Here we go again.
Parents throughout the city were impressed with efforts to make sure that teachers were the right “fit” for their school and for the job they were hired to do. Criterion Based Hiring, though imperfect, held the promise of a collegial, cohesive, and effective teaching team in a Providence Public School building.
And it seemed to be working. Though there have been some glitches and complaints about the implementation and practice, Principals were able to assemble a great team of teachers to work on behalf of our students.
CBH was also the product of an order from RIDE to remove seniority as the sole determinant of teacher placements (when certifications were in place, etc.).
Now we learn that this year, CBH has become a casualty of:
1) A collective bargaining agreement agreed to by the Mayor (which the Providence School Board was effectively excluded from participating in the negotiation or ratification of) which provided for no teacher layoffs or dismissals for three years (except for just and good cause, which as we know currently does not include ineffective teaching).
2) An external hiring freeze imposed because suddenly there were teachers in the system with nowhere to go.
3) The school department had “neither the time nor the money” to fill existing vacancies pursuant to the existing CBH policy.
The school board has now publicly washed their hands of this, ratifying the placement of teachers outside the CBH protocol. At least they had the wherewithal to make the placements for 1 year (as opposed to the positions being awarded as permanent placements). This did also state that the Superintendent had to comply with CBH after the 2011-2012 academic year (unless the Superintendent decides to change the procedure again, which is allowed under Section 2 of the CBH policy).
And what about this new contract?
Site-based management is gone.
In the event of a decrease in the number of teachers in an area of certification, teachers will no longer be transferred according to their “system wide area of certification seniority” but according to their “date of hire”! How is that different than seniority??
The school day is 5 minutes longer this year, and in 3 years’ time it will be 15 minutes longer, and this is touted as a significant improvement in instructional time. Really??
We have also heard that some schools on the West Side have more than 26 kids in a classroom, something the school department promised would not happen as a result of school closings.
So…
We will be working with other parents and parent groups throughout the city to bring a message back to the School Department and Mayor’s office:
We are tired of back room dealing.
We are tired of promises made but not kept.
We are tired of systems and contracts that put the needs of everyone else before those of our students.
We won’t stand for it.
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.
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The text of the Providence School Board’s resolution follows:
RESOLUTION RATIFYING AND APPROVING CERTAIN NON-CBH TEACHER ASSIGNMENTS BY THE SUPERINTENDENT
WHEREAS, the City of Providence and the Providence Public School Department (the “PPSD”) are in the midst of an unprecedented financial crisis; and
WHEREAS, as a result of this crisis, the Providence School Board (the “PSB”) voted to close several schools and authorized the PPSD to send preliminary dismissal notices to all 1,934 of the teachers employed by the PPSD (the “Dismissal Notices”); and
WHEREAS, on May 2, 2011, the PSB authorized the rescission of the great bulk of the Dismissal Notices and further, approved a plan to recall most of the teachers (the “PSB Recall Plan”), which involved the scheduling of due process hearings to consider the appeals of those teachers whose dismissals were not to be rescinded; and
WHEREAS, in July of 2011, a measure was signed into law by the Governor which purported to transfer the “power and duty to enter into” a CBA with the PTU from the PSB to the Mayor; and
WHEREAS, on or about August 2, 2011, the Mayor and the PTU, without the involvement or agreement of the PSB, tentatively agreed to a successor CBA which provided that there would be no teacher dismissals or layoffs due to economic exigency for the three-year term of the CBA; and
WHEREAS, on or about August 9, 2011, the PSB authorized the rescission of the great bulk of the teacher dismissal notices that had not been rescinded pursuant to its May 2, 2011 resolution; and
WHEREAS, Section 2 of the PPSD CBH Procedure expressly provides that “[t]he Superintendent or his designee has the authority to make changes to this Procedure at any time; material changes will be made in consultation with the PTU and brought to the attention of the PSB;” and
WHEREAS, on or about August 13, 2011, the newly-hired Superintendent informed the PSB that under the changed circumstances, she was assigning some of the teachers who recently had been displaced as a result of, among other things, school closings, into existing vacant teacher positions based upon certification eligibility, seniority and the PPSD’s professional judgment as to student need, so that the schools would be appropriately staffed at the opening of school; and
WHEREAS, as of August 31, 2011, the PPSD, which had been operating under an external hiring freeze, had neither the time nor the money to fill the existing vacancies pursuant to the PPSD’s existing CBH Procedures; and
NOW, THEREFORE, it is hereby
RESOLVED that:
1.
