Performance plays into IPS layoffs

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - Eighty pink slips will be handed out Wednesday at Indianapolis Public Schools.

That number represents 3 percent of the district’s teachers. Budget issues are to blame, but for the first time, performance, not just seniority, is being used to determine who is laid off.

"No one should be surprised,” said IPS spokeswoman Mary Louise Bewley. “They've been evaluated, they've spoken with their supervisor. So it should not come as a surprise to anybody."

The school district is using a new set of criteria to decide who stays and who goes. In the past layoffs were based on seniority. Not anymore.

IPS, along with the school district’s teachers union, created a performance-based formula that helps identify who gets laid off when there is a reduction in teaching positions.

The formula looks at a number of factors, including teacher performance, teacher certification and years of experience. Teachers are then given an overall score. Those with the lowest scores face receiving a pink slip.

But having the lowest number isn’t a guarantee the teacher will be let go.

"For example,” Bewley said, “you may have a low score in an area where we just don't have enough teachers. So it wouldn't make sense to try to remove you."

Starting July 1, a new law will require all school districts in the state to switch to performance-based layoffs. It's something the Indiana State Teachers Association was against.

"If the process that determines the effectiveness is accurate, if it's doing its job correctly and the teacher clearly is determined to be not adequate, then the system works," said Craig Blume, ISTA.

24-Hour News 8 reached out to every school district in our viewing area and asked about teacher layoffs. Of the 40 districts that responded, only IPS planned to lay off teachers at this time.