SAISD employee group demands outside investigation into teacher layoffs

SA Alliance of Teachers and Support Personnel claim teachers targeted unfairly

SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio Alliance of Teachers and Support Personnel are demanding an outside investigation into the approved termination of 132 teachers.

San Antonio Independent School District Superintendent Pedro Martinez said Monday that the reduction in force was based entirely on the current school year's appraisals or evaluations of teachers.

But three assistant principals are reporting that they were given a list of targeted teachers months before the evaluations were completed.

Click here for the statement released by a former assistant principal on Sunday.

Here's a portion of another statement released by another assistant principal this week.

"... In several instances, there were some observations that were not logged in because they were positive. Several times we were questioned about positive ratings assigned to teachers. "How come this teacher got all proficient?" or "Why did you give accomplished to this teacher on this rating?"..."

"Red lists of teachers that basically campus administrators were told that they had to get rid of, even if they went into somebody's room and did an observation of the teacher and saw positive things.. In some cases, they weren't allowed to input that positive information into the appraisal system," Alliance president Shelly Potter read from a statement.

The principals released a statement on how they were already provided a "list" of teachers to get rid of in the fall of 2017 and were forced to give appraisal ratings that were not appropriate. 

"Almost all teachers that had a second appraisal had a lower rating because the intention was not to document progress, but to justify terminations. We were told to go unannounced, and if we were able to catch the teacher off-guard, to document that," Potter said.

The SAISD board of trustees hasn't responded to the request for an investigation, but the employee group has consulted with its attorneys and is looking to get that investigation underway.

Martinez said during a press conference Monday that the reduction in force was only determined by this year's evaluation, and that he and his immediate staff were the only ones who saw the data and they were not targeting individuals.


About the Author

Stephanie Serna is a weekday anchor on Good Morning San Antonio and GMSA at 9 a.m. She joined the KSAT 12 News team in November 2009 as a general assignments reporter.

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