Phila. teacher transfers delayed until next week

At the behest of the teachers union, district officials changed a schedule for teacher transfers, allowing instructors who selected jobs at a session earlier this month to choose again.

Transfers will begin Monday at 2 p.m., and last until next Friday, according to a letter sent to union members yesterday. New school assignments will be chosen based on seniority.

Last week, teachers union president Jerry Jordan requested that the district redo forced and voluntary teacher transfers, after union officials found numerous contract violations with the hiring process.

District officials agreed to the union's demands, which also included providing teachers information regarding specific grade designations, said Andy Rosen, executive director for the district's employee relations.

District and union officials still have not agreed on the staff selection process at so-called Promise Academies, six schools to be run by Central Office staff this fall. Seven other schools will be transformed as part of the Renaissance process, and will be run as charter schools or by outside managers.

Union officials, who plan to pursue the matter in arbitration, believe teachers in the schools that will become Promise Academies should have a say in who should fill vacancies at the schools, regardless of whether they stay.

But district officials said that teachers who have decided to reapply for a teaching position, and have been rehired, should sit on the committee.

Roughly 500 public-school teachers are looking for new school assignments as part of the Renaissance process, the district's latest attempt to boost student achievement in 13 of its failing schools.

Every instructor is forced out, and no more than half can be rehired.