DPS Smacked With Teacher's Union Lawsuit
Just days before Detroit Public Schools opens it doors to students and the district is facing a lawsuit from its teacher's union.
Detroit Federation of Teachers President Keith is at odds with the district and Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb over teacher hiring for 51 low performing schools.
Johnson is accusing the district of violating the union's contract.
"The district did not even have discussions with me until July 28th about developing a format and an approach for staffing the priority schools," Johnson said.
"So, we ended up having situations where principals made arbitrary and capricious decisions about teachers they would keep or not keep. Sometimes, it was simply because they didn't like the teacher," he said.
Johnson is also unhappy with Bobb's hiring through the Teach for American program before exhausting its list of laid off DFT teachers.
The outcome of the lawsuit could determine whether 40 displaced teachers return to their old schools and if Teach for America program instructors can be hired before all laid off DFT teachers are rehired.
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