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Music and Beyond

June 26, 2012

The Emotional Fallout Of Turnaround

by Michael Albertson, at 12:00 pm

Approximately three weeks ago teachers at Flushing High School began interviewing for their current positions at the turnaround school that will replace ours on July 1: Rupert B. Thomas Academy at Flushing Campus. In addition to preparing students for Regents exams and calculating final grades, my colleagues were working nonstop to gather portfolio materials and letters of recommendations for the reapplication process.

Some had interviews during their lunch or prep periods while others still have yet to interview. Conversations around this time of the year generally include happy sentiments about completing another year, but this time it was, “Did you go yet? What did they ask? How did you do?” Colleagues who have successfully held their positions for anywhere from five to 30 years were dressed in their best business attire, pacing nervously in front of the conference room where the interviews were taking place.

The interview committee has consisted of the new principal for the new school, two representatives for the UFT, two representatives of the city Department of Education, one parent, and a current assistant principal.

The steps leading up to our current situation thus far have left the entire staff (and student body) extremely jaded. We all believe that there is no logic to the entire process and that the DOE had already predetermined who they will be hiring back, and most of us believed that salary would be a big factor. (For each teacher, the city charges schools the average salary of all of the school’s teachers, so principals have a financial incentive to hire less experienced teachers when possible.)

Even with the cloud of uncertainty, there remained a little hope for those who reapplied — especially for teachers with 3-5 years of experience. They had had time to establish themselves as professionals and continue to contribute countless hours to their students outside of the normal school day, but still earn a relatively low salary.

Last Thursday, all of their hope was taken away. Emails were distributed during the middle of the day to those who were not going to be asked back.

There are several aspects of this process that are still incomprehensible to me:

  • Many of the teachers who were not accepted were those who have the utmost respect from their students and colleagues. These are people who conduct before- and after-school programs, coach sports teams, and lead honor societies. Age did not seem to play a role as both rookie and veterans received the devastating news.
  • Why would the school be so classless as to notify these teachers in the middle of the day on a Thursday? This was unprofessional and highly insensitive — after all they had been through, the teachers deserved the respect to be notified in private or during a time where they could be alone. Teachers were crying out of hysteria, as were many of their colleagues who were equally devastated to hear the fate of their friends.
  • How could some people be not asked back before all of the interviews are complete?

On Friday around noon, a handful of re-applicants received notification that they had been accepted back. I empathize with these colleagues because the events of the previous day had removed any joy they felt about keeping a job that they wanted. They were also upset because they realized that the people they so enjoyed working with would no longer be there next year — it will have no resemblance to our current school.

I will never forgive the mayor for the devastation that he has caused at Flushing High School, as well as at all of the other schools under turnaround status. He has ruined our community and caused unthinkable hurt and pain to a wonderful group of people and professionals. Even worse, it is the students that will suffer most.

What will students think when they return in September and their favorite teachers are gone?

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  • Pconrad

    You’ve written an exceptional account, and your points about the way the termination was handled are well-taken.

    Thanks for taking time to write this up. I’m e-mailing a link to the DOE. They need to read this.

  • Selina

    My school has undergone quite a similar process in the Bronx. 

    It is appalling that this is even allowed to happen legally and as frequently as it does in inner city schools.  How can we say education is fair? and equal? That all children no matter where they are will receive a safe, quality education. I can’t remember the last time I heard about a school in a suburban district that was forced to turnaround their staff in the same manner as ours.  
    How is it justifiable to let go of over 75% of a staff.  A staff that has built relationships with families, motivated students to do well even when they thought they couldn’t, and showed growth (whether it is minimal by their standards).  How are we measuring which teachers “deserve” their jobs back? And how is this ethical in our society. Turnaround Schools = restructuring schools and crossing our fingers that this new idea works better than the last one did! 

  • Sarah

    Well said Mr. Albertson. I’ve cried all day and keep hearing bad news! It was like only 30% rehired so far. My favorite teacher well known for teaching on Saturdays, after hours, and controlling a baseball team is now leaving. As I think of this I don’t answer how the hiring process was done. This teacher is one of the most supportive and inspiring teacher. So why was he fired? Well that’s my question to the hiring staff. These teachers have the hardest job. They help kids grow and then watch them leave. Being in the other side of this process is terrible. Class 2013 (my class :) ) is outstanding and nxt year they will think it’s the turnaround that accomplished this but it isn’t true! I know this theory is right! EVERY professional starts with a great teacher. Now that there will be less great teachers (note that we had teacher shortages due to overpopulation :D ) trust me there will be less inspired students. Well right now we can just hope the arbitration votes against the DOE. Let’s just hope they have the heart and mind to do so. :/

  • Catheline1

    Thank you so much for illustrating that real people and real lives are affected here, rather than just a countless and faceless group of teachers at another failing school. Teachers actually care about their students and when teachers care, they do the best they can for them. When they do the best they can, that’s when learning takes place. Thank you for writing such a heartfelt note on this devastation.

