Opposed
Dear Oppositionists:
Will DC public school teachers fall for the union-busting contract
that Chancellor Michelle Rhee wants to offer them? Are they willing to
trade away both their seniority rights and tenure in exchange for the
potential of being given performance bonuses based on improved student
test scores — bonuses that aren’t funded and guaranteed by the city
government, but may be available for only as long as private foundations
are willing to pay them? To me, as I’ve argued before, the answer is
obvious and easy, but now there’s evidence of how teachers feel about
the deal that’s being offered to them. The American Federation of
Teachers, the national organization to which the Washington Teachers
Union belongs, commissioned a survey of WTU members to determine their
opinion. The firm that did the survey, Peter D. Hart Research
Associates, Inc., has released a summary of its findings, “WTU Members
Oppose Contract Proposal,” http://www.dcpswatch.com/wtu/080815.htm.
Here’s the key summary paragraph: “WTU members are aware of the
contract negotiations, and they are highly dissatisfied with the
proposed agreement. Concerns about seniority and tenure protections and
tying teacher compensation to test scores trump other concerns, and most
members are not willing to sacrifice these protections for the chance to
receive large increases in salaries, bonuses, and benefits, especially
because funding for these increases is not guaranteed.” Apologists for
Chancellor Rhee and Mayor Fenty, who support their efforts to break the
teachers union and who want to paint DC teachers in the worst possible
light, will scoff at this survey. Of course, they will say, the majority
of teachers in the DC system are bad and incompetent, and they’re just
trying to protect themselves from losing their jobs. The great
administrators that Rhee has hired would clean them out of the system,
and replace them with wonderful teachers who are begging for teaching
jobs in DC schools, jobs that under the new contract will offer them no
job security and no reward for seniority.
There’s another way of looking at the situation, one that rests
less on negative stereotypes of teachers and relies less on unfounded
faith in the wisdom and competence of Rhee’s new administrators. At
Wilson High School, we have just had a graphic example of how insecure a
teaching job can be under the whims of Rhee’s administrators, even for
a teacher as admired and beloved as Dr. Arthur Siebens, whose students
have written about him several times recently in themail. Why on earth
should teachers give up whatever protection tenure can give them against
arbitrary and capricious decisions that they “don’t fit in” with
the new order? What have Rhee and Fenty done to earn the trust of
teachers? Why should teachers believe that they won’t be treated just
as shabbily as Siebens, that they won’t be scorned and swept out by
young, arrogant, and inexperienced school officials who are convinced
that they know it all and that anyone who was in the Washington school
system before they took over should be “excessed” and disposed of?
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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Tenleytown Follies
Sue Hemberger, Friendship Heights, smithhemb@aol.com
In this week’s episode, Mary Cheh makes her letters to Neil Albert
public. And standards are lowered, but still not met. When
Councilmembers Cheh and Brown wrote to the deputy mayor in early April,
after seeing all three submissions received in response to the
Tenleytown Request for Proposals, they stated “we cannot support any
of the three proposals in their current form.” By late July, they are
saying, “one possible way to move this project forward is to revert
back to some of the features of the other developers’ plans.” In
other words (judging from the suggestions that follow), if only LCOR
would adopt Roadside’s (hitherto unacceptable) plan, we could support
this project. Meanwhile the affordable housing requirement for the
project has fallen from 30 percent to 8 percent (less than would be
required under mandatory inclusionary zoning). And Cheh and Brown find
themselves begging for assurances (from an agency that has just betrayed
their trust) that we’ll break even or not lose too much by accepting
this deal — “no loss of “green space for Janney,” “no undue
delay in building the library,” “LEED Silver” (when the DC Public
Library’s architects think they have achieved Gold.)
While it’s a step in the right direction to see councilmembers
beginning to set standards for public land deals, Cheh and Brown’s “essential
ingredients” don’t include the most basic features that should be
necessary to justify devoting part of this heavily used campus to
private development. There’s no requirement that Janney’s facilities
needs be met before land is devoted to non-educational uses, that the
school be modernized faster than it would without a public-private
partnership (a requirement present in their April letter), or that the
deal produce a better library than we’d otherwise have.
