Tuesday, November 18, 2014

The Mutual Consent Provision Does Not Apply To ATRs.




























One of the changes in the DOE hiring process was the "mutual consent" provision that our union unwisely allowed back in the infamous 2005 contract.  The "mutual consent" provision allows principals to determine who to hire for their schools and can refuse any teacher sent by the DOE for any or no reason whatsoever.  In other words the Principal must consent to have a teacher assigned to their school and can remove the provisionally appointed teacher whenever they want, be it one day or at the end of the school year.

However, when the it comes to the ATR rights, there's no consent as the ATR is "forced placed" against their wishes.  What happened to "mutual consent" when it comes to the ATRs?  If an ATR refuses a provisional appoinment or leave replacement they are assumed to have voluntarily resigned.  No ATR consent is necessary nor is one required.  You take it or else you lose your job.

Already the DOE tried to "force place:" me in a Middle School.  Thankfully, since I am a licensed High School teacher the union was able to cite a violation of the contract to get the DOE to rescind the "forced placement".  However, this very same school is setting up mandatory interviews and making high school teachers do demo lessons when these interviews are not mandatory!  The union must be proactive and put a stop to this abuse at once.

If the Chancellor wants "mutual consent" then the consent must be mutual for both sides and ATRs should have the right to refuse an assignment if the fit is not right. That's only fair.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sorry for the off topic but Chaz, please man, like pretty please, do an article on these "small crap schools" that JUST POSTED their regents pass rates for June 2014. They are TERRIBLE!!!!!!!! This is the result if breaking up the large comprehensive high schools? Chaz, please be the first to do it man. I'm seeing regents pass rates at 9%, 14%, 19% and so on. Some of these piece of shit small schools do not even post 1 regents pass rate out of the 5, over a 50% Mark. This is NEWSWORTHY. Break up a large high school and replace it with 5 others. 2 are decent and the other 3 are fake. Not even real schools. Regents pass rates at 20% and BELOW. REALLY?????

Anonymous said...

"Forced consent"? Sounds like rape to me.

Anonymous said...

the moronic idiots don't the know the definition of mutual - it is barbaric that we can be placed anywhere- it is simply inhumane

Anonymous said...

Lots of high school teachers are being sent to middle schools for interviews. Their license is 9-12 and they're being sent for positions teaching 6-8 grade. Also we are forced to cover these classes at schools with 6-12. I called the Bronx borough office and was told this was allowed! Not only that, but ATRs are being observed babysitting these classes out of license. Perhaps the ATR Alliance will help grieve this. We need some kind of assistance- the union just wants our money.

Chaz said...

Anon 6:43

The DOE cannot force a high school ATR to go to mandatory interviews or a long-term replacement for a middle school. Call Michael Sill at UFT headquarters and he will get the DOE to follow the rules.

Anon 5:05

Which schools and where did you find the 2014 Regents results?

Anonymous said...

Chaz,
If you go to the DOE website and click on left side, Performance & Accountability, then follow the link. Choose a school in the Search Box. Click the bullet School Quality Guide and then scroll down to page 5 and look at the last 5 categories. These are the most updated June 2015 regents pass rates. You will not believe the scores.

Anonymous said...

I called Sill 4 times last month. His phone keeps ringing, and he has no voice mail!!!

Anonymous said...

uft sucks!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Let's take a look at some of last year's results at my wonderful former home, Franklin K. Lane High School. For those keeping score, although "Lane" closed in 2012, Multicultural hs, Brooklyn Lab hs and Cypress Hills acad were all up and running as far back as 2009/2010. (We were just a small hallway on one floor by 2011.) Here's your tax dollars at work. Congratulations to Cypress, with a 55% Algebra pass rate and a 58% ELA pass rate, they are the Hoover of the Delta House/ Lane campus Geometry, however? TEN PERCENT. 42% Living En

As for the "Multiculural HS" sitting atop the 4th floor, a staggering 32.9% of the student body is overage. But give them credit in Geometry, where the passing rate was 12%, or , two points higher than Cypress! (Aren't the taxpayers glad that they pay for all these principals and AP's when there used to be just one principal and one APO?) Earth Science? 29% Global? 30% ELA? 41%

And then there's Brooklyn Lab. These three, the Harvard/Yale/Princeton of "mini-schools" are sure showing the former faculty of Lane how to do it. For example, at B-lab, they know their triangles....17% in Geometry. 38% Global, 42% Algebra, and a whopping 40% on US History. Of course, on their review score, they're "approaching standard," which is excellent, considering they managed to keep "super seniors" down to 17% of their school population. MAYBE THE LANE TEACHERS SHOULD DO A WALK - THROUGH TO SEE THESE ROCK STARS IN ACTION. I haven't touched on the cheating scandal on more than one regents exam in the building, nor dare I touch the "credit recovery" industry running at full speed at 999 Jamaica Avenue.

Is journalism DEAD? I'd say so. There's a 20/20 or a 60 Minutes or geez even a "Shame on You" for some news person who feels like digging just a bit deeper into your tax dollars at work.

Philip Nobile said...

To anonymous 6:48
Nice going. From another angle, the Regents scores you reported are the good fruit of extramural grading. In the heyday of scrubbing, which most of us witnessed and sadly failed to blow the whistle, such low pass rates would not exist.

It's my impression from high school teachers along the ATR road that scrubbing has returned in new guise and for the same lousy reason. I refer to high passing rate quotas (80+)for course grades mandated by principals and beloved by Farina et al. Resist by reporting true grades and your life will never be the same. I wonder if other teachers have the same impression, if not direct experience with quotas.

Anonymous said...

What is the name of this middle school chaz?

Francesco Portelos said...

ATRs who are being force placed should contact their ATR Alliance Borough reps. We are keeping track of this situation as well as others.

http://atralliance.org/contact-us/