Hays considers revising layoff policy

KYLE, Texas (KXAN) - Teachers in the Hays Consolidated Independent School District would get only 10 days notice that their contracts would not be renewed under a proposal awaiting the school board's consideration Monday.

District policy currently says that the board must give teachers 45-days notice if they are not renewing their contract. 

Last year, lawmakers gave school districts the option of granting only 10 days notice.

The law was passed as part of Senate Bill 8, which took effect in September and also says schools can furlough teachers as well as cut their pay from one year to the next.

Esperanza Orosco, president of the Hays Educators Association, is against the change in the district and calls Senate Bill 8, “anti-teacher”.

Orosco says that although the law states schools can legally reduce the notice, it does not mandate that they do so. She hopes that the board will vote “No” at tonight’s meeting.

“We believe that abandoning the written policy effectively beats up on educators at a time when teachers have had negligible salary improvements, our health insurance premiums increased, and we are being asked to do more with less,” Orosco said in a letter Sunday to the school board.

In an effort to keep the current 45-day policy in place, the Hays Educators Association has sponsored a petition that they sent to trustees’ emails as well as put a video on YouTube that outlines their argument against the change.

The board meeting begins at 6:30 p.m., at the Lehman High School cafeteria, 1700 Lehman Road, in Kyle.