(Actually, the event above led Angel Gonzalez, John Lawhead and I to create an ICE committee that turned into GEM.)Oct 21, 20122008 ATR rally at Tweed that caused so much panic at both Tweed and 52 Broadway that the Gang of 2 were forced to come up with an "agreement" the day before followed by the infamous UFT wine and cheese diversion to ...Jan 28, 2009That day I went to the rally and it was sickening what happened with the boycott from RW. We waited for her in the bitter cold while she and her people were stuffing themselves with the wine and cheese. By the time she came, ...
We are organizing the ATRs. We will hold elections for a new ATR coalition and then approach the UFT to be a functional chapter like all these others http://www.uft.org/new-teachers/functional-chapters
Please share widely and tell every ATR you know.
Fariña pledged to announce in the next two weeks a big reduction in the number of teachers getting paid despite not having steady classroom jobs. Earlier this month 114 of the roughly 1,100 teachers — known as the Absent Teacher Reserve — accepted $16,000 buyouts. Fariña said the numbers would dwindle further as principals are taught best practices for writing up teachers and beginning the arduous termination process.... Daily NewsMORE and Ed Notes never wanted to be right about our predictions that the new contract clearly put a target on the backs of ATRS but we were pretty sure we were. That this was an underhanded way for the UFT and the DOE to solve their ATR problem. For, as the creation of ATRs in the first place by the UFT 2005 contract agreement, has put it and the DOE in an embarrassing situation. Elimination is the solution but in a way the UFT will try to claim "it wasn't our fault." Once they're gone, well, you know, out of mind, etc.
Educators 4 Excellence-New York, an advocacy group of more than 8,000 teachers... Leslie Brody, WSJWTF-- E4E is a group that has practically zero representation in NYC schools despite massive amounts of funding and full-time organizers, yet is given credence in this article. I bet MORE, a true grassroots group, has more visibility. 'Nuff said about the impartiality of the WSJ piece on ATRs, which also quotes astroturf groups like Students First (Jenny Sedlis, Eva's former pit bull?)
The ATR issue is non-negotiable in terms of a time limit. Case closed. We already won this with the awful 2005 arbitration panel. This has been settled and the ed deformers keep bringing it up as a way to do an end run around tenure. Most ATRs get hired provisionally because principals don't want to keep people who become senior in their school after their one provisional year. Lots of excessed people. Most are hired provisionally from year to year. Some are placed permanently (usually less senior) while some have rotated for three years and been ATRs for longer..... Chapter Leader at a closing schoolYes boys and girls. We have a contract that keeps ATRs in perpetuity. We gave up valuable real estate in 2005. As my pal says, "Case closed." Yet as he says, the ed deformers, having gotten their pound of flesh a decade ago, want even more. There is more on this point and the info will probably appear on the blogs soon.
When the WSJ's Leslie Brody contacted me about getting the word out to ATRs that she was doing an article on them I wrote her that I was always suspicious of the press, but especially of a Rupert Murdoch-owned publication. Though they always claim there is a firewall between editorial and reporting, I don't believe that.There is a deliberate misconception that the DOE picks up part of the ATR salary if a school selects an ATR to fill a leave replacement or vacancy. The DOE only picks up the difference in salary between the ATR and the salary of the teacher the ATR is replacing for the first year only! If the school decides to pick up the ATR for the second year the ATR's salary must be included in the average teacher salary of the school and comes out of the school's budget. Therefore, very few, if any, ATRs are picked up the second year since it will cost the school money.Note not one word on this important issue in the article. But plenty of quotes from the ed deform astro-turfers.
On November 24, 2008, teachers without positions, known as ATRs, held a rally at Tweed. They had forced the UFT to endorse the rally but in the interim the UFT signed an agreement with the DOE. The leadership called for an information meeting at UFT HQ, a mile away at the very same time the rally was due to start. Mass confusion. I taped the UFT HQ while David Bellel did the rally. The back story is how desperate UFT leaders were to suppress the tape I made. In fact, today at the Delegate Assembly they will pass a gag rule to try to prevent future embarrassment.
