Letter for file: Your rights, with an important addendum
Before any letter is placed in your file, you must be given an opportunity to read it and acknowledge its receipt by signing it. If the letter is negative, you should consider writing a response, detailing why you disagree with its contents. There is no time frame by which your response must be written. You should speak with your chapter leader, who can help you write an appropriate response and advise you on any other possible course of action, including procedural matters that may be grievable. The response should be attached to the original letter in your file; your supervisor cannot respond to your response.If a letter is written for your file outside the contractual time limits, you have a right to grieve to have that letter removed. In addition, an arbitrator has ruled that you have the right to grieve “if material is placed in a teacher or employee file under circumstances that are alleged to constitute a violation of substantive Collective Bargaining Provisions.” In other words, if the letter violates a substantive part of the contract, you can grieve the letter under that contractual article.
If the letter is not used as the basis for disciplinary charges within three years, you can and should have it removed from your file. Talk to your chapter leader about how to do this.
Important addendum! If you are presented with a letter to file-whatever it says-sign it, date it, and return it, maintaining a copy for yourself. Do NOT write on the document! Not only will that impair the grievance process, if you enter into it, but we have even heard of disciplinary charges being brought for “defacing a disciplinary letter!”
For many years as a chapter leader, I was able to get most file letters into the grievance process because the administration in writing the letter violated some other clause of the Contract. This includes Chancellor's Regulations as per Contract Article 20, Matters not Covered.
Wait. What is Gene Mann’s Organizer? A Book? A website? This is good stuff.
ReplyDeleteWeekly email publication for UFT members. Gene is a retired teacher and member of ruling Unity Caucus. We sometimes cite his pieces, which often mirror UFT official publications, to see UFT thinking.
ReplyDeleteIf the DOE is disciplining teachers for defacing letters, this is more proof that nothing much is changing at the anti teacher DOE. A union please.
ReplyDeleteI'm confused, if I read all these articles about a record number of homeless students, and all the problems they have, how am I observed based on what they do in class? A head is down, no pen, no notebook, no homework, they dont care...My fault.
ReplyDeleteIf every child was a willing participant in his own education, I could be convinced to get behind your ideas. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case. Many (and in some schools, most) students are reluctant or unwilling to engage.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever tried to make a child eat something he didn’t want to eat? That’s what teaching unwilling learners is like. The reality is unless they have an appetite, you can set an entire banquet in front of them and it will go untouched.
The problem is that we are slipping into a world where we don’t judge teachers by the banquet they prepare but by the appetites of the children at the table.
Teachers who teach high-achieving students from good homes where education, discipline, and work ethic are valued need not worry. A hungry child will eat more or less anything you put in front of him. My best students could probably forego school altogether, spend the days in a library, and be just as well off as they are in my class.
But there are too many kids in our society whose families don’t value education. They have not been reared with appropriate discipline. And work ethic isn’t even a thing. These children often come to school and spend their days playing or distracting others. Homework, which is necessary to solidify the content that has been taught to them, is never completed.
These students tend to do very poorly on their graded and standardized tests. Is it fair to blame the teacher for that?
1) DENIED union representation when presented with hostile letter. Is this not a denial of Weingarten Rights?
ReplyDelete2) When union representation is denied...can the letter be used in acts against the Teacher?
3) Pursuant to Weingarten Rights....Teachers are entitled to representation on matters which may lead to further disciplinary actions.
Were you denied representation at disciplinary conference 4:24?
ReplyDeleteJames, does the term “letters in the file” also include observation reports?
ReplyDeleteThey are the same in that you sign them and they go in your file but the observations are fought with an APPR complaint, not a grievance, that must be filed within five school days.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the Post-Conference of an Observation that was deemed Unsatisfactory....
ReplyDeletea. Does the Post-Conference have to be held?
b. In what time frame?
c. In the event...a Post-Conference is not held....then, what?
d. Does the failure of the Rating Officer to conduct a Post-Conference....vitiate the Unsatisfactory Observation>?
a. Post observation only required for formal observation. For informal, feedback is required but not a conference.
ReplyDeleteb. Ten school days for feedback.
c. d. File an APPR complaint within 5 school days of violation.
Also, be sure when you get a letter in your file, to turn it around on the administrator. Say how you observed the administrator engaging in similar behavior. Be sure to be specific as possible, or how other teachers are doing the same thing, and the administrators do nothing about it. Administrators take a risk of being called out on their own behavior and negligence when they put a letter in your file.
ReplyDelete