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Kanawha teachers endure agonizing job lottery

EP-150209916CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Five teachers sat on one side of the Kanawha County school board room Friday about to have the fate of their jobs determined by a game of chance — for the third time in two days.

No matter what their résumés said, or how much they loved their jobs or their students, the teacher who pulled a slip with a “6” on it out of a clear plastic cube would have his or her position taken by a teacher with more seniority.

The longer-tenured teacher’s position at George Washington High School is being eliminated next school year, and the district was required to create a vacancy for the instructor to move into. The five were on the chopping block because they were all in their first year teaching in Kanawha County schools. They were all hired on the same day and all held positions that the more-senior teacher was certified to work in.

Carol Hamric, human resources director for the district, said state law mandates that counties use the “tiebreakers” — instead of reviewing résumés or other merit-based means — to choose which less-tenured teachers lose their jobs. She said the local school board technically has to approve the personnel changes resulting from tiebreakers, but the board members are constrained by the state law laying out the process.

She said in her decade with Kanawha schools, the district has always been able to find the teachers removed from their positions by tiebreakers other jobs in the county before the start of the next school year — though not always at the same schools.

But there was only supposed to be one tiebreaker for these teachers.

Due to errors by Hamric’s office, they had to go through the stressful lottery three times.

“I agree it got botched…

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