The Contract Saga Continues

Still cannot understand fully this situation....

June 22, 2009


Dear Colleagues,

Let me begin by saying that I am deeply appreciative for the tremendous efforts of educators who, like me, are committed to providing the best education for the children of The School District of Philadelphia.  We are all trying to educate the students in less than ideal circumstances, with less than desirable outcomes.  I am focused and determined, as Superintendent, to create the best environment and circumstances in the District for each of you to teach the students who look to you for their education.

Among the many challenges and obligations inherent in my work as Superintendent is the responsibility to oversee the District’s compliance with the Pennsylvania School Code.  Decades of administrative lapses have resulted in deficiencies and shortfalls in many areas. One such area is the requirement to have teachers sign contracts, as mandated by Pennsylvania law. 

In addition to the issue of compliance with state law, contracts provide legal documentation of tenure and insure that staffing plans for respective schools can be done with a certain degree of accuracy and assurance.  Last year, approximately 1000 teachers retired or resigned from classrooms throughout the District.  This affected learning conditions for thousands of students who were taught by long term or day-to-day substitute teachers.  Obviously, this is not the kind of educational environment that students or parents should expect when they begin a new school year.

Attached is a copy of a letter from the Pennsylvania Secretary of Education, specifically addressing the District’s non-compliance with State law regarding signed contracts. 

The decision to sign the contract that you will receive in the next few days is your choice. But please understand that consequences for not signing will be dictated by State law, including any disciplinary action taken by the District.

There are those among us who would have you believe that this action, and others whereby I am holding the District and adults accountable, is an indication that I am anti-teacher or anti-administrator.  I am not!   I am, however, definitely for children and their right to get a quality education, and I believe you are too.  This means a great teacher in every classroom and a great instructional leader in the principal’s office in every Philadelphia public school.

I came to this District a year ago and I made a promise.  “I would give to other people’s children what I would want for my very own.”  I hope that you will join me in this pledge to all of our students and their families.  They deserve nothing less.
 
Thank you all for your dedication and commitment to preparing our children for the life that awaits them.

Respectfully,

Superintendent

Another Contract Update

Still don't know what to make of this

Updated Information on Professional Contracts

From the Desk of Jerry T. Jordan, President

Dear PFT member and colleague:

On Monday, you may have received an e-mail from Dr. Ackerman stating her opinion that tenured teachers are required to sign professional contracts. In fact, Dr. Ackerman is under the mistaken belief now that paraprofessionals are also required to sign contracts.

Tenured Teachers: As we said before, the School District has not sent out professional service contracts (tenure letters) to tenured employees in more than 25 years. That does not mean that you are not a professional employee or that you do not have all the protections accorded to you pursuant to the Public School Code. Under the law established by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, no one can remove this protection from you or impair your rights under the school code or collective bargaining agreement. If you were not asked to sign a professional employee contract at the time you received tenure, you do not have to sign it retroactively.

Temporary Professional Employees: In the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, temporary professional employees are eligible for tenure after working three, consecutive years with satisfactory ratings each year. When you complete three consecutive years of teaching, the district can asked you to sign a tenure letter, which remains on file and does not have to be signed again. When teachers become tenured, they are the only employees required to sign a tenure letter.

Paraprofessional Employees: Paraprofessionals are not professional employees and do not have to sign professional employee contracts.

The PFT is dedicated to representing its members and would like to focus on negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement, instead of this unnecessary distraction.

Please plan to attend the PFT SPECIAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING at 7 p.m., Monday, June 22, at Liacouras Center at Temple University. A red admission postcard was mailed to PFT members' homes. If the admission card has been misplaced, please bring a PFT membership card or school district ID.

What? I Continue to be Confused

June 15, 2009


Dear Colleagues,

In response to all the confusion, concerns, and misinformation around the signing of professional contracts, let me speak with you as a former AFT member. For 15 years I stood where you now stand in terms of contract negotiations. That said, I have more than a little understanding about your perspective and a whole lot of passion about the respect you deserve.