The Superintendent’s decision on or about August 13, 2011 to place some fifty- eight (58) teachers into regular teaching assignments outside of the PPSD CBH Procedures, as reflected in the attached Exhibit A, is hereby in all respects ratified and approved; and
2.
The Superintendent is hereby authorized to fill teacher position vacancies and assign teachers during the 2011-12 academic year as necessary; provided, however, that
3.
The assignments reflected on the attached Exhibit A and those made pursuant to the authorization provided in 2, above, are or will be only for the 2011-12 academic year, unless the involved principal, teacher and the Superintendent all agree at the end of the 2011-12 academic year to make the assignment more permanent; and provided further, that
4.
The Superintendent shall thereafter comply in all respects with applicable PPSD CBH Procedures.
Passed on September 1, 2011
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See also the recent Projo article on this subject:
http://www.projo.com/ri/providence/content/providence_school_hirings_09-06-11_14Q4GA1_v15.5f65d.html
Sounds like you got what you want.
Why does it feel like the Mayor’s editorial was written at least partially in response to this blog post?:
http://www.projo.com/opinion/contributors/content/CT_taveras13_09-13-11_5FQ74FG_v13.7767e.html
What do “we” want?
We want an effective teacher in every classroom. This may be achieved through several pathways, including Criterion Based Hiring, an unbiased, consistent, and fair teacher evaluation system, and possibly even parent/student feedback.
We want a Mayor’s office and School Department/School Board that can work together, with their primary focus being the needs of the students in the classroom.
We expect honesty and transparency in all communications, not only with parents, but between the Mayor’s office and the School Department/School Board.
We want “big impact” decisions that affect our schools, teachers, and students to be well-thought out, honestly crafted, achievable, and where appropriate, sustainable.
We want “real” parental engagement, not only in individual school buildings, but at 797 Westminster.
While we respect the value and benefits (to all stakeholders) of collective bargaining, we don’t feel that limitless protections can be given to teachers, that the union should make educational policy, or that political considerations be given priority over best practices in the classroom.
We want consistency and continuity in School Department policy, rather the ping-ponging we have experienced over the past 10 years.
No… it would appear that we are far from “getting what we want”.
That’s funny because reading this blog leaves one with the impression that the rest of Providence could burn down — or you would burn it down — to keep the wrong teachers out of your schools.
I’m glad to see ESPEC jumping into the fight. I am. But the education scene in this city has been dire since way back with the March 1 deadline debacle, and I simply haven’t seen east side involvement in those battles.
I don’t think any of us should be surprised that we’re running into externalities from the Spring ’11 decisions. When an earthquake like closing four schools happens, there are going to be some aftershocks. Even if none of the circles drawn around those schools on Carleton Jones’s map crossed the boundary into the east side, it was *clear* from April forward that the blitzkrieg on the west side schools wouldn’t happen in a vacuum. West side parents and others were “tired of back room dealing, of promises made but not kept, and of systems and contracts that put the needs of everyone else before those of their students” *a long time ago*. They didn’t stand for it, but they couldn’t do it alone. General anger, a fledgling WSPEC, and the small and reactionary CDPE were overwhelmed on day one of the school closings battle. But only now does it seem like the east side is taking notice. And even that small amount of notice only seems to be some mild (but revealing) questioning by Councilman Zurier.
So I’m encouraged by the enthusiastic critique and statement of principles, but–historically speaking:–until I see east siders standing in solidarity with west side parents at rallies and protests (and vice-versa), I’ve gotta take such things with many grains of salt.
Zack. The east side/west side rhetoric won’t get any of our kids anywhere.