UFT leaders with some ATRs who went to the info session march -er- meander up Broadway to Tweed where the 2 forces meet. Unity is outnumbered and Randi is heckled as she speaks. Note: She congratulates the people who called for the rally, saying there would not have been an agreement with the DOE if not for the rally. Less than an hour before she gave the people at the info meeting the reverse message: that in these bad economic times, things like rallies and militancy are not wise. No wonder they didn't want me to tape.
The story above is pretty funny. A newly minted ATR after winning his 3020a hearing after the principal claimed her house had burned down due to the curse ---and the stories from teachers with lunatic principals keep rolling in.The Curse of the ATR
We thought that we had heard it all, but this one's really novel: a fellow lands in the ATR after being accused by his Principal of trying to put a curse on her. This new contributor goes by the name of Burn Down the House. -- burndownthehouse---http://nycatr.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-curse-of-atr.html
If anyone had a chance to attend the job fair this afternoon, saw it was a joke. I would guess only 5 schools showed up I even saw one pair from a school get up and leave shortly after 4:30 when they saw what a waste of time it was. I thought I would see people I knew and only saw one, not a lot of teachers there, maybe a couple hundred. Most everyone I spoke with were new ATR's and were really in the dark. Told all to check ednotes and become a member of the GEM/ATR group. I ended up talking with and answering questions from a small group of ATR's. As I left, I stopped by the UFT table and spoke with four of our representatives sitting there speaking to no one but themselves. As I drilled them softly about Union politics and issues, I was told not to be sarcastic by one of them as the conversation progressed. I then ended the conversation and told them I was doing more to inform our members then they would just sitting there. Spoke to a disgruntled former AP in the ATR pool outside..------
Another Manhattan HS ATR placed in a school in the same building I am in this month, told me she received an invitation for the Queens, Brooklyn, SI fair last week but not one for today
I also received an email today from HR stating that I am part of an initiative to have field supervisors come and observe in my substitute teaching role.
========An ATR just received a letter from the DOE stating that they were "assigning" her back to her original school. She doesn't know if this happened to other ATRs.They (the DOE) are putting her in an ICT kindergarten class because she has a special ed license. Last year she worked at another school in a self contained special ed class, but the assignment was not permanent. The principal at this school does not want her there because she doesn't know her and she is at top salary (she could retire if she wished). She is afraid that this principal, who is not a nice person, is ready with a "U" rating before she even begins. This principal also wanted to know why she did not accept a permanent assignment at another former school a year ago She has not formally accepted or turned down the position, but is concerned that she's damned if she does and damned if she doesn't. She has been given no other choice.The UFT has been no help to her in the past and she is reluctant to contact them again so I thought I would run this by you. . Doesn't an ATR have the prerogative of accepting a placement or not, just as a principal can let an ATR go? I don't know what the current "rules" are for assignments. If you have any ideas of how she should proceed or to whom she can go, it would be most appreciated.
I just want to put it out there especially for the ATRs- a very reliable higher up told my fellow ATR that guidance counselors will be moving around to different schools each week starting the new school year. If this is true, they will not be held to different standards as the teachers although nothing has been said about ATR secretaries and ATR paras. My fellow ATR met two ATR paras and they did not move around.
Secondly, this ATR was told by the HR people at the network that they do not care about teachers teaching out of license- Licensure is not important- seems only salary is. So, I was thinking a good thing to get out to the public is that parents check the licenses of their children’s teachers. If there are problems, we should file a complaint at someone in DOE- at least a paper trail would be in place.Thirdly, the reliable higher up mentioned that the network organization will go back to boroughs in January, Thus, this shuffling of network leaders into principal positions. Not sure what this reorganization would look like. Would all these network leaders be part of the ATR pool?Just some info.Have a good rest of the day.
”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.
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.
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.
