TENURE: Doesn't really exist here

I enjoyed reading Sholeh Patrick's informative column (Dec. 22) regarding the roots educator tenure. As usual I found her to be fair and accurate.

The most important thing to remember about tenure is that it does not exist for K-12 teachers in Idaho. Instead, Idaho school districts offer teachers with three years or more of employment a continuing annual contract. These contracts are renewed annually unless there is sufficient cause to terminate employment, or a reduction in force. Tenure, on the other hand, is the practice of granting an employee job security that can only be terminated upon mutual consent, and is generally reserved for university professors. Every employee, regardless of status, deserves the opportunity to be told what they are doing wrong; how to correct it, and be given a reasonable time period to do so.

I have worked in K-5 public schools in a non-teaching capacity for 30 years. I never once witnessed a teacher who survived being terminated by a principal who followed the policies and processes dictated by the school district and legislature. NEVER.

Likewise, I cannot recall any of the gifted and talented teachers I've known who weren't at some point during their careers harassed and threatened by capricious administrators or seemingly powerful parents. You bet teachers need "just cause and due process" before termination. Good teachers can't survive without it. There is a process for dealing with those who are struggling or need to find another career.

Of course the smartest way of dealing with ineffective teachers is to not hire them. If legislators were interested in doing something to improve teacher quality they would work on raising the bar for those entering the profession instead of lowering it as they have done in the past.

MARTY MEYER

Coeur d'Alene