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On the hunt

Schools are hiring, but veteran teachers say job outlook is grim

With just weeks to find teaching positions before the start of the school year, recent college graduates rubbed shoulders with veteran teachers at a Department of Education job fair yesterday.

New teachers who attended the fair said they are optimistic about their chances of finding a school to hire them, now that the city has relaxed its two-year-old hiring restrictions.

“It’s not as bad as I thought it would be — a lot of my friends have already received offers,” said Arbiana Asani, who is looking for an English teaching position after graduating from Hunter College in June.

But pessimism was the prevailing mood at the fair among experienced teachers whose previous positions were recently eliminated. Those teachers said few jobs were advertised in their license areas and that some principals seemed to balk at the expense that would accompany their years of experience.

Caroline Schulz said she left the job fair with the sense that no schools would be hiring an art teacher so late in the summer. She has twice been excessed from art teaching jobs at a time when more principals are unable to fund full-time arts teachers. This will be her second time entering the Absent Teacher Reserve, the pool for teachers whose positions have been eliminated.

“The reasons were definitely the budget cuts,” said Schulz, who has been teaching for close to two decades. “In my experience, it’s always the arts that are hit first.”

Schools received their budgets from the DOE later this year than usual, forcing principals to cut positions over the summer. The department has not yet released information on how many teacher positions were cut.

Mary Smith, a science teacher, said she has scrambled to apply for jobs since she was excessed from a Brooklyn high school in July because she was the least senior teacher on staff. She also attended a job fair in Brooklyn at the beginning of the month. This week’s fair featured schools in the Bronx and Manhattan.

Smith said she got a grim sense of her job prospects from meeting with principals and teachers at both fairs. Some of them, she said, didn’t seem committed to interviewing all of the job candidates available.

“They talked, they were pleasant, but some of them packed up their tables and left by 4 o’clock,” Smith said. She said the job hunt has taken time away from her teaching duties.

“By now, August 16, I should be starting to put my lesson plans together, reviewing the Regents so I know my plan for next year. But I’m in limbo,” Smith said.

A new rule requires schools to interview teachers in the ATR pool but does not require that they hire from the pool.

One social sciences teacher who asked not to be named said she worried principals viewed her 30 years of teaching experience as a reason not to hire her. “The principals look at our resumes, and when they see the date or how many years we’ve been teaching, they sum up that we cost too much. One looked at my resume and just said, ‘Oh, it looks like you’ve been teaching for a while.’” Meanwhile, she added, “They’re hiring brand new teachers who have never taught, they just got out of college.”

The teacher, who brought a book bag stuffed with portfolios of past students’ work to the job fair to show interviewers, said she was dismayed to find teachers and guidance counselors standing in for principals. “They’re sending a message that it’s not that important to fill whatever position, because the teacher doesn’t have the authority to hire anyone anyway.”

This will be her first year in the ATR pool. She lost her job after her school, M.S. 321 in Manhattan, closed due to poor performance.

Though her salary will not change this year even if she can only find work as a substitute, she said the DOE is not using her to her full potential. “Right now I would be giving my free time to setting up my library in my classroom, and writing introductory letters to parents and students, welcoming them to the school,” she said.

  • Ms. Schultz

    This whole situation could be solved overnight if seniority based transfers and forced placements were to be implemented again as they were prior to the 2005 contract. 

  • guest

    If you have 10-20 years in the system and you have very good results on state tests, the better schools will look at you.  If you look at the time in for teachers in the better schools, it is shockingly high.  I know that once you are in a good school, people don’t leave.  But, they rarely higher new teachers. They poach, after a few years experience, from other schools.  I know in my school, results are the most important thing.

    I also think that it depends on what you teach.  I’m sorry to say, but grade school teachers, Music, Art, English and Social Studies teachers are a dime a dozen.  I’m not talking good teachers, I am talking bodies.  Science is a little different because they go by subject area so some subjects don’t have a lot a teachers around.  Math teachers teach everything and there aren’t as many coming up, but math teachers are really judged on their regent results.

    My school LOST ten teaching positions because of budget, but i know the two teachers they wanted to hire had more than ten years each.  Sadly, unless the person has an amazing reputation, i don’t see people with more than 20 years getting a job at the better schools.  Since I have more than 20, I would look at some of the crappier schools and pitch my experience to help with all the newish teachers.  I know my courses inside and out.  I think many of the principals do want a few experienced teachers for that reason. Some schools have the money but can’t get decent teachers, so there is a shot. Many teachers are retiring each year and most new teachers are leaving, so there will be openings, eventually.  Also, the last few years have produced some awful student teachers.  From what I’ve heard, some cooperative teachers have given them failing grades.

