VERTICAL STAFFING

WHEREAS, vertical staffing patterns (sometimes called "differentiated staffing") threaten to become a common administrative practice in U.S. education; and

WHEREAS, vertical staffing patterns create a hierarchy of salary ("levels" of job responsibilities commensurate with a rate of pay), status and authority, and thus tend to destroy the cooperative and communal effort necessary for a successful teaching effort; and

WHEREAS, vertical staffing patterns create arbitrary and artificial "levels" of responsibilities in terms of salary differentials and thus result in a new version of the merit salary system; and

WHEREAS, vertical staffing patterns create a divisiveness within the teaching staff and are of dubious value in improving the learning process among students:

RESOLVED, that the AFT go on record as opposing any vertical staffing patterns which reduce the total number of fully certificated staff responsible for the education of pupils, which results in an arbitrary reduction of financing for education, and which is a movement away from the concept of the single salary schedule; and

RESOLVED, that any plan dealing with staff utilization must be developed in consonance with the teachers union through the process of negotiation in all phases of decision-making in matters of policy and processing; and

RESOLVED, that all AFT locals investigate thoroughly any and all plans promulgated by school districts which violate the above precepts.