Herricks Adds Another Tiebreaker for Teacher Seniority

The Herricks School District has added a new way to determine which of several teachers will be let go in the case of layoffs.

New York State has a few tiebreakers for times when two or more teachers have similar qualifications and at least one is being excessed. Some of these determinants include: seniority, start date and board-appointed date, Dr. Deirdre Hayes, assistant superintendent explained at the regular meeting of the Herricks Board of Education on April 26 at the .

Herricks has its own set of tiebreakers in case all of the state’s measures result in ties. These include: if a teacher was previously tenured in the district, if a teacher has an additional certification that the district would be interested in and if the person has done previous service in the district not on a per diem basis, Hayes said.

In addition to these six criteria, the district added one more, which is completely random and should eliminate any further potential ties. If there is still a tie, the teachers name will be put on a piece of paper thick enough that no one can see through it, which will be folded in half, stapled and selected at random from a bowl while other people are monitoring the process, Hayes explained. The first name that is drawn will be considered to have more seniority than the others, she added.