Calls and emails are coming in from ATR's. Each story has its own backdrop, but I'll stay away from these now. There is certainly a feeling the UFT has nothing for them. There are calls for a meeting of ATR's to discuss the situation.
Our July 14th post:
The Bronx is Burning ... with ATR's reported
A UFT official writes in an email to one of my correspondents: "The number of veteran teachers in excess in the Bronx is huge. 33% of the teachers at Stevenson have been placed in excess this June and a whopping 56 employees from Evander Childs have been excessed. Dozens from Walton are out, including the Chapter Leader. Meanwhile, on the hiring committees that I have been attending, at least 3/4 of the applicants have been Teaching Fellows with shiny new Trans B licenses."
This was followed by "Excessing," a guest editorial from one of these ATR's and resulted in some comments by anonymous UFT officials (most likely Zahler or Casey and maybe their lapdog Redhog). The editorialist demolished their specious arguments in a follow-up comment.
The lack of any effort on the part of the UFT to seek out and provide any level of support to ATR's as a class (they only do things on an case by case basis when an individual contacts them - call this the Deflection modus operendi - see UFT: Masters of Deflection) led to a follow-up:
Calling All Teachers in Excess on July 23 which set up a special email address (excessed101@gmail.com) and a form (see below) to be filled out for people to respond so information can be gathered that can be presented to the UFT. The idea is to form a pressure group of excessed and ATR's that can force the UFT (the only way they will act) to defend their interests as a group.
A UFT Tea Party?
This came in the other day:
NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION !
Why pay dues, when the union bosses have gone AWOL under the unremitting attacks by corporate educrats and unprincipled principals.
– ATRs abound.
– A union-condoned Open Market system that demolishes seniority protections.
– A contract left undefended (Article 17B on excessing procedures).
– Senior teachers with S-ratings (or fake U-ratings), their careers in ruin.
One would think that if you’ve just taken a hit through school restructuring or a cut position, you could go to the UFT’s own website for guidance and help.
Think again. This debacle has been playing itself out all summer, but shamelessly and for the world to see, the UFT website doesn’t even set up links for Excessed Teachers or ATRs. And if you search those terms, you’ll get nothing but gems like this one: “You can receive, upon request, individualized assistance from ... Human Resources on how to maximize your chances of success in being selected for a transfer.” What? How we can increase our “chances” of being selected? They can’t be writing all this pollyanna spin stuff for me or for anyone else who wants real help getting back into a real job.
Don’t be deluded either by the link "Denied a Transfer." I told them a couple of months ago that people who don’t even get asked in for an interview are not actually being denied a transfer. The name of that link doesn’t fit any of us left out here in the stone cold, especially senior teachers who are eliminated flat out for their big salaries alone. Why would we even think that link applies to us? No response from the union on that one. They never changed it because they don’t care and they don’t want to know.
NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION !
As for the Edwize blog, another joke. We could read all the stuff they post there on CNN.com. (By the way, check out the picture of Randi and Bloomberg. She’s in a white suit, all smiling and happy. We suspected they're in bed together, maybe they just got married.)
NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION !
The computers at union headquarters can tell the people we’re paying our dues to all kinds of stuff, like the numbers of teachers in excess, our ratings and seniority. A little trolling for senior teachers with problems getting new jobs would turn this union into a viable one. Our dues would mean something then.
Silence on their side doesn’t mean lie back and play dead on this side. We’re collecting information about teachers who have been thrown under the wheels of this UFT/DOE juggernaut. If you or someone you know is excessed and having trouble getting another job or likely to be an ATR next term, please contact us (or tell them to contact us) through this form. Copy and paste the questions below in a new email, answer the ones you want to answer, and send them to excessed101@gmail.com. You don’t have to give your real name, and you can sign up for updates.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your real name (optional) OR a pseudonym to prevent duplication: ________
When were you excessed? Month ________ Year _____
Seniority at the end of June 07: _________________
If you're a teacher, your subject: ______________
Otherwise, your title: _______
Used the Open Market yet? Y/N _____
No. of schools applied to: _______
No. of interviews you were granted: _____
No. of interviews you attended: ______
Has the DOE tried to place you yet (as stipulated in the contract)?
Y/N ______
Any factors you think make your excessing not your fault (e.g., school
Any factors you think make it unlikely you'll be placed in a permanent position
(e.g., politics, race; optional, but probably very important): ________
Additional comments: ________________________________________
Do you want to be contacted with updates on the statistics? Y/N ______
If so, your email address: _____________________________
Daily quote of the day from infoweek update
"Your manuscript is both good and original, but the part that is good is not original and the part that is original is not good." -- Samuel Johnson
5 comments:
Since the ATR teachers are day to day subs they have the freedom to
take off any day they choose. The ATR's should stage a sick out, this
would cause massive problems in the city schools. This would not be
covered under the Taylor law since ATR's are part time teachers.
I just love the idea of a sick out, but I don't think ATRs are considered "part-time" teachers: they're on full salaries. In that sense, in the most basic and banal way, they do keep the "shell" of their jobs.
But what if any of the teacher's rights do get lost? Does he vote in the school's SBOs? Does his seniority still accumulate as if he were still tenured? I don't think I've seen ANYTHING on the UFT websites that outlines the actual day-to-day loss or retention of a teacher's status and rights when he becomes an ATR, his obligations or his benefits. Do they have to go school-related staff development? (And if so, why?) Do they have do the most menial 6-R duties (like lunch) that nobody else wants because they don't get to have preferences? Do they have protections against that kind of abuse?
The DOE created this caste of people, the UFT allowed it, but what, exactly ARE they? Anyone in a position to know reading this? It's a really serious question.
Wholesale, widespread, system-wide massacre is what is occurring in this excessing and ATR horror.
It is another vicious tactic in line with the common practices of harassing teachers, arresting teachers, pulling teachers out of their schools and abrogating their constitutional rights, as is done daily many times over in the "rubber room" and with both administrative and psychiatric proceedings.
Teachers, in growing and large numbers, are being deprived, along with their families, of income, health care and even a modicum of security.
The UFT's "leadership" is participating in this mutilation and slaughter of human beings.
What are we going to do about it??? And WHEN?
I had the experience last year and only got a regular schedule because someone in my dept was in rubber room and later because someone retired. Even then it was a battle. The principal can put the screws to you at their leisure.
The Union ( more like the Onion in that we are slowly being peeled away and fried ) should at least figure out the ground rules. There has to be some collusion going on against hiring the excessed teachers. It's hard to believe it is legal ( certainly immoral but we aren't allowed to teach those things so it is irrelevant ).
Do the people of New York City know the amount of money their leaders are wasting for the highest paid force of babysitters ever put together. At the same time lamenting not being able to find experienced teachers. The best way to start the cockroaches scurrying for cover is to shine the light on them.
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