UFT Charter School Disaster Will Continue to Undermine the Battle for Public Education

This disaster will echo for years to come. They handed the charter lobby the A-bomb. I have constantly called on the union to close down that school. You know what a UFT employee told me a few months ago -- "That was Randi's mistake." What crap. I ask every one who knows someone in Unity to hold them accountable for their support for this instead of saying, "Oh, Randi is old news. Mulgrew is different."

And while the children will be going to the better performing district 19 schools now, what of the teachers? Do they become ATRs like teachers at other closing schools if they can't get a job on the open market? Or will the UFT give them favorable treatment and work behind the scenes to get them placed, so unlike their turning their backs on the entire ATR community? This one bears watching.

UFT/Unity Caucus members should walk around with bags over their heads.

The UFT charter experiment was a big success - for the charter school lobby and their co-locations helped undermine the public schools just as any charter has done. Just the very idea of a charter was wrong but to actually not go find a building not in a public school made this a double disaster.

The school’s dismal experience neatly contradicts much of the union’s overheated rhetoric about the supposed ills and evils of charter schools... Errol Lewis

Hell yes. Just how much does it contradict the rhetoric? Let us count the ways.

That’s a far cry from the promises made in 2005 by the UFT’s then-president, Randi Weingarten. “Our charter schools will be leaders in scholastic innovation and the perfect environment for the UFT to demonstrate that its educational priorities work,” Weingarten said in a statement announcing a $1 million grant from the Broad Foundation to help launch the school.

Wait, let me get this straight. The leading charter proponent in the world - the BROAD FOUNDATION -- knowing the outcomes of the union experiment will help his cause, brilliantly invests a pittance for him to undermine the union position for all time.

We posted about the charter school over the weekend (UFT Closes Charter: UFT Charter Created Wrecked Co...) 

Errol Lewis in the Daily News has an interesting piece (Why the UFT’s charter school flunked) pointing to just how much more of a disaster this will continue to turn out to be.

The school’s dismal experience neatly contradicts much of the union’s overheated rhetoric about the supposed ills and evils of charter schools. The announcement came on Friday afternoon — a time that savvy political players often choose to dump bad news, in hopes that the focus of news organizations and the public might drift away over the weekend. 

One of the questions I asked Aminda Gentile at the UFT charter info event over a decade ago was whether they would offer a different, progressive curriculum instead of playing the test score game and her answer was that given the evaluation rules they must go along -- they should have walked away right there -- after all -- my original pro-charter idea in the late 90s was based on offering a rich learning environment free of the testing culture. Once I realized that that concept would not work within the context of our schools I gave up the idea. So when the UFT failure is measured by test scores alone but still ....

Start with the 670 children cast adrift by the closure. Most will be reassigned to other schools in District 19, some after spending years in a school consistently rated in the bottom ranks of academic performance citywide.
In 2013, only 4% of the school’s eighth-graders ranked as proficient on math exams - the third worst performance of any charter school — compared with 29.6% for district schools citywide, according to the New York City Charter School Center. In English, the school came in dead last among city charters, with only 3% of the kids ranked as proficient.
While students in the school’s upper grades have done much better, the lower grades had worse numbers than its home District 19.

WTF - they didn't even do better than District 19, one of the poorest in the city. And then there is this:

The poor performance can’t be blamed on a high percentage of special-education or English Language Learner students. As the Daily News reported in 2010, only 9% of the school’s students were in special education (compared with 13% for District 19) and only 1% were English Language Learners (compared with 14% for the district).

You mean they were pulling an Eva Moskowitz all along?

And then this:

Staff and management clashed repeatedly over everything from a scarcity of school supplies to a shocking finding that corporal punishment had been used 10 times.

Actually, only 10 times in 10 years compared to who know what goes on in most charters. But still....