    I wish I knew if third year math teacher found a job. 

    Good luck to all the ATR’s.  I just want you to know that many teachers who have decent relationships with their AP’s and Principals have been pushing them to look at the ATR’s first.  Some seem willing, but there is no money for hiring and most are losing positions, it probably won’t be this year.

  • ms. v.

    Ms. Schultz, I wonder about possible unintended consequences of such a system…

    1) Net flow of experienced teachers to places that are more desirable for whatever reason – neighborhood, proximity to transit, working environment, perception of kids being easier to teach, etc. – won’t seniority-based “bumping” just push newer teachers to the very schools where experience could be most valuable? How will that affect both student learning and retention of these new teachers?

    2) My experience has been that school cultures vary quite a bit, even within compliance with the policies of the city and union. I am curious as to why you think forced placements are good for either the teacher, the school community as a whole, or the students? The idea of being forced to work at a school that might have a very different approach or philosophy than I do makes me feel that I am perceived by policymakers as a widget, equally able to work effectively in any setting.

    I understand that the current system has some major problems, and I sympathize with experienced teachers who are having trouble finding work due to the cost of hiring them. I completely support the balancing of teacher-hiring costs at a citywide level, allowing principals to hire more experienced teachers without additional cost to the school.

    What are your thoughts?

  • Kpsmove

    I don’t agree this will only hasten the demise of our profession. What needs to happen is a more equitable teacher salary allotment system, but no matter what they do and Charter schools are finding this out location and amenities are what attract competent teachers.

  • Ms. Schultz

    My thoughts are that seniority based transfers and forced placements worked quite well for countless years before the “reform” movement started to kick in. NYC needs to bring back a system of checks and balances that entail all levels of teachers, admins, and DOE workers doing their jobs correctly. Step one: Make sure potential teacher candidates have proper licensing and are matched accordingly to the position that they will teach. Step 2: Make sure that during a new teacher’s first 3 years that administrators are participating in intense pre/post observations of new teachers and guiding them with appropriate feedback. Step 3: Implement meaningful mentors that actually guide new teachers in their first few years. Step 4: Allow newer teachers to partake in intensive professional development and allow interclass observations of veteran teachers. Step 5: No extensions should be given to teachers who do not fulfill state license/testing requirements. I truly believe when these proper steps are taken the system can work fine. As to some of your other points: In life. you start out working in tough spots. Yes, many newer teachers were placed in “harder” schools when they started out. However, as a veteran teacher told me a long time ago: “You learn more in one year in a tough school than 3 in an easy school”. If a teacher who has proven him/her self worthy as a teacher then what is wrong with wanting to transfer to a more desirable school? I’ll let you in on a fact: I started out in one of the “hardest” schools in the South Bronx 16 years ago. Guess what? I am still there. The only teachers I saw leave were ones who retired and the TFA’ers who quit after 2 years. I have not seen one teacher transfer to an “easier” school. You might be surprised, but some of us life-long teachers actually give a darn about kids and want to work where we can really make a difference.(Instead of going into “Educational Management”, whatever that may be) Lastly, forced placements are simply the fairest way for an excessed teacher to keep a job in his or her license area. When a firehouse closes, should a fireman become a “weekly sub firefighter”? No, they should be placed asap into another firehouse that requires the skills that the individual has. The bottom line about this whole topic that drives me crazy is that NOBODY seemed to complain about forced transfers or seniority based transfers until the economy hit the wall and then the “reformers” and privatizers started rearing their heads. I don’t see many suburban schools trying to tweak seniority based transfers or forced placements of teachers.

  • I noticed that…

    Yep, the Open Market Transfer Option sure is good for those untenured, very few years in the systems, TFA/TF teachers who will be at-risk employees, and have their probation extended two-fours times.  And the ATR deal doesn’t seems like a good deal afterall.  Now someone please explain who got royally screwed!

  • ms. v.

    Why do you say “this will only hasten the demise of our profession?” 

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/John-Elfrank-Dana/707220601 John Elfrank-Dana

    I saw an ATR of mine at the rally outside Bergtraum. She’s upset because she’s in limbo again thanks to the deal the UFT brokered to avert teacher lay-offs (but perhaps thousands of per-diem union members are going to get the boot). Under the deal the DoE can shuffle her around from school to school, not giving her a chance to build relationships with students or staff. It’s going to be demoralizing. 

