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hiring season

June 12, 2012

Job interviews—and protests—continue at ‘turnaround’ schools

by Rachel Cromidas, at 7:35 pm

Teachers Kevin Kearns, (right) and others protest the turnaround plans in front of Department of Education headquarters.

With the 24 turnaround schools deep into the hiring process, a small handful of teachers gathered in front of Tweed this afternoon to show their opposition despite the rain.

Protesters from John Dewey High School Lehman High School grimly described their uncertain futures. But they did not renew any pleas to Department of Education officials to stop the turnaround. They were joined by several teachers from Franklin Delano Roosevelt High School, which the city placed on its original list of turnaround schools but later removed.

Marian Swerdlow, the FDR union chapter leader-elect, said she and several colleagues turned out this afternoon to show their support and register opposition to all school closures. She stood stone-faced in front of the DOE headquarters in a United Federation of Teachers rain poncho, holding a crumpled sign that read, “the turnaround model is all wet.”

The city cannot make any final hiring decisions at the 24 schools, which are closing this summer and immediately re-opening under the reform model known as ‘turnaround.’ But hiring committees made up of city and teachers union officials, school administrators and parents in each of the schools have been busily conducting back-to-back interviews with teachers hoping to keep their jobs.

The process is off to a rough start in some schools. Last week, on the first day of scheduled interviews at John Dewey High School, no one was interviewed because there was a disagreement over how the questions would be scored.

At some schools, at least 20 percent of the teachers have opted out of the process entirely, either because they already found new positions or because they think it is unlikely they will be rehired.

Kevin Kearns, the Lehman teacher who organized the rally, said the hiring committee at Lehman interviewed arts and business teachers today, and will interview social studies teachers on Thursday or Friday. He said they are aiming to interview about 15 teachers a day, and have given staff members an interview time about 24 hours in advance.

Each committee asks each teacher five to 7 questions, according to teachers at several turnaround schools. Questions range from, “How do you differentiate instruction for special education students or English Language Learners,” to, “How have you implemented the Common Core in class?” Kearns said.

Ann Looser, the chapter leader at Lehman, said she has been preparing for the worst.

“I’m giving out my email a lot more, and getting way more requests for references. The kids keep asking us, ‘are  you going to be here?’ I’m looking at other jobs right now,” she said, shrugging. “Everything’s getting phased out, phased in, or co-located.”

Martin Haber, a teacher from Dewey, told me he decided he would not interview for his position after he received a letter from the school’s new principal, Kathleen Elvin, saying he would likely receive an unsatisfactory rating this year because he had too many absences. Dewey’s longtime principal, Barry Fried, was ousted mid-year.

“I know I’m going to be out of there, because of my age and because of my salary,” he told the assembled protesters. “It’s a disgusting, demoralizing process.”

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  • Vote NO!

    GS,

    Where  did  you  get  the  “20  percent  number”  regarding  the  current  teachers  who  have  chosen  not  to  apply  to  the  new  schools?  Is  there  a  number  available  for  each  of  the  schools?

  • R.I.P. Richmond Hill

    At my school, teachers have been asked about how they use data in their lesson plans, how they differentiate instruction, what they’ve learned from our endless professional development, how common core standards are being implemented, how they collaborate with other teachers, and how they can prove student improvement… even when a teacher brings up their accomplishments or what unique talent they bring to the school the panel does not care.  It’s all about differentiating and data.  No one cares about the human element of this job.  Oh how I envy those 20% (seems like more) who are retiring or resigning.   

  • A Brooklyn Turnaround Victim

    I wish someone out there would care about what is happening to all of us at these schools. The media could care less, the UFT sat back and let this occur…..these interviews are being conducted in rooms without AC….no feedback from the people interviewing, just terrible……staff walking around like they are waiting for their last meal…..it’s a crime.

  • R.I.P. Richmond Hill

    and why does it feel like the UFT are the ones who care the least?!  Can’t wait to see them roll over when most of us become ATR’s.  

  • any numbers yet

    It will be interesting and sad to see what the total attrition rate including retirees is this year. One would think that given the environment anyone that can retire will retire this year. Scuttlebutt on new teachers is they will not be returning at an alarming rate and many with no notice at all. Who can blame them since so many of them are in schools that are closing or are threatened to be closed. In addition the new policy of extending or denying tenure has taken its toll on these same young people.