Here is another damaging point that undermines the union positions on so many other issues:

The UFT’s swipe at the Bloomberg administration for promoting inexperienced school leaders finds an echo in the UFT’s under-prepared, hand-picked principals.
Weingarten’s first choice to lead the elementary school was a union staffer who had never run a school before; she resigned within three years. Ditto for an upper school principal who also had never run a school (and who also resigned after three years).
Ultimately, the school had five principals in seven years, and the chaos helped doom the institution.
“When you have leaders coming in and out, they’re not able to really get their vision across. It certainly impacted our school,” is how the situation was described to the education website Chalkbeat by Sheila Evans-Tranumn, an ex-education official hired to oversee the charter.

We do think that Michelle Bodden did stabilize the elementary school, but there was the disaster of the middle school which was moved out of Gershwin MS and into another building. (I have to find those video tapes I have of those hearings.)

 the debacle should be studied closely, and remembered the next time union officials denigrate the contributions of charter schools. All of this is worth keeping in mind as the union gears up its perennial attacks on charter schools as part of some sinister scheme to undermine public education. Many of the union’s frequently-used attacks on charters look different when applied to their own experiment. There were no “hedge fund billionaires” who did the damage here. Nor was it hard-driving educational pioneers of rival charter schools who mismanaged the UFT’s school.

Billionaire Eli Broad did plenty of damage with his investment.

UFT Closes Charter: UFT Charter Created Wrecked Co-Located Public Schools in its Wake

We won't even get into the millions of dollars from who knows where - our dues? -- the UFT spent to support the charter. Will ed deformer supremo Eli Broad ask for his million dollar contribution back?

From Day 1 members of ICE, many now with MORE (I included) took a strong stand against the UFT's opening a top-down run charter school (are they capable of anything else?) in 2005 while the UFT's house opposition, New Action, supported the charter. I remember attending an info meeting with Jeff Kaufman and James Eterno from ICE where we raised the problematical issues to a representative of the leadership while the New Action people sat on their hands. Michael Fiorillo made an eloquent statement at the Delegate Assembly as to why this move was not in our best interests.

To be perfectly fair, James Eterno was a New Action Ex Bd member and reminded me of this point:

I was on the Exec bd in 2003-2004 (last NAC year) and I was the lone no vote on the charter school. I remember my argument with Randi well. What a waste.

James would not fall into Mike Shulman's bullying NAC people to vote to stay in Randi's favor. I was at that Ex Bd meeting. Good for James -- one of the reasons he and Ellen Fox were pushed out of New Action. (I hope their new allies have fun defending their actions over the years.)

Every single member of Unity Caucus went along, including the Unity chapter leaders of schools that are getting decimated by charters. Don't forget this in the upcoming chapter elections.

Arthur Goldstein has a strong piece today: UFT Charter School--Another Spectacular Failure for Leadership, and I love his cartoon enough to steal it.

Chalkbeat, reporting on the decision to close the school:

The move, while not unexpected, is an embarrassing one for the union. When the school opened in 2005, then-UFT President Randi Weingarten said its success would demonstrate that unions could play a starring role in efforts to improve the school system and show that a union contract was not the “impediment to success” that education leaders like then-Chancellor Joel Klein portrayed it to be.

Of course they announced this on Friday and then slunk away without comment. Arthur gives them some credit for not creaming like some other charters. 

UFT leadership, to its credit, was not willing to play that game. 

Even if they didn't cream consciously, the very idea of placing a school in direct competition with a co-located public schools leads to creaming. They co-located into 2 public school buildings in District 19 (East NY in Brooklyn) with space given to them by their pal, Superintendent Kathy Kashin. One of those buildings was George Gershwin - MS 166 - the school I graduated from in 1959. Gershwin, due to the erosion of kids creamed by the UFT charter, was declared a failing school and is being closed. At a PEP meeting, parents, teachers and the principal who I interviewed on tape said the UFT charter played a role in their closing.

At that hearing, the UFT charters were being consolidated into another middle school and the chapter leader, PTA president and a number of parents and teachers were there to oppose the move into their building as a threat to their existence. (I have some of these comments on tape.) That was a Bloomberg PEP rubber stamping the UFT charter request. Backscratching 101.

