An ATR Tells Us a Story - Where is the UFT's Plan of Assistance to Defend an ATR Under Assault?

A MORE contact, a former chapter leader, reached out to us

Support should be in quotes

because she felt an ATR who was rotated into her school and had impressed many people, was being set up by the field supervisor (failed supervisor in many cases).

In one of the best conversations I've had with an ATR, it took a few fascinating hours for me to get the full story from the ATR and it is clear there is an unfair vendetta going on coming from the field supervisor on up. Other than one scumbag principal, the other schools being rotated into have been fairly supportive and even in some cases resisted attempts to set him up. (Yes there are witnesses to requests that he be given the worst class timed to the field supervisor visit.)

I got names and numbers as we worked up the chain of command but still have to do more digging.

Because our primary aim is to protect the ATR we are treading very carefully and not publishing many details and may not be able to do so until things are further along in the process. The good thing is that the fear he was operating under seems to have been broken once it became clear what his fate will be.

We are also developing a strategy of defense that goes beyond the narrow confines of what the UFT offers, which is precious little. One of the options on the table is trying to use contacts in MORE to look for job openings that might free him from ATR status (One MORE CL has already gotten 4 ATRs regular jobs in his school.)

When and if the full story comes out we will see just how the UFT does as little as it can. Like when you ask if the DOE people can do something that is outrageous the UFT response is "they can." End of story -- no sense that they will try to fight the rule that allows the response "they can."

This ATR has been in a lot of schools and has a smart analysis of what is working and what is not in each one. A deep repository of knowledge of just how deep this system sucks resides in the body of ATRs - and this is just one part of the story of why the DOE wants to break so many ATRs to the point where they appear to be paranoiac lunatics.

While he says in every school most teachers are miserable, there are still a bunch of schools where he came away with respect for the principal and the rest of the administration. There was only one school with an awful principal and when we can we will expose the school and the principal. We will also praise and slam the particular people up and down the line who helped or acted like slime.

Included is an interesting story about a consulting firm hired to help go after ATRs that has ties to the Mulgrew family.

One clear sign you have become a target - whether an ATR or not - is when they ask you to sign the dreaded "Plan of Assistance" and the "log of assistance" where they demonstrate how they "helped" you.

Maybe it is time for ATRs to ask the UFT for a plan of assistance on how they will stand up for you and keep their own log of non-assistance.