We read multiple times in the past few weeks that the so called open market hiring system had no vacancies listed. The delay was confirmed by Gene Mann who reported in this week's Organizer, "The transfer plan had a delayed opening this year, but when spring came, it really burst into bloom: there were 160 vacancies in Queens high schools alone on the first day."
UFT members can transfer to a different school without permission from their current principal between April 15th and August 7th. The effective date of the transfer is the September term.
Anybody who believes the open market hiring system is on the up-and-up surely must be smoking, drinking, snorting, inhaling or injecting something because this totally subjective system has turned hiring in many schools into principal's patronage that has hurt higher salaried senior UFT members. The old seniority, SBO and integration transfer systems that the UFT gave away in the infamous 2005 contract were fairer as they were based on much more objective criteria than just principal's discretion.
When the UFT touts that more people transfer under the current system, they only do comparisons with the old seniority system which had dwindled down to a few schools in its final years. They don't compare open market with how many transferred under all three of the old transfer systems.
Stories of experienced teachers sending out dozens of resumes under open market and not getting one reply are heard regularly. Meanwhile, finding out about someone's relative who knew the principal or assistant principal being hired at a school as veterans are passed over is as common as the common cold in the winter.
Our advice to people who want to escape their current school is to network. You need to talk to contacts who know someone in administration in a school you might like to work in and play the game. I know that goes against what many feel is right.
The current system certainly does not keep in the spirit of unionism or merit based civil service hiring that goes back to the 1880s Pendleton Act, which this blog has referred to on several occasions in the past, but open market is what we are stuck with as long as Michael Mulgrew's Unity party controls the UFT.
Demanding an objective transfer system is one more reason to get out the vote for MORE-NEW ACTTION and to convince everyone you know to do the same. We will push for a fairer hiring and transfer system.
Farina is hiring 7000 new teachers for this September, while 2000 ATRs go without permanent positions.
ReplyDeleteI so agree with your post about the Open Market hiring system.
ReplyDeleteLook at the front page of the NY Post, who would want to work in any of the 1600 schools? This whole job is nothing more than babysitting service in disgusting neighborhoods, hope you dont get killed, hope you can make it 30 years, and hope you live a little after to spend your pension and TDA. These students, who are lowlife, are graduating unable to read, write, and haave criminal records by thje time they enter high school. Oh, but for the first time ever the grad rate is over 70%. Ok...but dont dare ask them to put the phone away, take the hat off or take out a notebook...If de Blasio is so in tune with the black community, why doesnt he tell them to stop saying Nigga every 5 seconds and tell them to stop getting pregnant at 16?
ReplyDeleteThis post was about transfers. Who knew a racist rant would follow?
ReplyDeleteI teach white kids who do the same crap who come from quality homes.
ReplyDeleteThe open-market system defies basic rules of consent, and here is how.
ReplyDeleteOnce an application is submitted to a school -- which is typically the first step in making contact and expressing interest in a job -- the Principal of that school at any time may accept your application and transfer you out of your old school, all with zero consent. In other words, they don't have to say, "We want you to work here, do you want the job?"
I went to a job interview one year and during the interview I acted very interested in the position -- part of doing an interview, right? Next thing I know, I was notified that I had been transferred to the new school and that my old Principal had been informed of my transfer. I was shocked. I was never asked point blank, "We are offering you a job, will you accept?"
The system does not ask consent and that is a serious problem. I've never heard of anything like it in the world of hiring practices.
Ok, so BK Tech is the same as Hillcrest or Franklin K Lane...
ReplyDeleteIve applied by the dozens, not a single interview, nothing but Satisfactory every year.
ReplyDeleteI live in Staten Island, have worked out of borough my whole career, stellar record, attendance, etc. No chance to get a job in SI. UFT told me i was lucky to have a job. Commutes of 5 hours a day roundtrip.
ReplyDeleteUFT gave away the store in 2005. Now it is a question of holding on to some basics we still have.
ReplyDeleteYou don't need a gun to have a weapon. This past week, 2 students, on 2 different days, found a meter stick in the classroom I was covering and brandished it in my face, coming dangerously close to my eyes. They also threatened to strike me with the meter sticks. When I went to call the dean on the phone about this, one student reached across my face to disconnect the phone. I reported to the school's chapter leader that I felt unsafe in the school. He told me to report any such activities to him and gave me a phone number. Great, unless another student disconnects the phone.
ReplyDeleteThe students in this school are absolute thugs. You cannot even cajole them to behave in a remotely human way. They do nothing, even in a regular class, but play with their phones, grab each other, get into fights, etc. I covered a CTT class with a "regular" teacher in there with me. This man did absolutely nothing but sit on his fat rear end and work with Skedula. The other teacher, who I was covering for, had not left work. Mr. Skedula made absolutely no attempt to assign any work. Meanwhile, 98% of his students were texting, making actual phone calls, watching movies on their phones, walking out of the classroom unchallenged, etc. When I leave this school at 3:15 each day, the first thing I want to do is to take a shower to wash off the figurative filth from myself and bless that I was not injured.
The NYPD is looking for a pair of thieves wanted for burglarizing a Planet Fitness gym over the weekend.
ReplyDeletePolice from the 52nd Precinct say the bandits broke into the exercise chain at 309 E. Kingsbridge Road during the overnight hours of May 14 and swiped $100 from the cash registers before taking off.
The crooks are described as black or Hispanic men, wearing black hooded sweaters and gray pants.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Crime Stoppers Hotline at (800) 577-TIPS (8477).