And then there is the back story of Michelle Bodden, principal of the charter. Bodden, who many of us liked, was at one time the heir apparent to Weingarten and a UFT VP. Suddenly, she became principal of the school and Mulgrew replaced her as the heir. More backstory -- in 1998-9 I pushed the idea of TEACHER RUN charters with UFT support. Randi basically told me, "How can we trust teachers?" She put me on a committee headed by Bodden to explore the idea of a union charter. But it became clear to me this charter was not what I had in mind --- a top-down run by the union leadership, not by teachers -- and yes, Virginia, there is a difference. That was the turning point for me in terms of charters.

Arthur nails the political weakness of the UFT's support for co-location.

But just like they did when they failed to allocate enough money to pay recent retirees, they played a weak chess game. They failed to look ahead. They failed to see what they charter movement was all about. They assumed it was somehow idealistic rather than a direct assault on public schools. And in the end they were unable to compete with their utterly unscrupulous privatizing colleagues.
Not only that, but they weakened our potential as a force for truth. By supporting charters, they failed to anticipate what the charter movement was about. By actually indulging in co-location, they made it very difficult for us to argue against it. And by actually failing, they gave our opponents ammunition to make the false argument that union contracts are an impediment to student achievement.

 In fact I have evidence, which I will present early next week, that the UFT still support co-location when their interests are involved.

The UFT serves as the collective bargaining unit for 21 charter schools, including the University Prep Charter High School, where Weingarten, now the head of the American Federation of Teachers, is still a board member. But the vast majority of the UFT’s 110,000 members work in district schools, and many remain deeply critical of the sector. ....Chalkbeat

Yes, if these 21 schools need to co-locate, the UFT machine will run all over the interests of the public school, as they are doing at PS 157 in Brooklyn. More on this in a few days where we are helping the teachers and parents of PS 157 organize AGAINST the UFT's plans to infiltrate a charter into that school.

Some people may be celebrating the UFT's decision to close the charter.
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See Capital Education report: http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/city-hall/2015/02/8563129/uft-shuttering-lower-grades-its-charter-school

And a reader comments:

Randi turns everything she touches to shit!

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/28/nyregion/new-york-city-teachers-union-is-closing-portion-of-its-brooklyn-charter-school.html?emc=edit_tnt_20150228&nlid=23691631&tntemail0=y&_r=0

Will de Blasio Make Randi's Folly - er - the UFT Charter - Pay The Damn Rent?

Eva Moskowitz is viewed as a big loser in the election and the UFT even though they jumped on the bandwagon late is viewed as a winner. But what of the charters occupying public school space - given to the UFT by the way by their pal Kathy Cashin when she ran Region 5 (Dist. 19, 23 and 27)? My guess is that it is no longer politically tenable for the UFT to get free space if deB makes Eva pay.

DeB has said that poor charters wouldn't have to pay. Can the UFT claim to be a poor charter with a million dollar donation from the likes of Eli Broad?

The political solution is for the UFT to get its own space which will accelerate the UFT shortfall as the charter school drains the budget. The real solution is the end Randi's Folly. Let the UFT charter apply to be converted to a public school. The UFT would be taking a strong stand in defense of the public school system instead of waffling and straddling the fence. (And cut out of the Green Dot deal too.)

The UFT charters have allowed the enemies to make lots of hay about the union's claim it can run a charter using union rules (which I would still question the reality of). They won't even subject the teachers to the eval system they have fostered on public school teachers.

Let me point out once again -- that ICE was the only group to oppose the establishment of the UFT charter with Michael Fiorillo leading the way. New Action, which claims it opposes charters, was right on board all the way.

What about MORE, you ask? Where do they stand on the UFT charter co-location which has led to the closing of George Gershwin MS 166K and the invasion and disruption of another middle school? While I'm sure most MOREistas are on the same page with me, MORE I believe needs to say loud and clear about the UFT charter: PAY THE DAMN RENT OR GET OUT!

