LAYOFFS WREAK HAVOC IN PALMDALE DISTRICTS, TEACHERS AT ODDS OVER RECLASSIFICATION.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

PALMDALE - After a court ruling last year, the Palmdale School District reclassified more than 200 teachers on provisional teaching permits from temporary to probationary, giving them seniority rights.

The district then ended up laying off teachers who held full credentials because they had less seniority than instructors on emergency credentials.

Teacher union officials say the action put the district at odds with the No Child Left Behind Act, President George W. Bush's education reforms that require students to be taught by highly qualified, fully credentialed teachers by 2005-06.

Though other Antelope Valley districts did not respond as Palmdale did to the court case, in which a teacher sued Golden Valley Unified School District in the San Joaquin Valley after she was laid off, leading Palmdale officials say that only means they have opened themselves up to possible lawsuits.

``Their legal advice is not taking into account the ramifications of Golden Valley,'' said Roger Gallizzi, Palmdale's director of personnel.

The Palmdale school board voted 3-2 on May 9 to adopt a ruling by an administrative law judge that affirmed the layoffs of 83 teachers, 52 of whom held full credentials. The layoffs were the first for the district in at least 30 years.

During a hearing before Administrative Law Judge Joseph Montoya, one issue raised was whether the district had improperly classified temporary teachers as probationary employees, ``in a manner that improperly granted continued employment, or extra seniority, to teachers who held emergency credentials,'' the ruling said.

Months before issuing the layoff notices, the district reclassified 212 teachers who held emergency or some other type of provisional credential from a temporary to a probationary status in response to court decisions, including the May 2002 Golden Valley case.

``That decision, in essence, holds that teachers may be classified as probationary teachers. The district concluded that all such employees would be entitled to seniority for purposes of any layoff,'' the ruling said.

Some of the teachers who protested their layoffs asserted that the reclassification was improper in some instances, as it tended to favor teachers holding only emergency credentials over those holding full credentials, the judge wrote.

``This was asserted as unfair to teachers who have some credential that arguably should be afforded more 'dignity' than an emergency credential,'' the judge wrote.

In a footnote, the judge wrote that it was stated that one probationary teacher has been working on an emergency credential for about eight years, ``as assertion, which if true, would raise serious questions about just what the justification for reissuance of that provisional credential has been.''

Montoya said the Palmdale district was not required to do the reclassification, but that, once it was done, teachers on emergency credentials were entitled to their seniority ranking.

What other districts have done has depended on varying interpretations of the court case and different judicial rulings. While Montoya affirmed Palmdale's layoffs, which were done strictly on the basis of seniority, another judge ruled differently in hearing protested layoffs in the Vacaville Unified School District.

The judge in the Vacaville case ruled that teachers on emergency permits and pre-intern certificates should not be entitled to seniority.

``The judge said those individuals who were still working under an emergency credential could not count those years for seniority, but if a person started with an emergency credential and had since achieved a full credential, they could go back and count all those years from the date of hire,'' Superintendent John Aycock said. ``He was rewarding those who achieved their credential. Those who did not were out of luck.''

Locally, Westside Union School District officials said teachers on emergency credentials are categorized as probationary from the start. But Westside officials said that didn't matter when 34 teachers were let go, because the district did not do layoffs by seniority - the opposite of Palmdale.

``The board decided to retain fully credentialed teachers in the classroom, so we, in effect, laid off employees who were not fully credentialed,'' said Martha Hurlburt, human resources director. ``It was to meet the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act. The board decided to look at it programmatically and make a determination that fully credentialed teachers would remain.''

The Lancaster district did not reclassify teachers because the district didn't have layoffs, said Jim Schettig, assistant superintendent for human resources.

``It was legal advice being given to the district based on an interpretation of the ruling on that (Golden Valley) case,'' Schettig said. ``Our advice was only if we had to do layoffs.''

At the Antelope Valley Union High School District, officials there are checking teachers' status and making sure they are in the right classification.

``We are in the process of doing it because of some of the court cases that have come down that have varied opinions,'' said Tim Azevedo, head of personnel. ``We are verifying what everyone's true status is. We are trying to make sure employees are receiving any due process they are entitled to.''

Outside the Antelope Valley, districts that have done as Palmdale did and reclassified their teachers on temporary credentials include Manhattan Beach Unified School District.

``It used to be people on emergency credentials were put on temporary contracts because they didn't have a clear credential. Now it's been made clear that even though someone is on an emergency credential, if they are not taking the place of someone on leave, that they are to be offered a probationary contract,'' said Janet Schwabe, director of human resources.

``That's our interpretation of it. Not every school district is doing it. We just thought it was the right thing to do.''