Dear Taxpayer,
I am very sorry, but apparently I am robbing you. It’s not on purpose though. You pay your taxes and in turn I should educate the students of New York City. I think I was doing a pretty good job for 4.5 years so your money was probably well spent. Today I still get paid with our tax dollars but instead of educating the children in the classroom, I am in the Rubber Room with other educators awaiting charges and an explanation of why we were removed. Most of us sit there for weeks or months without knowing why we are there. So imagine this….we are getting paid, the substitutes covering our classes are getting paid, the investigators investigating our cases are getting paid, the lawyers working against the teacher and for the teacher are getting paid, the arbitrators hearing the cases are getting paid and all with your tax dollars! Each case may cost the taxpayer tens of thousands of dollars. ----Francesco Portelos, rubber roomed teacher, IS 49 SI
UFT chapter leader Richard Candia, threatened by Portelos' run for chapter leader, sells him and rest of staff out. --- ed notes, below
"On March 16, 2012 I returned to work after being out for 4 days for jury duty. I found my room a mess. My first period back Mrs. Joanne Aguirre and Ms. Sharon Mahabir of CFN 211 walked in with clipboards. Since I always received Satisfactory ratings (even up until December ’11 before budget talks) and students and parents loved my class, they had to try to get me really off guard. The special education students still learned about engineering principles despite the interruptions made by the observers. The 90 minute observation led to my first ever Unsatisfactory in 5 years of teaching. It was very poorly written and anything positive was strategically omitted by Ms. Aguirre.The DOE henchpeople and the scum at CFN 211 should be investigated. How disappointed was I to see the name of one of the persecutors, Sharon Mahabir, who like Portelos, was once a dedicated robotics coach who I knew from 10 years ago. So sad to see good people forced to engage in these actions. Sharon is good people who is doing PD for the network. Even Francesco says good things about her.
Norm
Please read this carefully and seriously tell me what I am missing. UFT claimed that much of the problem is that principals gamed the system that getting ATRs to work off budget. So now only those placed in actual vacancies in their license in their districts will stay; others will rotate. But if 10 of us are playing musical chairs as subs why not just keep the ATRs at the same school as subs and make the principal verify that the ATR was not doing a regular program? What I see is the ATR covering a vacancy if there is one, but every week or two a new face appears who doesn't know the kids and probably doesn't know the culture or the subject and nothing will be learned. Just like the last month where I have been covering and feebly attempting to teach living environment. I refuse to believe that there aren't ATR science teachers in the Bronx who could do a better job than me.
I tried to check and could not find any openings in my district so I guess I'll be subbing somewhere else. Now, based on how poorly so many students do on the Math Regents, making me a Math tutor or second teacher would seem sensible. ATRs if not assigned to a vacancy in their license should be an extra resource in their license when not subbing. This is how it should be.
We have to focus on how the students are hurt, not about ourselves in order to get the public behind us.Report from Brooklyn ATR Meeting (Tuesday, October 4)
UFT TO ATRS: INFORMATION YES, ORGANIZATION NO WAY IN HELL
By Philip Nobile
A crowd of one hundred, mostly over 40, listened to a 45-minute presentation by Special Rep Amy Arundell and Co-Staff Director LeRoy Barr and then asked lots and lots of questions about our absurd predicament for almost two hours. The presenters were incisive and sympathetic in the information department. Apparently, they had cooled off from their hot meeting in The Bronx on Monday.
“We know the DOE will screw things up and we’ll stay on top of this,” promised Barr who repeated the party line that ATRs should be happy rather than angry with their new deal. “It was not an ATR agreement, it was a no layoff agreement,” he emphasized. “The DOE said you didn’t work. They wanted to lay you off. We will not allow them to lay you off.” Nevertheless, Barr’s solidarity soon evaporated when he squelched the unanimous clamor for establishing borough chapters to represent our interests. “We’re not here to talk about that,” he said, adding with typical top-down arrogance, “that’s not what you want.”
The Information
Arundell, a former middle school Social Science teacher from The Bronx, is the UFT’s personnel person and now its designated ATR authority and apologist. She began with the mechanics of next week’s rotation and later addressed specific inquiries. Some highlights:
►Brooklyn high school teachers will be assigned to District 73 or District 76 (including, horrors, Staten Island). K-8 teachers will remain in the districts from which they were excessed. This is a contractual right.
