EXPERIENCED TEACHERS NEED NOT APPLY?!

NYC ATRs, Stand up together!

Learn about the DOE's myths about the ATRs and the realities about the ATRs. Share ideas on surviving the process.

Discuss bridging the gap between the status quo

and what action we can take together to change our situation.

Come to the GEM/ATR Committee's general meeting: Wednesday, October 10, 2012, 5:00 p.m.

Location:

at the Skylight Diner (meet in the back)

402 W. 34^th Street and 9^th Avenue.

Please RSVP to gemnyc@gmail.com

What's worse: the Rubber Room or the ATR?

Our resident gadfly, Philip Nobile, sent the following email to Amy Arundel, who is the UFT's liason to the teachers of the ATR.  To the best of our knowledge, Ms. Arundel has not yet replied.  

Amy: 

Tom Bennett, my Brooklyn District Representative, told me that ATRs must perform any duties that regular teachers perform. Since C-6 assignments vary from school to school, it’s hard to know whether some ATR orders violate the contract. 

Chaz’s current blog post on ATRs had this comment from an ATR:

If a principal tells me to answer phone -file - copy or do cafeteria duty, I politely say NO and that I will grieve immediately. Then I go back to the teacher's room and take out my book. It has worked every time because it is the LAW! Atrs are letting themselves be abused even more than we are!! Don't let them abuse you - just say no.

Do you agree? 

An admirable chapter leader further commented on how he/she protects ATRs: 

I'm a chapter leader in a small school in the Bronx. One thing that I make sure is to inform the members, even the ATRs, of their rights. I check the ATRs' program to ensure that none of their rights are violated. When the rotation of ATRs begin in October, I speak to the ATR(s) and tell them about their prep, lunch and professional periods. If I see something wrong, I immediately go to administration to have it corrected. It is the responsibility of the chapter leader to protect the members. I don't know how chapter leaders do it in a large comprehensive school, but in a small school there should be no excuse from the chapter leader.

Bill Kalogeras at Automotive is the only CL who treated me similarly in my travels last year throughout Brooklyn/S.I. Why hasn’t the UFT drawn up an advisory to CLs on how to handle ATRs? Or have I missed it?

In the good old days of rubber rooms, we not only had elected reps (liaisons) and monthly meetings at 52 Broadway, but Randi produced a brochure on our rights. 

Can you explain why ATRs in good standing get less respect than accused members in the past?

Philip

ATR Predictions

Here are two important predictions about the future of the Absent Teacher Reserve:

1. NY 1 predicts that there will not be a buyout agreement between the DOE and the UFT for ATR teachers.  Read about it here.

2. Chaz, the intrepid publisher of the Chaz's School Daze blog, predicts that the ATR will not be going away any time soon. Click here to read this and other predictions from Chaz's crystal ball . 

The Invisible ATR

Here is the latest in the on-going tale of one of our most popular contributors, Dumped ATR. 

Here it is again. I should call myself "Formerly Dumped, now Invisible ATR."

When I was about seven, one of my favorite songs was the goofy, "Monster Mash." Between that song and daily doses of "The Count" on Sesame Street, I perfected a cheesy Dracula voice that I used at birthday parties and recess. Who knew that some fifty years later, I'd become a true denizen of the after-life--a veritable ghost.

At the school to which I have been assigned, there was a vacancy in my very own subject area. There are two of us ATR's at the school, in fact, who are in this license. The schedule which the "Vacancy" would fill included a very raucous last period class. Since visitations by different persons each day would have opened the doors for these students to be difficult for a whole new unsuspecting person each day, my supervisor decided that one person should cover that class consistently until a teacher was hired. This was said to me--or perhaps across me--as I find it hard to imagine that a person was really looking at me and discussing a job I was qualified for and was soon going to cover, without offering me, at least, a courtesy interview. Since I am a ghost with a license who tends to take visible form as directed, the class was summarily printed on my schedule. 

Actually, they are a bright bunch of kids. Upon advice from a colleague, I decided to take the class as if it were mine. I put the kids in assigned seats, taught my lessons, assigned homework and handed back graded classwork. By day three, we were in a kind of rhythm. I told the supervisor on the second day that I enjoyed the class and explained what my holiday assignment would be. I also mentioned that I would grade it and hoped it would be taken into account in their final grade. At that point, I was informed that a candidate had been selected. When we returned from the four day holiday, a brand new teacher had, in fact, been hired. 

The students in the class are not happy. They don't understand why I'm not their teacher. The new teacher can't handle them. (They are very bright and they can challenge your every move. You just need to be very structured.) Some of them gave their assignment to the new teacher and some to me. I'm trying to find the teacher so we can talk about if it will be considered for their first cycle grades. 

At no point did my supervisors come see me teach. It would have been an easy way to see if I could handle the job--especially as I had to create my own structure. I wouldn't have the benefit of teaching a "demo lesson" in which students might be more courteous because they had been asked to be good hosts to the visiting teacher.

Claude Raines in a scene from a 1933 movie

adaptation of H.G. Wells's novel, The Invisible

Man

It's one thing to say that we are using "fair market" tactics to select teachers, but when you practically treat a person as invisible, there is nothing equitable going on. In the end, the consistency that was necessary until a teacher was hired was abandoned once they brought the new person in--a few days were more important than the semester. The students' interests were as invisible, I think, as I was.

Tables and chairs attend latest ATR job fair

The Washington Heights 

Armory.  Add a few tables and

chairs and it will look just as it

did for the job fair on Sept. 19. 

