The York County School Division plans to increase the duration of probationary employment for new teachers, but not without opposition from the York Education Association.
In early November, a proposal came before YCSD to give Superintendent Eric Williams more discretion in deciding how long new teachers should be on probationary employment. It’s a reflection of a change in state law that allows the board to choose whether to write into the policy an optional extra two years of probationary employment.
Before the law changed, all new teachers entering the district entered a probationary period of three years, during which time their contract could be renewed annually. If the division did not like how a teacher was performing, it could choose not to renew the contract.
If teachers got past that three-year period, they would receive a continuing contract, which remains in effect unless administrators have good reason to terminate it. Under the new law, school districts have the option of adding two more years to the probationary period to their policy.
At its Nov. 4 meeting, the school board expressed support for the policy because it gives more time flexibility to the division to decide how a teacher is performing. School board members said sometimes three years is not enough time to know how a teacher is going to perform.
Carol Bauer of the York Education Association, a public education advocacy group tied to both the Virginia Education Association and National Education Association, said it’s bad news for teachers.
“What it does is – actually – it puts teachers in a position where they have no job security for five years,” she said.
According to Bauer, it has big implications: Teachers without job security are afraid to advocate for themselves or their students. Because of that, Bauer said, it directly affects the quality of education they are able to deliver.
She said if a teacher is afraid to ask for things for her classroom or raise an issue about something, it lowers the quality of education the students are receiving. Besides that, she said, the policy as it now stands without the change gives administration ample time to decide if they want to keep a teacher around.
“There’s no reason to actually change it,” Bauer said. “Within three years, you have to be able to know if a teacher is performing in the classroom.”
The policy will return before the school board next month for a vote.