►Principals cannot keep you in your current school unless they hire you to fill vacancy, budget you on Galaxy, and inform the DOE. No exceptions.
►Your file stays in school from which you were excessed and it’s unclear where files go if your school is closed.
►You can be observed anytime, even if you’re teaching out of license.
►Ratings are up in the air. No agreement yet with DOE, but UFT is opposed to evaluating teachers who spend only one week, even one month, in schools.
►If you’re absent, see the payroll secretary. For long term absence, contact Special Rep Debbie Poulos. For personal days, call your District Rep.
►If you don’t get a new assignment in DOE email by Friday, report to current school next Tuesday.
No Way In Hell Organization
Several attendees, including this correspondent, protested the UFT’s pretense of representation via strange and ever-changing Chapter Leaders and soon-to-be overwhelmed District reps as back-ups. Without chapters of our own, we are out of the normal union loop, unable to attend chapter meetings and forbidden access to Delegate Assemblies. Even our allegedly lesser brethren in rubber rooms of yore had elected liaisons and monthly meetings at 52 Broadway. Denying such basic union rights to ATRs is unconscionable.
Arundell pre-emptively defended the UFT’s third class representation of ATRs (i.e., after regular teachers and past rubber roomers). “I will respectfully disagree that Chapter Leaders are not capable of representing you,” she said, raising her voice. “YOU ARE REPRESENTED. YOU ARE NOT A DISTINCT CLASS.”
Nobody in the audience bought this poppycock. Cheers and clapping greeted the following dissents.
►Herb Michael, former Chapter Leader: “I’m not convinced I’m really represented. We’re in a special situation. That’s why there’s a special agreement including a committee to review compliance. I’d feel more comfortable if some ATRs looked at it. We need to meet on a regular basis. Why can’t we have a motion on the floor to elect a chapter leader?”
This when Barr claimed that he knew better, that we didn’t want chapters to rep us. Adopting Randi’s line against rubber room chapters, he said “You don’t want to be in a permanent class.” Such strained reasoning--as if chapter status would mean anything more than standard representation for us outcasts. At the least, Randi appeased reassigned teachers with monthly meetings in Manhattan. But ATRs in good standing are deprived of that small kindness.
►John Lawhead: “I’m amazed at the innocence of your assumptions. I’m in a school with no Chapter Leader. And now you’re telling us that District Leaders are going to make up the difference? What kind of union do you want to be, merely a service organization? You’ve got to use us in some way. We could be reps in schools.”
By this time, Barr was gone and Brooklyn Borough Rep Howie Schoor stood in at the podium. He was whispering in Arundell’s ear while Lawhead spoke and may have missed his larger point about the UFT’s soul. But puffing up, he said that he would make certain that District Reps did their jobs.
►Your correspondent, former Chapter Leader and three-year graduate of Brooklyn’s Chapel St. rubber room: “I wanted to thank LeRoy for telling us what we want. But I know what we want. (turning to the audience) How many of you want a chapter for ATRs? (the room erupted unanimously in favor and I turned back to Schoor). Will you explain why we can’t have a chapter and will you give us your sign-up list so that we can better organize?
Schoor and I have a complicated history. He is a nice fellow and has been generous with his time and assistance over the years. But just as often he has failed in nerve a` propos my quarrels with the UFT and DOE. For example, I sent him three emails prior to the meeting asking for permission to briefly organize ATRs on site before the start of his informational. No response. So I renewed my request on arrival. The answer was no. “It’s our meeting,” he said. I reminded him that his Special Rep Liz Perez, speaking for Barr, originally rejected my suggestion for an ATR gathering and that today’s meeting was just as much ours as the UFT’s. That got me nowhere, of course. Thereupon I entered the packed conference room and while people finished up their noshes, I defied Schoor by introducing myself and urging my colleagues to press our agenda as outlined in a Grassroots Education Movement broadsheet handed out by Norm Scott of ednotesonline. Schoor tried to shut me down almost immediately, but let me finish without interruption.
