Tuesday, September 14, 2010

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 14th 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

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Once again the blame is placed upon the teachers who due to no fault of their own are left dangling in the wind. The contract is clear, excessed staff shall be placed into vacancies within license with district. The UFT should be filing an immediate cease and desist Article 78 on behalf of the atr's. Let the Dept and Klein explain this to voters and parents as class size rise throughout the city.

Anonymous said...

I went to the job fair and as always the good schools weren't there. There were so many excessed teachers that the place was packed. We were bumping one another. As always, Mother Superior-- Ann Rosen was there telling about the licences. I wonder how much money she makes. Double pension?

Two FAT Pensions said...

Of course Rosen makes a double pension- she stays as Tier One and continues to gain yearly credit for her D.O.E. pension plus she gets a hefty- pardon the pun- UFT pension for spreading lies.
Mulgrew is an ATR- he doesnt know which way is up; or maybe he does?

Anonymous said...

The longer it takes to fix this mess the longer it will prevent new teachers like me from getting teachers job and turn people away from teaching. Please DOE fix what your doing or their will be no teachers soon at all.

Anonymous said...

My district has openings and they are always given to the new teachers. My school on Benson Ave. in Brooklyn gave four Special Education jobs to brand new substitutes. Do we have any Special Education ATRs in the city looking for jobs?

Under Assault said...

We need to be clear using the word "job."

The UFT should be -- but isn't -- fighting for excessed people to be placed in REAL jobs. Not side-agreement provisional jobs, not subbing, not teaching assignments out of license. If any of us had wanted to be a substitute teacher, we would have stopped at a BA degree and settled for a daily rate.

Union managers need some PD to learn how to differentiate between a job and a profession.

Anonymous said...

Under Assault- Union managers do not care about the teachers. They are nice and happy drinking coffee in their offices. The UFT and the DOE created the ATR mess.
Today the job fair was terrible. Lots of excessed teachers. I would like to know how many teachers got jobs. Taking about Rosen-- She is such a mean lady.

Anonymous said...

I am not a math person, but this just doesn't add up. The DOE cuts budgets, teachers get excessed, but the DOE is still paying for them, but won't put them in schools, class sizes rise, the DOE saves no money anyway... ???? Why not just place the ATRs in schools (especially given testgate, schools could use an extra teacher for intervention, given that generally schools lost at least one position -depending on individual principal decisons- due to cuts). The placed ATRs would not come out of school-based budgets. The ATRs would be 'working', and kids would benefit. If the ATR is a "bad teacher" they are subject to the same rating system as everyone else and can be given a U and go through due process. The DOE could always offter an 'opt out' to principals who do not want to deal w/ 'hiring' someone not of their choosing. Done and Done. Instead the DOE is using this issue to paint teachers as sucking the life out of taxpayers and doing harm or at least neglegence to children. UFT: Do your job and tell the proper narrative to the citizens of our city. Push for ATRs to be placed in their licensed positions in a school. With the extreme rise in class sizes across the city, the budget cuts, and testgate... there is more than enough political capital to spend on this issue, if you (the uft) really wanted to solve it in a way that benefits children and teachers.

ATR-Mulgrew is Absent said...

Wha I find funny and sad is how many of my fellow ATR's keep thinking the "union" will do something.
On what basis would any sane person think this?
Weingarten and Mulgrew sold us out and now we are geting hammered in the press because Mulgrew has press people like Dickie Riley and Brian Gibbons (from the CSA) who dont spend ten seconds thinking about the members; we are dirt under their polished fingernails.
Mulgrew has shown how deep in Bloomberg's pocket is when he signed off on the Working Families Party endorsement of Cuomo who wants a wage freeze for teachers. My colleagues should stop dreaming and realize what a bunch of low lifes run our union. I wouldnt mind if they did something usefulonce a month with our dues- but they are so over-matched by Bloomberg and Klein that it makes us sick every day.

Anonymous said...

The trend of abandoning ATR's around the country is apparent. Has it happened in NYC under Mulgrew? NO!!! It will not happen under Mulgrew. But that is not worth you mentioning. Deals could have been made for contracts, but Mulgrew stands strong with a large and loud NO.

By the way, many ATRs do get jobs and are quite happy in their new placements. There are some that do not and the UNION is there to support them.