ATRs and Seniority: An Historical Perspective

I was asked to give a presentation at yesterday's GEM (Grassroots Education Movement) meeting yesterday on ATRs and Seniority: Historical Perspective

Too bad I didn't see Jamaica HS teacher Marc Epsteins must read piece at Huffington:
Cathie Black's Tenure Trap

I just could have read it out loud.

I used the very excellent ATR Q&A put together by Julie W. that she posted on the ICE blog as a reference. No one knows more about this issue than Julie.

Here are some of my notes - which I will expand into prose later if I have time.

ATRs and class size- a direct relationship - why not just give them regular jobs - but we know ATRs have a political purpose - a wedge against teacher seniority and LIFO.

Seniority pre BloomKlein

Excessing and layoffs by license - could bump others but generally with scarcity of teachers not an issue.

Early 70's signs of tightening up - surplus social St teachers in HS
1975 crunch - only mass layoff in history - 13-15,000 - order of seniority and massive excessing and bumping of teachers - my school a little more senior than neighbors - 13 people.
Next 10 years - not many hired other than special ed which went from 0 to 60.

Seniority transfers allowed- 5-700 a year took advantage
Public - big advantage for teacher but reality - 5 choices - given one, principals covered up, if refused couldn't reapply for 2 yrs. Most took to be closer to home - also to move from very difficult schools to middle class schools where despite princ opposition - exp in tougher schools often gave them advantage in discipline
Needed princ to sign off if want to leave - most did - if not like - good ridance. If like

Klein- 2002, Aug
Dual attack on Sen Trans from almost first days:
Loss of senior teachers from poor schools drained them of exp, good tchrs
Senior trnsf forced principals to accept bad senior tchrs.

Klein made these contradictory points all over - city council
Randi followed - no defense - UFT not only didn't call them on this but agreed there needed to be changes.

It was clear there needed to be some reforms and here is a major one:
SBO - School Based Options: 400 schools out of 1200: Teachers/union and princ outside contract - interv transfers and didn't have to take them.This gave teachers in schools where the principal didn't totally control things to have a say in which teacher transferees were coming into the school.

UFT Agreed to cut number of seniority trans - 2003 contract (I believe)

LIMITS ON SCHOOL CLOSINGS DUE TO THESE RULES - HAD TO PLACE EVERYONE BY SEN RULES

2005 Contract: End seniority, create ATR
Open market - princ couldn't stop you from leaving but also didn't have to accept you - if excessed or school closed - had to get job on own. No more placement

Had to get own school

2005 Accel school closings because it allowed Klein to not worry about having to place the teachers in a way that can cause bumping.

Life as an ATR
Not equal rights for after school jobs, and other rights.
sub out of lo

Fair School Funding
Charged school for cost of teachers - incentive to get rid of higher priced teachers
Debate often framed as newbie vs senior but more insideous:
COST EFFECTIVENESS - 10 yr/22 yr diff in salary vs. experience benefit.

Have to pay ATRs - Investment by Bloomberg - view to ultim not have to pay -
Part of Cathie Black Mission. Use budget crisis and public pressure.

Nov. 2008: ATR Rally at Tweed
UFT side agreement day before, wine and cheese party
Tale of 2 rallies
Central will pick up salary if ATR hired -
ATR vilified and tainted.
Agree expired Dec. 1 2010.

Current attack:
No LIFO for layoffs, no tenure
Open season on ATR agreement.

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Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/

Ich Bin Ein ATR

UPDATE: ATR MEETINGS THIS WEEK:

Bronx and Manhattan: Tues., Sept. 21, McGinley Ballroom, 441 E. Fordham Rd, Bronx 10 am to 3:30
Queens: Thurs., Sept. 23, Citi Field, 12-01 Roosevelt Ave., Flushing 10 am to 3:30

I'm often asked why teachers in Chicago seemed to rise up against their Unity-like union leadership and the Chicago ed deformers. One area if difference has been the way excessed teachers from schools being closed have been treated. They can be fired within a year. All Chicago teachers realize that anyone of them can be an ATR.

