Today is the final day for teachers to look for vacancies under the Open Market Transfer System (OMTS) and just like the last few years, the OMTS is simply a joke when it comes to veteran teachers. Only young and inexperienced (especially untenured) teachers are hired through the OMTS. With few exceptions teachers with ten or more years experience have little or no chance to even get an interview for these vacancies. Many of my colleagues applied to various positions only to get no response from the schools except for the required notification that the school received the application.
I spoke to a friend who is an Assistant Principal and he told me that the principals are encouraged by the DOE to hire "newbies" whenever possible to reduce their staff budget costs and to find any reason possible not to interview ATRs. Moreover, the DOE and the UFT has done little to enforce the ATR Agreement and that has added to the problems for veteran ATRs. It matters little how effective a teacher is, its all about how much will the teacher cost the school and that is reflected in the OTMS hiring practices.
Even in hard to staff shortage areas like Special Education,ESL and Earth Science, the DOE allows the schools to bypass the available ATRs and hire "newbies", some not even certified! Yes that's true, the Assistant Principal I spoke to told me that he was instructed by his Principal to do just that. Why does our union leadership stay silent when the DOE continues to abuse the process? I wish I knew but its obvious that the union leadership considers the ATR issue a low priority and they have other issues on the table to deal with.
The DOE's motto is "children first.....Always" but in reality its not about whats best for the students but pure and simple discrimination against veteran teachers who were excessed. In effect its really "children last" as principals, with the encouragement of the DOE, rather hire inexperienced "newbies" than "quality teachers".
11 comments:
Last year my husband applied to every single open position in open market just to see what would happen.. He did not get one follow up call, email or interview.. He had 18 years in the system.. definitely agree with you Chaz.. its a joke
The story is the same in Newark. I am Educator Without Placement Site (EWPS). It is principal's choice and inexperienced teachers are placed over veterans. The union does nothing other than take our dues.
atrs will never be hired on the open market - you are totally right - the whole program is a sham
I applied to over 200 schools on open market, had some interviews but no offers for jobs! I have 20 plus years in and need to get away from an abusive principal . This is worthless!
There is another big reason why principals won't hire an experienced teacher. If excesses occur (and many schools experienced excesses this past year), this kind of situation can easily occur in a school with a stable staff: a newly hired teacher with 18 years would trump even a tenured teacher who had been on staff for many years. I know a 7-year teacher much valued in her community who lost her position for this reason. A good principal would rightfully want to protect her existing staff who have formed relationships with colleagues and received PD at the school. I support seniority rights but this can be one tricky area. Principals definitely do the math for number of years, not just money.
People calm down. This year it is better to be an ATR. Look at Danielson and how it is to be implemented. Look at the common core test scores that just came out. Did you know that if you are ineffective on the 40 percent of the test scores you are ineffective regardless of what the remaining 60 percent of the rest of the score is. Just based on the test scores I would say that at least 25 - 30 percent of the teachers would have been rated ineffective this past year if Danielson was in effect. As an ATR you are not subject to any of this . And with the abuse of some of these principals I think it is better to be an ATR. I feel sorry for regular teachers.
SO TRUE!!
And it's not just veteran teachers. Principals can't be bothered with anyone past five or six years experience.
It's the same story with all seasoned teachers who have been excessed. The city's plan is to demoralize each atr to the point of retirement or quitting. The union wants no part of the atr situation, not because they're busy,but because the slave like newbies are due paying members ,who are the future of union. Just how many atrs are there? Why haven't the numbers been released? I'm apt to think it has at least doubled from last year.
Thank you for continuing to write articles exposing the hypocrisy and unethical behavior of the DOE. These abuses in the school system are harming teachers, parents and students. Why is it a teacher that makes $80,000 is too expensive but a central administrator who makes double that amount is not questioned. Don't we all get paid by from the same pool of money (taxpayer's dollars and the DOE budget). This school budget scheme is a way to discriminate against veteran teacher's.
Bloomberg, superintendents, and principals have all decided that since they cannot fire ATRs, they want to make us uncomfortable and have colluded to not hire ATRs.
I too am a veteran teacher with 18 years of experience. I applied to 28 schools on the oms and got nothing. I walked in my resume to 8 additional schools and got nothing. I feel totally demoralized...I am not a bad or ineffective teacher, nor am I lazy. I am in good standing in my building , but i want out. This situation is so insane.
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