On September 19th, the DOE threw one of its little shindigs in celebration of the ATR fiasco.  This latest job fair featured tables, chairs, a water fountain, restrooms, and not much else. Thomas Forbes, a veteran NYCATR correspondent, sent in the following:

    Anyone who had a chance to attend the job fair this afternoon saw it was a joke. I would guess only 5 schools showed up.   I even saw one pair from a school get up and leave shortly after 4:30 when they saw what a waste of time it was. I thought I would see people I knew, but I only saw one; not a lot of teachers there, maybe a couple hundred.   

Most everyone I spoke with were new ATR's and were really in the dark. I told all to check ednotesonline and become a member of the GEM/ATR group. I ended up talking with and answering questions from a small group of ATR's. 

As I left, I stopped by the UFT table and spoke with four of our representatives who were sitting there speaking to no one but themselves. As I drilled them softly about Union politics and issues, I was told not be sarcastic by one of them as the conversation progressed. I then ended the conversation and told them I was doing more to inform our members than they were.

A Teacher Reflects after a day of Professional Development

by Joseph Moses

Oh, Lord, let me eat a tasteless hoagie,
Or chomp upon a mildewed stogie,
Or slurp a bowl of overcooked perogie--
Anything, but no more discussions of pedagogy.  

REMINDER: GEM/ATR Meeting TODAY

The GEM/ATR Committee will meet TODAY, SEPTEMBER 20, at the Starlight Diner at 402 W 34th St. (SW corner of 9th Avenue), Manhattan, at 5:30 PM.

The committee will address ATRs’ concerns and how to accomplish these goals.

NYC ATRs send warning to Chicago

The Chicago skyline

Chicago teachers have a new contract that will require the city to "hire back" 50% of any teachers that lose their positions due to school closings; in order to meet the quota, some teachers will be retained as part of a "substitute pool" (see here). In other words, the Windy City will have its very own version of Gotham's Absent Teacher Reserve.  

When the GEM/ATR Committee heard about this, they sent some words of warning to their brothers and sisters in Chicago.  The GEM/ATR communique is must reading for teachers in both cities. 

Dear Sisters and Brothers in the Chicago Teachers Union,

The GEM/ATR Committee's advice on how to be vigilant in protecting the integrity of hiring pools:

1. We wish to warn you that, if left unchecked, Chicago Public Schools will probably hire new, inexperienced teachers, from organizations such as Teach for America recruits, instead of teachers from your hiring pool. We are saying this based on our experience in New York City. The administration uses budget formulas which powerfully incentivize principals to hire new teachers instead of the excessed teachers from the closed schools. Our administration then presents the fiction that the excessed teachers are undesirable/unemployable, when in actuality the administration just wants to hire new teachers over older teachers, because they cost less to the schools.

2. Again, from our experience, if there is no enforcement provision and there is no transparency on the issue of hires in your city, your BOE, just like ours, will not fully comply with their agreement. To avoid these problems, there should be a joint committee between the union and a board of education that is supposed to evaluate the actual performance of the agreement (which we supposedly have in N.Y.C.), AND that the results be regularly published so that union members can be informed, in order to mobilize union members to hold board of education leaders accountable.  In New York, ATRs --excessed teachers, are in the dark as to whether the agreement is being enforced. We have just learned through the media that our ranks stand at a record 1,800 teachers in the excess pool. (Just from casual conversations, many of us learn of positions that were open but were not advertised/posted, even though they are supposed to be advertised.) In other words, if you do not have enforcement provisions and consequences for the BOE, they will not fully follow the agreement.

3. Union leaders should be given timely information as to the performance of the agreement.  By timely, we mean specific deadlines upon which specific information is shared (such as the number of excessed teachers, which licenses, number of new hires, the licenses of the excessed teachers, and proof of advertising/posting of every filled position.)

4. If the agreement/contract is not followed by a board of education there should be consequences to the board, such as allowing more input from teachers and parents as to policy decisions. For example teachers picked by the union, or parents picked by PTAs, would be allowed to vote on board of education policy making committees.  To unelected boards of education, we would say: "You should have no fear of getting increased democracy in policy decisions, if you just follow through with the agreement."

In solidarity, the GEM/ATR Committee, of excessed NYC teachers. 

(For full disclosure, we are unrepresented dues-paying members of the United Federation of Teachers.)                                       gemnyc@gmail.com

1,800 Teachers in the Absent Teacher Reserve

SchoolBook has published a report with some important numbers regarding the ATR, plus a few typical innacuracies and insults.  Notice, for example, how they write about the city trying to "get rid of" teachers in the ATR.  That goes in the category of insult, not inaccuracy, because it is, unfortunately, exactly what the Mayor would like to do with every single teacher in the ATR. 

The last recruitment event of this year’s hiring season takes place Wednesday, as the number of teachers out of work more than doubled to 1,800 over the summer. 

The job fair, at the Armory on the Hudson in Upper Manhattan, is by invitation only and teachers must register in advance. 

Education officials said the pool of teachers looking for permanent positions spiked after approximately 1,000 teachers lost their positions at the end of last school year.

But the city is trying to reduce the annual ATR pool size and ultimately get rid of those teachers who are being paid for full-time work but are not actively looking for jobs, or can’t get hired. Last year there were just 800 excessed teachers on the city payroll, something both education and union officials said was the result of a new system of rotating teachers to different schools each week, giving them more exposure to schools that may want to hire them permanently.

Click here for the complete article. 

GEM/ATR Meeting on September 20

The GEM/ATR Committee will meet at the Starlight Diner at 402 W 34th St. (SW corner of 9th Avenue), Manhattan, at 5:30 PM, on Thursday, September 20, 2012.

The committee will address ATRs’ concerns and how to accomplish these goals.