Tuesday
Mar312009
Its the RIFing Time of Year
Justin Bathon on Tuesday, March 31, 2009 at 3:41PM Districts are letting their teachers know they are RIFed about now. A lot of teachers are going to be RIFed this year. I could link to some examples, but it is easier for you to just check your local paper, because it is going to happen everywhere.
This site is tracking all the RIF's in California, totaling over 27,800 and is providing a little social networking space for them to vent. If you are a RIFed teacher, I am sure they wouldn't mind if you joined in the common frustration.
Reader Comments (2)
Just out of curiosity is it legal to RIF a teacher/administrator before their contract actually expires?
Sure it is. RIFing is really just another form of teacher dismissal. Normally you see them at the end of years because RIFs are closely related to school financial health and that health usually functions in year long cycles, so the RIFing typically happens at the end of the contract year, which coincides with the end of the financial year. It is so typical that many states have even established notice dates when the RIFed teachers must be provided notice, typically around April. But, there really is nothing out there that would prevent a school from RIFing at any time if that is what the financial situation demanded. For instance here in Kentucky this year we had a mid-year budget reduction. It was not big enough to cause mid-year RIFs, but if it had been 8% instead of 2%, the schools would have had no choice but to RIF mid-year.