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aftermath

July 2, 2012

Few hard details about 24 schools as city prepares legal action

by Philissa Cramer, at 4:30 pm

Mayor Bloomberg speaks at a press conference this afternoon in Union Square.

The city canceled meetings with the teachers and principals unions today as its lawyers prepare to seek a restraining order against a ruling that reverses thousands of hiring decisions at 24 struggling schools.

Both the United Federation of Teachers and the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators planned to meet with city officials this afternoon to figure out what would come next for the schools, which had been slated to undergo an overhaul process called “turnaround.” The process involved radically shaking up the schools’ staffs, which total more than 3,500 people. But the arbitrator’s ruling undid all of the changes.

UFT President Michael Mulgrew said the meeting was already on his agenda by Friday afternoon, just hours after the arbitrator ruled that the city’s staffing plans for the schools violated its contracts with the unions.

A main agenda item would have been figuring out a mechanism for staff members who were not rehired at the schools to reclaim their positions. Another issue, Mulgrew said on Friday, was whether the city and unions might instead try to hash out a teacher evaluation agreement for the 24 schools so they could undergo less aggressive overhaul processes and still qualify for federal funding.

But this morning, the city told the unions that the meetings were off.

Mayor Bloomberg explained this afternoon that he thinks the city should not have to abide by the arbitrator’s ruling until the arbitrator explains his reasoning.

The arbitrator, Scott Buchheit, released only his conclusions, not the legal rationale he used to get there. That would come separately, he wrote. The city and unions agreed to fast-track the arbitration, which was binding, on the grounds that schools would be harmed if hiring decisions were not made before the end of the school year.

“I have no idea what was going through the arbitrator’s mind,” Bloomberg said after a press conference about a city greenmarket initiative.

“I can just tell you, there are 24 schools, [and] almost all students there are minorities, single-digit-proficiency levels,” Bloomberg said. “These kids, if they’re there for one more year, will never recover in their entire lives.”

City lawyers are preparing papers to present to a judge as early as this afternoon — but more likely tomorrow — that will make Bloomberg’s case.

The lawyers are not at all assured success: They will be seeking a restraining order in New York State Supreme Court, the same court that urged the city and unions into the binding arbitration in the first place. Plus, they will be asking to put on hold the results of a refereeing process the city willingly entered, with a referee that the city and union both approved.

Meanwhile, teachers at the schools are weighing their options. Any teacher who was rehired as part of the turnaround staffing process will automatically keep his or her job, and any teacher who took a job in another school for the fall can choose whether to keep that position or retake his spot at his former school, according to a message from the UFT to teachers at the schools distributed on Friday.

Teachers who weren’t rehired will be able to reclaim their spots and slide right back into the seniority rank they occupied before. Seniority will come into play if the schools lose students and must shed teachers, which contractually must be done according to the principle of “last in, first out” in each subject area.

All of the principals who were in place last week are also entitled to stay on, even if they had been told they would not return this fall. But a handful of principals who left their schools early in the turnaround planning process this winter — including Barry Fried at John Dewey High School and Anthony Cromer at August Martin High School — will not share that right, according to a principals union spokeswoman.

And staff members at the schools are worrying that even if the rehiring reversal stands, the uncertainty that has hung over the schools since last fall will not abate.

A teacher from Long Island City High School who listened in on the hearing where the city and unions agreed to arbitration said at the time that the turnaround schools would be harmed regardless of the lawsuit’s outcome. “It’s like they’re pushing Humpty Dumpty off a wall,” the teacher said. “You will have a lot of trouble putting [the schools] back together again.”

A teacher at Lehman High School said he’s moving on to another school and expects many of his former colleagues to make the same choice. “The administration and principal completely ignored the school these past few months while they planned for next year,” he said. “I believe that it is very likely that our stats went down from last year.”

Among the unanswered questions is whether the nonprofit organizations that had been working with a dozen of the schools will continue to play a role in their operations. The city had hoped to use federal School Improvement Grants to pay the groups, but the grants are almost certainly off the table because the arbitrator’s decision will mean few if any schools meet federal and state eligibility rules.

“Everyone is nervous about what happens next,” said Lisa Jimenez, a teacher at Newtown High School, which has been working with a group called Diplomas Now. “Do we need to worry about getting closed next June? Do we continue with the original plan of these schools having three years to improve?”

