Board won’t discuss teacher discipline over strike
PHOENIX — The state Board of Education won’t be weighing whether to discipline tens of thousands of teachers who walked out during the #RedForEd strike — at least not yet.
Board President Lucas Narducci on Friday yanked the subject of the board’s authority to sanction educators from the agenda for Monday’s meeting, calling any discussion of the issue “premature at this time.’’
“The board does not have enough information or legal advice to have a constructive discussion,’’ he said in a statement, saying the board will “seek more guidance through legal counsel in due course.’’
Narducci’s move is a setback for state schools chief Diane Douglas.
It has been Douglas who, even before the strike started, said that teachers should be investigated — and, if appropriate, disciplined — for breaching their contracts. And while it was Narducci’s decision to examine the issue, Douglas said it was with her backing, and that the call for a discussion was a “mutual’’ determination.
But the superintendent of public instruction has made no secret for months of her belief that teachers who didn’t show up in class were acting illegally and should be punished in some way, saying Friday she told teachers “right from the beginning’’ that a strike is illegal in Arizona.
Only thing is, Douglas, by herself, is powerless to do anything: Only the full Board of Education, on which she serves, has the ability to take disciplinary action, whether a reprimand or censure, or the more severe suspension or revocation of someone’s teaching certificate.
But Joe Thomas, president of the Arizona Education Association, said there’s nothing for the state board to investigate about individual teachers.
“The district made a decision to close the school,’’ he said, though he conceded that took place when administrators found there would be too few staffers in attendance to open a building. But Thomas said if the school was closed — whether for lack of staff or simply bad weather — a teacher who doesn’t show up has done nothing wrong.
As to other cases of teachers who did not show up, Thomas said school districts all have various policies that allow teachers to take personal time.
From his perspective, he said the whole push to look at the issue of whether teachers should be disciplined is political.
“If there wasn’t an election in November, this wouldn’t be an issue,’’ he said, referring to the fact that Douglas is seeking reelection. “This is saber rattling,’’ Thomas said. “The superintendent is playing to her base.’’
The issue does have political overtones. In fact, it came up Wednesday during a televised debate among the five Republicans who hope to be state schools chief for the next four years.
“They didn’t strike,’’ said Tracy Livingston. “The doors were closed.’’
“The doors would have never been closed if the teachers didn’t vote to walk out,’’ Douglas responded.
Livingston, who is a teacher, said while she didn’t support the walkout, she does not believe those who did stay away from class should be disciplined.
And Jonathan Gelbart said while he, too, did not support the walkout, he said there’s “no realistic way’’ to discipline those who stayed away from their classrooms, some for more than the week that some schools remained closed.
On Friday Douglas conceded the practical problems of trying to discipline teachers who did not go to work.
It starts with how to separate out those teachers who purposely stayed away to strike versus those who may not have wanted to strike but simply found their schools closed. But Douglas said there was a way — if only teachers would have followed her advice.
“I very, very loudly and clearly for a week before that strike told any teacher who disagreed with this and didn’t want to walk out that they should very clearly, in their personnel file, make sure their district is aware of their thoughts and their intent to come to school and work,’’ she said. Still, Douglas has no idea how many actually followed her advice.