Members of the New Bedford Educators Association ratified an agreement on January 29 that paves the way for significant changes at New Bedford High School, but many New Bedford educators continue to express anger that the superintendent chose a school improvement model that requires half of the NBHS staff to be replaced.
"We asked our members to support the tentative agreement because we felt our bargaining team had won the best deal possible under the circumstances," said NBEA President Lou St. John. "Unfortunately, those circumstances were not good. I believe that because of what is being done to our educators we are going to lose many of our excellent teachers, not only at New Bedford High School but across our system. Our educators should not be used as scapegoats."
State law requires significant intervention at NBHS because it has been designated a Level 4 "underperforming" school for failing to meet school improvement targets. Superintendent Pia Durkin chose the most drastic improvement option by selecting a model under which half of the staff - teachers, administrators and education support professionals alike - must be replaced. No other district has chosen this kind of "turnaround" model when a less punitive option has been permitted.
Once the superintendent chose the "turnaround" model for NBHS, the district and the NBEA had just 30 days to bargain over the impact of the plan. The tentative agreement was reached on January 15. Even before bargaining, the superintendent agreed that last year's layoffs and this year's retirements can count toward the 50 percent.
Highlights of the agreement include:
* High school teachers without Professional Teacher Status must be non-renewed before any licensed teachers in good standing who have PTS are laid off.
* A high school teacher with PTS who is not rehired can bump a non-PTS teacher in another school, but cannot bump another teacher with PTS.
* High school teachers will work 42 more minutes per day for $5,885 more a year and will be compensated at their contractual rate for any additional work that is required.
At this writing, it is unclear how many of the 190 high school teachers will be laid off as a result of the turnaround plan since voluntary transfers, bumping rights and retirements still must be considered, but there is no doubt that some educators with positive evaluations will lose their jobs.
Hundreds of educators, retired teachers, union activists and community supporters held a rally sponsored by the NBEA outside New Bedford City Hall on January 17. They chanted, cheered and held signs saying "Support New Bedford Educators" and other slogans.
St. John told the crowd, "We suggest that instead of threatening our teachers with termination, Dr. Durkin, the mayor and the school committee should be trying to figure out how to improve working conditions and make this the kind of district where highly qualified educators want to work!"
MTA Vice President Tim Sullivan told the educators, "The MTA is fully behind you." He added, "The turnaround model is a great way to build resentment but a terrible way to build a team."
As a Brockton teacher, Sullivan said he understands the challenges of teaching in an urban district. "We give this job our hearts and our souls - and a lot of our evenings and weekends, too," he said. "We make a difference in our students' lives."
Several MTA members from other districts and units also spoke, including Rebecca Cusick, president of the Fall River Educators Association; Brian Fitzgerald, president of the Wareham Education Association; Leonard Zalauskas, president of the Educational Association of Worcester, and Barbara Madeloni, secretary/clerk of the Massachusetts Society of Professors, an affiliate of the MTA.
Several speakers cited the lack of stability in the central office as contributing to the district's problems. New Bedford has had five superintendents over the past six years.
St. John, an NBHS graduate, was among those who praised the hard work of New Bedford educators.
"Last year my daughter, Kayla, graduated from New Bedford High School, and my son, Matthew, is in his sophomore year at New Bedford High School. I love my children, so I can assure you I wouldn't be sending them to New Bedford High School if I didn't think they would get a quality education from competent teachers there."
He urged members of the NBEA to "stay strong" despite the challenges they face.
This article was written for publication in MTA Today as is reprinted in the NBEA blog with permission of the MTA.
23 comments:
The issue of PTS teacher at the high school and bumping; so I could be removed from my position and not be able to bump into another area of certification because a teacher has four years of experience over my twenty. Not right.
^ that's not what I got out of the article.
Does Pia Durkin's willingness to allow "last year's layoffs and this year's retirements count toward the 50%" signal the beginning of the elephant's predicted scaling back of her teacher decimation plan?
If not, who will she blame when eating New Bedford High School's seed corn fails to yield a bumper crop of amazing scholars?
To the post about bumping, I could have PTS and 20 years of experience and I cannot bump a middle school teacher with PTS and only 5 years of experience. My seniority is out the window. I can only bump a NON-PTS teacher in my certified discipline. And how many of those are left? .. to my knowledge most uncertified teachers have been eliminated. SOOOO our bumping rights become a moot point.
Criminal is what this is....criminal. When is someone in power in New Bedford going to bring up charges?
Comrade Marlene Pollock's son is a "behaviorist" at Roosevelt. What are his credentials? I'm sure he obtained his position after a worldwide search for the best candidate.
For many years, Marlene criticized the nepotism within the NBPS. She's just another hypocrite.
A reporter-I'm not sure if he was from the sub standard times-in that case he wouldn't be a reporter. Anyway, he asked our fearless leader if she would be receiving more money because she is now in control of Parker school. What a sham-isn't the fact that her cronies already make the paycheck of 3 teachers enough of an insult? Pia already makes a ridiculous amount of money. Especially when our students have no books or supplies! Some thing stinks in old New Bedford and it's not the teachers~
It is certainly not the Teachers. I left that school system in large part due to the abuse of Teachers that I witnessed on a daily basis. I tell you this...NB educators are some of the finest I have ever had the pleasure to work with. Best wishes and stay strong!
It makes me sick to hear the mayor compliment Pia on attracting high caliber people to her administration. How hard is it to attract people with a 6 figure salary? I'm also shocked at the lack of diversity in her new hires at the administrative level. Another middle age white dude? Come on. The teaching staff is constantly insulted for not mirroring the students of this district. Why is Pia surrounding herself with all these white folks?
