With the toss of a coin, the fates of two teachers hovered in the air.When the Gilroy Unified School District deemed a South Valley Middle School English teacher and an Eliot Elementary School second grade teacher identical in every way in terms of their qualifications, a judge flipped a coin to break the tie and determine which teacher was more senior, a decision that will affect the order in which teachers who received layoff notices will be hired back if the district has the resources to do so. When the coin fell, Jessica Chessani of Eliot won the prize. At this point, she still doesn't have a job next year. But when and if the district can, it will hire the teachers back in reverse order, based on their ranking.
Also check out: <a list of all the teachers currently scheduled to be laid off.
"I do feel that this is the worst case scenario and the district does not want this to happen," Chessani said. "Anything that can be done will be done."
Through Teach for America - a program that aggressively recruits recent college graduates for two-year placements in underserved school populations - Chessani, 22, was placed at Eliot after she graduated from University of California, Los Angeles. She and Alexandra Laks of SVMS, the teacher that lost the toss, attended their summer training together and became friends, Chessani said. Although Chessani wasn't present for the coin toss - she was guiding her students through a district writing test at the time - she immediately put herself in Laks' shoes when she heard the news.
"Although I won, (Alexandra) is one of my friends. If they want to do it in a way that's more fair, I would have been fine with that," she said.
Chessani does not own a home in Gilroy and won't have to uproot a family to find a job elsewhere should she not have one in Gilroy come fall, but that doesn't make the prospect of changing schools after only a year any more appealing.
"I would be heartbroken if I had to leave Gilroy," she said. "I have a very good relationship with the parents and students."
Like dozens of Gilroy educators, the two women received notices March 13 informing them that their services "will no longer be required for the 2008-09 school year" as the district looks at ways to close the budget deficit. The letter assured the recipients that "no permanent or probationary … employee with less seniority is being retained to render service which you are … competent to render." However, the school board adopted a resolution to reduce staff largely based on criteria outlined in two exhibits that were not included in the original resolution, one of them being a list of tie-breaking criteria the district would use to determine a teacher's seniority standing. The other exhibit stated that certain teachers who were bilingual or possessed credentials in science or mathematics would be "skipped" when layoff notices went out.
Without the criteria approved, "how did the district pick these people?" Gilroy Teachers Association President Michelle Nelson asked.
The board approved the exhibits a month later, after layoff notices had been distributed.
As a special board meeting called to approved the tie-breaking criteria, Superintendent Deborah Flores explained that the draft had been forwarded to the district a week before the resolution was passed March 6. However, the district failed to include them, she said, attributing the oversight to "human error."
"There are many different excuses, but I'll spare everybody the long list," Flores said. "I accept full responsibility."
The notices were sent out to the same teachers March 27 with the pertinent exhibits attached.
When the administrative law judge flipped the coin at the teachers' public hearing April 14, several outcomes were possible: both teachers will be out a job come fall, both teachers will be back in the classroom or one teacher - the one dubbed more senior by chance - will be back in the classroom, the less senior out a job.
"I'm appalled that they would do a coin toss to determine someone's livelihood," Nelson said.
In reference to the unusual method, "I have not seen it before and I've been doing this for a lot of years," GTA attorney Michelle Welsh said. "It's a bizarre way of deciding who gets to keep their job."
She explained that, in the eyes of the district, the two women were neck and neck in terms of hire date, certifications, committee service and salary.
"The district is in a bind," she said, "and would be playing favorites" if they established further criteria after the fact on which to judge the two teachers.
"I'd like the district to do a little more analysis," Nelson said to the board and superintendent. "I don't think it's fair to determine peoples lives by the toss of a coin." She suggested that, if the district dug a little deeper, it might find a better way of teasing out which teacher has more qualifications. Laks is practically bilingual, Nelson said, but doesn't have a piece of paper to prove it.
The district, teachers and their respective legal representation spent two days sparring over where each teacher stood on the seniority list.
"All that time was consumed with the tie-breaker issue," Welsh said. "That might not have had to happen if the district had the criteria to us in enough time to look at it. In this district, it is our position that they violated the due process of the teachers from the start. It made it harder for them (the teachers) to defend themselves."
Welsh did not receive the appropriate documentation until April 4, she said.
Meanwhile, the district has managed to reduce the list from more than 40 to less than 20 teachers whose jobs are in jeopardy, Flores said.
"It's in our mutual interest to hire these teachers back," she said.
The judge will reveal her decision by May 7 and final notice will be given to teachers May 15. Until then, each teacher that resigns or retires opens up a spot, that by law, must be filled by one of the teachers that received notice, Welsh said.
Nervous that the noticed teachers won't stick around that long, "We have a retention problem more than anything else," Nelson said. "It would be a crying shame to let these young, enthusiastic teachers go."
Tie-breaking criteria
Employees sharing the same first date of paid probationary service to the district shall be awarded tie-breaking points on the following basis:
■ Possession of credential(s) authorizing service for the district: for each professional credential, 3; for each preliminary credential, 2; for each of any other credential, 1■ Subject matter authorizations: 1 per authorization
■ Column placement on salary schedule: 1 per applicable column (higher paid teacher reflects more points
■ Service on school site committee: 2
■ Service as mentor teacher: 3
■ Service as member of leadership team: 1
■ Service as member of district curriculum committee: 1
■ Possession of Bilingual Cross Cultural Language and Development Certificate: 1
Stories of Service: Neil Haggerty
