Boston schools embrace autonomy in hiring

Boston officials say they plan to give leaders at every public school the autonomy to fill teacher vacancies with anyone they want while steering unplaced tenured teachers into professional development programs and unspecified school jobs.

Hiring autonomy is often hailed as one of the keys to improving school performance. It is standard procedure at Boston’s independent charter, in-district charter, pilot, innovation, and turnaround schools. Yet most traditional Boston schools lack hiring autonomy and often find themselves forced to fill job openings with teachers from within the Boston Public Schools.

One goal of the new initiative, outlined in a memo from interim Boston Public Schools superintendent John McDonough, is to move the hiring process for new teachers to earlier in the year so schools can get their staffs in place long before school starts. According to McDonough, 85 percent of Boston school hires currently take place in July and August. He wants to complete the hiring process over the three-month period between February and April.

“This represents a significant change,” McDonough said in his memo. “It is also a step we should have taken many years ago. We cannot tell families we are doing everything we can to ensure the best teacher is in every classroom if our procedures inhibit our own talented men and women from knowing where they will be the following year until just weeks before classes begin.”

Hiring autonomy has been increasing within the Boston schools. In 1995, there were six Boston schools with some level of autonomy over hiring; today there are 43. At some schools, hiring autonomy is absolute, with all existing staff asked to reapply for their jobs, competing against applicants from elsewhere in the Boston Public Schools and from outside the system. McDonough’s new hiring initiative will now put all schools on equal footing, but only for new hires.

McDonough said in his memo that he expects about 300 teachers will end up without a job at the end of the annual hiring process and be placed in what school officials call the “excess pool.” McDonough said teachers in the excess pool would be given assistance with resume-building and provided “targeted professional development.” He said “teachers who are not matched against vacancies will be assigned in a suitable professional capacity and will remain eligible to fill vacancies as they occur.”

Ross Wilson, assistant superintendent for teacher and leadership effectiveness, said tenured teachers awaiting a job placement could be assigned to work in classrooms assisting other teachers.

Richard Stutman, president of the Boston Teachers Union, said he has long urged school officials to accelerate the hiring process. “We have no problem with trying to fill positions more expeditiously,” he said.

Stutman doubted there would be many teachers left without a job at the end of the hiring process because there is so much employee churn in the system due to retirements, pregnancy leaves, and other reasons.