De Anza College math instructor Stephen Wolfe was not recommended for the final year of the tenure process, resulting in students circulating a petition to rehire him.

Students took the petition, with 87 signatures, to the March FHDA district trustees meeting where tenure was being considered, but the trustees took no action.

Wolfe, who is teaching three classes this spring quarter, had been rehired on probation for the 2013-14 academic year, but will not be back for 2014-15.

“I’m a good teacher,” Wolfe said. “I got a letter of recommendation from a De Anza professor who had 21 students that had me.”

All 21 of the students had a history of doing poorly in math and were not considered strong math students, Wolfe said. All 21 of the students passed their next math class after taking the class with Wolfe.

Most students really like the way Wolfe teaches, according to ratemyprofessor.com.

Several reviewers said they hated math before taking Wolfe’s class. They said after completing the class they liked math more and felt motivated to succeed.

“Unfortunately me and my tenure committee don’t see eye to eye,” Wolfe said. “They voted not to rehire me and I’m going to be filing a grievance because they didn’t follow the rules.”

In an email, Wolfe said he would file the grievance soon, and said he believes he has a very good chance of winning.

The tenure committee could not be reached for comment.

The tenure process, which is governed by the Faculty Association’s contract with the district, is described in a detailed and complex 50-page handbook.

Breaches of the tenure process are subject to union grievances.

“They observed me and they saw that there was this one class where I gave four examples and I didn’t make them progressively harder,” Wolfe said.

“They said you should start with the easiest and work up to the next hardest one and then finally give the hardest one.

“I found that isn’t always the best way,” Wolfe said. “Sometimes you give them hard problems and if the next one is easier it clicks. It gives people confidence knowing they can do well.”

Mahnoor Nadim, 18, started the petition to keep Wolfe at De Anza and shared it on Facebook in order to raise awareness of what was going on. Mahnoor attended the board meeting march 3 and gave a speech in support of Wolfe.

Mahnoor said she has had to drop and retake several math classes at De Anza.

“Professor Wolfe is one of the best teachers I’ve had at De Anza,” she said. “He explains complicated math problems in detail, making it easy for students to understand. He is hardworking, dedicated, and willing to go the extra mile for his students.”