Saturday, November 08, 2014

FARINA AND MULGREW CREATE YET ANOTHER NEW CLASS OF DISPLACED TEACHERS FOR AUTOMOTIVE AND BOYS AND GIRLS

It looks like a version of the Turnaround model has been agreed to by the UFT and DOE for Automotive High School and Boys and Girls High School for next year.  According to a Memorandum of Agreement dated November 6, 2014, staff will have to reapply for their jobs to a personnel committee and get rehired or they will be sent elsewhere. 

The ridiculous notion that replacing the teaching staff in certain schools will lead to real educational improvement has been agreed to again by our union's leaders. Teachers are not the problem but we are treated as if we are.

My guess is most UFT staff won't be rehired.  According to paragraph 14 of the MOA, which was sent to me earlier today, those who are not rehired will not become Absent Teacher Reserves but they won't be permanently placed either. 

Instead, the agreement is creating a new middle-ground with annual rotation and undefined duties if there aren't vacancies in license in schools where the displaced teachers are assigned.

Here is the actual language from the MOA:

If a released UFT represented employee does not secure a position through the Open Market, the DOE shall assign him/her as follows: Starting with the 2015-16 school year and continuing through the 2020-2021 school year {unless the employee is permanently staffed to a school}, the employee shall be assigned annually to a high school with a vacancy in his/her license area on the first day of the school year in the same borough as the School.  If there is no vacancy in his/her license area in a high school in the same borough as the School on the first day of school, then the pedagogical employee shall be placed in the same borough and High School Superintendency as the School.  Once assigned to a high school in accordance with this paragraph, the employee shall remain in the high school for the entire school year except as follows:

           {i}The first time in a school year that a principal requests that the employee be given a different assignment, the employee shall be moved to a different high school assignment in the borough if, and only if, the Superintendent and the UFT district representative agree both that the employee should be moved and to which high school in the borough he/she shall be assigned:

          {ii}The second time in a school year that a principal requests that the employee be given a different assignment, the employee shall be moved to a different high school assignment in the borough, if and only if, both the Superintendent and the UFT district representative agree that the employee should be moved and to which high school in the borough he/she shall be assigned.  However, no employee shall be moved a second time in a school year unless the principal of the high school to which the employee would be assigned, agrees, except that, if no high school principal in the borough agrees to accept an employee who the Superintendent and the UFT district representative agree should be moved a second time, the high school in the borough to which the employee shall be assigned shall be jointly agreed to by the President of the UFT and the Chancellor.  Should the President of the UFT and the Chancellor be unable to agree, the high school in the borough to which the employee will be assigned to shall be determined by a neutral arbitrator jointly selected by the parties.

         {iii}If, in extraordinary circumstances, a third principal in a school year requests that an employee be given a different assignment, the UFT President and the Chancellor shall review the request and jointly determine the best course of action.

UFT represented employees assigned pursuant to this paragraph 11 shall not be subject to rotation, field supervision, or the expedited discipline process set forth in section 16 of  2014 Memorandum of Agreement....

The rest of this line didn't show up on the version that was sent to me but I think you get the idea.

This new class of teachers will not be entitled to program preferences.  Clearly, this latest agreement is creating a new group of displaced teachers who are not permanently assigned but are not rotating ATRs.  In that sense it is not a bad precedent but I believe our case as ATRs to end our third class status is even stronger.

ATRS will be meeting on Tuesday, November 11, 2014 in Elmhurst.  I will post more about this meeting later.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is akin to a deal with the devil. There will be ATRs and less frequently rotated teachers not in positions. In Newark, they are replacing veteran teachers with TFA and uncertified others. The UFT should be fired.

Anonymous said...

Are there any real teachers left for the uft to defend? Or have we all been marginalized?

Anonymous said...

Should have been fired long ago.

Anonymous said...

mulgrew does more division then my former hs math teacher

James Eterno said...

LOL.

Anonymous said...

Why dont you mention that because these schools were classified "Out of Time" by SED, that if there was no agreement King was closing these schools. All staff and students would be displaced. Why dont you mention the principal has to apply to the selection committee and tge commitee is 50% UFT?

Anonymous said...

We have our seat at the table. We should be happy we got something. Typical Unity spin. Teachers are still being held responsible for the school's failure. How is this good?

Anonymous said...

Its not good. But the alternative was King closing these schools. Teachers should not be held responsible for the schools failure. I dont believe the UFT should have let the schools close. Do you?