A Port Huron Northern High School teacher, who also is a secretary of the teachers' union and a member of the Michigan Education Association's regional board of directors, says the district where she works is using evaluations for "punitive" reasons and getting rid of teachers with the highest ratings over those with lower ratings.

If true, the district may have been breaking the law.

The district superintendent, however, says the claim is "absolutely, positively" untrue.

Cathy Murray, a social studies teacher and secretary of the Port Huron Education Association, criticized in an MEA article how teachers are evaluated in the Port Huron Area School District.

The article reported that Murray said the district had "huge problems" with its evaluation system. She was quoted as saying: "It's about punitive evaluation scores that are costing teachers' jobs."

The article further reported that Murray said, "twenty-year teachers who are 'highly effective' are losing their jobs before teachers who are 'minimally effective' and 'effective'."

State law now says teachers who are laid off have to be recalled based on effectiveness. In the past, teacher contracts mandated that teachers with the most seniority, regardless of performance, would be recalled first.

However, Port Huron Area Schools Superintendent H. Ronald Wollen said the school did not break the law and there were no instances where a lower-rated teacher was kept in lieu of a higher-rated teacher.

"Absolutely, positively not," Wollen said. "We are following the law."

Neither Murray nor MEA Spokesman Doug Pratt responded to requests for comment.

Wollen said 60 teachers are targeted for layoffs as the school downsizes due to a reduction in students.

The state law requires school districts evaluate teachers and rate them on one of four categories: "highly effective," "effective," "minimally effective," and "ineffective."

According to the Michigan Department of Education, Port Huron Area Schools gave 64.34 percent of its teachers "highly effective" ratings in 2011-12. There were 406 teachers given the highest rating; 199 were rated as "effective;" and 25 were rated as "minimally effective." One teacher was rated as "ineffective."

Because nearly two out of three teachers were given the highest rating, it's possible a "highly effective" teacher could be laid off while a lower rated teacher was retained, said Michael Van Beek, education policy director at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

For example, Van Beek said if a teacher needed to be laid off at the high school level and all the teachers were rated as "highly effective," a top-rated teacher could lose their job while a lower-rated teacher at an elementary school not targeted for reductions kept their job.

Wollen said the district has changed how it is doing evaluations this year. He said he hasn’t yet seen any final evaluations for teachers for the 2012-13 school year.

Memorial Day is a wonderful constant. Every year, it never ceases to touch me.

My family attends an annual parade in Mercer, Pa. It’s terrific — total old-school. The flags, the courthouse, the kids, the snow cone stand, the marching bands, and, most of all, the troops from different wars — that is, the survivors who remain with us.

Speaking of whom, Memorial Day always brings another constant, a sad one: each new Memorial Day brings fewer World War II veterans. They are leaving us at a rapid clip. Anyone who entered World War II at age 18 in 1945 — the final stretch when someone could have joined the war effort — would now be 86 years old. Anyone who entered the war at age 18 in 1941 is 90. There aren’t as many now as there were 10 years ago, and 10 years from now … well, do the math.

A colleague of mine was reminded of this universal reality just a few weeks ago. His name is Glenn Marsch. He teaches with me at Grove City College in Pennsylvania. As a professor of physics, Glenn understands something about constants and universal laws. This Memorial Day will be his first without the constant of his father. He lost his dad in March.

Glenn’s dad became a soldier in October 1944, shipping off to the Pacific. He was an Army construction engineer, often a dangerous job. He knew fellow troops — friends of his — who were killed. He personally incurred a serious wartime injury. Because Glenn’s dad didn’t talk about the injury (or the war), Glenn didn't learn the full extent of his dad’s injuries until his funeral.

"My oldest brother revealed that Dad had been burned over much of his body," said Glenn. "He recovered and went back to active duty, but I never saw him on a beach without a shirt and long shorts. Upon smelling something disgusting, he would say, 'smells like human flesh burning.' "

Think about that: Glenn never saw his dad without a shirt and pants or long shorts, not even at the beach in the summer. His father stoically concealed his wounds. Never talked about them.

Glenn's dad instead quietly came home from combat and served his country in another way — as a good, God-fearing American who held a job, loved his wife, raised his kids, and made a better culture and country. There were millions like him.

Another was John Shrode. Born in Rockport, Ind., on Aug. 11, 1925, just four days after the birth of the girl (Martha) he would marry and take care of for 67 years. John landed on Omaha Beach at 7:35 a.m. on June 6, 1944 — D-Day. He was literally among the first Allied troops to storm the beaches of Normandy. The French government awarded him the Croix de Guerre for rescuing France from the Nazis.

"He will forever be my hero," says his daughter-in-law, Kendra Shrode. Kendra's husband, who was John's first-born child, died in 1989 without ever really knowing about John's service.

"He had not yet reached the point of talking about it," remembers Kendra. "With my children he did, and I am so grateful they had that opportunity."

John's life wasn’t easy. He grew up in a broken home, had only an eighth-grade education, and lost a child. Later in life, he developed three types of cancer, atop other illnesses. He struggled to take care of his wife as she came down with Alzheimer's. Nonetheless, says Kendra, "He was the most well-read 'uneducated' man I have ever known. And his life code was integrity…. The strength of this man lives on in his children and grandchildren."

A dairy and grain farmer, John went on to work for Caterpillar Tractor Company for 31 years. He loved his wife, raised his kids, and made a better culture and country.

For Kendra and the many Shrode children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, this will be their second Memorial Day without "Papa John." John Denzil Shrode, 8th Platoon, Company C, 6th Naval Beach Battalion, died Nov. 5, 2011.

John's final resting place is quintessentially American. It sits aside a tombstone awaiting his beloved wife and across from the baseball field in small-town America where he played and coached his children for years.

"As I stood looking at the flag tributes and glanced over at the fields," says Kendra, of a recent visit to John's grave, "I realized he will be forever with us all."

For all of those veterans who didn’t make it to Memorial Day this year, I say thank you. You remain constants — forever with us all.

Paul Kengor is a professor of political science at Grove City College and an adjunct scholar with the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a research and educational institute headquartered in Midland, Mich.