After union bid, fired charter school teachers allege retaliation

Lost Opportunity

July 12, 2011

After union bid, fired charter school teachers allege retaliation

by Geoff Decker, at 1:22 pm

Earlier this year, a small group of determined teachers at Opportunity Charter School marched into Leonard Goldberg’s office and confronted their boss.

They carried a letter that detailed their complaints with Goldberg’s response to their recent bid to unionize. Not only had Goldberg refused to recognize the staff’s vote to join the United Federation of Teachers, they said, he had begun waging an anti-union email campaign.

Goldberg, the school’s CEO, declined the letter and ordered them to leave, according to a teacher present at the meeting.

“He was screaming and yelling,” said the teacher. “He said ‘You’re not welcome in here,’ and threw us out of the office.”

By the end of the school year, that teacher and 13 of her pro-union colleagues – as well as one who opposed the union – were notified that their contracts would not be renewed. Five, including the teacher who described the Goldberg meeting, were members of the organizing committee that steered the union vote.

The school says it is a coincidence, but former teachers and union organizers believe the firings were calculated retaliation. They say Goldberg’s behavior in his office and his emails are just examples of his antagonistic attitude toward his teachers’ attempt to unionize.

“Opportunity Charter School has taken a negative stance since day one of the staff forming a union,” said UFT charter school representative Miles Trager, who met personally with Goldberg. “The firings further confirm their intention of quelling teacher voice at the school. “

The teacher on the organizing committee rejected the reason given to her for termination: that she had been persistently late. Instead, she said, she thinks her pro-union vote cost her her job.

“Could it be the union? Sure,” said the teacher, who like others, spoke for this story on the condition that their identities be withheld so as not to hurt future job prospects. “Could it be anything else? I really don’t think so.”

The majority of charter school teachers are not unionized. Out of more than 120 charter schools in New York City, UFT represents educators in 12.

In the vast majority of charter schools, teachers are paid more on average, but usually work on one-year contracts and aren’t afforded as much job protection as union teachers. At OCS, teachers signed “at-will” contracts, meaning that they can be fired at any time without notice or without a reason.

It is illegal under federal law for employers to fire or discipline employees who engage in union activities.

Goldberg did not respond to several attempts for comment. A lawyer for the school declined to comment on personnel matters, but he denied that any hirings or firings have ever been based on union activity.

“No employment decision is or ever has been made on the basis of an employee’s participation or non-participation in union organizing activity,” said the lawyer, Kevin P. Quinn.

The union bid follows a tumultuous period for the secondary school, which reserves half of its seats for students who require special education services. Last year, an investigation found that the school’s leadership, including Goldberg, failed to adequately supervise a school culture that was at times abusive toward students.

Before that, there were calls from city officials to improve school management. In its review of OCS for charter renewal, which was initially delayed, then renewed for a shortened two-year term, the DOE recommended that the school needed to “add skillful members to the Board” and “improve the overall management of the School.”

In response to the 2010 investigation, Goldberg removed two co-directors from the school’s day-to-day operations, Brett Fazio and Betty Marsella, both of whom were also named in the probe.

One was forced out immediately. Staff members said the sudden departure of Fazio, who built close relationships with students, especially threatened to uproot stability that they worked hard to maintain. “He just like disappeared,” said the organizing teacher. “There was no explanation.”

The other director, Marsella, was banished to work from home as the Director of External Development and eventually resigned earlier this year.

“Morale had been low for at least a year,” said another teacher whose contract was terminated. The teacher said she was also fired for being late too many times.

“The administration became more and more withdrawn and more top heavy,” she added.

Attrition rates for teachers and students has steadily increased since 2006, according to the 2010 annual report on OCS. Last year 28 percent of teachers left – 8 percent, or four teachers, were terminated – and 15 percent of students left.

When the teachers voted to join the UFT in early May, they said in a press release that it was because they wanted to retain quality teachers, reclaim the school mission and improve the voice of its instructors.

“I believe everyone has a voice and every voice deserves to be heard. We need a union to ensure our right to speak up for what’s best for us and best for our students,” said Nayomi Reghay, one of the lead organizers.

Towards the end of May, Goldberg took to the school’s email listserv to address the union activity. In a span of seven days, he sent at least six messages to staff, which GothamSchools obtained. In them, he referred to articles about unions and offered advice to pro-union staff with second thoughts.

In some, he said he was unopposed to unions. “Our view on the issue is simple,” he wrote. “We are not anti-union.”

In others, he attempted to discredit unions by painting them as self-interested, for-profit organizations. “A union is a business like any other business. It’s business is collecting dues to pay its officers, employees, and throw itself lavish parties,” he wrote in another email.

The OCS administration missed the 30-day deadline on June 12 to officially recognize the UFT as a bargaining negotiator, sending the dispute to the state Public Employee Relations Board later this month. A preliminary hearing between both sides is scheduled for July 19.

Follow the Money

And this is what happens when education follows the business model.
truth

On what basis can you make the claim “In the vast majority of charter schools, teachers are paid more on average”?

