Comments on: Road to “turnaround” rehiring has been bumpy, teachers say

By: Somebody who cares

Somebody who cares — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 23:33:00 +0000

Turnaround Victim: IF you don’t like this site, don’t visit it. This is a way for people to vent their anger. I’ve experienced plenty of corruption. People with 25 years were asked not to come back even though they’ve been superior teachers. The 18D committee does not have to explain why a teacher wasn’t hired. Don’t bring people down even more. Either be on their side or our side.

By: Save our schools

Save our schools — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 02:23:00 +0000

These new Leadership Academy Principals are makimg everything worse, like the one in W,C. Bryant High School. Nobody feels like workimg there, these tactics of intimidation these principals are using is just nonsense. Ms. Dwarka just leave us so we cam be the school we were once.

By: guest

guest — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 23:12:00 +0000

BkBomb - A union rep is chosen BY THE STAFF via election, in your case your chapter leader was elected repeatedly to three year terms. Obviously most people do not share your assessment of his abilities. He/she represents the members of that chapter, not the UFT leadership. You use the term union when you should be using the term leadership. Ok, so say the UFT members at your school don’t like a UFT policy. The chapter leader goes to the District Rep. or officers of the union, expressing that dissatisfaction, airing their grievances. They disagree with your staffs’ assessment of the situation. How does the chapter leader compel the leadership to do what his staff wants? Feats of strength? Thumb wrestling? Hypnotism? Kryptonite? So if he can’t compel them to do what you want, he should resign in protest, leaving your school unrepresented. That makes a lot of sense. If you don’t like your representation, either at your school or at large, you will have an opportunity to vote against them, run against them, and persuade others to support you and your views. Your chapter can vote to recall your chapter leader also if he is not representing their wishes. It’s very easy to sit back, criticize and be a Monday morning QB. Not much responsibility there.

By: Bkbomb1449

Bkbomb1449 — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 15:27:00 +0000

Ok- here is where you go wrong. A union rep CHOOSES to represent the union at their school. So if the union does something wrong, which it definitely is, who do you think the teachers will complain to? The person in the school who represents them. The union rep should either understand the heat on him from the teachers, or resign in protest.

By: Paladin55

Paladin55 — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 07:30:00 +0000

We are not treated as professionals anyway- why start now. I have spoken to the people affected about doing something and not just accepting their fate. It is up to them. At one point in the fall I also spoke to a NY1 reporter (female…blond…you may have seen her on TV) about other issues in the school and gave out my number. Never got a call.

Is their any transparency in this interview process? Do we really know why some people are kept and some sent packing? My colleagues were told by an impersonal email whether or not they were back in. Is this how professionals are treated?

Haven’t heard much from the UFT about the process. Haven’t heard much from the UFT in my school about the “petty gossip” and “dirty laundry” you refer to.

The only people held accountable for anything in the educational system these days are common teachers and, in my opinion, the union has not done its job in defending us through this entire process and waging a real campaign to rehabilitate our image.

There was a time when unions were more than just a press release president and some lawyers who go to court to wage battle in a legal setting. At some point it would be nice if our leadership would read some literature about how unions used to accomplish things.

By: Schmurnaround

Schmurnaround — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 02:55:00 +0000

in memory of one who recently passed, “Can’t we all just get along?”

By: Turnaround123

Turnaround123 — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 02:16:00 +0000

agree with guest that this entire string lacks common decency and good sense. Unfortunately, saying something doesn’t make it so and maligning long time teachers, union advocates and educators avails no one of any good.

By: Turnaround123

Turnaround123 — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 02:13:00 +0000

I agree with guest that this entire string lacks common decency and good sense. Unfortunately, saying something doesn’t make it so and maligning long time teachers, union advocates and administers avails no one of any good.

By: guest

guest — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 01:49:00 +0000

BkBomb: Did you even read what I wrote? I’m not writing about the misapplication of 18D or the sham that it is, I did not post to defend any UFT pov or policy, I was writing in response to the character assasination of someone who volunteered to lead the defense of the Alamo knowing the likely result of his efforts. I posted because of the sheer malevolence and bitterness of this nonsensical ad hominem attack. Again, what is the reward for this individual you guys are attacking? He gets to beg for his job back? I repeat: did you read anything I wrote?

By: Bkbomb1449

Bkbomb1449 — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 01:19:00 +0000

Ms. Guest- Regardless of if your union rep was nervous or not means nothing. The outcomes of these sham interviews are known well in advance. Seriously, is it that hard to see??? The union made a deal behind our backs. It seriously is not that hard to see. Your union rep must know that. Ours does. The district rep doesn’t even answer the phone calls or emails anymore. If you love your union rep so much then you should be upset at the union for doing this.

By: Turnaround Victim 4567

Turnaround Victim 4567 — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 20:02:00 +0000

Not Cool. You shouldn’t air your school’s dirty laundry like this. If you have evidence of any of this go to the media or the DOE OSI, otherwise this is just petty gossip and very unprofessional.

