Political Persecution of Teachers With U-Ratings and DOE Protection of Abusive and Incompetent Supervisors MUST Be a UFT Priority

Updated: 9PM - see ATR comments below.

I am not going to go through all the stuff flying around about Walcott's announcement today. Mulgrew's response is totally inadequate.

”While no one wants to protect teachers who are not doing the job, the more important issue is the thousands of good teachers who leave the system every year because of substandard pay, bad teaching conditions and lack of support from their superiors,” Mulgrew said.

I posted the Portelos Story this morning.

This just came in from a CL:ATR Horror Story:

My school had an ATR last week who told me she was observed at her previous assignment in a 2nd grade class after having been with this class for only 20 minutes. Needless to say, it did not go well.  The following week when she was in my school, she came to me practically in tears  and told me that the supervisor who had observed her (an ATR Principal, I believe) was at the school and was demanding that  the ATR  immediately sign the observation that she had just been given. I accompanied her to the office and told this supervisor that my member did not have to sign this observation now; she had two days to do so. She tried to bully me but eventually she walked out in a huff, with the observation. 20 minutes later she returned, gave the ATR the observation and returned in two days  for the signature and rebuttal that the member had attached to the report. Horrible!

 We know what this is about. They will try anything to harass ATRs out of the system so they can close more schools. Many of them are not eligible for a buyout and Walcott will spend a fortune to hire supervisors to observe teachers to give them U ratings.

More as this develops. The best defense teachers have is to throw out Unity chapter leaders and delegates who back Mulgrew and join MORE. The stronger an alternative to Unity grows the more we can box in the leadership. Will we win a general election where Unity takes all? Not right away. But we MUST build up the forces from the school level on where we can win right now. Make your voices heard in the elections. Already Unity has lost at Brooklyn Tech, the largest school in the city and at FDR. Keep the ball rolling.

ATRs follow-up emails to GEM ATR listserve

I just caught a news report in which our leader ignored the truth to vilify ATRs.  I and hundreds of other ATRs attended recruitment events where school recruiter tables were vacant, or staffed with people  with no decision making authority, and/or did not advertise openings in our license areas.  The city is out of compliance for providing services for ESL students, were are the open ESL teacher positions???
As an ATR I have been ignored by principals and assistant principals, used as a 'substitute' - "not a real teacher" according to students- out of my license area.  Ignored, insulted and cursed at by students simply because I asked them to sit in their seats, give their names so attendance could be taken and do the usually ineffective absent lesson left by their regular teacher.
I have observed that the mini high schools  I have been assigned  in Brooklyn have the same discipline problems and low performance as the students in the comprehensive school whose phase out left me an ATR.  They also all have at least 4 times the technology and a school culture that treats the students like infants.
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Hiring Fairs were mandated for ATRs. I attended them all with resume in hand. At least half of the schools were no shows by looking at all the empty tables.
Just as important, the media will be destroying ATRs as losers that taxpayers will have to bail-out to get rid of....I just saw it on WNBC-TV at 5:20PM today. Try to find it later on their website. I hope Mulgrew and company have a media plan....can't wait to see the Daily News and Post headlines tomorrow. I'm sure they will turn the public against us. In terms of a buyout I think there would have to be an early retirement incentive for those close enough and a cash payout for others. This was hinted at in the Times when it said something like....each teacher would have to negotiate a deal....go figure!
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The union handling of ATRs is a disgrace. They are so in bed with Bloomberg even though on the outside it doesn't look that way.
Are teachers still allowed to sign "under protest". And should be "attach" something or write the rebuttal under the signature? Do you really think this principal will not throw out the attachment.

See more:

 http://jd2718.wordpress.com/2012/05/16/tweed-finds-new-way-to-harm-teachers-flag-them-for-principals/