By Kevin Lavery, KWMU
St. Louis, MO. – St. Louis schools officials say they're simply following the law in requiring about 800 teachers to re-apply for their jobs.
More than a dozen city schools have failed to attain adequate yearly progress goals for the last six years.
Under the No Child Left Behind Act, the district must restructure those schools or risk reduced funding and a possible state takeover.
District spokesman Tony Sanders says there are a lot of teachers who've wanted to transfer to different schools.
"This is just an opportunity for teachers to start over," Sanders said. "And we're hoping that they'll all be coming back to maybe the same school or maybe a different school, but either way, coming back and being ready to go and turning this school district around."
The city teachers' union says it's been excluded from the process, and may consider legal action.
Union president Mary Armstrong says the district has created chaos by shutting teachers out of the decision process.
"We don't appreciate the potshots taken at us as employees of the district where all the ills of this district are put on the backs of the employees in the district," Armstrong said.
But Sanders says teachers and principals were included in the reconstitution talks.