Wednesday, February 05, 2014

The Contract That NYC Educators Deserve.























The MORE caucus of the UFT has published their contract demands and I find myself in general agreement with the provisions of the proposed contract.  While I am not 100% aligned with all the various items in the MORE proposal, it certainly goes a long way in meeting my own personal ideas of what our union should be negotiating with the de Blasio administration.


Without further comment here is the MORE contract proposal that will go a long way in satisfying educators, parents, and students of the New York City Public School System.


            Movement of Rank and File Educators


The Contract NYC Educators Deserve

by morecaucusnyc
This is our list of demands that the UFT ought to be mobilizing the rank and file to fight for:
Please find the flier for distribution here
and an explanation of the process for ratifying a new contract here
  • Improve Our Students’ Learning Conditions: Funding must be made available for Creative Arts (Music, Art, Drama, Digital Arts), Physical Education, Technology, Social Studies, English Language Arts, Science, Math, and electives. Every school shall be equipped with working computers, interactive boards, internet, heat, air conditioning, and have a fully staffed library and media center. Class size limits should be reduced by at least 10%, with no exceptions. Research has proven that students learn better with individualized attention.
  • Pay Raises: They reflect the importance of the work teachers do, & include full retroactive pay consistent with pattern bargaining. We shall receive 4% retroactive back-pay for the 2008/09 and 2009/10 rounds as other NYC municipal workers did, as well as a 3% raise in each subsequent year to adjust for inflation and cost of living. The money IS in the DOE budget!
  • Teacher Evaluation: With its unscientific use of test scores, increased testing, and additional paperwork, the new evaluation system is a disaster. This contract shall eliminate the use of test scores for teacher evaluations and reduce the amount of evaluation paperwork.
  • Due Process: Restore the principle of innocent until proven guilty in all reassignments with faster and fairer investigations in 3020-a hearings.  An independent arbitrator jointly selected and paid for by the DOE and UFT shall  judge all grievances and removals.
  • Equity for All Students: All schools and students should receive the same amount of services and resources regardless of the socio-economic class of the neighborhood. Public schools should not be funded by outside sources such as corporations. We must support schools in high poverty neighborhoods in order to equalize some of the advantages enjoyed by students with more financial resources. Every school shall be fully staffed with a nurse, a social worker, services available to parents, as well as afterschool and weekend programs. Each child, regardless of economic status, must be offered free breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
  • Fair Student Assessment: Standardized tests should be only one tool used for assessing student learning and growth. Portfolios, written assignments, verbal presentations, digital presentations, and projects shall all be available options.
  • Salary Equity: Teachers at the bottom of the pay scale are being paid substantially less than veteran teachers. This gap is being used against senior teachers. There shall be additional pay increases for new teachers to close this tremendous difference, without an effect on the raises of veteran teachers.
  • Right to Grieve Letters in the File and Ratings: All employees shall have the right to respond to accusations and demonstrate that they are inaccurate or unfair. Disciplinary red flags in files of active teachers who were not terminated in 3020-a hearings must be eliminated.
  • Initiatives: Too many new mandates flood our schools each year.  When any new, significant education policy is agreed upon for implementation in classrooms, it shall be limited to one per academic year, be administered with a minimum of two years professional development, and be continuously reviewed by a jointly agreed upon panel of experts for effectiveness.
  • Revise the “Fair Student Funding” Formula: The DOE shall return to the system in which each school’s budget was charged the same, fixed amount per teacher. The current system incentivizes principals to hire inexperienced teachers. We must restore the right of an educator to transfer on the basis of seniority or to further integration.
  • Changes in Hiring/ATRs: Due to the lack of educators of color, students of color are implicitly taught not to identify members of their community with intellectual growth. We must stop and reverse the disproportionate disappearance of Black and Latino/a educators from the City school system. NO new hires shall be made, including Teach for America, Teaching Fellows, or any other exceptions, until all excessed staff from the ATR pool are permanently assigned to any available position they choose.

  • Workload for Special Educators: Assign professional educators working with special education students reasonable caseloads that will allow for all mandated services and paperwork, including work in SESIS, to be completed during the work day. Educators working with special education students shall be able to safely report any inconsistencies between the mandated services included in a student IEP and the services that the student is actually receiving.

  • C-6 Assignments: These shall be restored to the system prior to 2005 in which the use of that time was decided on collaboratively between the UFT Chapter and the Principal, not unilaterally imposed by the administration.

