It seems my friend is not the only teacher the system wants to get rid of that has been deemed an ATR this semester. There is at least one other teacher in the school in the same predicament. This problem is not local to my school. I met a guy over the summer who told me he will also be an ATR this semester. He has been teaching for over twenty years in a large school that is NOT being closed down. It did not make any sense to me as to why he would be an ATR until I heard this...today.
So now it seems that schools are taking away programs from teachers they decide are unsatisfactory and turning them into ATRs. I fear this will have a very negative affect on all the good teachers who are ATRs, through no fault of their own.
On another note, the ATR has been covering for a new teacher who is waiting for her finger prints to come through.
(Note: I am not an ATR or in danger of ever becoming one. These stories need to be told.)
11 comments:
I can see this loophole being used more on the Jr H and HS level since you must be licensed in a particular subject area. However, let's say a biology class is dropped, school seniority must still be in play if there is more than one bio class.
This is going on while new teachers in the same license are being hired. There is no loophole. What is being done is criminal.
The union really sold out the teachers on this one. One teacher told me that he was lucky to have transferred in to Packemin HS the last year of the UFT transfer plan. His school closed and reorganized the following year and some of his buddies became ATRs through no fault of their own. What a horror
Then this is totally illegal. What is your chapter leader doing about this? Has he called a meeting because if this could happen to one of you, it could happen to all of you.
It appears to be illegal. However, the lack of union enforcement may allow this practice to occur.
"....the lack of union enforcement may allow this practice to occur." Chaz, you just stated the core problem. The union ALLOWS this to occur through lack of enforecement. But what exactly should the union enforce? Is there anything addressing this in the current contract? Why isn't the union taking this to a grievance or an arbitration? Why is it that Randi is not responding to this situation? Is she busy filling union coffers with the dues of the newbies while sacrificing experienced teachers to the mean spirited and incompetent DOE?
Our CC is not what I would call a fighter for teacher's rights. He has his agenda and his agenda only. After years of fighting with him, I got off the exec board. All we did was argue, nothing was ever accomplished.
I know the teachers involved have taken the issue to the union--outside of the school.
I told them to e-mail Weingartne directly. It is up to them to really be pro active. All I can do is share their stories.
From what you are saying, someone new will be taking over a class he is licenses to teach. Is this correct?
How many other teachers in the school see this as illegal? In my school we would demand a union meeting. Where are all the other senior teachers on this issue?
The teachers in my school won't do anything. Everyone hates teh principal's use of the loudspeaker. They bitch and moan but when I tried to organize a group to try to end it, they all refused to get involved. The same is true about trailer safety and everything else.
The lack of action by teachers is exactly why these things happen.
The Union, spearheaded by Weingarten, will not protest because the union negotiated this contract.
She is not stupid. But some of us think that she did not count on Klein changing how salaries were to be paid — to make it the principal's job to keep his own salary costs down (and hire cheap rather than experienced).
Weingarten also probably thought, from the way the contract is written, that the DoE would continue to do their part and TRY to place teachers into vacancies. Which they aren't doing.
So, here's Klein changing the way salaries are paid, and also NOT INSISTING that his Human Resource departments all over make attempts to place the ATRs.
Mike Mendel made a good point on June 2: If HR hasn't tried to send you out on an interview, then in theory, you can't even be called an ATR ! Do you follow the reasoning? According to the contract, the teacher who's excessed may if they wish, go about finding another job for himself; also, the DoE should be trying to get them interviewed and relocated. If Human Resources are not doing their part of the bargain, then the teacher might be "excessed," yes, but is not really an ATR -- that's because you only get to be an ATR if attempts to place you have happened and are not successful. There's nothing in the contract that says that you can be called an ATR if you've NEVER been sent out by HR on any interview at all !
If Weingarten chooses not to play hardball with Klein on this point, she is PROVING one of two things: she collaborated on the whole thing and agrees with all this, or she got outwitted by Klein's post-contract maneuvers with salary and does not have the ability to do any kind of job action with an unmotivated, unorganized, de-mobilized union, in such a large part new, young, naive, and untenured.
Klein is corporate, immoral, and evil, but the demise of our union, I blame on Weingarten — not the teachers.
PS: I compiled a long list of many of the web references to the ATR situation here in New York on my blog. It's in 3 parts, but the earlier links can be found in Part iii.
My principal actually excessed several 1st year teachers because we were apparently not a good fit for her school. As a newbie, there is nothing much you can do to fight it as we don't have any leverage... But, this is not something new in the system...
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