  • http://gothamschools.org Rachel Cromidas

    I’m reporting what staff at individual schools have told me. We have asked the city for numbers for each of the schools but officials say they don’t have all the numbers available yet.

  • http://gothamschools.org Rachel Cromidas

    I’m reporting what staff at individual schools have told me. We have asked the city for numbers for each of the schools but officials say they don’t have all the numbers available yet.

  • Bobby

    “At some of the schools, at least 20% of the teachers have opted out of the process entirely, either because they already found new positions or because they think it is unlikely they will be rehired”. That may be true. However, I bet that some of those 20% of teachers are also banking on the chance that the UFT will win the pending lawsuit which may prevent the turnarounds from taking place. I also bet that a good portion of those teachers are not too bothered by the fact that they will be placed in the ATR pool. Some teachers will prefer becoming ATR’s rather than going through the demeaning process of begging for their jobs back in a newly turned around school that will instantly put a target on their backs if they are “re-hired” to their position. 

  • Bobby

    “At some of the schools, at least 20% of the teachers have opted out of the process entirely, either because they already found new positions or because they think it is unlikely they will be rehired”. That may be true. However, I bet that some of those 20% of teachers are also banking on the chance that the UFT will win the pending lawsuit which may prevent the turnarounds from taking place. I also bet that a good portion of those teachers are not too bothered by the fact that they will be placed in the ATR pool. Some teachers will prefer becoming ATR’s rather than going through the demeaning process of begging for their jobs back in a newly turned around school that will instantly put a target on their backs if they are “re-hired” to their position. 

  • David Dunn

    Why didn’t Gotham Schools cover the UFT’s Shanker Scholarship last Thursday? Over a million dollars was given out to some very worthy high school grads.

    I’m disappointed in GS.

  • Real teacher

    You are obviously not from Richmond Hill HS.  Interviews have not even begun there yet!  Our first PNL (potential new leader?) just left abruptly on Friday and we were introduced to our second PNL yesterday…..interviews probably won’t even begin until next week…..it is a real disaster and teacher morale has sunk lower than you can imagine…..

  • Guest

    I work in a turnaround school… What is not mentioned is the following. According to my union rep. “If you sit for the interview in the turnaround school, are offered the position and do not accept, you will not become an ATR, you will be terminated.”  This could be the reason for some people not applying and sitting for the interview.

  • parent who cares

    We care! Parents who understand what is happening are horrified. We are working very hard to get the word out. Bloomberg and groups like StudentsFirstNY are trying to demean and denigrate teachers. They want to convince the public that teachers are failing and schools are failing so that they can close them down and privatize them for profit, and hire inexperienced, non-unionized teachers for 1/2 the pay. High stakes testing is a part of this scheme. We MUST do everything we can to fight this. Having people cluck their tongues over this chapter in the history books is not an option. We have to stop this NOW. 

  • Invictus

    This is atrocious.  Is this the only response that the UFT has had in dealing with their public loss?  How does this bode for the arbitration deal that they are executing with the DoE.

    This is a clear case that the medicine that is supposed to help, is more likely to kill you. 

  • observer

    Richmond HIll’s new, new principal started teaching in 2007 and has no assistant principal experience listed on Linked-in. How can this be possible, even for the DOE?

  • Turnaround Observer

    Actual requirements for turnaround school teaching positions:  Young; untenured; familiar enough with current buzzwords to get by; willing to work ten or eleven hours a day; willing to work weekends and several weeks during the summer; willing to be a parent to students to make sure they attend school, arrive on time, and behave properly.

    Older teachers, those with families, and teachers with other responsibilities need not apply.

  • Guest

    Did you invite GS to the event? 

  • Tom Forbes

     For a Leadership Academy principal, four and half years of teaching might break a record. 

  • Turnaround Victim #45,821

    It get’s stranger.  Teachers who didn’t apply were sent emails saying they could still apply even though the deadline has passed.

  • dg

    At Automotive, all but one math teacher, all but one science teacher have been told they’re not qualifed…among many others. Some with over 20 years in the building.

  • Guest

    Wow…where is the UFT?   Are they at all involved or are they snoozing through this?  It sounds like they have abandoned you all.

