Decisions Result in New Members
by Anne Silverstein
CSA’s legal and grievance team has been working on several fronts for the past few months with much of its attention focused on Restart schools as outlined in the story above this one. But a number of other issues have also been front-and-center. (CSA’s grievance concerning parking permits suffered a set back when the Appellate Division ruled in the city’s favor. Story, page 5.)
• UNIT CLARIFICATION: CSA is in the process of settling a unit clarification with PERB that resulted in the addition of five new members for the union. The NYC Department of Education posted a number of new jobs as managerial and the union thought they should be titles belonging to CSA’s bargaining unit. CSA filed a “unit clarification proceeding” with PERB last spring.
The upshot is that of the nine contested positions, five have been converted to CSA titles, two were never filled and subsequently were dropped, and two were not instructional titles, said General Counsel Bruce Bryant.
• NEW EDUCATION ADMINISTRATOR POSITIONS: As part of CSA’s agreement to negotiate with the DOE over the eight Restart middle schools, (see above story,) the DOE has agreed to place the following new liaison managers in the CSA bargaining unit: two Senior Directors, Office of New Schools; Director of Implementation and Support of the Office of New Schools; Director of Teacher Effectiveness Design Transformation/Restart; SIG Grants Manager; Post Secondary Readiness Support Manager; and four School Implementation Managers. These positions will be funded through the federal School Improvement Grants.
• EVALUATION LITIGATION: A little background is necessary here to understand the relevance to CSA.
On Aug. 24, NYSUT prevailed in its lawsuit against the NYS Regents concerning the new teacher evaluation tool created by the state.
The judge in the case ruled that the state’s regulations incorrectly deemed that 40 percent of a teacher’s rating could come from one set of data, i.e. state student achievement tests. The judge also ruled that the state had incorrectly ordered how the remaining 60 percent of the rating should be calculated. The state’s regulations specified
that 40 of those 60 points come from classroom observation and no more than 5 points could be assigned for an individual’s participation in professional development. The judge said the state could not dictate these numbers and that how much these items are worth must be negotiated through the collective bargaining process.
In addition, the state’s rule said that teachers needed a grade of 65 or above to be deemed effective. The judge said this was inconsistent with the new state law. That law specifically states that teachers’ ratings would not be based on student achievement data alone. But in order to get 65 points in total, a teacher would have to get all 40 points of the student achievement portion. The judge cited the law, which calls for “multiple measures” for a teacher, and struck down that provision.
(Visit this website to download a PDF of the decision. www.nysut.org/files/nysut_v_board_of_regents_decision.pdf.)
The state is appealing this decision. The union plans to file an amicus brief in support of CSA’s objections to the regulations, which are similar to NYSUT’s objections.
In addition, State Education Commissioner John King has signed a stipulated agreement with CSA and three state organizations about the new evaluation regulations and their application to members of CSA and the New York State Federation of School Administrators as well as the two other state organizations that represent school administrators, Empire State and SAANYS.
The agreement says that the State Education Department will not enforce the provisions that apply to Principals that are similar to any of the provisions set aside by the judge in the NYSUT decision.
CSA agreed to abide by any future court decisions as well.
• SNOW DAYS: An arbitrator’s hearing this fall concerning three disputed snow days – two from the winter of 2010 and one from 2009 – was canceled by the arbitrator (due to a family emergency.) The case has been rescheduled in January.