Some individuals have implied that I don't understand the Pennsylvania School Code. However, I assure you that I have done my homework by consulting the Code, seeking clarification from legal counsel, talking to people at the Pennsylvania Department of Education, and speaking directly with Secretary of Education Gerald Zahorchak. The facts are clear. When a previous administration of The School District of Philadelphia decided-for whatever reason-contracts for professional and paraprofessional employees would no longer be required, it was out of compliance with the Pennsylvania School Code. My responsibility as Superintendent is also clear. All procedures at The School District of Philadelphia must be in compliance with state law.

In addition to meeting the legal requirement, a contract provides a significant measure of protection for all employees. For example, without signed contracts on file we no longer have official documentation regarding who is and who is not a tenured professional. If your tenure and length of service as a teacher is undocumented, then your professional standing in a court of law maybe indefensible. When I realized the consequences for you and the District, the level of my professional and personal concern skyrocketed.

We need to move forward on this and work together-as professionals with mutual respect. As educated professionals and people of character, there should be no place in our conversation for name-calling and calumny. We share higher standards and far more important work. Thank you.

Respectfully,
Arlene C. Ackerman, Ed.D.

And then this followed a few minutes later....

Mon, Jun 15, 2009 at 2:33 PM subject No Grade Changes

Dear Colleagues,

It has come to my attention that some of you may have been asked to modify grades so that no students receive less than a 59 as their final grade in your class. I want to make clear to you that this is not a School District policy, nor do I agree with this practice.

Students should receive whatever grade they earned based on their performance and work in your class. While we must work to ensure students receive the instruction and supports that will help them be successful in the classroom, we must also be clear that grades are earned by the student and not just given based on an arbitrary practice.

I hope that this helps to clarify any confusion there might have been around grading. Thank you for all your hard work on behalf of our students.

Respectfully,
Arlene C. Ackerman, Ed.D.

The Neighborhood Where You Work

This is mine, from a recent City Paper article, here's the link and the here the text


After the Raid

After the Raid

by Mike Newall

Edward Mack went back to work Monday afternoon.

Mack is the manager of The Caddi Lounge, a corner bar in North Philadelphia. It's one of the five bars local and federal law enforcement officials raided in the 22nd Police District last Friday evening as part of their new crime-reduction initiative, Operation Pressure Point. Police held a press conference saying they found enough guns and ammo inside the small lounge to "take over a small country."

In fact, police said, they confiscated two automatic handguns, two revolvers, a shotgun, an AK-47 and mounds of ammunition, plus large quantities of crack cocaine, pot and pills, which were stuffed into a box behind the bar. (They now believe the bar was running a drug operation.) Almost all of the weapons seized belonged to Mack and his two barmaids.

On Monday afternoon, after posting $75,000 bail for a host of drug and weapons charges, Mack pulls up in front of The Caddi Lounge in his black SUV. The place is closed for business; Mack's just here to clean up. He's a young guy, big, dressed all in black. He stands in the doorway and takes a look around. A raid is a messy thing — upturned cushions, trash-strewn floors, half-finished cocktails in plastic cups. A porno stuck on replay fills a flat screen in the corner and a feral cat that must've made its way in during the aftermath slinks across the bar, leaps to the floor and brushes along Mack's pant leg. Mack kicks the cat away.

"Damn," he says. Then his phone rings. He excuses himself for a moment.

The Caddi is located at the intersection of 25th and York, across the street from an abandoned plumbing supplies plant. Storefront churches occupy adjoining corners, but their doors are locked. Neighbors who answer their doors this afternoon refuse to discuss the bar. At about 4 p.m., a fight erupts in the street, when a group of young men pull another man off a porch. The man storms away, vowing to return,

"Nah, fuck that, muthafucker," he yells.

Big Tom Bradley sits in his truck in front of his auto repair shop a few doors down. Tom's a AAA subcontractor, almost 70 now, but he used to own a bar in the neighborhood. Spoilers, it was called, after the bar's softball team. Big Tom unfolds himself from his truck. He sold his bar off in the late '90s, he says, when he felt he could no longer guarantee the safety of his customers with his fists.