Is anyone at the table actually looking out for the community’s
interests? When we point out that our facilities needs are being
sacrificed to build apartments that could be built on private land in
the immediate vicinity, we’re told not to worry because the Deputy
Mayor for Planning and Economic Development and LCOR have “just begun
negotiations.” But there’s a difference between having made no
progress over the past seven months and “just beginning.” LCOR
submitted their proposal the first week in January and they haven’t
budged since, despite being asked (at least twice) by DMPED to make a
better offer. Why should they? They were selected despite the fact that
a united community and the only two councilmembers to weigh in all
considered their proposal unacceptable. As long as these councilmembers
keep lowering their expectations, it’s just a waiting game.
And experience tells them it could be worth the wait. Last time LCOR
negotiated with DC government, they emerged with (and quickly sold!) a
property tax break lasting more than twenty years for the apartment
tower they built. And Oyster’s students lost more than half of their
already comparatively small campus. This whole episode is a case study
in why we need to reform (or at least enforce) our process for disposing
of public property. The threshold question here should have been “is
there land at this site that is no longer needed for public use?” But
DMPED chose to skip that step (also known as the surplusing decision)
and the council chose not to object. As a result, this project has been
driven by ideology and wishful thinking rather than an analysis of
public facilities needs and the economic and physical constraints of
this particular site. When every submission the RFP yielded was
unacceptable because it didn’t provide the “hoped for” benefits,
that should have functioned as a reality check for the mayor and the
councilmembers who urged this project forward in the first place. It
certainly did for the community — once people saw the actual
proposals, a consensus quickly emerged that a public-private partnership
was not the right approach to this site. The mayor created that
consensus (by issuing the RFP) and then ignored it. The question now is
whether Councilmembers Cheh and Brown (and the council generally) will
stop this madness or just content themselves with wringing their hands,
crossing their fingers, and passing the buck. Stay tuned.
I’ve posted the text of both Cheh/Brown letters at http://tinyurl.com/5npmnk.
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Should DC Teachers Swap Raises for Job
Protections?
Candi Peterson, saveourcounselors@gmail.com
WTU President George Parker caused a controversy by releasing an
incomplete tentative agreement, which has caused many to weigh in and
attempt to negotiate teacher contract talks on blogs, directly with
Chancellor Rhee, and in the press. It is baffling that Mr. Parker
demonstrates an unwillingness to heed the legal analysis of O’Donnell,
Schwartz and Anderson, the DC law firm under contract to the WTU. He
seems determined to release the Rhee/Parker proposal by mid-September
despite its many legal flaws.
On August 1, the American Federation of Teachers secured a six-page
legal opinion at the direction of the WTU Executive Board. Attorney
Jackson delivered the legal analysis to WTU Board members last Saturday.
It refers to the WTU contract information packet, which was disseminated
in recent informational sessions. This packet indicates that seniority
would no longer play a role in hiring, excessing, or placement of DC
teachers in both the Red or Green tiers (page 12). The legal analysis,
titled “Seniority for Teachers,” specifically states, “this
proposal replaces teachers rights with automatic termination in the
Green system and eventual termination in the Red system.” The analysis
notes “DC teachers would lose their ‘career status’ as tenured
professionals and the characteristics of tenure” and concludes, “this
proposal suggests a quick method to terminate teachers without due
process.” Further, the legal analysis reveals that under the proposal,
“excessing would seem almost always to lead to termination. Although
excessed teachers could be placed in another position, this happens only
if there is mutual consent between a teacher and a principal. If mutual
consent cannot be reached what happens to the excessed teacher depends
on whether he is in the Red system or Green system. If he is in the Red
system, he has three options: early retirement with full benefits if he
has more than twenty years of creditable service, a $25,000 buy out, a
one-year grace period including salary benefits to secure another
position. If the excessed teacher is in the Green system, however, he is
automatically separated from the school system.” However, if the
excessed teacher in the Red system does not find a job within one year,
he will then be terminated.
Given that six hundred DC teachers were excessed this school year,
many argue that we are headed down a very slippery slope should we
choose to support this proposal. Should DC teachers swap pay raises for
job protections? Whatever our members decide, it is imperative that
teachers have as much information as possible before making an informed
decision on whether to vote yes or no on a tentative agreement. Please
join me and five of our WTU Executive Board members who have already
requested that this legal opinion be released to WTU members by writing
to Mr. George Bordenave, AFT/WTU National Representative, at gbordena@aft.org
and to the American Federation of Teachers President, Ms. Randi
Weingarten, at rweingar@aft.org.