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Afternurn
Off topic a bit but I need to stick this info that just came in about the charter group that Eva's hubby Eric Grannis is involved in -- this from the corrupt sister in LA:

Here's an LA times article that just came out about CWC and Charter school issues in general:

http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-karma-parking-20131104,0,2119984.story#axzz2jj8emXw2

 Scroll down to the comments, many from CWC parents.

UFT Charter Exempt From Teacher Evaluation System or Race To The Top

UFT CHARTER SCHOOL: Not participating ... NYSED Dept listing of Race To the Top participating and non-participating schools

Guess who is on the list of schools not participating in the teacher evaluation system? SurPRISE!

UFT CHARTER SCHOOL

http://eservices.nysed.gov/rtttlea/showAll.html

I am rendered speechless - for once. Oh, I'm sure there is a good explanation from the UFT as to why they fostered an eval system on teachers in public schools but not in a school they run.

Fighting Eva at the Ramparts: Use Publicity to Affect Her Enrollment and Reduce Profitability

I get these emails all the time because the UFT is absent from this battle (except for some minor efforts). The other day from a parent in District 30 and now from a Harlem teacher. Eva is our best organizer as people looked to GEM and now MORE to assist them in the absence of the UFT from this fight.

Norm, do you have information to convey to me as to how to stop Eva Moskowitz from bringing her Harlem Success Academy into a school. The school is having a meeting tomorrow to with parents, staff and political officials to discuss how to stop this woman.

01: How can the school show and prove how unfair it is for Moskowitz to bring in over 500 of their students and displace about 80 students in a current school?

02: Can the Campaign for Fiscal Equity be used to be thwart Moskowitz's grab for all of the money that should go to the traditional public school kids?

03: What arguments can be presented to parents, staff, politicians and others to use against Moskowitz to galvanize support and belief that the school can be saved?

04: What successes have been used to stop Moskowitz?

My response was:

I have to tell you that no one has been able to stop her. The city is in her hand. The state is in her hand and the UFT is toothless -- they are the only ones with the power and money to do anything. Some parent groups are out there fighting. Until we can stop mayoral control (which the UFT supports) they can do anything they want.

I immediately contacted Brooke Parker, a WAGPOPS Williamsburg based parent activist who, given what looks like another Eva slam dunk, offers some hope based on educating as many people as possible. You can see some of those efforts with this post on Ed Notes the other day: Brooklyn Success Academy Parents Dropping Out.

Here is Brooke's comment:

Eva's won just about every fight she's fought. But here are some of the things we did that helped change local public opinion and impacted her enrollment of students in our district:

- Gather information about your area schools - how many K-5s do you have? What are their pops of Free lunch, Reduced lunch, ELL, etc.,

- Develop partnerships with your local activists from other fronts - environment, immigration, people of color, workers rights, etc., These issues are tied together.

- We had someone sign up for the Success Academy mailing list who pretended to be interested to spy and get us all kinds of information, including when they were holding information sessions. We had about 20 parents with their children stand outside a Success Academy "Meet the Principal" event passing out this flyer and flyers about neighborhood schools and warmly invited those parents to meet OUR principals and tour OUR schools. I'd never seen Eva & her crew sweat so hard.

- CONSTANTLY stress that these schools are NOT for your neighborhood kids - particularly the ELLs. Norm wrote about how their handbook wasn't even available in Spanish (though it might be now), but it still points out how ELL and working parents are unable to thrive in that environment. http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2012/04/success-academy-family-handbook-only.html

- The message we put out there is that our neighborhood schools are strong and we want our kids in class together.

I'm enclosing an example of a sheet we put together.

See text below and note that this is the work the UFT should be using its resources to doing instead of pouring good money after bad into its own co-located charter school. Note the GEM link -- again -- doing the work the UFT didn't.