"You can't whip a sucker's ass no more," he says. "Whip a sucker's ass today, tomorrow he comes back with a gun ... me and you be enjoying a drink and wind up dead cause some sucker come in and shoot the place up."

The Caddi Lounge used to be an oldies bar, he says, until about 10 years ago, when a younger crowd took it over.

"People used to come from damn near all over the city for them oldies nights," he says.

Police spokesman Lt. Frank Vanore says there have been six or seven shootings in the 22nd District in recent weeks. None have occurred at The Caddi Lounge, but police had good intelligence about the weapons there.

"Most shootings occur over arguments," says Vanore. "So, we're trying to take these guns out of the equation."

Inside The Caddi Lounge, Mack brushes off a stool. The porno movie still plays behind him.

He explains his job.

"Keep the liquor stock up and count the money," he says.

The district attorney is charging Mack with drug possession, manufacturing and intent to sell.

He denies being a drug dealer.

"That's a damn lie," he says. He says the drugs found on the premises belonged to patrons. Mack has no prior criminal record.

Again, his phone rings, and he walks off towards the back of the bar, stopping near where the bar rail ends. After he hangs up, he bends down, rifles through a pile of debris on the floor and, after a few moments, picks another phone out of the pile.

"Damn," he says, smiling. "I found my other phone. Shit, I thought I lost that."

He is asked about his guns.

They're for protection against robbery, he says.

"All my guns are registered and licensed," he says. "I bought them at a South Philly gun shop."

The bar is narrow, probably only about 15 feet wide, and crowded with tables lining the wall. To protect this small space, Mack kept a .45-caliber pistol in his pocket and stored a shotgun and the AK-47 assault rifle behind the bar. Plus, his barmaids both had handguns.

"Aren't you only increasing the potential of people getting killed with that kind of firepower?" he is asked.

"Shit, we've been robbed before," he says. "Some young guys came in here and held everyone down. They had big guns, heavy artillery. One was a Mac-11, I think."

"Sixteen-year-olds are running around with automatics," he says. "Mine is only semi-automatic, man."

He says he's never fired his guns in the bar.

"Unfortunately," he says. "I didn't have my gun the night of the robbery."

Mack's preliminary hearing is scheduled for April 16.

Ding Ding Ding: Public Vs Private Vs Charter

Yesterday during my Spring Break , I hung out with one of my friends and neighbors with our two sons, the conversation turned to the job market and then to schools and teaching (his oldest son is entering kindergarten at a Friends School this fall) .

I've long been a pro-Public Education, pro city school only , kind of guy. Perhaps it was just loyalty to my institution (ha! good label for it) or a belief that everyone was entitled to the same education , not just those who can afford it or win a lottery to get in. However, after spending time with a young woman over the Fall who had a private school education at a very connected West coast school, I began to see the light in the value private education has in networking and ensuring that you use that education and privilege to the fullest extent. It can be an incredibly powerful resource.

Nevermind the smaller class sizes (some of the Quaker school ratios are 15:1) , nevermind the resources at hand that are plentiful, nevermind the arts and culture education they are exposed to. Private and Charter schools just kick public schools butts in terms of teacher input, parental involvement, and student motivation.

But I wish it weren't so. I wish all of the boats were raised, that kids in North Philly and Bryn Mawr would get the same quality education. Which is why I say this, public schools need to be privatized. Yes, in this present day of anti-private institutions, I'm saying that public schools are just run like a horrible utility and need to be re-vamped. I think there are innovators out there who can do it. And truthfully, I don't care as much about the rest of the country as I do about Philly, so let's start here.

The Emperors New Clothes

Nothing like working at a school with huge problems with violence and reading/math levels and being told by coworkers who have been there for 8 plus years that you just have to "ignore it and do your thing".

What?

