Friday, July 6, 2012

DOE Hiring Lawyers

When I attended a recent 3020a hearing I had an insight into the behavior of the gotcha unit when they were coming up with the most ridiculous charges to build a case to fire the teacher (did she really fart in front of children?). It was clear that in order to justify their own jobs the lawyers had to come up with convictions. So even of the teacher deserves nothing more than a letter in the file the lawyers need to show firings.
Leonie came up with this info.

Note the first one (gotcha) and the last one ---- using TDAs to fire teachers.


Simply Hired - Daily job email alert
Title Company Location Posted
Attorney - Nyc Dept. of Education Administrative Trials Unit Nyc Department of Education New York, NY 3 hours ago
sponsored by lawjobs.com
Attorney - Nyc Dept. of Education - Special Education Unit Nyc Department of Education New York, NY 3 hours ago
sponsored by lawjobs.com
Nyc Dept. of Education - Commercial Contracts Attorney (Information Technology) New York City Department of Education New York, NY 3 hours ago
sponsored by lawjobs.com
President/ceo, Department of Education Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn Brooklyn, NY 20 days ago
sponsored by Monster
Attorney - Nyc Dept. of Education Teacher Performance Unit New York City Department of Education New York, NY 29 days ago
sponsored by lawjobs.com

3 comments:

The Assailed Teacher said...

When you look at the 3020a process, it is amazing how many people make what must be six figures or better investigating, trying and firing teachers. Lawyers, investigators, arbitrators and assorted other people all have their hands in the pot. This is an entire cottage industry nestled firmly in the belly of the DOE, one that promises only to expand with APPR. Talk about waste, between these people and the Leadership Academy the DOE has several millions of dollars tied up with people whose function and purpose is at best marginal and at worst destructive.

Peter said...

The amount of money spent on the Bronx Science case alone was ridiculous - to defend out-of-control Principal Valerie Reidy and attempt to make their retaliatory U ratings stick.... I watched day after day of arbitration proceedings with these lawyers paid to smear my colleagues as an "out of control mob" (of math teachers!)...

Just out of curiousity, Norm, I didn't see any reference to TDA's in the last job posting... Did you mean Teacher Data Reports? If the city is indeed using TDRs to fire people (after having publicly said that they weren't the best measure, as they were releasing them to the Post), that would be big news... The TPU is a general hit squad of lawyers that swoops into a school to help make sure that principals have their 3020a incompetence cases set up right...

Francesco Portelos said...

Assailed Teacher,
I wonder if we could come up with a formula or daily cost from the day a teacher is removed to the end of the trial. Factoring in substitutes etc.