One Chapter Leader Reports on the UFT DA/UFT Charter Follow-up

Here's a report:  Had to listen to Randi give a nauseating speech about voting 4 Obama. WHAT A FUCKING WASTE OF MY TIME!!!! -- Chapter Leader

Joe Williams, executive director of Democrats for Education Reform, said the union’s secondary school’s innovative methods, which include staggered teacher shifts to allow a longer school day, could become models for other unions. --- Williams quoted in NY Times article, Dec. 3, 2008

..... when he [Drew Goodman] tried to revise the school charter to cut the number of students in each grade and increase collaboration between the elementary and secondary charter schools, he angered union leaders who thought he had overstepped his authority, the individuals said. --- NY Times article, Dec. 3, 2008

I did see Randi racing in before the DA yesterday. Are you telling me that she has to come to a union event in NYC to get out the vote? Pathetic waste of everyone's time.

UFT Charter school chaos?
I wonder if there was any discussion at the DA about the attacks on the UFT charter school and Randi's responsibility for making the union a laughing stock to the extent that Harlem Success Academy parents can leave comments about how even a unionized charter school run by the UFT can't compete? Really, can you give the deformers any more fodder? Read the NY Times 2008 article below to see how the UFT inside political machine may have undermined its own charter school. Whose toes was Goodman stepping on? Maybe Michelle Bodden who herself was booted from Randi successor to charter school principal. Oh, what a den Unity Caucus runs.


Here are the links to the must-read Gotham story about the UFT charter:

Comments of the week: Blame for UFT Charter School’s demise

One of the really funny comments:

Emp315
When drew goodman was principal the school was one of the top charter schools in the state! He left because of an issues with the board of trustees. The parents and students loved him. As soon as he left the school fell apart. 

Gee, I wonder who Emp315 is?

Drew Goodman, the son of 2 former UFT District Reps (dad is Peter Goodman also known as the apologist for the UFT on his Ed in the Apple blog), was the first principal of the UFT middle school charter housed at the JHS I attended (Gershwin) but was forced out within a few months and replaced by Diane Ravitch pal Mary Butz.

See story below on his removal in 2008. I believe Drew became an AP in Dist 19. His latest resurfacing has been as an ATR supervisor.

Drew Goodman tweeted when the story surfaced
 drew goodman ‏@drewg03

Anyone who wants the real story on why the UFT charter is failing hit me

Norm Scott ‏@NormScott1

@drewg03 Is it really failing? 

drew goodman ‏@drewg03

@NormScott1 yeah let's put it this way the school it's housed in is doing better and it's on the closure list..

The story in the Times below has signs that Drew might actually be correct. I wonder what dad Peter Goodman thinks. Think Peter will defend the UFT charter school which I believe he pushed as a great thing in 2006?

At School Union Runs, Principal Steps Down

By JAVIER C. HERNANDEZ
Published: December 3, 2008
The principal of a charter school run by the city’s teachers’ union, a rare type of school that has been described by some supporters as proof that charter schools could flourish even under strict labor rules, has resigned after clashing with teachers and union leaders, people affiliated with the school said.

Drew D. Goodman stepped down last week as principal of the union-run school, the United Federation of Teachers Secondary Charter School in East New York, Brooklyn, after union leaders grew dissatisfied with his handling of brewing teacher dissatisfaction. He has been replaced temporarily by Mary Butz, a school system veteran who led a mentorship program for city principals, until a permanent leader is found.

The departure marked the latest flare-up in the union’s efforts to nurture a successful, labor-friendly alternative to traditional charter schools, which are publicly funded but operate independently of the school system and typically shun union rules in order to provide longer class days and give principals more freedom in hiring and firing staff.

Mr. Goodman’s resignation mirrored a shake-up last spring at the union’s elementary charter school, also in East New York, when the principal resigned amid complaints by teachers and parents of heavy-handed governance. Mr. Goodman has moved to Public School 215 in Far Rockaway, Queens, where he is assistant principal, and declined to comment.

Mr. Goodman, 36, who led the school since its opening in 2006, had struggled to navigate a hazy line between administrator and teacher. In designing the school, the union defined his position as “first and foremost an educator” whose authority “will stem not from title or rank,” according to the union’s Web site.