By: guest

guest — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 16:53:00 +0000

Paladin and Bkbomb – please show me where I defended the UFT line on anything in the post. You can’t because I didn’t. Standing united in face of a determined foe is not a UFT policy, it is common sense. Only a fool fights in a burning house. I defended a person who was ambushed unjustly. Please specify as to what cushy UFT job your chapter leader has. Paladin, you attacked not only the man’s teaching ability but his character by calling him burnt out and measuring his ability in the classroom against others. You didn’t attack the UFT or its policies, you attacked a person, one who has been reelected many times to his thankless volunteer UFT position representing you, has won wide recognition for his efforts, and has won lots of city wide recognition for your high school as a teacher. You attacked an older person who has carried on despite ill health, when he easily could have backed off and appointed someone else to carry the burden for a while. You are entitled to your views, where you most certainly do need to be lectured is in common decency. The guy tried his best to save your school, I’ve seen him emotionally and physically drained by his efforts (as have I been for mine in defending my school), and this is how you act? Why didn’t you run for chapter leader? What did you do to save the others at your school? Bkbomb – just what is the union rep “in on”? He had to beg for his job of 30 plus years back – is that the enormous kickback he gets for supporting UFT policies?

By: Bkbomb1449

Bkbomb1449 — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 15:01:00 +0000

Mr or Ms guest- you are completely misguided and it is teachers like you that is why this is happening to be quite honest. You defend the union when they could not care less about the teachers. You cannot see what is in front of you out of fear. Fear the DOE says and what the union follows,just to keep their own cushy jobs. If your union rep does not recognize this then he or she is in on it. POINT BLANK.

By: Bkbomb1449

Bkbomb1449 — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 14:56:00 +0000

The crazy thing is the constant saving of the “higher ups”. Failed principals become network leaders and then have their own people become principals. It is a sick thing of recycling bad administrators. This is the scandal that Goodwin should be writing about.

By: Paladin55

Paladin55 — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 04:18:00 +0000

Please, no lecturing. This entire mess is a testimony to the fact that the UFT, as an organization, has shown itself to be lacking in creativity, persistence, and strategy as schools and lives were being made miserable and disrupted by Bloomberg’s DOE and his media proxies. Perhaps if the UFT had not remained neutral in the last mayoral election, things would be different today. Perhaps if it had provided effective counterpunches to the relentless media attacks on teachers and their craft which have reduced an honorable profession to one worthy of the ridicule we face on a daily basis when we read or watch the news, we would not be in the situation we are in today. Perhaps if the UFT had sensed which way the winds were blowing and been more proactive and recognized/accepted the fact that not everyone is made up of the stuff needed to be an effective teacher, we would be better off as a profession today. I also object to the idea that some people think being critical of the union amounts to heresy and anti-union sentiment. I fully appreciate what the union and those who represent it have done over the years, but I am also aware that a system, organization, or leadership position which has become institutionalized to a point where maintaining its status and power takes precedence over doing what needs to be done, is one which must be examined, and if need be, torn down and rebuilt.

By: Paladin55

Paladin55 — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 03:23:00 +0000

I’ve seen a lot of fear and desperation as teachers scramble to prepare themselves to make a good impression in their respective rehiring interviews, without realizing that their efforts were probably futile, because for the most part, decisions had already been made about who would be asked back and who would be sent walking. Being interviewed by a “new” principal who comes in with a lot of baggage, a person who was both an administrator and friend with the man who started the school on its path to oblivion, makes me wonder about any kind of objectivity in the rehiring process at my school. Most likely she is looking at the passing percentage (not necessarily Regents scores) of a teacher and their passivity within the building community.

By the way, those Goodwin articles were probably the only good things he ever wrote and about the only good things ever said about teachers in the NY Post.

By: guest

guest — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 01:27:00 +0000

Paladin55 – If your chapter leader is “burned out” (which he isn’t), the cause of it was defending your rights, trying to fix the disastrous programming snafu, trying to keep your school open, enforce the contract, and save your job. Do you have any idea how many hours he spent doing that, on his allowance of 40 minutes a day and no C 6 assignment? Meeting with politicians, community leaders, uft officials, parents, planning protests and the joint public hearing, phone calls and emails at all times of the night? When he could have just walked away as he has the years to do so, but instead he fought the good fight for you, and you stab him in the back with this nonsense? I saw him fight for you in many different venues. Burned, how is calling someone you owe a debt of gratitude burnt out “looking for disparagement where none was meant”? Really? Your union rep did basically two jobs over the past year – I know because I had the same exact responsibilities, though thank God my school was saved at the 11th hour and I did not have to watch my UFT brothers and sister rip each other apart like this. Don’t you see this plays right in to the Mayor’s divide and conquer strategy? This has nothing to do with the quality of the teaching at your school, or how successful it iand everything to do with the Mayor trying to break the UFT – none of the 24 schools deserve what they have been dealt. We need to stand together, not take cheap shots at people trying to help us. And by the way, at some point, if you are fortunate, you too may have 33 years of experience and you will realize it for the asset it is, rather then the negative conotations you and the folks at Tweed have for it.

By: Turnaround Teacher

Turnaround Teacher — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 00:38:00 +0000

It is becoming more and more of a bloodbath everyday at Lehman. A few dozen staff members have already been deemed unqualified and there are still 3 departments who have not been interviewed yet…

By: Bkbomb1449

Bkbomb1449 — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 00:12:00 +0000

I got burned too. I was top rated teacher in my department but i too was outspoken. A lot of cheating and hiding of incidents to make sure the data was good. I even spoke with Michael Goodwin of the post. Everyone rehired but me. No U rating. No letters. The union was in on it. They make deals at the kids and teachers expense. The system is so corrupt i am thinking Goodwin might have been in on it!!!

By: burned

burned — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 22:53:00 +0000

If you read it carefully, Paladin does not generalize about *all* the teachers who were re-hired. He speaks of “a number” of teachers who had “redeeming” qualities, not all of them, and the other reference to hired back teachers is similarly not applied to all members of the group. So, please don’t look for disparagement where none may be meant: we have enough real problems.