CSA at Work: Small Change, Major Havoc
‘Supervisors of’ Face New Reorganization
by Anne Silverstein
The re-assignment of six Supervisors of Psychology from the recently disbanded Cluster 3 this summer has snowballed into an avalanche of questions about how some “Supervisors of…” should receive new assignments.
CSA has been in weekly, sometimes daily, conversations with the Department of Education since early August concerning Supervisors of Speech and Supervisors of Psychologists. The number of members affected has grown as the conversation topic has expanded: Now the assignments of about 30 Supervisors of Speech and 30 Supervisors of Psychology are at stake.
“We believe that district-like assignments make the most sense in providing support
services to schools,” said CSA President Ernest Logan.
With the current system of cluster assignments,
Supervisors of... may have schools in two or three boroughs.
“We’re wasting valuable time sitting in traffic and looking for parking spaces,” Mr. Logan said.
Summarizing the situation is difficult because the problem has grown – and changed – since the question of how to reassign six Supervisors of Psychology from Cluster 3 arose. Briefly here’s what happened, according to Audrey Fuentes, Executive Director Field Services, who has spearheaded the union’s efforts to bring member concerns to the DOE’s attention:
After the dissolution of Cluster 3 this summer, the DOE made tentative assignments for the six Supervisors of Psychology and planned to ask for feedback on the proposed placements in the remaining five Clusters, said Ms. Fuentes. During an early exchange with the DOE, Ms. Fuentes asked who would be the new rating supervisors for these members, and then opened the proverbial can of worms by asking, “What will happen to Cluster 3’s Supervisors of Speech?” Meanwhile, the six Supervisors of Psychology were tentatively reassigned.
By Aug. 29, the first day back for 10-month Supervisors, the DOE responded to Ms. Fuentes’
question with a proposal that perhaps all Supervisors of Speech should be aligned by Districts/Boroughs; the DOE then sent a survey to about 30 Supervisors of Speech assigned to Clusters to ask them their preferences. (Editor’s Note: Readers may be confused about the DOE asking anything about districts since from 2003 the DOE has assiduously battled to eliminate districts and assignments by district.)
Ms. Fuentes responded by expressing her concerns as to how member preferences will be handled, i.e. what would happen if two people wanted the same assignment, and what recourse members would have if they were unhappy. (She also asked to see the assignments for the Cluster 3 Supervisors of Psychology.) The DOE’s response was a little opaque, but ultimately said experience and prior work in a specific district was to be the criteria.
“Supervisors of Speech heard about the reassignments unofficially,” said Ms. Fuentes recently, “and there was an uproar from speech supervisors in terms of their assignments.” At this point, Ms. Fuentes asked Johannah Chase of the DOE’s Division of School Support and Instruction with whom she had been dealing, for a complete list of new assignments. “Our members were asking, ‘How come I got this district when I asked for another district?” Others felt they had been discriminated against, or thought one supervisor had been ‘favored’ over another.” Ms. Fuentes suggested these supervisors write to Ms. Chase.
“It was not clear to our members how decisions were made,” said Ms. Fuentes; the DOE’s attempts for transparency had not only fallen flat, but had created anger. So more meetings were held in September to discuss the issues. “We said, ‘If you’re going to ask for preferences as you make changes, you need to use seniority to make the decisions to be transparent and fair; you have to use a method that can be easily explained to the people involved.”
While the DOE has OK’ed assigning Supervisors of Speech in alignment with districts/ boroughs (since their jobs are closely aligned with schools,) it continues to say “no” to this method for placing Supervisors of Psychologists. The explanation is that Supervisors of Psychologists are aligned with clusters, which cross district and borough lines.
At a Sept. 26 meeting, the DOE said it was having trouble compiling seniority lists for Supervisors of Speech. By Oct. 26, Ms. Fuentes said, the list was to have been delivered to her but still hadn’t arrived. As for Supervisors of Psychologists, CSA is still pushing for the DOE to assign them by district/borough, but continues to meet resistance.