I don’t believe that is true. In my experience, charters may pay 1st-3rd year teachers more than the 1st-3rd year teacher would earn in a DOE school, but as teachers accrue more experience they are not paid as well in the charters. (I’m not taking working time into account, just yearly salary.) In fact, several of the well known charters (success) pay experienced teachers less than the teacher would make in the DOE.

Please cite your evidence for making this claim.
http://nyceducator.com/ NYC Educator

It may be true if you fail to consider increased hours worked, and decreased benefits. It may not, though. When you also consider the possibility of being fired for exercising your right to organize, it hardly seems worth it in any case. I personally know someone who was fired from charters for discussing union and another fired, along with pretty much an entire staff, for insisting that IEPs of special education students be followed.

It does not serve kids well to have teachers terrified for their jobs, teachers who will not speak up for them. Speaking up for kids does not necessarily increase test scores, but if you don’t advocate for them, it’s likely no one else will either. I don’t want a terrified teacher for my kid.

I know hundreds of public school teachers, and not a single one who wishes to teach in a charter. The only people I know seeking charter jobs are student teachers largely shut out of public schools. It’s the option of last resort for those I’ve met.
Former Educator

As a former educator at OCS, I find it ridiculous and appalling, that dedicated educators have to worry about job security due to talking or collectively advocating their rights and the rights of their students. OCS is notorious for not having adequate staffing for their IEP students, and the general ed students. I have walked into many classrooms where there no teachers in the class. This type of administration behavior (turning their heads) is one of the many reasons that staff wanted to form a union. We as educators, parents and advocates, must stop “Waiting for Superman”, and begin the work of fixing schools ourselves. Stop letting “businesses”, run the schools and remember the role of the school is to educate the future of our society
I noticed that…

Those student teachers will become at-will and at-risk charter school employees, working close to 12 hours daily.
KitchenSink

It might have helped their case if those two teachers showed up to work on time. I don’t know anything about the school other than what’s written here, and the union busting charges may have merit for all I know – but at the very least, get yourself to work when you’re supposed to. (It was the first advice I ever got at 110 Livingston Street: buy yourself an alarm clock. I thought it was gratuitous advice…)
michael

To all charter school teacher’s “THE WRITING IS ON THE WALL”. You will eventually be expendable. Younger teacher’s will replace you unless you work 12 hour days without 12 hours pay.
anonymous

The lateness policies change year to year. As a former employee, if you were late one minute, one minute, it counted as a lateness. If you received 10, you were suspended an entire week without people. On average, most teachers lateness did not account for more than 20 minutes for an entire year!!!! That is abusive!!!
Vote NO!

Folks,

the sole purpose of the charter school movement is to break the teacher unions across the country. They will NEVER allow their teachers to organize without tremendous resistance. NYSUT and UFT leadership should have realized this before they foolishly went along with the “race to the top” application last year. They should never have agreed to an increase in the charter school cap, nor the more disastrous new teacher evaluation format.

Within 3 to 5 years after the UFT agrees to the new evaluation, tens of thousands of NYC school teachers will be fired due to the new evaluation rubric.
Concerned Mom

Getting to work on time–what a wonderful example to set for our children. Maybe it would even inspire them to get to school on time. Can it be that simple?
NYC Teacher

As an employee there, I can tell you that the time to clock in is much earlier than the time the students arrive. Knowing the staff, all of them were on time and prepared for students. If you were only late one minute 10 times all year, you got fired. This is a total of 10 minutes of lateness they allow you for 200 work days. I am sure any reputable business does not have such strict policies. They did not care what the reason was. Very cold hearted management. And mind you, these SAME teachers stayed hours longer than they needed to in order to help students succeed. But that was NEVER acknowledged. And concerned mom, it’s YOUR responsibility to get your child to school on time. It’s called parenting.
Ditto

NYC EDUCATOR hit it right on the spot. I have been teaching for 16 years. (Including one miserable year in a charter school) I also am friends with close to a hundred public school teachers and NONE of them have any desire whatsoever to teach in a charter school. From my experience, charter schools are the sweatshops of the educational profession run by bosses who care not for their teachers or their students. The word is getting out on how horrible it is to work in charter schools. Once the economy gets better and TFA’ers are no longer bountiful, charter schools will crumble to the ground as no teacher in their right mind would ever want to make a life-long commitment to working in such a hostile work place.
Concerned Mom

Thank you for reminding me about my parenting responsibilities, but I have that well under control. I was a former teacher in the NYC system and have now chose to follow another path. As a teacher, I knew I was setting an example for the children in my class. I chose to arrive to my school at least 10-15 minutes before classes started and spend a few minutes chatting with colleagues and getting my day in order. My guess is that you knew when you took the job what time YOUR day starts and it was YOUR responsibility to get there on time. Late is late.
guest

Mom, I agree with you about being on time but have to add that this school does have serious issues with management. Many employees weren’t on time to school, which was exceptionally difficult given that the school is over 50% students with disabilities who need the consistency of a staff who are there when they are supposed to be. However, there was always a huge chasm between those employees for whom it was fine to be late–because they were favorites–and those whom the management chose to punish.
http://nyceducator.com/ NYC Educator

It might have helped indeed. However, we don’t know how often they were late, why they were late, or even whether they were late. As grounds for dismissal, we’d need more detail than that. The only one we definitely have is the fact that all of these teachers happened to be involved with pro-union activities, which suggests these charges ought to be investigated.