As for our demand for a chapter, ever the tone deaf bureaucrat, Schoor declared that Union policy was made by the Executive Committee and Delegate Assemblies blah, blah, blah. And no, he would not share the sign-up list. In retort, I jabbed, “Such is the democracy we work in!”
As the meeting wound down, two older female ATRs summed up our frustration with cris de coeur eliciting loud cheers. Said one: “Mulgrew doesn’t seem to care. Notice he’s not here and I bet he won’t be at the other meetings either.”
And the other: “It all about age and money. School aides are teaching classes in my school. Principals will not hire us. Where is the union in this? I want my dues back.”
The saddest thing I saw was a male teacher about my age, who had two kids with him, about the ages of my older two. His name tag said, “Technology and Computer Science” and his kids kept pointing to tables saying, “What about this one, Dad?” or “This is a high school, Dad, how about here?” and he kept answering, “No, they don’t want me, they don’t want me.” My heart broke for this man, and my anger flared at a system that throws people on the trash heap like day-old bread.
she was behind me, shouting. “Move over here! Yes, YOU! I’ll speak slowly. MOVE…OVER…HERE."
Life in Limbo over at NYCATR has been chronicling the indignities that exist in the ATR world. Here is a post on the hiring hall at the Brooklyn Museum this past week.But do you know who there was an abundance of? TEACHING FELLOWS! Brand new, shiny, sparkling Teaching Fellows! Everywhere! Even though the invitation e-mail specifically stated that this “job fair” was for ATRs exclusively.
I wasn’t going to go.MORE at Job Fair Tale #3: Fine Art and False Hopes
I’ve become tired of dancing to the same old song and, sorry, I was just going to sit this one out. And I’ve already seen all of the paintings in the European Masters room. While I love Rembrandt, THSC, could you please move the fairs to a different gallery? I think the Surrealists make a better backdrop for this, anyway.But my inner masochist had been looking forward to this all week, and she’s such a whiner when she doesn’t get her way, so off I went.
We recently summarized an official DOE document that gives the nitty-gritty details of the new rules for deployment of the Absent Teacher Reserve (ATR).
Now, the latest edition of the UFT's newspaper, the New York Teacher, has provided their own summary of the ATR agreement (see page 3 of the August 4th edition).
The problem is that there seems to be a discrepancy between the DOE's version and the UFT's version.
The DOE says that vacancies created by long-term absences will be covered by ATR teachers on a "trial basis," prior to a school using a per-diem substitute; a principal may remove an ATR teacher from such a "trial" at any time, at which point a per-diem substitute may be hired.*In other words, there is no guarantee that any ATR teacher will ultimately land the long-term assignment. If, after subjecting an ATR to a trial, the principal still prefers a per-diem candidate, Ms. Per-Diem gets the gig.
The UFT reports: "Every long-term absence or leave must be filled by an ATR. Two ATRs must be sent for consideration for placement to any school that has at least one vacancy. The principal can accept them or not." (Italics added by NYCATR.)*This sounds like the assignment will definitely be given to an ATR teacher; the only question is which of the ATR teachers will win the beauty contest.
And so, we wonder:*Did the UFT have access to a DOE document that NYCATRhasn't seen yet?*Does the UFT know how to read?*Is the UFT trying to sugarcoat a lousy dealthat they negotiated for the ATR teachers?The author of this blog is pro-UFT, but he is an equal-opportunity questioner. Any answers out there?
Bronx and Manhattan: Tues., Sept. 21, McGinley Ballroom, 441 E. Fordham Rd, Bronx 10 am to 3:30I'm often asked why teachers in Chicago seemed to rise up against their Unity-like union leadership and the Chicago ed deformers. One area if difference has been the way excessed teachers from schools being closed have been treated. They can be fired within a year. All Chicago teachers realize that anyone of them can be an ATR.
Queens: Thurs., Sept. 23, Citi Field, 12-01 Roosevelt Ave., Flushing 10 am to 3:30