  • Better Pay for PT’s, OT’s, and Paraprofessionals: Experienced OT’s and PT’s are paid 38 percent less than teachers and speech therapists with the same levels of education. Paraprofessionals, some of our most important members, are not paid enough to live in the same city as the children they care for. All their salaries shall be dramatically increased and they shall be offered the same job protections as teachers.
  • Academic Freedom: Educators shall be responsible for decisions regarding the methods and materials used for the instruction of students. Administrators and the DOE are not in classrooms on a daily basis, and so do not understand our students’ individual needs, yet they currently have nearly unchecked power to determine how we teach.
  • Caseload for Guidance Counselors: These professionals are increasingly being forced to take on an overwhelming number of additional responsibilities, which often means that students who need psychological counseling are not receiving it. Our schools need to be fully staffed with the professionals who provide direct college and career guidance as well as emotional support. 250:1 is the state recommended ratio, but as NYC needs are greater than average for the state, 200 students per counselor with at least one in every school is appropriate.
  • Education Leadership and Iron-Clad Contract Enforcement: The C-30 panel should have the final determination of any administrative hiring. We must demand that administrators’ behaviors are consistent with promoting a respectful working/learning environment. Any administrator that is found to be routinely violating the contract at their school shall be automatically removed and face charges for permanent removal.
  • Tenure: There shall be a clear, explicit path to tenure negotiated between UFT and DOE, stating what is expected from new faculty in order to receive it. All denials must include a written explanation and be eligible for appeal before an independent arbitrator.
Consistent with the democratic process, this platform is a living document. This is in no particular order, all demands are of equal importance to our members, UFT educators and the communities we serve.
 I can only hope the UFT negotiates a contract that is similar to what MORE has proposed and I will be a very happy camper if it comes to pass.







12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Boy OHHH Boy would I love to get some of that stuff the MORE crü is smokin'. Pass it over to me chief!

Anonymous said...

In agreement...however, ridding teachers of,test scores must come from Albany?

Anonymous said...

Again, what about the secretaries? Why do you eliminate us? We need more secretaries so that educators can educate. We will do the clerical and administrative assistant work. Stop leaving us out.....!!!! Thank you.

Anonymous said...

I think it's a much better brand than the second hand s--t we've been forced to inhale for the past 12 years!

Anonymous said...

Chaz, please respond to the numbnuts at the daily news. Yes, they are at it again stating that carmen farina and diblaz ready to put ATRs back into the classroom. But in the daily news world of three stooges reporting, the article focus is that many of the atrs are not "desirable" to principals because they are former rubber room teachers. This trash garbage rag of journalism continues to print bull shit and plain right WRONG information to the public. Our ATR pool contains most of the best teachers in NYC not to mention the best guidance counselors, social workers and even assistant principals.

Anonymous said...

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/1-200-fired-teachers-back-classrooms-article-1.1603920#commentpostform

Anonymous said...

Once again one of the city papers owned by Bloomie cronies tries to malign the ATRs. This must stop. Can't we sue for libel????

Anonymous said...

What NYC educators really deserve is a union that actually stands behind its members.
Mulgrew needs to step down.

Anonymous said...

I always bring up the issue of "absent reserve" secretaries and guidance counselors when explaining what's going onto the public. People find it difficult to believe that secretaries and counselors have lost their skills and begin to understand what the goal of this nonsense really is.

Anonymous said...

That is a nice list of things for a contract. I don't think anyone would disagree with you. Now, what would you agree to give up to get any or all of it. That is what bargining is, you got to give to get. What are you giving. Don't say nothing because this not Bargaining.

prosper said...

What about the budget. Principals are more interested in saving money than to hiring experience teachers. should they be managing money. Substitute teachers with masters degree makes about the same amount as a sub paras. When subs cover vacancies, they have no chance of becoming permanent. The definitions of P Z Q status only confuse people. The last contract was a sell out by the Union.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for remembering the occupational and physical therapists who have the same level of education as speech, teachers, guidance and social workers yet make 38% less. The city wants to bill medicaid and make millions from our service, they're now sending most of us to multiply schools because we're being told to group and discharge so we have lower caseloads at each school and they can send us all over the place. They want to fill our caseloads yet no time for paperwork. A lot of us have to have second jobs to feed our families and pay off our graduate school loans. We love treating the kids but the DOE is making it difficult to enjoy our jobs!