More than 120 CHUH Teachers Will Be in New Schools or Have Different Assignments Next Year

More than 120 teachers received hand-delivered letters from their building principals June 1 telling them that they would be teaching in a different Cleveland Heights-University Heights City School or a new subject, grade or assignment for the 2011-2012 school year. 

Out of 589 teachers in the district, 124, or about 20 percent of teachers, have new assignments next year, said Nilajean McDaniel, director of human resources, during . Fifty-six teachers will still be in their school building but will teach a new grade, subject or have a more specific assignment. 

“Whenever there is a change in programming, what we try to do is look very carefully at the staff we have in place and … determine which staff people would be best deployed to put those new programs in place or those enhancements to programs,” McDaniel said.

Proposed Changes in Grades Pre-K through 12 

At the elementary school level, the district wants to make sure that there is a mix of experienced teachers and inexperienced teachers in the schools so that the teachers who have been in the district longer can serve as mentors for younger teachers.

CHUH Schools also wants “their best teachers” teaching small groups of students English Language Arts, McDaniel said. During his , Superintendent Doug Heuer said a district goal is to make sure that by third grade, students are reading at or above grade level. , he said.

The district is also moving teachers with content specialties in math, science, social studies and English to middle schools to improve rigor, she said, as opposed to having elementary school-certified educators teaching those subjects.

Perhaps the biggest changes are taking place at Heights High.

to make way for a program , as about 20 to 25 percent of freshmen don’t pass all the required courses to move on to 10th grade.  And, each school will have a specific subject-area focus and a new name, so teachers were shifted to compensate for those changes.

After receiving the letters June 1, staff received specific instructions on how to prepare for the move June 6, said Angee Shaker, communications director for the district. Principals will meet with staff Friday, and building leadership teams and principals are planning celebrations for teachers who are leaving the building, whether it is due to the reassignments or .

Heuer said he was impressed with the professionalism of the staff when teachers found out about the new assignments.

“It was well-received by the staff. There were tears, there were goodbyes, but I think all of our staff really appreciated the fact that we’re trying to work together. And that our emphasis was that we had to make our decisions based on what’s good for the children, and not necessarily what’s best for the adults,” Heuer said.

School Year May Be Moved Back to September 1 

In addition to the changes above, the board is asking the state to move the school year back two days for students, to begin Sept. 1. The district would like teachers will go to staff retreats and take professional development courses during the first two days to help prepare for the new programs.

The first day of school is one of the last few days of August, and for the 2011-2012 school year, it was scheduled for August 30.

The board and district will know in about three weeks if it was approved by the state, said Eric Coble, school board president.