[cs_edworkers] Teachers to be ATRd at Boys and Girls HS, Automotive HS

  • From: Marjorie Stamberg <marjoriestamberg@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: pathways-teach@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, "cs_edworkers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <cs_edworkers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, classstruggle@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, UFTerstoStoptheWar <UFTerstoStoptheWar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "NYCoREUpdates@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" <NYcoreupdates@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, More Discussion <more-discussion@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Marjorie Stamberg <marjoriestamberg@xxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sat, 8 Nov 2014 07:39:52 -0500

See the NY Times article and link below. I did a double take when I
got up and heard the news on NY 1 this morning.

The union agreed to this rotten deal on Thursday, and I can tell you
there has been no discussion of this at the union's highest body, the
delegate assembly.   UFT pres. Mulgrew lauds his pal "Carmen" the new
chancellor, while agreeing that all teachers at these schools must
"reapply" for their jobs, just like under Bloomberg.

Hundreds of new ATRs will be created this year, while Mulgrew and the
union leadership refuse to allow an ATR functional chapter and deny
ATRs their union rights of representation.

Just as de Blasio caved in to Cuomo and Eva Moskowitz on charter
schools, here they fall into line with Cuomo on making teachers the
scapegoats for all the issues of unemployment, racism, and childhood
poverty.


Here's the NY Times article:



With Deal, Staff at 2 Struggling Schools in Brooklyn Must Reapply for Jobs

By ELIZABETH A. HARRISNOV. 7, 2014

The de Blasio administration said on Friday that it would require the
entire staff at two of New York City’s lowest performing schools to
reapply for their jobs next year, the result of a deal with the
teachers’ and principals’ union that came just before a state
deadline.

The plan, affecting two Brooklyn schools — Boys and Girls High School
in Bedford-Stuyvesant and Automotive High School in Greenpoint — is a
different approach to achieving a familiar goal. During the Bloomberg
administration, many low-performing schools were closed and then
replaced by smaller schools with new programs, and new staffs. In this
case, the existing school remains, but the staff may not.

Mayor Bill de Blasio has been criticized, mainly by charter
schooladvocates, as being too slow to come up with a plan for failing
schools. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s policy of closing schools
created space for charter schools, but Mr. de Blasio has shown little
desire to enact such measures.

The deal came just days after Mr. de Blasio announced his own approach
to helping 94 persistently low-performing schools, one rooted in the
philosophy that schools’ troubles were not a fault of the staff so
much as students’ circumstances, and that those circumstances could be
ameliorated. That plan includes spending $150 million to add staff
members to the schools, extending the academic day by an hour and
turning them into so-called community schools that offer mental
health, vision care and other social services.

The two Brooklyn schools, which are among the 94, need further
measures because they are on a state list of “Out of Time” schools,
which have performed so poorly for so long that they require more
extensive changes. Only 5 percent of seniors at Boys and Girls were
considered “college ready” last year; at Automotive, it was 8 percent.

The de Blasio administration and unions agreed to the plan for the two
schools on Thursday, the day before it was due to be submitted to the
State Education Department. The state approved it on Friday, on the
condition that the city submit more detailed plans by Dec. 19.

“Instead of dividing school communities, we’re bringing together
students, parents, teachers and principals around a new vision and
investing the resources needed to turn things around,” Mayor de Blasio
said in a statement on Friday. “But we are serious about
accountability, and we’ll take whatever steps are needed to give our
kids the fresh start they deserve.”

The city said it would watch whether test scores, attendance and
graduation rates go up. This week, the mayor said that closing a
school remained an option if it did not improve.

There are 130 teachers and administrators now at the two schools, and
judging by the reaction on Friday, the plan will not be universally
embraced.

“This is their way of weeding through us — harassment, unfairness,”
said Tasha Scott, 40, a paraprofessional in the special education
department of Boys and Girls who has worked there for 15 years. “We’re
all stressed out in there, we’re turning against each other, they’re
forcing us to be back stabbers.”

Other staff members said they were less concerned, or at least more
resigned. Caster Hall, the president of the Parent-Teachers
Association at Boys and Girls and the father of a sophomore, said he
supported the plan.

“We have some good teachers in here and some teachers who are not
doing their job,” he said. “They’re trying to weed out the bad
teachers. It’s good they have to reapply.”

New and returning staff members at the two schools would be required
to participate in extra professional development sessions over the
summer. Teachers who are not chosen to remain at the schools will
still stay on the city payroll.

During the Bloomberg administration, more than 1,000 teachers, many of
them from closed schools, were left without permanent positions. The
de Blasio administration’s agreement with the unions seeks to avoid
that problem by guaranteeing the teachers access to open jobs, though
principals will have the power to remove them if they do not work out.

As part of the deal with the unions, teacher hiring decisions will be
made by a committee at each school. Teachers’ union representatives
and designees, including parents selected by the union, will make up
half of the seats. If the committee cannot agree on whether to hire a
particular person, the chancellor and union head will make a joint
decision, or submit it to an arbitrator.

Jenny Sedlis, the executive director of Students First New York, an
advocacy group that was closely aligned with the Bloomberg
administration, criticized the composition of the hiring committee,
calling the plan “entirely oriented around the needs of adults.”

“That staff need to reapply for their jobs is good, but what kinds of
standards are they setting?” Ms. Sedlis said.

City officials said they were confident the parent representatives
would represent parents, not union interests. They also said that
while the restaffing deal addressed just two schools, it could be a
template for others that consistently fail to perform.

“Boys and Girls and Automotive have struggled longer than anyone can
remember,” Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña said on Friday. “Today,
we’re showing that we can and we will take every step necessary to
ensure every child has a great education.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/08/nyregion/in-deal-staff-at-2-of-new-yorks-lowest-performing-schools-must-reapply-for-jobs.html?ref=nyregion

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