  • A Brooklyn Turnaround Victim

    I feel your pain. At our school, we haven not been notified yet, which is causing incredible stress to all of us. Interviews continued to be  conducted after graduation today. This entire process is demeaning and demoralizing and I am still amazed at how we, the staff, have been treated throughout this entire process. As I sat today listening to speeches and watching my students reach this important day, it was extremely difficult not to be bitter at what was truly happening – the death of a legacy. 

  • Davon

    I remember have such a conversation with the teachers in the Math Department at FHS, and every teacher was trying to rationalize the whole process of how utterly stupid the whole situation is, and it lead me to the “Duct Tape Ocean” theory. There’s no need to rationalize the system, because its got so many holes in it that if anyone with their head screwed on properly would have not done this to my school. So if we took duct tape to each hole, then we would have enough duct tape to 1) Run the international supply of duct tape into the ground and 2) have enough duct tape to fill up 2 and a half Pacific Oceans.
    Basically what I’m saying here is that the system failed us all and they’ll scramble for the pieces long after when they realize how much they have screwed up. I mean, to see grown adults crying and to see students crying for said adults is ultimately sad to see and whomever causes this should be maimed and not be allowed to hold any position of power.

  • Future ATR

    At my school, teachers were pulled out of proctoring assignments during regents exams for interviews and today we had teachers speaking at graduation, literally leave the stage and walk into an interview.  Of all the lies and deception by Bloomberg and these pathetic education “leaders” this is perhaps the worst.  This has and will negatively impact students at all these schools.  Where is the UFT and how dare they support this nonsense?!  I know of several veteran teachers who are already talking to lawyers and lawsuits will be filed against the D.O.E. and the U.F.T. over this.  Total disgrace.  

  • Ka D’Argo

    A moving story and one, unfortunately, now being played out in 24 schools. Sounds like the carnage at your school was worse than at mine.

    At my Queens school we had the bare minimum interview panel, with no parent representative or AP. The “principal” was the person who will be taking over in our “new” school, not the outgoing principal.
    Was the AP from the same subject as the interviewed teacher, was there only one AP for all of the interviews, or did they make sure that the AP was never the AP for the teacher being interviewed?

    A teacher I know was upset about being taken during a teaching period to do his interview, and questioned the wisdom of taking him from a class preparing for a regents test and paying for a coverage teacher. 

    I wonder how many of the DOE reps sitting in on the interviews have actually been in the classroom?  

    I’d love to see a transcript of the post-interview deliberation process in which the decision was made to keep or reject a teacher. Hopefully somebody leaks out info on the process.

    I hope that the Bloomberg’s eduzombies face a similar process and are sent packing after the next Mayor looks at what 3 terms of Bloomberg’s administration has done to our schools. Karma can hurt

  • Sarah

    I agree! I also wonder how the rehiring and rejecting process was done. Teachers with experience and teachers with loyalty to the school have gotten rejected. The teacher of the year was removed! Just pathetic and sad!

  • michael

    There should be a class action lawsuit against the DOE,and UFT.

  • burned

    I’m wondering how many staff from the Turnaround schools would come to a protest at UFT hdq?

  • burned

    I wish there were laws to protect employees and union members that we could use to protect ourselves from these unjustices.  These laws just do not exist. And there are special barriers to class action suits: a judge must certify plaintiffs as a “class.”  A propos: beware of lawyers who want $ up front: they may take you even if you have no actionable case:  look for one who will ony get $ if you win. 

  • Angry Nog

    Institutionalized Sadism. Another example of the little dictator destroying peoples lives. The soulless mid level system managers are just as complicit.
    Differentiate This, purveyors of data driven drivel

  • mg

    Absolutely disgusting what they are doing to these schools.

  • lehmanhs

    How can this be good for our students?  They all know many of their teachers are leaving.  They can all see that this process is unfair and painful.  They all know that their classes cannot yet be scheduled for next year because counselors are not being rehired, so no scheduling is being done.  They all know that they cannot count on who their teachers will be next year because the remaining teachers cannot be told what they will be teaching.  They know that teachers are not planning for next year over the summer because the teachers do not know what they will be teaching.  The teachers have explained that the department AP’s have been let go too, so it is impossible to know how the classes will be structured.  Will failing students be left back to repeat a class they failed or pushed forward?  Will there be remedial classes for students that have to retake the Regents?  Students have no information.  Many of the better students are being transferred to other schools by parents who see the chaos.  How can this be good?