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  • Follow the Money

    Hey. I understand how Mayor Bloomberg is feeling. I was 5 once too.

  • jteach

    Temper Tantrum by baby Bloomy

  • East Sider

    It is extremely difficult to vacate an arbitration award,

    “These bases for vacating an award revolve around the way an arbitration is handled and not the substance of the arbitration decision itself. Arbitrators are not required, without their agreement, to explain or justify their decision. Unless there is some objective indication that the arbitration proceeding was not handled fairly or the arbitration made an award on claims or issues not even submitted for resolution, or which are not within the power of the arbitrators to decide because of the terms of the arbitration agreement itself, then the courts are bound to confirm and enforce the arbitration award.”

  • Nycdoenuts

    Best comment ever!

  • Nycdoenuts

    Mind you, it would take all of 20 minutes for the city to agree on an eval system for these schools and get all of that SIG money back.

    And I resent the mayor’s comments about how the students of these schools can’t wait. Tweed set these students up for failure by overcrowding the schools with higher needs students. They knew they were hurting these students’ education and used them -children- as a political kickball in a fight against a union. That’s outrageous enough. But then to read the mayor make a comment implying that the very kids who he hurt can no longer wait is simply beyond the pale.

    Honestly, who believes this guy anymore? Has anyone polled “Do you find Mayor Bloomberg credible when he says something” lately?

  • TeachmyclassMrMayor

    Is there any doubt how disgusting this man is. The laws and the rules are for everyone else. How dare anyone rule against me. Once again, I am going to take my ball and go home, if you guys do not play the way I want you to.
     

  • cj

    Sore loser but something interesting in the Mayor’s statement.  If these kids are in the school for one more year etc…….evidently what he is saying is that even if he has to keep these schools open it will be for one year and next year, they will all be on the chopping block.  It is obvious he has no intention of working with the union.  It has to be his way or the highway.

  • A Brooklyn Turnaround Victim

    Seriously, is there any doubt that when Mr. Mayor was a little boy, no one wanted to play with him because he was a very sore loser? He must have been the kid that took his toys home when someone upset him…..I’m thinking a good therapist is in order so he can get over his issues….
    And just for the record, not all of the 24 schools were failing…..lets not forget that John Dewey HS has higher grad rates and college readiness index rates that the cities average….thinking we are doing something right over there…..

  • StopBloomberg!

    Can UFT members and parents alike file a class action lawsuit against this man for the immense pain and suffering he has caused? I mean I don’t need to name the lengthy damage he has done to both students and teachers alike. This past year was one of the most demoralizing, hellish, and stressful years of my teaching tenure.  We need to sue this man!

  • A Brooklyn Turnaround Victim

     I would be the first person to sign up! I have had it with all the stress this year has caused……Pain and suffering, defamation of character, harassment….bring on the lawsuit….

  • Mr. Flerporillo

    No.

  • no winners

    everyones opinions are just a product of their own interests. Nobody’s right and nobodies wrong. There are many good teachers who suffer because of the inability to do anything with the dead weight…so another year of chaos then the schools close..winners?

  • http://twitter.com/leoniehaimson leonie haimson

    Bloomberg blasts the poor results at these schools as if he hasn’t been running the system for more than a decade.  I hate to be a broken record, but where’s the accountability that mayoral control was supposed to bring?

  • Sharese

    I will also welcome suing Bloombum. I find his comments to be racist and appalling. Moreover, he is the one who made these schools the way they are.

  • A Brooklyn Turnaround Victim

     why not?

  • Mr. Flerporillo

    In a nutshell, there’s no claim, and even if there were, it wouldn’t be suitable for class action status.

  • Mr. Flerporillo

    “Mayor Bloomberg explained this afternoon that he thinks the city should not have to abide by the arbitrator’s ruling until the arbitrator explains his reasoning.”

    That’s a pretty inflammatory statement.  Did he actually say it?  The story just throws out that one sentence and never follows up on it.  The only quotations I see involve Bloomberg’s statement that “I have no idea what was going through the arbitrator’s mind” and his statement about the alleged harm the students at these schools will suffer if the schools aren’t closed.  

