Daily Mail Editorial
Principals are supposed to lead - to be able to make a difference. But personnel laws sometimes thwart their efforts. Teachers unions have arranged, through the legislative process, for seniority to trump other factors in hiring decisions.
That can yield kooky results and injustices.
The principals of two of the state's largest high schools think that ought to change in the case of coaches. Clinton Giles of Capital High in Charleston and Bill Hughes of Winfield High in Putnam County point out that it can be hard to retain veteran coaches if they are not teachers.
As things stand, teachers who want to coach can "bump" non-teaching coaches out of jobs, no matter how respected they are or how long they have been in their jobs.
Winfield girls basketball coach Paul Sutherland - eight seasons, six state tournament appearances - lost his job last summer to Tim Toler because Toler taught in Putnam County and Sutherland did not.
Hughes said Toler is a good coach, but it bothers Hughes that Sutherland lost his job "not because of poor performance" but because of inflexible hiring law.
Such situations should bother everyone.
Schools need a lot of coaches these days - for girls sports as well as boys. But as Giles told the Daily Mail's Ry Rivard, if the basketball coaching position were open at Capital and Phil Jackson of the Los Angeles Lakers were to apply, any teacher at Capital could beat Jackson out of the job, and if none of them wanted the position, any teacher in Kanawha County could take the position before Jackson would be considered. That's how ridiculous this is," Giles said in frustration.
Teachers have a valid interest in seniority law. A person who has given years to a school system should have some job security, not be vulnerable to walking the plank because of whims or favoritism.
But should teachers with seniority have a "right" to jobs that require specific skills even if they don't have those skills - and qualified applicants do?
Forget coaching for a second. What about getting the best teacher of reading or mathematics or chemistry? Should a principal, to get the best for students, be able to weigh in on those decisions?
Yes.
When a system becomes so rigid and inflexible that it produces ridiculous results, students' interests are not as well served as they should be.
Hiring law needs to be revisited - and not just in the case of coaching jobs.