ON MAY 27, Ann Arbor Board of Education (BOE) approved four policies required by Michigan bills passed in 2011 and 2012 and signed into law by Gov. Snyder. The laws require that local Boards of Education take charge of teacher discipline, evaluations and tenure. The legislation package also stripped teachers of the ability to strike. According to the laws, local Boards of Education must use job performance rather than seniority when cutting teaching jobs. These changes have stripped the AAEA of several long-held contractual rights.

The Superintendent and BOE members have said that the changes were required in order to bring the contract between the AAPS and its teachers’ union into compliance with state law. This assertion comes on the heels of district officials attacking Michigan’s Open Carry laws. Superintendent Dr. Swift went so far as to say the AAPS would launch a legal defense of the district’s refusal to abide by Michigan’s new Open Carry laws.

The BOE’s assertion that the AAPS is now forced to comply with state laws which strip the teachers union of contractual rights smacks of hypocrisy. Whether it’s better that elected officials on the BOE take charge of teacher discipline, evaluation and tenure is a matter of opinion. It is also a hotly contested education policy debate at local, state and national levels.

Fighting against one state law while implementing another—ostensibly because district officials have no choice but to do so—sends a mixed message to both the community and the district’s teachers.

AAEA teachers union president Linda Carter and Superintendent Swift, at base, have the same goal: educational excellence for the district’s students. Ann Arbor taxpayers deserve no less. Over 50 percent of property tax dollars paid goes to the Ann Arbor Public Schools. The district’s revenue, including local, state and federal sources has grown to over $205 million.

The district, parents and students would be better served if the Superintendent and BOE members were frank about their desire to handle teacher evaluation, discipline and tenure. To be sure, there are mediocre teachers who, under the auspices of the AAEA contract, have been protected, retained and advanced. Parents hear stories from their children and share the intelligence with other parents.

Seniority should mean that students are taught by the most experienced and dedicated teachers. In truth, excellent teachers without tenure have been supplanted by colleagues with seniority and little enthusiasm for the craft of teaching. Under Superintendent Swift, a number of poor performing teachers have been disciplined and dismissed.

There is no reason the BOE, Superintendent Swift and the AAEA need be at an impasse. Bullying of the AAEA must stop and be replaced with frank, honest dialogue. Posturing by the AAEA does little but detract from the significant accomplishments of its members over the past school year. The AAPS must make good on its financial obligations to the union, and the AAEA must prepare to come to the bargaining table armed with strategies to combat the district’s structural deficit.