UFT Contract: Mulgrew Says It's OK to Fire ATR for "Screaming in the Hallway"

UFT logo for ATRs

Don't you think we should have the definitions of "problematic" behavior BEFORE voting on the contract?

Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, said a panel of hearing officers would "solidify the definition" of problematic behavior. "If someone says a teacher is screaming in the hallway, that's a problem," he said. "If you do that once, you should be written up. If you do that again you should go through an expedited hearing process."

What else? Peeing without picking up the toilet seat? (Hmmmm -- I can go with that -- cameras in the bathrooms.)

How many times do you hear teachers screaming in the halls at a kid? Or even at each other? I once had a screaming match with my principal.

And remember the argument Portelos had with a teacher where part of the charges were that he cursed her in the hall. But DOE legal left out the part where she cursed him multiple times before he responded. That teacher was never charged and in fact testified against Portelos - there was a tape of her screaming match, she openly lied during the testimony - a chargeable offense.

Don't you think we should have the definitions of "problematic" behavior BEFORE voting on the contract?

The WSJ reports:

Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday he trusted principals to judge whether to keep teachers assigned from a pool of rotating substitutes or send them back. His comments followed critics' claims that the tentative city teachers' contract wouldn't ensure that the pool's poor performers would be kept out of classrooms.

Mr. de Blasio referred to teachers in the so-called Absent Teacher Reserve, who have lost permanent jobs because of budget cuts or disciplinary problems but continue to get full pay as substitutes, often for years. The contract offers them severance of up to 10 weeks' pay for 20 years of service.

The tentative contract says that in certain cases, the Department of Education can assign these teachers to full-time jobs in schools with vacancies even if they have been penalized with 30-day suspensions or fines of $2,000 or more. The pact says principals can return teachers to the pool if they aren't good matches. Further, if two principals formally write one up for "problematic behavior" within consecutive years, the teacher would face an expedited hearing that could lead to dismissal.

That would mean that there is some flexibility over cases like Portelos - who was fined 10 grand and not returned to his school despite the hearing officer mandating that. But I think this is de Blasio smoke and mirrors designed to fuzzy things up given there has been some reaction to this situation over the past few days.

Note to Unity slugs humping the contract: Should you be in this situation one day don't come crying - I know of a Unity person who pushed for the 2005 contract and has seen some light: (ICEUFT Blog: LONG TIME UNITY CHAPTER LEADER OPPOSES CONTRACT - WHY I OPPOSE THIS CONTRACT PROPOSAL).

Read it at the WSJ where you can read how poor Jenny Sedlis from Students Ignored plays parrot. Note how Jenny, that paragon of children support, doesn't mention how kids are ignored in the contract which fosters high class sizes.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304081804579558473061202320?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702304081804579558473061202320.html