Several people at the school or active in the union, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear that they would suffer professionally if they were named, said Mr. Goodman’s support among the faculty dwindled as some teachers saw him as making unilateral decisions. When he asked staff members to supervise middle school students who were performing community service at an elementary school, for instance, teachers complained that he was taking away time that they could be spending at professional development seminars.

Edward Morrissey, a language arts teacher at the school, said Mr. Goodman often got caught between teachers and the union leaders who run the school. When textbooks arrived late or photocopy machines remained broken, teachers blamed Mr. Goodman, even if the problem was the result of delays above him, Mr. Morrissey said.

This fall, when he tried to revise the school charter to cut the number of students in each grade and increase collaboration between the elementary and secondary charter schools, he angered union leaders who thought he had overstepped his authority, the individuals said.

In a letter to the school’s trustees sent on Wednesday, Randi Weingarten, the teacher’s union president, described Mr. Goodman’s departure as a mutual decision. In an interview, Ms. Weingarten said the school was simply working through the kinks facing any new institution, noting: “It’s tough to be the founding school leader of a school that may be one of the few that really believes in teacher collaboration.”

She pointed to high test scores among students at the union’s elementary school — this year, 81 percent of third-graders passed state English tests and 98 percent met math standards — as evidence that the schools were succeeding.

Teachers and principals at the union-backed schools said they posed unique leadership challenges. Michelle Bodden, who took over the union’s elementary charter school in August, said that satisfying all constituents can be hard, but that she has built good relations by seeing her role as “secondary to what’s going on with the teachers.”

“I think you listen a lot, I think you encourage conversation,” she said.

Joe Williams, executive director of Democrats for Education Reform, said the union’s secondary school’s innovative methods, which include staggered teacher shifts to allow a longer school day, could become models for other unions.

Mr. Morrissey, the teacher at the union school, said many of the students had viewed Mr. Goodman as a role model. “I think the kids are in complete shock,” he said.

Chicago Chats/UFT Giving Up Co-Location of Charter - With a Little Help From Friends

Weds., July 6

We just woke up to the news that the UFT made a deal with Christine Quinn to move its charter out of a public school in East NY Brooklyn into a new building - with the help of $2 million. At least that is the way the NY Post is framing it. But watch the UFT try to spin this one to teachers after they lost teachers choice - my 3 roomies are already screaming about it. The argument that other charters are already getting money for new buildings is a lame excuse. "This is our union" they are saying and we have been screaming about not only the co-loco issue but the fact that charters are destroying the fabric of the public school system. (See the Post article below.)

"This is capital fund money that should NOT be going to charters, it should be going to building more public schools," said GEM's Julie Cavanagh (one of the directors of the critically acclaimed film "The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman", who has been battling the invasion of her school, PS 15, while also being critical of the vast amounts of public money being funneled to charter schools to the detriment of public schools.

Note how this is revealed when school is out - not a word at the Delegate Assembly - note how "council aides said the grant was being discussed months before negotiations with the Mayor."

This cements the idea that the UFT will endorse Quinn for Mayor and also continue to support mayoral control. I may just bet my Tier 1 pension on it.

Chicago news
We were up late last night at a dinner hosted by Chicago Teachers Union caucus CORE - Caucus of Rank and File Educators. For those not aware, CORE is sort of the Unity Caucus of Chicago in the sense that they are in power. CORE people are proud to show their colors as opposed to Unity which tries to hide the fact they they even exist from the members - except during elections.

People were coming in last night from all over the nation and conversation flowed around many issues, but the NEA endorsement of Obama was causing quite a stir. I'm sure that will come up again today at the conference. It is interesting that the NEA convention just left town and remnants will be at the conference today.

Oh, in case you haven't been following,  I wrote about it yesterday:

In Chicago for National Educators' Conference to Fight Back for Public Education

My 3 wives are dragging me down to breakfast. More tonight. Maybe some video.