The fact that at this point they can't be fired in NYC - though treated in ways that might encourage then to leave - and that there are still a relatively small number of teachers affected compared to the majority, has kept the issue under the radar of most teachers and has allowed the UFT to sort of bury the issue.

Most teachers don't realize that their day could come even though as the charters school movement infiltrates neighborhoods and steals kids from public schools, more schools are feeling the pressure and teachers are getting more conscious as their schools shrink.

Here is a parsing of the UFT position on ATRs by Julie Woodward who teaches High School music - when she is not being bumped around her school as an ATR.

The UFT's position on ATRs in writing

“The ATR problem is a result of Tweed's mismanagement."

[JW comment:  Everyone except apparently the union knows this ATR thing is not a question of ”mismanagement" but unionbusting. And they're  very good at it. It's about the  only thing this chancellor  was actually trained to do and he's not bungling any of it.]

  

“The union will stand by educators in the ATR. They are good people who were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and they deserve our support."

[JW:   Good people?  How condescending and simplistic.  ATRs are about as good or nondescript as any other bunch of educators. 

          More importantly:  The union has in fact been exceptionally poor at supporting ATRs. The leadership sabotaged a rally for them a couple of years ago, and they entered into a Side Agreement that did nothing or worse to improve their continual marginalization and second-class status. It does seem, however, that the union is holding the line on Klein's wish to fire them all. For this contract they're negotiating anyway.  I've heard nothing to the effect that ATRs might be sold out.]

  

 “Don't think it couldn't happen to you. Any one of us can become an ATR if the DoE decides to downsize or close our school.”   

[JW:  Very true, but not nearly the whole picture. We can become ATRs for a host of other reasons as well: union activity, personality clashes, nepotism and playing favorites, directives from the DoE, etc. Almost at the snap of a finger. ]

ATRs: Many Called, Few Chosen

From an ATR's horses mouth. What a great inside illustration of not only the lack of respect from the DOE but also of their incompetence at even running an event like this.

A “mandatory recruitment fair” (or was it a futility festival?) was held in the main room of the Grand Prospect Ballroom in Brooklyn on September 14.  Teachers were initially directly to report at 10 o’clock in the morning.  Email messages went out the day before changing the time to 1:00.  Although the second floor ballroom is large, teachers weren’t permitted to enter until after one o’clock.  Some didn’t get in until around 2:00.  Teachers who arrived in the morning had to stand around waiting for more than three hours before going upstairs to the interview tables.

The DOE used a first floor lounge and restaurant as waiting rooms.  These side rooms were stuffed far beyond their room capacity (which is listed on the ballroom’s website as 320 persons).

Teachers were advised in the email messages that no lunch would be provided.  For those arriving in the afternoon there was not even water.  One teacher was stopped from entering the Skylight Room where administrators were being served a range of beverages by waiters in black jackets.  A handler in a monogrammed jacket told the teacher there wasn’t anything available for interviewees.  Asked what his position was the man explained that he was employed by a private company (a DOE “partner”) hired to provide logistics for the job fair.   Apparently these logistics didn’t include providing water for the hundreds of cattle call participants.  After a standoff of several minutes a Ballroom waiter brought the teacher a glass of water from the off-limits room.  Teachers typically seemed to be seeing about 3-4 vacancies in their licence area.  Some fewer.  Some found none.

Throwaway line:  Many of the participants were dressed like they would hope to be treated:  professional or at least semi-professional.  However, scores of others were more in keeping with the shabby reality.

Follow-Up

Pakter on Callaghan: UFT Canned Its Conscience When It Fired Jim Callaghan

Mid Day Snack: The Great ATR Musical Chair Swap Game

Reposted and Updated Sept. 14, 1PM

As the Brooklyn and Staten Island ATRs are entering the Grand Prospect Hall just about now (see below) we have reports coming in about ATRs being sent hither and fro. High school ATRs being sent to middle schools. Middle school ATRs being sent to elementary or high schools. Elementary ATRs being sent to middle schools.