    And in September, there will be new Learning Communities, new APs, and tons of new and brand new teachers.  And there will be fewer experienced teachers to help because many of the best chose to not come back, seeing the chaos, or others were not rehired. 

    And our community is losing an establishment, an institution, that means a lot to them and that they petitioned not to close.

    How does this help?

  • Save our schools

    This is more than disgusting, it is about discrmination against veteran teachers who where required to clean closets and file cabinets while teachers out of college were being interviewed. But the principal of W.C. Bryant also made sure that many left the school with an unsatisfactory rating so they cannot find a job anywhere else our principal did not even say Thank you for all the extra hours you guys worked beyond what is required from you. I will never do any extra work for them, never again!

  • Raju Kaur

    It was carnage alright today (or yesterday now, I guess) in my turnaround school in Queens where a majority of the teachers received rejection letters from the hiring committee. The outgoing principal said that she saw ‘no rhyme or reason’ to the hiring process as she wiped away tears. 
    It was a surreal day. If you were a fly on the wall, you would have seen the apologetic school aide giving out paychecks/stubs asking staff to turn in their keys if they weren’t hired back; the receiving line of people who felt too guilty for getting hired back and stood giving out hugs and saying teary goodbyes to people who had become family and who they will never work with again; the crowd of teachers walking to their cars with cardboard boxes that encompassed their careers; and the keepsake pen left in our mailboxes with the former name of the school–the cheap goodbye prize that will forever remain a reminder of the unfair humiliation and degradation suffered on this day. 

    Good job, Bloomberg. And congratulations to the Obama Administration for offering these schools the SIG money that enabled them to ravage the lives of so many good people. Hope it was all worth the shady progress you all will report in the coming years.

  • Freddy

    I am curious as to what the working conditions will be like in the “new” schools that replace the “closing” school. I have a feeling that all these teachers will be placed under a massive microscope and will have every detail of their teaching craft scrutinized. And it might even be possible that the DOE will end up “letting go” many of these teachers again in 2013 if the turnaround does not pass muster.

  • Teach8375

    I am so tired of this the last several years. I am a 12 year teacher, with 18 left. I love what I do and I am good at it, like all of you are, my colleagues across the city. I am now an ATR because I did not win buzzword bingo in Richmond hill. Our new leader taught for 4 years. Is this a joke? Am I to be a sub for the next 18-20 years. You guys all know, you last this many years it is because you can do it. If you can’t, you leave and get out or become an AP, ha ha. We all have done what we needed to and are getting vilified for it..college, masters, hard work, etc..I cannot believe the UFT allowed this to happen. How is this not all over the media? We have to do something, folks. How about a huge class action suit? If anyone is with me, let’s do it. Teach8375@aol.com…what is left to lose?

  • Turnaround Victim

    I also worked at Richmond Hill and interviewed but haven’t heard anything yet–even though it’s a week.  I guess it means no unless they are really desperate….I am interviewing in other schools–not sure if not being accepted at RHHS will make it impossible to find a position because other schools will think there is something wrong with me and my teaching.

     I just want to know where the UFT is…..they have been really quiet about everything and even the district rep made only a token appearance or two in our school…and didn’t return phone calls….why was Michael Mulgrew smiling with Walcott yesterday (I saw it here in gotham schools) when there teachers–the people he represents–are watching their careers get destroyed????  Mulgrew says he cares about teachers and students, but doesn’t he get that this turnaround junk is going to hurt kids terribly and destroy our careers–and make teaching an unviable career in the future?

  • Sarah

    I’m holding right now the biggest smile! Rereading what people wrote and what I wrote makes me happy. No one believed we would win! Let’s just hope this new lawsuit doesn’t go far. He agreed to the arbitration and now that he doesn’t get what he wants he wants to change it. Well let’s just hope he doesn’t win because it makes no sense that the judge who forced them to go to arbitration to overturn her ruling. Glad we won and glad I met Mr.Albertson. Can’t wait to see what next year holds :)

  • AKelly5

    It is so sad that no one in “power” will listen to experienced teachers who have come to know that “one size fits all” does not work to address the needs or career interests of our diverse students-other countries offer various ways for a high school student to prepare for a future– we cannot even suggest this due to the power of “political correctness” looming over everyone’s lives….and many of their issues and needs, including those of the family are not allowed to be addressed as well…

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