Board holds fate of Baldwin Co. teachers

LOXLEY, Ala. - The Baldwin County Education Association is not pleased with the measure on Thursday night's school board agenda.

Late Wednesday night Director John Hudson sent this email to school board leaders expressing the group's discontent.

"The superintendent and board basically set out a promise and said they will hire back our own people and they are going against their word," said Hudson.

There are seven open teaching and support positions set to be filled but the people listed to fill them have no current affiliation with the district.

Hudson said that's not fair to the former teachers who were laid off because of budget shortfalls.
" We need to stop that action. We need to go back and hire our own people. There are plenty of qualified applicants who were recently pink-slipped that need to fill these positions."

In an emailed statement Board Spokesman Terry Wilhite said "While we prefer to re-hire cost containment personnel, there are some instances where the best interests of our students may require a different solution. Pincipals are required to justify their reasoning for the personnel they recommend and they're in the best position to know what their school's student needs are and how best to meet them."

Hudson said laid-off teachers are having a very hard time right now. "They are out here hustling, trying to get rehired. They were told they were dismissed because of cost containment. Now the board is coming back and they are going to hire people from outside of the system. To me, that's wrong. There's no other way to slice it. It's just wrong."

Whether it's wrong or not is left up to the School Board and they will have the final say.