Here is the NY Post piece:

$weet deal on UFT charter

By SALLY GOLDENBERG

Last Updated: 3:46 AM, July 6, 2011

The City Council awarded $2 million to the politically powerful United Federation of Teachers for its Brooklyn charter school amid intense negotiations with the union to avoid teacher layoffs.

Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Brooklyn Councilman Erik Dilan sponsored the allocation, to be distributed in Fiscal Year 2013.

The funds -- part of a $375 million capital-projects budget -- will be used to plan "a potential new building that would incorporate the UFT charter schools with a community center and health clinic" in East New York, union spokesman Peter Kadushin said.

The union's charter school shares space with traditional schools, and the money would help the school relocate to an independent location.

Council aides said the grant was being discussed months before negotiations with the UFT to avert Mayor Bloomberg's threatened 4,100 teacher layoffs.

The UFT and the council signed off on a deal to avoid layoffs by giving up a year of teacher sabbaticals, making both the union and Quinn look like victors in the budget battle.

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Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on right for news bits.

UFT Charter School Teaches Practice of Democracy - in Theory Only

The UFT Charter School 300 Wyona Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11207 5 year renewal hearing was held on Oct. 22.

"Currently serving Kindergarten through 9 grades, the UFT Charter School is committed to closing the achievement gap and creating a school built on democratic principles of respect, tolerance, and liberty so that students will alsobecome practitioners of democracy and civic responsibility. This school is authorized by the State University of New York – Charter School Institute. More information about the school can be found on the school’s website at http://www.uftcharterschool.net"

Students will attend UFT Delegate Assemblies and Executive Board meetings to see democracy in practice.

Michelle Bodden to Resign as UFT VP

Will run UFT Elementary Charter School

As reported in an ednotes online exclusive, Michelle Bodden, who many people were betting would be Randi Weingarten's successor as UFT President, will take over the UFT's troubled elementary charter school.

We raised the question as to whether a UFT VP for elementary schools could be in that position. Now we have been informed that she has sent a letter telling people she will be resigning her VP position. (Will she also be resigning from Unity Caucus?)

The signs have been there for a long time that Bodden was not in the running and I had to convince even people inside 52 Broadway that she would never head the UFT. Perhaps she was getting too popular. "She's really an educator," said one insider. "Not a politician like Randi. You can actually have a conversation with her about real things. Some people can't wait for Randi to be gone so we can start solving the real problems we face."

I won't go into the details, but long-time observers can tell a lot about the UFT by who stands where, what kinds of events people get to represent the UFT at, and other signs. The surprise appointment of Leroy Barr as UFT Staff Director in January made it clear that another African-American had superseded Michelle in the UFT hierarchy.

Aside from the UFT political mishegas, I think putting Michelle in charge of the school is a good move. I had some contact with her when Randi put me on a charter school committee headed by Michelle in the late 90's. We only met a few times until Randi abandoned the idea, but Michelle was very easy to work with.

Teacher Power
If I had to choose one principle that has driven Ed Notes, it is the empowerment of teachers, who have been viewed as just barely above the kids in terms of respect (in today's NYCDOE, it's probably even.) I was on the first UFT charter committee because at the time I was an advocate of charter schools and even had a resolution urging the UFT to set up an office of charter school support to enable teachers to begin running their own schools. My idea was not for the UFT to run a school, but to empower teachers who were sick of working for idiot supervisors. In my plan, teachers got to choose their supervisors, not the other way around. We would get the very best principals that way.

When I proposed the idea of the UFT helping teachers run schools, Randi's immediate reaction was some reluctance and it gave me an early insight into her wish to exercise control. It took me 3 or 4 years to get what she was really about.

But, though I am opposed to the very idea of a UFT charter school, I wish Michelle well in her new position.

As to who will replace her as elementary school VP, we can be sure of one thing. It will be the personal choice of Randi Weingarten and rubber stamped by the UFT Executive Board, not through any kind of democratic process.

Rumor Mill: Michelle Bodden Goes to UFT Elementary Charter School

There are rumors - even that Michelle will be the new principal - can a UFT VP also be a principal?

