Re: Forgoing Years of Service...

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Illinois Teachers Chatboard

Re: Forgoing Years of Service...

by sped

May 13, 2011

Recently, our school district has had two openings and have >received a plethora of applications from experienced >teachers who are willing to start at year one on the salary >scale. Should a school pursue hiring experienced teachers >paying only new teachers salaries? What are your thoughts >on this? What are the future implications on teacher labor?

This is district-specific because it depends upon the collective bargaining agreement the district has with the union. Many CBAs are silent upon initial salary placement.

In one way it is good because it enables experienced teachers to get a job. If a district were prohibited from offering fewer years on the salary schedule, then they simply wouldn't hire people with many years. They would hire newbies, or near-newbies and ignore those with experience. This is especially true in today's hiring environment where budgets are beyond tight and applicants are plentiful. So, if you were a teacher with more tha...See MoreRecently, our school district has had two openings and have >received a plethora of applications from experienced >teachers who are willing to start at year one on the salary >scale. Should a school pursue hiring experienced teachers >paying only new teachers salaries? What are your thoughts >on this? What are the future implications on teacher labor?

This is district-specific because it depends upon the collective bargaining agreement the district has with the union. Many CBAs are silent upon initial salary placement.

In one way it is good because it enables experienced teachers to get a job. If a district were prohibited from offering fewer years on the salary schedule, then they simply wouldn't hire people with many years. They would hire newbies, or near-newbies and ignore those with experience. This is especially true in today's hiring environment where budgets are beyond tight and applicants are plentiful. So, if you were a teacher with more than 5 years experience, you would be shut out of the job market entirely, unless you were in a very unique or "shortage" field, which are very few and far between these days.

On the other hand, no one (except Republicans) likes to see experienced educators told their experience is not valuable. Still, no one is entitled to credit on a new district's salary schedule for experienced earned outside of the district.

My district takes it on a case-by-case basis. If you were a special ed teacher hired in 2004, then you got all of your years and you were probably hired after one interview..., and we called you while you were on your way home. If you were a special ed teacher hired in 2010, then you may have gotten a few of your years and were hired after three rounds of interviews which took a month and a half. We did this because in 2004 we had three applications for two openings and we were scared someone else would snap up the teachers we wanted, so we moved quick and tried to make the salary as attractive as we could. In 2010, we had many applicants, one opening, and we knew it was unlikely anyone would be taken by the time we made out decision.

Now, if you are an elementary teacher hired in 2010 (not by our district, we haven't hired reg ed elem ed for 4 years), then I would guess that you would get zero years regardless of experience and you better shut your yap and say yes immediately or we'll move on to one of the other 3000 applicants we have waiting by the phone...., and you'll be sponsoring student council and running the talent show this year...., and getting the Principal's dry cleaning every week.

So, it's all supply and demand. Right now there's a massive supply of out-of-work teachers, and little demand for their labor. If that supply or demand changes, then district's will pay more for new hires (which means giving years earned elsewhere). Right now, it seems unlikely to move in a positive direction (from the teacher's point of view) any time soon

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