  • burned

    I agree w. Mr. F., for once.  In order to sue, the defendant has to have done something that violated the law (civil or criminal code) that caused the pain and suffering.  On its own, causing pain and suffering is not actionable.  Otherwise, every worker who got laid off as a result of downsizing, could sue.  Many folks have a very ill-informed view of the legal system.

  • BK

     Your statement is confusing. You do not think he said that but he cancelled meetings with the unions and is preparing for court??

  • Mr. Flerporillo

    I don’t know if he said it or not.  I just find it odd that the most inflammatory statement attributed to him in the story is the one that isn’t quoted.  

    Also, there’s a huge difference between asking a court to vacate an arbitral award and refusing to abide by an award.  The first is entirely proper.  The second isn’t.  

    As written, the story (to me) implies that Bloomberg intends to defy the award.  And even more oddly, it also the implies that he intends to stop defying the award if he gets a satisfactory explanation of the decision from the arbitrator.  

  • BK

     I mean the most obvious thing is he is trying not to abide by an arbitration that was agreed to by both parties. To backtrack that because you lost would be inflammatory in itself. I do not understand what you are looking for. A “silver lining” by the mayor perhaps?? You are looking at it as deep as Bloombergs lawyers.

  • BK

    I think people, teachers quite frankly, need to wake up. The problem is the UFT. They do not protect our rights, just their own cushy jobs. They are a political machine. They do the same thing the DOE does- make things up as they go along, to justify themselves keeping a job. This is why i believe that Bloomberg will win this. Its is all a game being played by both sides. The teachers and students are the pawns. We have to vote out the UFT leadership.

  • It’s all in bain…

    “Logan’s Run”. Does anyone remember the 1970s movie? This is the Bloomberg educational policy. After a teacher turns 30, get rid of them before they can collect a pension. It is cynical policy making whereby the realization that the fix is too difficult, let’s at least have poor education for poor people as cheap as we can make it. It is a problem that they can’t outsource or off-shore.

  • old teach

    The arbitrator ruled that the city’s case did not hold and that their proposal violated both the UFT and CSA contracts. The mayor was quoted during the Wall Street bonus controversy that, “a contract..is a contract.” What is he uncertain about? More nonsense from the department that never shoots straight.

  • Anonymous

    I think Bloomy was just spinning his need for a legal showdown that he’ll likely lose. “I’m doing this for the kids AND the city!”

  • Omar

    All in the game, yo.  All in the game.

  • Robertmoses 1950

    As 

  • Bodie

    The game is rigged man.

  • Still a Newtown student

     Personally, in my opinion it isn’t the fault of so-called “higher needs students” that they are such, which I’m guessing is referring to English Language Learners and those with lower grades. To me, they’re trying their best to learn like everyone else.

    In fact, the label “higher needs students” doesn’t appeal to me; it feels like we are blaming them for their predicament. I’d prefer “disadvantaged”, since they are in a worse position to deal with the system than others.

    Where the city is at fault is that it is using the fact that these students may need more attention than others against the schools, which is unfair. They should be focusing more attention on making sure that no matter their skill level at present, both those who are “high needs” and “not high needs” (please note the quotation marks) will have the same skills by the end of their schooling.

  • Still a Newtown student

    More theatrics from the king of political theater himself…

  • Paladin55

    “A main agenda item would have been figuring out a mechanism for staff members who were not rehired at the schools to reclaim their positions. Another issue, Mulgrew said on Friday, was whether the city and unions might instead try to hash out a teacher evaluation agreement for the 24 schools so they could undergo less aggressive overhaul processes and still qualify for federal funding.”
    Wonder what a “less aggressive overhaul process”  would look like.  We win the case but Mulgrew  is not sounding like we won with this statement.  Doesn’t sound like he’s talking truth to power with this kind of comment.  What would the UFT have to give up?

  • East Sider

    Unless a tchr evaluation plan is negotiated the schools would end up closing ..federal/state regs require interventions ..

  • Paladin55

    It is quite likely that Bloomberg would make such a comment.  This is a guy who is talking about taking the City Council to court because they dared to exercise there state constitutional power of overriding his veto of the living wage regulation.

    How many times do people have to be told that His Highness has a 17th to 18th century enlightened monarch view of what role and power he should have as mayor.

