The Alabama Education Association is urging Mobile County Public School System employees to pay close attention to a set of proposed changes to the district’s reduction-in-force policy, arguing the revisions would push seniority far down the list of factors considered when teachers face layoffs.
Under state law, a local school board can declare a reduction in force, or RIF, when extreme circumstances or a financial emergency require the district to terminate employee contracts. In those situations, the usual protections tied to tenure no longer apply, and the district’s own RIF policy becomes the primary guide for deciding which employees keep their jobs and which do not.
MCPSS is currently considering revisions to that policy and has scheduled two public hearings for employees and community members to weigh in, with the first held this week and a second set for Monday, Dec. 12, at 6 p.m. in the Board Room at the MCPSS Central Office.
The proposed changes that have drawn the most scrutiny involve how the district would choose among multiple tenured employees being considered for dismissal. Current policy leans heavily on seniority in those decisions. The proposed revision would still factor in seniority, but only after weighing an employee’s highly qualified status, certification, years of relevant experience and effectiveness ratings from recent performance evaluations.
“Seniority would still be a factor, but they’ve moved it all the way to the bottom of the list,” AEA representative Jesse McDaniel said. “If you ever had to engage this policy, by the time you got through those four other factors, you’d have already determined who’s going to be laid off.”
The proposal would also strip out language describing how non-tenured employees are evaluated for layoffs, replacing several existing passages with a single line stating that non-tenured employees do not have recall or re-employment rights under the policy.
MCPSS spokeswoman Rena Philips said the changes are intended solely to bring the district’s policy in line with current state law, particularly Alabama’s Students First Act, which took effect in 2011 and significantly narrowed the appeal rights available to tenured employees while eliminating similar protections for non-tenured staff. Philips said a recent legal review prompted the district’s attorneys to recommend updating the policy’s language.
“There is no plan to do a reduction in force at this time, and these changes would only affect non-tenured employees if a RIF ever occurred,” Philips said in a statement. “We do review our policies from time to time to make sure they are in compliance with current state law, which is what we are considering doing here.”
McDaniel pushed back on the idea that a five-year-old law was the real motivation behind the timing of the proposal, and accused the district of trying to move the changes through quietly by introducing them at the end of the semester without adequately notifying employees.
“If this was such a critical compliance issue, why’d they wait five years to do it? No, they’re trying to make it easier to eliminate people they don’t like, and that’s all this is about,” McDaniel said. “It also begs the question, ‘Is the school system planning to lay people off?’ That’s what I’d be worried about if I was a bus driver or a teacher — I’d be worried about what’s next.”
Philips maintained that MCPSS has no plans to lay off employees “at this time.” McDaniel, however, pointed to what he described as “clues and indications” that the district might consider eliminating certain positions by outsourcing them to a private company, referencing a Funding Balance Plan MCPSS submitted to the state in May. That plan, aimed at helping the district rebuild its financial reserves to the equivalent of one month’s operating costs as required by the Alabama State Department of Education, listed “adjustments to special education personnel” — including possible use of an outside talent management company alongside in-house staff — among a list of other cost-saving suggestions on its final page.
Philips said the timing of the proposed RIF policy changes was driven only by the board attorney’s recommendation, and noted that details of both public hearings have been posted on the district’s website. “Jesse McDaniel knows about the hearings,” Philips said. “He and anyone from the AEA or in the public have a right to voice their concerns at those hearings.”
McDaniel said AEA representatives plan to attend both meetings, arguing that a school system should not “penalize people for giving more years of their lives to public education than others.” He warned that the proposed changes could hurt morale among veteran teachers at a time when the district, like much of the state, is already grappling with a teacher shortage.
“It’s damaging to morale, and it’s foolish in an environment where you have a teacher shortage already. If they go through with this, they’re going to have a lot of angry career educators,” McDaniel said. “Plus, if they were to end up letting 20-year teachers go while retaining freshmen right out of college, I would not be surprised if you start seeing some age discrimination lawsuits popping up.”
The dispute has intensified in recent days as both sides have sharpened their public statements. Following the first public hearing, a number of MCPSS employees voiced objections to the proposed changes, though the school board has not yet made a final decision on whether to adopt them.
Philips has accused McDaniel and the AEA of exaggerating and misleading teachers about the proposal and the board’s intentions. In response, the district’s central office sent an email to all MCPSS employees this week aimed at correcting what it described as “erroneous information” circulating about the policy changes.
In that message, the district reiterated that there are “no plans and no reason for a Reduction in Force” and said it must periodically revisit its policies to keep them aligned with changing state and federal law. Along with updating the RIF policy to reflect the Students First Act, the district said it is also considering adding a new Data Governance policy to comply with federal requirements.
“The board has been unwavering in maintaining staffing in the schools and is committed to sustaining employment throughout the system,” the district’s message read, adding that it was “regrettable” that misinformation had caused unnecessary worry among employees. The message emphasized that a reduction in force is a rarely used contingency plan school systems are required to keep on file for financial emergencies, and that there has been no discussion of eliminating any currently filled positions or outsourcing jobs.
According to the district, most of the proposed policy changes would apply to non-tenured employees, who would be reassigned or non-renewed ahead of tenured staff in the event of a RIF. For tenured employees, the district said consideration would still be given to certification in their current position, effectiveness ratings from their three most recent evaluations, relevant professional experience, and seniority.
Both public hearings on the proposed policy have been publicized on the district’s website and Facebook page. After the first hearing, the proposal will be emailed to employees along with a request for written feedback, which the district says will be reviewed alongside comments from the hearings before any decision is made on whether to bring the policy forward for board approval. Any further action would appear on a future board meeting agenda, with notice provided in advance.