The plan bases layoffs on teacher performance and uses seniority as a tie-breaker. The union also agreed to provisions that give the district more control over low-performing schools and embraces local charter schools.


According to the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, here are some of the key provisions of today's agreement with the Cleveland Teachers Union:

• Low-performing schools: The agreement allows the district to quickly intervene in low-performing schools in consultation and collaboration with our unions and clarifies that teachers and employees cannot and will not be fired just because they work in low-performing schools;
• Differentiated salary schedule: The agreement ensures the development of a salary schedule that factors in performance, specialized training, and other relevant experience and ensures that teachers will not receive pay cuts simply because a new pay schedule is created;
• Teacher assignments: The agreement allows the district to fill teaching positions in all schools using hiring teams that include principals, teachers, and parents as opposed to simply assigning teachers based on seniority;• Teacher evaluations: The agreement protects CMSD’s and CTU’s hard work on a modernized Teacher Development and Evaluation system while expanding timelines and focusing on quality;
• Tenure and dismissal: The agreement provides the district wider discretion about granting tenure and streamlines the dismissal process for poor performing teachers by focusing on performance evaluation as the primary factor, while protecting the due process rights for CMSD employees;
• Reduction in force or layoff: The agreement aligns layoff decisions to teacher evaluations and teacher quality; and uses tenure and seniority as tiebreakers when needed;
• School year calendar: The agreement allows the school district to set the school year and school day calendar for all district schools;
• Transformation Alliance: The agreement clarifies that the Transformation Alliance must conduct public meetings, provide access to public records and adopt appropriate conflict-of-interest policies.