When my friend was fired from a charter, after universally excellent observations, the charter boss accused her of racism rather than lateness. I suppose you can’t just come out and say you fire people for exercising their right to organize. Lateness and racism not only sound better, but have fewer consequences. However, with no detail or substantiation, they’re just words.
Kpsmove

Lateness is an easy thing to manipulate I have seen clocks that speed up when the person they are trying to fire is in the building 2 minutes early but end up in the office at 2 minutes after, and the office is only 3 steps from the front door. Sign in books disappear when a teacher who arrived 1 hour early wants to sign in before going to class but cant find the book and are told dont worry we will sign you in.
Choose Charter

I, too, have many, many friends in both public, private and charter schools. Some of these cherished friends work at charter schools because they are driven by the higher standards, both for students and staff. It’s a choice, it’s their choice. What’s holding these fired teachers from going back into the city system? Maybe they will be happier with less accountability regarding their lateness and they get the union. Charter schools remind me of the Marines–hard core. The few, the proud and certainly not everybody’s cup of tea. So a few unhappy campers at this school doesn’t mean the whole charter school movement is a bust. Stop crying and move on.
Ditto

Choose Charter: A few points if I may. “High standards” are what you as a teacher set for yourself. I set high teaching standards when I worked in a charter school and I maintain high standards today in the regular public schools. “What’s holding back these fired teachers from going back into the city system?” you ask. I’ll tell you what is holding them back, it’s called a hiring freeze. (Which is actually a good idea as maybe ATR’s will finally get placed) As for the charter school teachers being late, the UFT would not, nor could not help any teacher accused of lateness as that is a simple, objective way to get a U rating. I was told that simple fact 16 years ago. As a matter of fact, I come to school one hour early everyday because I do not want to be late and I like to get my materials ready for the day. I do not think your comparison of charter school teachers to Marines is quite correct. Marines improvise and overcome obstacles that they have no control over and fight in battles that they may not agree to. The challenges that regular, public school teachers face is much more “hardcore”. We don’t get to cherry pick our students, we don’t counsel out difficult students, we are not provided money for student laptops and trips to colleges throughout the United States with our students. Lastly, as for your statement to “stop crying and move on”. I never cried and I have moved on. As a matter of fact, I moved on from the memories of the 3-4 charter teachers I knew who actually DID cry on a daily basis due to the horrible treatment of charter school operators. (Including one who was chastised for getting pregnant)
guest

Well, not possible. There was a handscanner at OCS.
guest

Well, not possible. There was a handscanner at OCS.
Marat

Choose Charter, your Marines analogy is so flawed and it’s straight up opinion, not factual. As I’ve never seen a scrawny unatheletic active duty Marine, that’s the only way I would compare charters to Marines. As the Marines will not take people that do not meet certain physical standards, charters will nor admit, or they will counsel out, students with tougher special needs.

That there is an accurate analogy!
GC

“What’s holding these fired teachers from going back into the city system?” Maybe they don’t have the same certifications and training as city teachers, therefore they arent’ qualified? Maybe there is a (partial) hiring freeze? 4,000 (more actually) not being replaced via attrition? Question for you Choose Charter: How can you cherish your friends that teach in traditional school settings when you have such a condescending attitude towards them (“Maybe they will be happier with less accountability regarding their lateness and they get the union”)? Are they so dim that they don’t pick up on you looking down at them? I’m glad that you admit that charter schools are not true public schools (“public, private and charter schools”). Your words, not mine.
Wake Up

This article is a joke. Is this website fiction-based or fact-based? Taking a bunch of gossip from disgruntled workers does not qualify as reporting. Get the story right, next time. These fired teachers were all under-performing. No one is saying they are bad teachers, just not the right teachers for this demanding student body. And do yourself and everyone else a favor, get to work on time, it’s really not that hard if you value your students as you say you do.
Diana

I am a teacher who was fired from a Charter School. I came to work early everyday, worked digilently to provide exciting instruction, bonded with both students and parents, developed and sponsored a theater club, yearly science fair and student newsletter. But when new administration came in and I voiced opposition to policy changes I became a target. I filed a formal harassment complaint against the administration in 3/11 and was unjustly terminated 5/11. My parents and colleagues tried to defend me, but administration wanted me out.
I am someone who gave 110% to my students and I may never be able to teach again.
Yet my school was filled with teachers who sat around doing nothing all day and have job security because they keep their mouth shut!
Ms. Hooper

So sorry to hear this Diana. The sad truth is that this happens to charter teachers all the time throughout the United States. It goes to show why regular public school teachers value tenure so much.

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Lost Opportunity

July 12, 2011

After union bid, fired charter school teachers allege retaliation

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