There's money
I get waiting for the retro, but raises should begin right away.
Speaking of raises we are talking 18% over 9 years. That's not fair and it sets the bar way too low for our other brother/sister unions who have to follow our pattern.
ATRs deserve full due process. These teachers should be rotated back into a position to become a regular teacher. Why the UFT agrees to keep them in a special category is truly sad. This contract offers them Due Process LITE, expedited firing process. We cannot stand for that.
Enshrining Danielson and MOSL - Anyone who plans on staying more than a couple of years has to take this seriously. This contract does nothing to get rid of evaluating teachers by test scores. The teachers union in Tennessee are getting rid of test score eval. Why can't we?
Backdoor Merit Pay - in the guise of Master Teacher, etc. Undermines solidarity by creating a teacher caste system.
What's Missing? Class Size Reduction, Guidance Counselor Case Load Reduction, Wrap Around Services for Families, Brining Back Curriculum the children of the 1 percent enjoy: electives, music, art, PE...
We need to do this morally, as professionals who care for those we serve. Our students deserve everything we want for our own children to have in a school. If the parents get behind us, we cannot lose. But, this contract makes us look like defeated patsies.
Take this opportunity to stand as a proud professional with convictions by saying NO, we and our students deserve better.
In solidarity,
John
John Elfrank-Dana
UFT Chapter Leader
Murry Bergtraum High School
UFT Chapter Leader
Murry Bergtraum High School
6 comments:
I think that we need to differentiate teachers in terms of their responsibilities and obligations. Teaching a Regents course is considerably more work and pressure than teaching a non-Regent's course.
Fred, what do you mean differentiate teachers? Treat us differently contractually? How would that work? And let me tell you, if an administrator wants to increase the workload or harass a teacher of a non-regents class or subject, it's quite easy to do. We need to stick together and insist on reasonable working conditions. The focus has become beating down the teaching staff to save money rather than improving schools.
ATRs will get due process. In fact, they will be placed first. There is no longer a disincentive to hire an ATR, as their salary will be paid centrally for the remainder of the school year. We will go back to average salaries per school, so that schools can afford to hire experienced teachers if they so choose. No new ATRs will be created because it is not the present mayor's intention to play a shell game of closing schools and subjecting their staffs to 18D reorganizations. I noticed that most of the teachers in the ATR pool are the more experienced teachers at the higher salary steps. Mayor Bloomberg wanted to push them out of the system by making them compete with newer teachers for the 50% of positions to be staffed by teachers in the original school when it was broken up into smaller schools. By giving each new school a smaller pot of cash, naturally a principal would want two newer teachers for the price of one older one. ATRs need not stay in a post that is not a good fit, but even if they leave the first post, they return to the ATR pool; they are not fired. It would only be after two principals separated a teacher for a behavioral problem that a 3020a proceeding would be initiated. Any of us would be subject to 3020a measures. We all retain the right to due process.
Every teaching position has demands and pressure indicative of the subject. Our contract should support the needs of all teachers with extra staff, per session opportunities or student internships. Not an inequality in our salaries. In some NYC schools, Regents are not required.
if you think this contract is fair to ATRs not only did you drink the kool aid...you swam in it.......2 bullshit letters is all it takes.....regardless of a stellar history... the A T R was created by the last contract when the started open market....I know enough administrators who have shared the fact thar they are strongly encouraged not to hire ATRs.....you must be extremely limited to think this contract is any good!
As a ATR, we should not be rated informal observation for teaching classes out of our license. Example, I am a middle school and high school special education teacher. I was assigned to an elementary school and I was told to teach an ESL class. Most of the students speak Spanish and I speak English. Therefore a Field Supervisors gave me an u rating for a lesson provided by the ESL teacher. In addition, this Field Supervisor is a former principal which school was rated a D. She should not be given a job working with ATRs because she have given some of the best ATRs an U rating (Formal/Informal Observations).
She had also written several ATRs up and filed a verbal abuse complaint with OSI against ATRs. Under the new contact, ATRs will lose their jobs if two principals, etc write them up and receive a 3020. If the ATRs are working in your license area are not working in their license area, this contact is proven to get rid of ATRs.
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