Board Approves Contracts for Probationary Teachers

Contact: Haley Miller (336) 370-3200
Created: 6/10/2009 4:35:41 PM

The board approved Tuesday to renew contracts for 1,609 probationary and 558 career-status teachers. State law requires that probationary teachers must be notified of the status of their contracts for next school year by June 15.

Probationary employees are those with cleared licenses working toward career status (tenure). Career status employees have tenure, and also have the most legal protections when it comes to position elimination or any possible reduction in force.

The approval comes after last week’s announcement that 160 teacher positions might be eliminated district-wide due to proposed budget reductions from the state, which provides approximately 60 percent of the district’s resources. Most of these reductions would be caused by increasing K-12 class size by one student. The state legislature is considering increasing the teacher-student allotment formulas by two students. By cutting 13 percent from central office budgets, GCS hopes to reduce this by one student for the district.

These cuts are only a recommendation by GCS administration. The board will make any final decisions.

The district anticipates that interim employees would be affected by these proposed cuts first. Interim employees include those who are not in fulltime positions; have been employed for less than 120 days; are on emergency, provisional or lateral entry licenses; are retirees, or are Visiting International Faculty (VIF) teachers. Therefore, contracts have not yet been renewed for interim employees.

Principals and central office staff are currently working to determine specific positions and employees impacted by these reductions. The district is not proposing to eliminate all interim positions. Currently, GCS has more than 570 employees on interim contracts.

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About Guilford County Schools

Guilford County Schools is the third largest school district in North Carolina serving more than 71,000 students at 120 schools. With approximately 10,000 employees, the district’s mission is to graduate responsible citizens prepared to succeed in higher education or the career of their choice. 

Guilford County Schools is a national leader in providing specialized schools and instructional programs designed to meet the educational needs of a culturally diverse citizenship.  For more information, visit the district’s Web site at www.gcsnc.com.