That is how it has been for me, since transferring from a school in South Philly to a North Philly school managed by a private education company (still part of the district of course) , I came into a school with a lot behavioral problems , some pretty significant student on student fighting on a daily basis, and very low test scores. The principal was the assistant principal before assuming the top job just last year. If she has been in the school for a significant number of years (and even 5 or 6 years is significant in my book) and the majority of the teachers have been there for a while (the average is around ten, the lowest 7 years, besides first year teachers like me) why hasn't anything changed over the past five years? Why is it when I am gone for a month for mental health leave (oh, yeah, surprise!) that when I come back, the substitute gives me a rundown of her month and she received no support and the behavior was the same? Why is it that on my first day back, the administration just puts me back in the classroom without any supervision or guidance or support? Wouldn't they want to do that not just out of basic decency and a concern for the staff and teachers, but for their own liability?

And now on to me. I'm depressed. And while there are other factors, the main factor is my job, since some of the other aspects of my life were there last year as well, and I LOVED my job and I was HAPPY and I THRIVED in my school.

But for some reason , the School District of Philadelphia does not have any desire to help me in this. After voicing my concerns about my depression to my Assistant Principal in October 2008, and still on prozac from my Primary Care doctor, I sought out mental health care on my own. First I went to a gestalt therapist and that proved not right for me. Then I found a great cognitive behavioral therapist who has helped me a lot. She's helped me see that I have struggled with depression for a long long time (read my other blog if you like) . I do CARE about doing a good job where ever I go. If I were concerned and wrapped up in making money, I would have quit teaching a long time ago. Its not my only talent , though I am frustrated lately about how to make a lateral move if teaching just is not for me anymore.

Which brings me back to an important thought for me. When I first started teaching, No Child Left Behind had not yet been put into place. Admittedly I was teaching kindergarten in a great neighborhood, but I stick by the theory that the success of schools depends on parental involvement, or that it plays a major factor in opening doors of success for teachers and staff. That's another subject though.

No Child Left Behind changed the rules of teaching. It was no longer about passion and the wonder of learning, it was about achieving a certain score on a certain test that somehow proved the ability of the student, the teaching quality of the educators, and the value of that particular school and since it was all tied in to money and funding, it spawned teaching to the test. Teaching to the test gave rise to various programs that would boost PSSA scores and those programs had a habit of changing every year (depending on which salesman from what company talked to whom in the school district or local regional offices) . Teachers not only had to effectively manage their classrooms, teach the curriculum that is appropriate for the grade and level of the students, differentiate that curriculum appropriately , and keep track of at least 25 student records on a daily basis, they now had to implement and learn a new writing or literacy or math or science program at the beginning of every year.

So, I want to get back to opening the doors of education for individuals, whether they be children or adults. I want to be happy in it. I want to give it my full attention and be damn proud of my work.

Here's hoping.

Privatization

Yesterday I went for a preliminary interview/visit at UPenn's GSE for their Policy and ECS programs. I've started thinking about a dissertation/research specialization for the if/when I enter the program.

So far I know I am interested in teacher attitude about privatization. What are the benefits/pitfalls? What is the real difference between principals already concerned about test scores and student performance now and the possible bottom line approach of managers in a for-profit needing to see results?

That said, I still want to move on from my position with the district. Like last week....

Altruism

altruism (ltr-zm)

Instinctive cooperative behavior that is detrimental or without reproductive benefit to the individual but that contributes to the survival of the group to which the individual belongs. The willingness of a subordinate member of a wolf pack to forgo mating and help care for the dominant pair's pups is an example of altruistic behavior. While the individual may not reproduce, or may reproduce less often, its behavior helps ensure that a close relative does successfully reproduce, thus passing on a large share of the altruistic individual's genetic material.

So that's it in a nutshell. That's me.

I'm ready to quit my job. What else can a teacher do? I still want to make an impact. The thing is, all I ever wanted to do was teach people how to read. Really. Plain and simple. Just that.

Strangely, I identify so much with being a teacher, I don't know how to feel. Defeated. Depressed.