    He simply does not have any shame at this point in his life.

  • Kathy Black

    Please, this is no time to show common sense, or rational/logical thinking.  Such things are not to be use when judging the Mayor’s performance.  Who are you to point out that the emperor is not wearing any clothes.

    Accountability is only used to judge the pathetic efforts of the little folk.  

    So say I.

  • limpia

    I think the traits he has, are necessary to be a CEO.

  • Anonymous

    It seems as though in all of these situations nationwide the self-appointed non-edcuators are untouchable. If they held themselves to the high standards they hold teachers to, they would have been fired a long time ago. The ineffective/effective rating system never applies to them. What happened to your request for DOE staff evaluations?

    I find it infuriating that they can get away with destroying schools in our country under the guise of helping children when we all know the motivation is privatization and profiteering.

    Did you see this? Private club in Manhattan it says….hmmmm. Protest? I am sure someone at the DOE will be there. I will post next.

  • Anonymous
  • TeachmyclassMrMayor

     Brooklyn, The same for the school I am/was/am in. Higher grad & college readiness rates than the city average. Go check the stats for one of the mayors beloved “small/created schools”, The Academy for Young Writers. 80% graduation rate but only a college readiness rate of 1%…I don’t hear anyone threatening to close them down.

  • guest

    Mulgrew means revisiting transformation and restart models for the PLA schools, which necessitate a teacher eval. model for those schools. Phase out or close the doors, otherwise. 

  • Age discrimination

    Age Discrimination. Age Discrimination. I went through this process. My estimate on the mean age of those deemed “ineffective” was 47. My age estimation on the teachers that were kept is about 25. Even Blooomberg LLC would not have the nuts to try and pull this off. The entire undertaking is a game to reduce cost. There is not even an iota of concern about the kids. By the way, the interiew was for fifteen minutes and included only four questions.  The test for the union is can they “cowboy up” for this fight.  If they file a class action age discrimination suit based on the actual practice of 18-D, then maybe this gets dealt with a little differently.

  • Marissarosario10

    The typos in this article are too much to much to handle.

  • Marissarosario10

    Ha and I posted a typo in my previous comment. Karma obviously. These schools need to be closed down as a former student of one of these schools even if Bloombergs only concern is money many teachers need to go

  • Guest

    that is unfortunately very true

  • Guest

    What I don’t understand is how all the teachers on this board can justify single digit proficiency pass rates. These tests predict college entrance. I understand these schools were increasingly set up to fail and also they have different situations. However, what is the point of a school in which  90 percent of its kids are not going to be able to go to college? Why should tax payers pay to keep it open?

  • Anon

    Not true. I am young and I got excessed. I didn’t get rehired back.

  • BK

     This is the whole situation. You might be right. But this was not closing a school. It was renaming them. Same kids, same everything. Just shuffling teachers around to get more money. And what is the big deal about not going to college?? During my day, college was not for everybody. How about learning life skills in school?? How about a trade??

  • Be Our Guest

    You’re right – the Mayor should definitely shut down the low socioeconomic status backgrounds responsible for this.

  • Follow the Money

     I don’t believe “all” the teachers on this board were justifying single digit proficiency. Disagreeing with bad policy doesn’t mean anything except we disagree with bad policy. Way to keep up teacher bashing and teacher demonizing. Bad Guest. Bad. Go hug a teacher.

  • Bshea1960

    Bloomberg is the master of propaganda.  Believe very little of what he says unless you can verify the facts. One week he tries to ban large sodas and the next he tells marchers at the Gay Pride parade that “government should stay out of people’s private lives.  this is the same man who hired Cathy Black and who plans to unleash thousands of rental bikes on the streets of Manhattan w/o ant plans foe safety helmets.  This is a man who bribed the City Council to enable him to stael a third term as mayor even though the people of New York twice voted for term limits.  Bloomberg needs to go.

  • Anonymous

    I don’t really have a well-informed view of the legal system.  But the students, who are being serviced by this educational system, are arguably being irreparably harmed by this lunacy.  Isn’t there a way to make a case that certain minimum standards are expected by the administration of a system?  It is not just the pilot that is considered for fault if a plane crashes; aren’t mechanics and maintenance supervisors, etc. culpable if that is the problem?  Or is this taking an analogy too far…

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