Monday, September 01, 2014

DID FARINA REALLY JUST DECLARE WAR ON ATRs?

Multiple people have sent me copies of the Daily News piece from Sunday where Chancellor Carmen Farina said she is looking to make it easier to fire ATRs after earlier saying teacher retention is a problem.

Here is how Perdido Street School covers the contradiction.

Fariña pledged to announce in the next two weeks a big reduction in the number of teachers getting paid despite not having steady classroom jobs. Earlier this month 114 of the roughly 1,100 teachers — known as the Absent Teacher Reserve — accepted $16,000 buyouts.

Fariña said the numbers would dwindle further as principals are taught best practices for writing up teachers and beginning the arduous termination process.


 This threat comes just one paragraph after Farina talks about the importance of teacher retention:

She also expressed confidence she could improve teacher retention by restoring the dignity of the job. But it won’t be easy. A recent teachers union survey found that 32,000 teachers walked away from city classrooms in the last 11 years, with about 4,600 going to jobs elsewhere in the state — mainly to city suburbs that offer higher pay and less challenging teaching conditions.

Okay, so let me get this straight.

Farina says she wants to restore "the dignity of the job" in order to improve teacher retention but she intends to have her NYCDOE minions go around the city making sure principals "are taught best practices for writing up teachers and beginning the arduous termination process."

Anybody else see the contradictions here?

How do you restore "the dignity of the job" while having principals schooled in the ways to write up teachers in order to terminate them?

Seems to me that's the same kind of teacher-targeting that we got during the Klein and Walcott Years.


Thanks Perdido.  More to come on this as we receive more information. I know I am feeling very apprehensive about returning to work on Tuesday.

As for ATR assignments, I received this email from an ATR named Lisa about people being selected for persecution.  I'm new at this ATR business but I kind of agree with this piece.

When it comes to the mystery shrouded assignment process, perhaps some of you might do well to remember the old adage, "Never attribute to malice what can equally be attributed to by stupidity."
 
Two years ago, I was assigned to a school 12 minutes from my home.  Last year, the school was 20 minutes away.  This year I'm 12 minutes away.   Do I think I'm being singled out for "special" treatment?  Hardly.  During the last two years I have been assigned multiple times to schools on the border of Brooklyn and Queens, as well as Brooklyn/Manhattan where it took me an hour to commute in rush hour traffic.  Do I then think I've been singled out for special punishment?  Not at all  --  I just think of the selection process as a lottery and this week, I had crappy luck.
I could be totally wrong about this, however.  Two years ago a friend of mine was assigned to Washington Heights for the three week startup.  She lives in Brighton Beach and her commute was an hour and 45 minutes each way.  Is it possible the DoE targeted her for extreme annoyance and was trying to force her to retire?  Who knows?  Only the HR Connect can say, and they do not tell, either way.  
 
So, in terms of the paranoia and vitriol -- ladies and gentlemen --  pace yourself.  I know the startup is mentally and emotionally painful, traumatic and depressing, but we have a long school year ahead of us to deal with.  Try not to let your negative past experience cloud your perceptions of the new and as yet "undiscovered country".   

Here's wishing everyone a successful startup.

Lisa




12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Regarding the Friday, August 08, 2014 post titled REPORTERS QUESTION WHY SO FEW ATRS TOOK THE SEVERANCE PACKAGE & WHY MULGREW SUPPORTS COMMON CORE...

In the listed email from DOE press office to education reporters, there is the statement:

"If a teacher from the ATR fails to appear at interviews or fails to accept a teaching position he or she is offered, the teacher will be deemed to have resigned from the school system."

Is this true that we HAVE to accept ANY teaching position that we are offered or we are terminated???

UrbanEd said...

Unfortunately, if you fail to report to an interview or fail to report to an assignment, they are now empowered to fire you without even a hearing. The termination is automatic and is worded in such a way that it is considered to be a resignation from you. So stay on your toes.
However, the contract is worded in such a way that you can only be provisionally assigned outside of your district (anywhere in the borough) after October 15. So the commute should be a bit better until then.

James Eterno said...

It is very scary for us this year. We need to support each other as best as we can.

Gladys Sotomayor said...

Strength...
   “You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have.”-anonomyous
Thanks for your writings! And yes we must tread lightly and intelligently.
Most of all think positive and be positive to yourself in the assigned school and to each other. We don't have chapter leaders nor district Representatives.We are each other's resources for advise and advocacy.

Anonymous said...

Let us see how Grandma deals with atr administrators and incompetent principals.

Gladys Sotomayor said...

Strength...
   “You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have.”-anonomyous
Thanks for your writings! And yes. We must tread lightly and intelligently.
Most of all think positive and be positive to yourself in the assigned school and to each other. We don't have chapter leaders nor district Representatives.We are each other's resources for advise and advocacy.

Michael Fiorillo said...

Never forget that we work for the DOE, where it can be extremely difficult to know where the incompetence/stupidity end and the malice begins...

Julie said...

Some teachers are being made to transport well over the 90 minute contractual rule...Staten Island to Brooklyn, for example. Farina says a million times, NO FORCED PLACEMENT. She means not forced on principal, only forced on teacher.

Anonymous said...

Tomorrow is going to be interesting with teachers getting their rating from last school year. Commissioner King imposed the harshest evaluation system on NYC teachers. Perhaps tomorrow a sleeping giant will awake and Mulgrew will have a lot of explaining to do. Just go back to the email he sent at the beginning of last year at this time praising the new evaluation system.

Anonymous said...

UFT says don't expect too many ineffective ratings.

Anonymous said...

I understand that the ATR must accept an INTERVIEW. But nowhere in the memorandum of agreement: http://www.uft.org/files/attachments/secure/moa2014-atr.pdf does it say that the ATR MUST accept a teaching position offered.

In the DOE's statement to the press, the wording is that the ATR must accept any position.

However the memorandum reads differently.... I interpret it as saying the ATR cannot decline the INTERVIEW... not the position.

Please help me out here.

Anonymous said...

Problems relating to schools?

Contact the City Council Education Committee.

The Chair is Hon. Daniel J. Dromm.

DDromm@council.nyc.gov