Many people at UFT HQ and in Unity Caucus looked at Michelle as the obvious choice to replace Randi Weingarten as UFT president. But we have been pointing out in in our articles on the Randi Succession Obsession that her star was descending. Beside, astute UFT watchers know full well Randi may try to break Al Shanker's 10 year record of holding both AFT and UFT presidencies. (I already have a bet that she is running in 2010 for UFT Pres.)

The speculation is who will be the strong man to ride herd - play the role Tom Pappas played for Feldman and Weingarten - and the guessing is it will be that fellow with the lean and hungy look, Mike Mulgrew.

Bronx Green Dot Principal...

... report from the trenches

A recent news report (sorry, lost the source) about the new Green Dot/UFT Partnership school:

Ashish Kapadia, former assistant principal for organization and supervision at the Eximius College Preparatory Academy, a College Board school in the Bronx, will head the Green Dot school. He was chosen after an extensive search involving more than 100 candidates interviewed by a team of Green Dot principals and staff. Born in the Bronx, Kapadia graduated cum laude from the University of Chicago and went on to earn master's degrees from New York University and Queens College at the City University of New York. He also taught for seven years at Jane Addams High School in the Bronx, specializing in government, economics and history.

This report on Kapadia's history came in over the Ed Notes transom. Other evaluations are welcome and should be added to the comments section:

Is the best candidate that "an extensive search" could find?
Ashish Kapadia's appointment speaks to how thin the ranks of would-be administrators are.
He was a Social Studies teacher at Jane Addams HS. ("Specializing in government, economics and history"???) For a while he taught an honors class (not AP, though). He was COSA for a few years until 6/06, and then Senior Advisor until 6/07. (That date is not a typo.)
His mantra was, in regard to the concerns of students: "I don't care!" (This is a direct quote.) He also was baseball coach.
He was not active in the UFT chapter. At Addams, he had no track record of any interest in partnering with the UFT, yet now he's going to be in charge of a school that is a partnership with the union.
He left Addams at the end of the last school year (2007), and hasn't been AP (at Eximius, or anywhere else) for even one school year.

ED NOTE: After an "extensive search" for a principal of the UFT middle school charter (housed at George Gershwin - 166, the junior high I attended) the choice turned out to be Drew Goodman, the son of former UFT district reps Peter and Joan Goodman. Peter still shills for the UFT on the Edwize and Ed in the Apple blogs. So far, Drew has a good rep, as opposed to the principal of the UFT elementary charter.

Green Scratches Surface at UFT Charter

Updated March 26

The long-awaited Elizabeth Green piece in the NY Sun on the troubles at the UFT elementary Charter school has just scratched the surface. Some of us in ICE have been sitting on a bunch of stuff about the school for some time and were waiting for someone in the main stream press to puncture the pinata. (There was probably no lack of joy over the story in the upper reaches of Tweedletown – there were some hints from that quarter that a little scratching around was warranted.)

These stories are ONLY about the elementary, not the UFT middle school, whose principal is Drew Goodman, son of retired UFT District Reps Joan and Peter Goodman – noted Edwize blogger and Ed in the Apple. Drew Goodman has a good rep but the hints of nepotism after the UFT supposedly engaged in a high priced talent search, still float around 52 Broadway. The middle school is housed in George Gershwin JHS on Van Sicklen Ave., where I spent my glorious junior high years and was in the first 3-year grad class ('59 the school opened in Sept '56.)

Elizabeth took a trip out to the old neighborhood in East New York on Monday night for an emergency PTA meeting at the elementary school on Wyona St. where parents expressed some level of dissatisfaction. What's still missing is the unhappy teacher factor plus assorted other parties who have complained to ICE – not happy campers. Both current and former teachers, fearing the long arm of the UFT are afraid to talk publicly and some are resorting to drop boxes, leaving messages taped to the bottom of park benches – extreme micromanagement that make the Tweedles look like progressives and other juicy goodies.

Excuse me, I have to go wipe some of that juicy stuff off my keyboard.

Note: Check out NYC Educator's take.