Why put this on the back of Sam Zurier? Where’s your councilman? As an EAST SIDE resident who has fought the PPSD registration for YEARS on behalf of families and students ALL OVER THE CITY I take insult to your comments. I argued that the city instead of looking at the % of neighborhood kids at a given school is to look at the demographics of children living around each school. Windmill, for example, had a very low neighborhood % but a much higher % of kids living around that school. It was, in my very unscientific hunch, the fact that registration was sending kids all over the place that they really didn’t qualify neighborhood schools the way they should have. I don’t know if that would have prevented any closings but i do know I spoke up, contacted downtown and suggested they look at that. If the voices are louder on the east side that isn’t a bad thing – as long as we are all fighting for the SAME thing and that is exactly what this article does. I don’t see anywhere in there say, “just for east side schools.” We are all part of the same system. Listen you can have great potential on the east, west, south, north side but not with PPSD and the Mayor making decisions that hurt ALL of our kids. I care about your kids too.
Let me try to respond to you, Zack, from a slightly different viewpoint.
ESPEC did publically support WSPEC during the school closing debacle. You can read our blog posts at the end of March and in April.
Several ESPEC members came to meetings with WSPEC at WBNA. We also attended several of the public meetings. As things were transpiring, we made several suggestions for how we might proceed in a similar situation.
I have to tell you though, the meetings were not an easy place for someone living on the East Side to be. There was a tremendous amount of vehemence, aggression, and anger directed not against the Mayor’s office, or the people who do the accounting, but against the East Side. This was not a place for an East Sider to stand up publically and say something, and, to be completely honest, many of us were hurt and taken aback at some of what was being said.
Looking at the fiscal reality, and knowing that the building boom of the 00′s led the West and South end to have the highest density of schools, and given the statistics being presented about building utilization, empty seats, bussing, etc., we did drink some of Carleton Jones’ KoolAid, and accepted the premise that students would be placed in schools closer to home, and that class size wouldn’t increase. We also saw the City’s actions and the promise of CBH as possibly leading to a decline in the numbers of ineffective teachers in all of the schools.
I have heard that the renovations done on Bridgham were actually great, and that the WSPEC/WBNA efforts to make the building workable have paid off.
So that said, it leave us with what we hope are common principles. Yes, we did fight to have a quality (and the only) middle school in our neighborhood reopened. You have to realize though that throughout the process, we asked what best practices, if any, that were being used in our schools could be disseminated throughout the City. Part of the problem is that PPSD still has no mechanism to do that (or to share best practices that might be coming out of the South End or West Side with East Side schools).
Several of us met with Angela Roman’s working group last week and let them clearly know that parents need a “seat at the table”. Warren Simmons acknowledged the importance of this.
We are hoping that perhaps through PAC, we can get together, find commonalities which will benefit all students, and then work together to achieve them.
Thanks for all of your efforts.
All rhetoric aside — mine included — I think we agree more than these posts would suggest. Kira, I don’t think we’ve met, but thank you for your efforts. We need more of that.
If an East/West divide exists, I think it’s more because of issues of visibility than of actual intent; of course, we each want all of the students in the city to receive a critical and engrossing education. And I’m not saying the East Side hasn’t been involved; certainly talks with the young WSPEC were taking place. But overcoming an east/west/south divide is going to take more public acts of affirmation than it will meetings with Angela Romans and Annenberg/Warren Simmons. If people on the west side *perceive* a difference in support and agenda, it’s because we (me included) need to be more visible, more consistently. The meetings may have been hostile to east siders, but they are only going to continue to be so until east siders literally stand up with the rest of the city on these issues.
[ And by the way, if what I said was taken as a hit on Sam Zurier, it wasn't. I'm proud of his recent efforts, with his calling out the mayor's office over the curtailing of the school board's powers on contract negotiation (July 20th) and his recent subcommittee meeting with Supt. Lusi. I was only saying that these efforts need to continue, and much more visibly so. Where was my councilmember, Seth Yurdin? I wish I knew. I did send an email to Rep. Blazejewski expressing my disappointment at his vote on the school board-mayor's office power transfer. ]
Hope to see you all soon, potentially at the teachers’ contract meetings this week.
I meant to add, that “overcoming an east/west/south divide is going to take more public acts of affirmation than it will meetings with Angela Romans and Annenberg/Warren Simmons… (although those meetings are very important as well, and should surely continue).”
HI Zack,
Lynette Kapsinow here, I agree with you where is our councilman from Ward ? I too live in Ward 1, I have twins that attend NB and barely hear or see Seth unless it is to solicit for his campaign. I feel your pain.
I did mean to add that those meetings with Angela Romans and Annenberg/Warren Simmons ARE very important as well, and should surely continue.