education Association, pointing out that school divisions with good methods of teacher evaluations have no trouble dumping incompetent teachers.
“People say it’s easier to move a graveyard than to fire a teacher,” Mr. Jones said. “Well, if you look at Fairfax County, they’ve fired 500 teachers in the last seven years.”
Virtually all teachers across the country have some form of tenure or appeal rights for wrongful firing. Generally, teachers must meet qualifying requirements to be hired and then must pass a probationary period. After that teachers’ job security are protected in varying forms.
In Virginia, the protection comes in the form of a “professional teacher status,” which means that a teachers may only be dismissed if a cause is found. Under Virginia code, reasons for dismissal include inefficiency, incompetency, incapacity, conduct unbecoming a teacher, insubordination, failure to satisfy performance standards or other just cause,
Throughout the state, most school district superintendents have reacted negatively to the suggestion tenure be abolished. Most attribute the rhetoric to politics, citing teacher dismissal procedures in their districts as rigorous but necessary.
“We don’t have trouble removing incompetent teachers,” said Woodrow Mullins, superintendent of Tazewell County public schools who oversees more than 500 teachers.
In Rappahannock County School Board Chairman Beverly Massie said, “I’m opposed to the proposal of three to five year contracts. I feel tenure
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