Challenge West Virginia

WVEA President Dale Lee

Staff WV MetroNews
State Capitol

“If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.”

That’s West Virginia Education Association President Dale Lee’s take on a proposed bill that would change the way teachers and other education personnel are hired.

But Tucker County School Superintendent Rick Hicks says current hiring practices within the West Virginia school system definitely need some tweaking.

“I think we need to have a little bit more flexibility in being able to hire people than what’s now in code. I think we’re locked in too much,” Hicks said.

The legislative working group on education reform heard from both Lee and Hicks Wednesday at the state capitol. They’re working on eight education reform bills dealing with everything from hiring teachers to how much they’re paid and introducing charter schools into the mix.

When it comes to hiring for an open position the current code has two sets of criteria. The first set is for teachers already in the system; the second for new hires without experience. In most cases educators already in the system automatically get the job over someone who’s never been in the classroom, no matter how promising they seem.

Lee says that’s because the current way of hiring educators is working. “The number of grievances has dramatically decreased,” Lee said. “It’s proven to work. It’s proven to be objective and fair and it’s not something that needs to be looked at to be thrown out.”

But Hicks says in some cases a seasoned educator isn’t always the best hire. He offered the committee an example from his county last year. A teacher from another part of the state applied for a job and they had to hire him even though he blamed his lack of success in the classroom on the students, which he called “horrible.”

“We had to hire him and in a year’s time we had to get rid of him,” Superintendent Hicks said. “And we knew after the first words out of his mouth we didn’t want him. But we had to take him.”

Hicks says a new teacher has virtually no chance of getting a job when an educator already in the system applies for the same position.

Lee says there’s a good reason for that.

“If I’m getting good evaluations, if I’m going a good job in the system, why should I not have the opportunity to transfer somewhere else in the system? Why should I not have that first opportunity?” Lee asked.

The working group is sending the bills to the governor and he’s expected to forward them to state lawmakers and the general public before the resumption of the special session July 19.