    It’s all part of the 1 – 2 – 3 punch Bloomberg and Klein dealt the UFT. Punch 1: Eliminate seniority transfer for open market (2005 Contract), Punch 2. Eliminate the right to grieve a letter in the file (also a 2005 contract giveback), and Punch 3, this explains it all, Klein changes school budgeting rules to make schools pay the higher salaries for more experienced teachers, where such costs were absorbed by the DoE before. 

    WHAM! Now you gott’em. Experienced teachers are trapped because they are too expensive for schools, they can be pummeled with letters in the file they cannot grieve and then harassed to retire early or brought into license revocation hearings. A sinister plan successfully executed by the DoE. 

  • Smith

    …and then the UFT drops the age-discrimination lawsuit against the DOE.  Now, we’re flat on our backs.

    I feel bad for the ATR’s, but I feel bad for the rest of us, too.  I used to think that as I improved each year I would become more marketable and that someday I would be such a good teacher that any school in the city would be happy to hire me.  Instead, each year I become less attractive because of my salary. 

    I thank my lucky stars that I’m in a good school where the administration likes and supports me.  But we know that those situations can change.

  • Jay1

    Look, I love teaching and think it’s the greatest job ever, but the lady in the article who has 30 years exp. and can’t find a new school – come on, grandma!  Retire already.  It is my belief that people need to develop a life outside of teaching, and when you are eligible to retire at 25 years (or 30), you need to let go and volunteer as a tutor or join the peace corp or whatever.  Those of us with 5, 10 or 15 years exp. have a better chance at making it to retirement if those who can leave with a full pension, do.

  • guest

    I can’t retire with 30 years, will be under 55 so i can’t collect.

    I also can’t live on what i would get.  You spend your own money, I will spend mine.

    I hope you are a nicer person to your students than you are to other teachers.

    Shame on you.

  • Floridacrazy

    This whole new ATR system stinks and the UFT let it happen.  The UFT is being very closed mouth about the way the system will work next month.  Principals will have to interview 2 ATRs for each vacancy, but they don’t have to hire any ATR for the vacancy.  Once they interview the 2 ATRs the principal can andwill say the ATR isn’t right for the

    vacancy and the just hire the person (New TF or TFA) thay they probably already interviewed for the position.  Bloomber and Walcott new this when they agreed to this new system.  It is a way to do away with the older ATRs.  Make their lives unbearable and maybe the ATRs will retire if they can or just get fed up and leave.  Where is the UFT?  The UFT agreed to this.  What did the UFT get out of it?  The UFT doesn’t care about the ATRs at all and this year they showed it.  This sytem sucks.

    I’m not a teacher, but I am a member of the UFT.  I’m a school secretarywith 17 years of seniority and in 2010 I was excessed. Seeing secretaries with only a year or two at schools in my neighborhood keeping their job wasn’t fair.   Losing the seniority based transfers really stinks.  I was excessed from a school where I was the only secretary.  I did both jobs — the job of a payroll secretary and the job of a pupil accounting secretary.  There were close to 700 students at the school.  Every school is supposed to have at least one secretary — but because of budget cuts I was excessed.  The DOE allows principals to excess whoever they want — but in certain schools elementary and middle school a parent coordinator must be on staff.  The position of a parent coordinator was created a few years ago — and the DOE said at the time that the position was created, that in the time of budget cuts the parent coordinator position would be eliminated — but that doesn’t seem to be the case.  The only school that can excess a parent coordinator is a high school, but some principals would rather have a parent coordinator on staff instead of a school aide or secretary.

    I happen to be one of the lucky ATRs — after a few monhs I found a job at a school where I am very happy at, but I was originally placed in a school that took over an hour of traveling and at a school where they didn’t even have a desk that I could work at.  I spent the first month at a school walking around holding my purse.  In high schools an ATR can be placed in a school in any district.  In elementary and middle school an ATR is placed at a school in their home district.  I got in contact with the UFT and they did absolutely nothing about the situation.  I would have to grieve what happened to me but I know that if I did and the principal was forced to take me back, I know I wouldn’t have been happy — putting it mildly.  To many schools are getting away with this and the UFT sits back and does nothing.  The UFT wants secretaries to be the snitches — when a school aide or someone other than a secretary does a secretary’s job, but when a secretary does snitch — I am sure that the UFT knows the secretary will pay for opening their mouth.

    I really feel that all ATRs are getting the shaft, especially the more experienced (higher salary) ones.

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