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Develop DC Tutorial Services for 2008
Karl Rudder, krudder222@aol.com
The DC Public Schools should make an intense effort to provide
tutorial workshops for parents at the beginning of the 2008 school year.
The challenge is not to find a tutor able to visit a child once or twice
a week. The real challenge is to develop the tutorial skills of parents,
especially for elementary school students, and to allow DC youth to
receive positive and skilled tutorial assistance from their parents and
concerned community adult neighbors during this entire upcoming school
year. The myth that a child can become educated only between the hours
of 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. needs to be dismissed.
A child will not learn how to walk, speak, or even learn how to go to
the bathroom without continuous practice. We all know this, yet too many
have resigned the academic development of too many children to only what
the child can possibly experience during the school day. There are only
four report cards for the entire school year; that isn’t enough to
develop a strong team effort between parents and teachers. The ability
of parents, teachers, and school administrators to cooperate will be
determined by their ability to communicate. Having monthly exchanges
between teachers and parents will more than double the current effort,
and the success of exchanges between parents and teachers will benefit
DCPS students. Parents, especially of elementary school age children,
need to develop positive experiences at home for their children. A
positive peer influence can be achieved by parents working with each
other to provide their children and their children’s friends more
frequent opportunities to develop their academic study skills and their
reading, spelling, handwriting, and basic writing skills. How can
children learn fractions, decimals, basic algebra, and geometry when
they haven’t yet developed basic skills in adding, subtracting,
multiplying, and dividing whole numbers? Must a child learn how to enjoy
the experience of reading, writing, and basic math only from a highly
trained and skilled educational expert?
The vast resources within the DC community need to be coordinated
effectively to provide far more effective tutorial assistance for DC
youth. The many graduates and undergraduate students at Howard
University, the University of the District of Columbia, and the many
other local universities can join forces and be the army to assist many
of our little brothers and sisters during this school year. DC can help
start an educational revolution in this country and provide a wonderful
model for other cities to follow by employing the resources of this
community to improve the quality of education that is being given to all
our children. The active members of the many churches in every community
of the District of Columbia can in the near future coordinate their time
and efforts to provide very effective tutorial services for the children
within their communities. Can you imagine the power of just three to
five churches in your community if they worked together during the
upcoming school year? The thousands of proud graduates of the DC Public
Schools who are still here in Washington can coordinate our vast
resources to develop the studying and test taking skills of our little
brothers and sisters in the DC Public Schools during the upcoming school
year of 2008-2009. If we limit the resources of a tutorial program for
DC youth, that will limit the effectiveness of that program.
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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
Fun Family Films Under the Stars, August 20-21
John A. Stokes, john.astokes@dc.gov
The District’s Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) will hold
“Fun Family Films Under The Stars,” its 2008 Family Movie Night
Season, this summer. “Fun Family Films Under The Stars,” which
continues until late-September, will afford residents of all ages and
families of all sizes the opportunity to enjoy viewing the free,
family-oriented films in DPR’s outdoor settings. As in previous years,
viewers are invited to bring their own snacks, chairs, and blankets.
This year, District residents will have a greater selection of viewing
locations. Movies will be shown from 8:45 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.
Community members who arrive early enough for each screening will
have the opportunity to place a vote between two movies that may be
shown that evening. The movie that receives the most votes will be
shown.
Wednesday, August 20, DC Village, Lane SW, Bldg. 1A
Thursday, August 21, Valley Green, Valley Avenue and Wheeler Road, SW
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CLASSIFIEDS — FOR SALE
Why and How Women Are Exploited by Men Worldwide, by Tolu2, ISBN
0-9724595-0-8. This clever book is a personal life guide for females
worldwide from 9 years old to 109 years old. Hurry up and get your
copies either at Tolu2Books.com or Trover Books Store. Tolu2Books, PO
Box 48331, Washington, DC 20002-0331, 331-4418. Trover Books, 221
Pennsylvania Avenue, SE, 547-2665. The perfect gift for all the females
you know.
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