  • Concerned Teacher

    Snoozing through would be a compliment.  The UFT is collaborating with the DOE rather than standing up to this destructive behavior.   As a chapter leader you are told by district reps that the only authority we have is to attempt to have the principal uphold the contract.  When the contract is violated or stretched beyond imagination, we can only retroactively ask for the violation to stop through the grievance or appeals process depending on the issue. The UFT has allowed to DOE to shuffle the cards, stack the deck, and then change the deck whenever they want.  This goes back to supporting mayoral control, the 2005 contract and the elimination of seniority, budgeting changes to making seasoned, more expensive teachers less desirable,  the fake rubber room agreement and the UFT supporting charter schools by running one or two themselves.  This has all been positioned to allow them to do what they are doing now.  Rolling over on the ATR issue will undoubtedly be next.  The weekly changes was the first step.  Of course the UFT claimed success on any and all of these agreements.  It is just to get the press off the issue and they Bloomberg comes back a few years later and uses the same agreement to make the final blow.  The union is weak and due to the inability to take any sort of proactive response, the UFT will virtually be non existent within the next 10 years and maybe sooner. 

  • A Brooklyn Turnaround Victim

     That is terrible….:(

  • Irina from Brooklyn

    Why isn’t the UFT involved in the protests against school closings? Where is the leadership of the UFT? Why do people continue to believe that the UFT is fighting for its teachers? The only way that teachers can win back their union is by getting involved and proactively putting preasure on the UFT to respond. Imagine if 500 showed up to a protest. How about a 1000? Teachers must stop believing that thier union is fighting on their behalf and begin to organize .  

  • Evrytos

    Here’s an idea: Every single union member in the turnaround schools and the members that stand together with them throughout the city should cancel their COPE contributions immediately. Maybe then they’ll remember what the purpose of the union is…to protect our rights and jobs.

  • Disgusted Parent

    As a parent I am outraged by this whole process.  My daughter will be entering her senior year at a “turn-around” school and no information has been disseminated to the students or parent as to their future.  Good teachers are being sacrificed along with those students who are reaching the end of their high school education.  And the worst part is my questions are being evaded by the Administration at her school.  Who thought up this absurd program?  Has any school succeeded?  

  • Disgusted Parent

    I agree.  It is our children who are suffering at the hands of the system and we just sit back and allow it to occur?  Who decided this arbitrary number (50%).  I can tell you, my daughter has experienced 3 years of fantastic, involved and motivated educators until the turnaround program was announced.  It is her future that is unclear as well as those amazing educators she has met.

  • A Brooklyn Turnaround Victim

    They can’t seem to get their act together at John Dewey….appointments are made and then not kept, appointments are being made with less than 24 hours notice, appointments are being canceled…..it’s a travesty how staff is being treated during this process…..and who can we turn to? The UFT is sitting at the table, right along side the DOE and the Principal….how are they planning to get through all the interviews before June 27th??????

  • Save our schools

    The whole thing is a sham, the principal ordering assistant principals to rate unsatisfactory certain teachers in every department in W. C. Bryant High School. There is one math teacher who got 4 unsatisfactory lessons reports since february after 28 years of satisfacory service. Some had were forced to retire in the middle of the year like Mr. Drier who was well liked by all the teachers, other teachers quit, it is a very negative environment. Other teachers are being harrassed constantly. Is this, how Tweet is going to improve graduation rates at these schools by establishing a climate of hostility against competent veteran teachers?

  • Save our schools

    This is the twilight zone, teachers being interviewed for the same jons they already have. Is this turnaround model is so effective, ehy don’t they implement it en Europe or other places? What are they going to do replace half of the teachers with teachers with a magic wand so the graduation rate will go up 20  percent?

  • Save our schools

    In Bryant High School two teachers that are targeted for an unsatisfactory rating, and not because they are bad teachers were observed on the last day of school. The kids were terrified to see 2 assistant principals observing this teacher on the last day of school, and the whole faculty is disgusted with this. They are pushing teachers too hard, and the students are beginning to ask how dis this environment turn so negative. I guess we have to thank the mayor and Tweet for this environment of hostility. The UFT is completely silent, some of them say that this type of abuse has been going on in other schools.

  • guest

    You are right, how do we all get together and cancel our contributions? 

  • someone who cares

    Yes, the media only cares if it’s a sex scandal between a student and teacher.  They could care less about the politics.

  • someone who cares

    Yes a gym teacher who has been working at my school for over 25 years who changed the lives of countless students and who brought the girls’ basketball team to division champs several times was not invited back.  I guess analyzing student data was more important.

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