Recommendation: Annually, twenty percent [ 20% ]) of all tenured TVCSD teachers with five ( 5 ) or more years in each elementary and middle school be transferred to a like school in the district.

Furthermore, whenever possible, twenty percent [ 20% ] of those transferred from each school shall come from those with 5-to10 years, 10-to-15 years, 15-to-20 years, 20-to-25 years and 25 or more years of district service.

Background, Purpose and Administration: As curricula, facilities and enrollments are to be presumed equitable throughout the district following redistricting, the only remaining issue is teacher quality.

Indeed, many parents believe political influence has affected teacher assignments for decades, providing some schools with an inappropriate advantage over others. Such is the brazen but generally unspoken implication of real estate ads making the point that a property for sale is “above 25A.”

If instituted, the recommended policy would help to:

• Reduce tension and public suspicion concerning the implications of redistricting on our children and,
• Within five years, produce a balanced mix of experienced and not so experienced teachers throughout the district’s elementary and middle schools. A concept beneficial to the district’s proposed mentoring program.

Oversight by the District Superintendent would remain imperative to ensure principals do not rid their schools of tenured “deadwood” in the first year, by simply passing their problem teachers onto another and unsuspecting principal.