The best stories are the ones from ATRs who are sent en masse out of one school and are replaced by a whole batch of ATRs from somewhere else. Reports are coming in of 40-60% turnover of total staff at some schools. Is this Tweed mismanagement or intentional use of chaos disruption theory?

Angel and I are heading over to Grand Prospect Hall to talk to ATRs as they come out about organizing an ATR committee to plan a rally of ATRs at Tweed in November. The least they will get out of it will be another UFT wine and cheese diversion.


Brooklyn/Staten Island ATRs Invited to Heavenly Event

Dear Colleague,

This email serves as a follow up to the notice already given to you by your current principal in regards to the mandatory New York City Department of Education recruitment fair being held tomorrow, Tuesday, September 14^th at 1pm.   You are receiving this email because based on current records, you are a teacher who was originally excessed from a school in either Brooklyn or Staten Island, and you are currently a part of the Absence Teacher Reserve (ATR) Pool.
If you received this email but have not received a letter from your principal, please contact your principal immediately to confirm your status.  If you are no longer a part of the ATR pool, please forward an email from your principal confirming as such to thsc@schools.nyc.gov .  Fair information is as follows: 

Brooklyn and Staten Island Excess Teacher Recruitment Fair
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Grand Prospect Hall
263 Prospect Ave, Brooklyn, N.Y 11215 

The fair will be held from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM and teachers must check in no later than 1:00 PM. You should plan to report to your assigned school at the start of the school day and then travel to the fair; your school where you are currently assigned as an ATR will be notified of your absence and you will be provided with documentation of your attendance at the recruitment fair.  

Lunch will not be served at the fair, but you are entitled to the contracted amount of time for lunch on your own before the fair. You will be expected to stay until the end of the school day and encouraged to stay until the end of the event at 4:00PM. 

Best Regards,

Teacher Hiring Support Center

NYC Department of Education

 (718) 935-5280

thsc@schools.nyc.gov

More hypocrisy from Bloomberg and Klein on class size

Check out this account, from the Queens Chronicle about a recent Town Hall meeting in Forest Hills:

The mayor said the school system in the city “is getting better,” but when Jenny Fisher, an Iraq War veteran who just earned a degree in elementary education asked Klein when the Department of Education would lift a hiring freeze on teachers, Bloomberg stepped in.

“We don’t have the money to hire new teachers,” he said. “I don’t want to lay off teachers and Joel just has to work with that restriction. Don’t blame him, blame me, I guess.”

Klein, speaking directly to Fisher, added, “I wish I could hire you. Our kids need it — lower class sizes and young, enthusiastic teachers.”

What utter hypocrisy! The city received $200 million in federal funds this summer specifically meant to hire more teachers for the 2010-2011 school year; (see the federal guidance here.) And yet the administration wants to hold onto these funds until the following year, despite the fact that they are anticipating a loss of 2,000 teaching positions and an increase in at least 18,000 students this fall.

Over the last four years, the DOE has misused hundreds of millions of dollars in state funds meant for class size reduction. They are canceling the Early Grade class size reduction program that had existed since 1999, which was dedicated to reducing class size in grades K-3^rd.

There are currently 1700 teachers on Absent Teacher Reserve, getting paid full salaries, and yet the administration refuses to assign any of them to classes to lower class size; and would rather leave them in limbo, no matter what the damage to our children, to bolster their case for laying them off.

Bloomberg and Klein have done everything they can to resist providing our children with smaller classes that the New York's highest court said was their constitutional right. The result is that this fall we will likely see the sharpest increases in class size in twelve years, particularly in the early grades.

Kindergarten classes will probably be substantially larger than they were when Bloomberg first came into office, just as new research is revealing huge academic and economic benefits to keeping Kindergarten class sizes below twenty.

Already last year there were districts in the Bronx and Queens where nearly half of all Kindergarten students were in classes of 25 or more.

What a waste. We have new tests, new teacher evaluation systems based on unreliable test scores, a new organizational structure, and new experimental online learning systems, and yet our class sizes will be more overcrowded than ever.

Despite all their claims, this administration could care less about providing proven educational reforms such as smaller classes, in their zeal to waste money devising more damaging experiments on our children.