I wrote to the school district today asking for assistance. I don't want to quit, but I think all of the other avenues of working at another school are blocked. And I can't work at my school any longer . I would hate myself if I just accepted that place. I don't have the seniority to change my situation and I don't have the strength to keep going.

Is There Good in This?

I've been spending the past three months talking to my therapist about my job, my job, my job. Work is what drives me. When I was a kid, my day used to quote this horrible German phrase "Work makes life sweet". Problem is, I kind of buy into it. The thing is , it's not money that drives me or fame, but fulfilling a need or a purpose. Making a difference. My therapist and I talk a lot about my current position , about how I maybe need to focus on the practice instead of the outcome. In other words, I need to be centered around that I am doing all of the things a teacher should be doing: teaching the curriculum, assessing, filling out the proper paperwork, doing all of the requirements that my job description states in my union contract.

I'm having a damn hard time doing that .

For some reason I find myself directed to teach to the test more than I ever have before. The problem is (and this is not a put down of my pupils, it's just a sad fact) most of my kids barely know what they needed to know from 2nd grade, so teaching to the 3rd grade PSSA test seems kind of horrific. It sickens and saddens me. It makes me feel like I have a false purpose.

I've been struggling to find a way to be happy when the bell rings at the end of the day. I'm not the quittin' time kind of guy. I like to be in the moment with my occupation.

Today I work with the kids on multisyllabic words, the parts of a paragraph, the definition and identification of regular and irregular polygons, and the science of sound. I walked away from the day thinking "they just don't get it, they barely have attention spans, waa, waa, it was like that when I got here, waa waa, how did I get this position, why am I here? "

I want success for them and me. I can't just grin and bear it. The paperwork , the process, the pay, they just don't do enough for me to make me happy. and I need my job to make me happy and fulfilled.

Any ideas of sideways moves for teachers who used to be social workers who want to help people, who know how to keep track of records, get people to work together, understand the cognitive development of people, who is also sort of an activist and altruistic?

Let me know....

A New Year, A New Hope?

So today was my first day back after our winter holiday break. Our morning literacy block went well, with the kids diving right into a writing exercise, then an exploration/review of constructing a paragraph, then a short reading of The Cat Who Became A Poet. Then lunch time hit (does this happen to everyone, it seems to be the consensus, that after lunch and recess the day is not as on point as the morning was) and the fights started. Two of my girls went at it, obviously over something that started in the lunchroom. There was the usual hair pulling, slapping, and headlocks . Following union recommendations, I called the office and didn't get into the middle of it. The fight continued for another two minutes and then for some reason they stopped. One of the girls ran down the hall, the other remained in the doorway. Both made their way to the office eventually and were given pink slips and detentions. Both students have been in multiple fights this yearand they were back in my classroom about 15 minutes after going downstairs. I don't know how to feel about this. Frustrated. Saddened.

This quote came to mind from Whatever It Takes (about Geoffrey Canada and the Harlem Children's Zone):
"Glen Pinder, the second principal of the middle school, thought the main problem at Promise Academy was what he called 'ticky-tack, annoying kinds of behaviors' : disrespecting teachers, chewing gum in class , snickering , eye-rolling. But he believed that kind of bush league misbehavior was no less disruptive than the serious stuff"

I like that attitude. Excellence at all times. At my school, we tolerate and tolerate and tolerate, then when something really bad happens, something is done. Usually this sends the message that all of those other behaviors are acceptable and you can get away with them, as long as you don't do the really bad thing, and even if you do the really bad thing, you are given a few chances to get away with that .

I want another approach , one that marries the social learning approach of Lev Vygotsky and this vision of Geoffrey Canada (my apologies, I am just enamored with this approach and it's results) : "flood the zone (97 blocks in Harlem) with educational , social , and medical services, to create a safety net woven so tightly that children in the neighborhood just can't slip through."

This is what we need in North Philly, Southwest Philly, Kensington, etc. It's doable.

Just got a school district wide email from the Superintendant notifying us of changes in personnel in the departments of Talent and Development, Counseling and Promotional Standards, and Family and Community Engagement. I had no idea any of these offices existed.