Jefferson County Supt. Dr. Craig Pouncey has told leaders of two local teachers’ organizations that if they don’t like his financial plan that will result in a net loss of 162 jobs, they should come up with a better plan — and do it by Tuesday morning’s JefCoEd monthly committee meetings.

The Jefferson County local of the American Federation of Teachers already has part of its response: remove Chief School Finance Officer Sheila Jones.

It’s been a tense situation between the local AFT — an organization that functions as a union in most states, but teachers’ unions are illegal in Alabama — and Pouncey. Things became even more tense when the superintendent called in AFT’s leadership, along with that from the rival Alabama Education Association, for a meeting Friday morning.

“He wants us to present a plan, and he wants it by Tuesday,” said Jefferson County AFT President Marrianne Hayward said of Pouncey. “He accused us of spreading rumors around in our membership.”

That meeting came just hours after Hayward and Alabama AFT legal counsel discussed plans for countering Pouncey’s plan, which would result in a reduction in force that would cost 227 jobs. Seventy of those are locally-funded teaching positions that would be cut through attrition; most of the rest involve laying off school office personnel, and putting those responsibilities into new positions yet to be created, which would result in 65 new jobs.

The plan was passed by a 3-2 vote in a contentious meeting of the board of education two weeks ago.

As was the case with their AEA counterparts last week, AFT officials believe that the new positions may have the same requirements as the ones being cut, but that JefCoEd may make slight changes in the job descriptions, so that they would not have to fill the new spots with those laid off and presumably making higher salaries. Such preferential treatment is required under teachers’ contracts when a reduction in force wipes out all positions of a certain job description.

“We think they [JefCoEd] may try to do something like that, so they can hire people with little or no experience and pay them less,” Hayward said.

Hayward added that the AFT has a alternative plan ready, but she’s not sure she wants to share it with Pouncey.

“I’m a little hesitant to give them our plan, because I’m afraid he might take it and add it to what he’s already done, and then blame the additional cuts on us,” she said. “I think a lot of that trust we had has been broken.”

The AFT proposed four points in a post on their Facebook page on Saturday. Besides calling for Jones’ ouster, the post called for Pouncey’s plan to be rescinded, to have an outside auditor brought in to give an objective assessment of the system’s financial health, and to establish a financial committee on the board.

In last Thursday night’s meeting, Hayward and other AFT officials encouraged members to continue to put pressure on the three board members who voted for the plan, in hopes that one of them will change his or her mind.

Board Vice President Jennifer Parsons, along with members Martha Bouyer and Oscar Mann, both voted in the plan’s favor. Council President Dean Taylor and member Jacqueline Smith voted against.