City of NB is also in trouble when they will have to pay unemployment. Watch the city go into receivership
And the obsession with PTS remains. At some point, this idea that teachers with less than three years of employment are somehow less valuable will have to be addressed. They are young and passionate and often more conversant in the assessment-oriented curriculum and culture; they can often get the results we need. Holding on to teachers based on a list that's organized by hire dates is the kind of relic that undermines the good work that the union strives to do. I attended NBHS in the mid nineties and many of my teachers are now quite high on that list. The idea that the man who taught me to write an artful literary analysis would have the same protections in this mess as the guy who would rap on the first floor window to have his students let him back into the building after his cigarette break is absurd and bad for kids.
Glad to read in the Standard that the NBEA supports the plan
Shouldn't have signed this. Sold-out. PTS means very little anymore. What a sad state of affairs.
To the 1990 NBHS student tuned teacher.... Are you saying that PTS should mean nothing? I became a teacher in 1990. For the next 6 years I was a long term sub. Three years later my job was finally my job. No one could take it away for light and transient causes. Teachers that have marginal evaluations should worry. But even the new evaluation system is politically based. Where am I headed? Hopefully retirement in the next few years. With the situation as it stands it could be the unemployment line.
Just quit like I did. Trust me, you will fell a lot better.
Your View: Teach to the truth
By CATHERINE McLAUGHLIN
Catherine McLaughlin lives in Dartmouth.
January 27, 2014 12:00 AM
Let me get this straight: New Bedford High School has been assessed as an underperforming school. And the state's and Superintendent Pia Durkin's chosen "solution" is to fire 50 percent of the faculty.
Have I fallen through the rabbit hole? Do I see Cheshire cat-like grins in the shadows? It takes my breath away. I have news for the assessors and Dr. Durkin: They may as well fire 100 percent, as the best and the brightest of teachers cannot turn NBHS around. Why? Because that is not where the problem lies.
There are complex issues underlying the problems of underperforming schools. One fundamental issue is the deep pocket of poverty in the community. There is a direct correlation between poverty and low test scores. If we continue to ignore the endemic problems caused by poverty, we cannot expect these schools to perform on a par with, say, Newton or Wellesley. This is not a level playing field.
Check out, for example, the enormous rates of absenteeism among poor students, on the order of 50 percent or greater. You cannot teach students who aren't there. And while you're at it, check out the problems many of these children have to deal with, from absent parents to parents who are abusive, drunk, high or simply do not care. Check out the good parents who care deeply but are so overwhelmed by the struggle to survive that they cannot provide academic support for their children. And check out students with behavioral problems who are completely disruptive in class, who ridicule all authority, who hold their teachers in contempt. This is where all these problems show their face: in the classroom, where teachers struggle to deal with them. But teachers are limited in what they can do. Still, they do try, against all odds, to make a difference in their students' lives. Such things are not measured by the assessors.
(continued)
A second issue is that students from all levels of the economy are being failed by a system set up to cater to an ideal, where teachers are forced to teach to a myth rather than a reality. NBHS's self-proclaimed mission is "to prepare 100 percent of students for college." What is wrong with this? Students are all across the academic spectrum, and this mission shuts out all other possibilities. At NBHS, all students are forced into honors or college courses, in the mistaken belief that if they have brilliant teachers and an extended school day, they will rise to the challenge. This is far from true, and many students are set up for failure at the outset, despite the best efforts of hard-working, dedicated teachers. College is not the solution for everyone. We need to focus on and develop and promote students' individual talents that lie elsewhere; to teach to their strengths, bolstering their confidence and teaching to their full capacity. As it stands, the curriculum is too narrow for such a broad range of students and interests.
In math, for example, students must take Honors or College Geometry. There should be other levels where they can learn the geometry they will need to survive in the real world. This is not "dumbing down." These courses should be as rigorous as the other two options. But the students will learn differently, and for a different purpose. The real shame is to pretend these students don't exist, to leave them no option but discouragement and failure.
Until the problems of poverty are addressed in a meaningful way, and until we develop programs aimed more precisely and realistically at the needs of all students, nothing is likely to turn around. Certainly firing the very adults who have dedicated their lives to teaching these children is a specious decision at best, a powerplay designed to humiliate. Yes, they may "re-apply" for their jobs. But why should they have to? Why fire them in the first place?
This decision is going to cause chaos and destroy morale. A poor solution is not better than no solution at all. Instead, re-vamp 50 percent of the curriculum. You may well find that that brings about a more substantive change.
Dr. Durkin and the School Committee must be made aware of the problems these teachers face on the job. Then, and only then, can plans for the future of NBHS be formulated. Faculty and administrators must work against polarization. They must act as reasonable adults with a common cause: to educate all our children and mold them into compassionate and productive members of society. The stakes could not be higher.
STAY UNITED AND STAND STRONG. WE'RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER.
This, I believe, is just the beginning. Today it is the Parker School and high school, next school year it could be YOUR school.
UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDED WE FALL. A statement that has withstood the test of time.
NBEA STRONG
Pia Durkin took an axe, gave her teachers a 50 % whack, when she saw what she had done , She brought in Biffy and Tad from TFA and the rest is history!
Don't for one minute think that the administration is not stacking the teacher evaluations in a way that will allow them to get rid of whomever they want and keep the ones they want to keep!! It's the most toxic work environment you can imagine....worse than Sullivan's Landing!!
Start looking elsewhere good Teachers of New Bedford. You will be appreciated and valued. Under this administration you are peeing up a rope. It will never change here. You deserve better.
Your right about stacking the evaluations..heard principals were told to get rid of a certain amount at each school especially the ones on the top steps.
I understand that when the headmaster is doing evaluations he's bringing a consultant. No one seems to know the name of this woman. Lou, can my evaluator bring a friend?
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