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Catching Our Breath
Going About Our Business in a Year of Turmoil
Ernest A. Logan
CSA President
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June 2010
As another school year ends, we can hardly catch our breath as the initial budget cuts turn into year-end budget cuts and we hear rumors that the DOE’s mid-year so-called “consolidation” may become what it always was intended to be – a full-fledged reorganization. In a year when we’ve witnessed heart-stopping earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, a mayor skidding into an unlikely third term, and a flood of federal stimulus money merely backfilling huge budget holes, CSA members have calmly gone about the business of educating children no matter what financial situation or restructure du jour they’ve found themselves in.
In February, CSA’s supervisors and administrators carried on through the fourth DOE reorganization since 2002. The DOE replaced ISCs and SSOs with “clusters” in an expanded Children First Network. Principals and Assistant Principals pretty much rolled with the punches, but EAs were required to apply for new jobs … again. CSA negotiated with the DOE to make sure that EAs took their seniority and salaries with them to their new posts. Applying for jobs for the second time in three years made it a challenging year for EAs, softened slightly by performance differentials awarded for the first time after CSA persuaded the city to modify selection criteria to include EAs.
The closing of large schools has become as predictable as reorganizations, so it came as no surprise in February when the DOE announced the closing of 19 more. Although CSA has no quarrel with closing schools that fail after receiving full DOE support, we showed up at every DOE hearing to protest the way this was done. In many cases, the DOE didn’t ascertain whether superintendents and SSOs had provided supports and guidance. In fact, evidence showed that some superintendents never showed their faces before announcing a school was closing. And there was evidence that these institutions were overwhelmed with ELL and specialneeds students. In March, in a dramatic response to a UFT/NAACP lawsuit, a judge reversed the Chancellor’s decision to close the schools. The city’s appeal is ongoing while the schools remain open.
Some think closing traditional schools is part of a hidden agenda to open lots of charters. Because charters are a hot trend with the DOE, critics suspect that they receive preferential treatment. With President Obama and Education Secretary Duncan under the same charter spell, any cap on charters has made it hard for states to win federal Race to the Top (RTTT) grants. All considered, this year the charter school conversation turned into a shouting match that had little to do with improving education. Because CSA welcomes charters, with oversights, as a supplement to traditional public schools, we’ve done our best to modulate the conversation. (We have members at nine charter schools, and more will be coming on board, I’m sure.) We continue to address the legislature on ways to treat traditional as well as charter schools fairly, and in May we issued a Memo of Opposition to a sloppy Senate bill that made no attempt to correct a funding formula that’s unfair to charters or provide worker protections.
Until RTTT concludes in September, the rhetoric on charters will remain heated. Winning a grant could bring NYS as much as $700 million. President Obama’s RTTT makes generous innovation grants to selected states for turning around schools. After losing the first-round competition, NYS went forward this month with a second application. Winning in round two could pay off, but it could also jeopardize collective bargaining. CSA has been immersed in related conversations in Albany, particularly because all options for turnaround schools mandated in RTTT could result in the removal of Principals and Assistant Principals from under-performing schools, regardless of circumstances. Without thoughtful safeguards, short-term funding could bring long-term pain.
Problems for low-performing schools will escalate if the city continues to reduce Day Care for working families. A growing number of children will enter first grade unprepared and sometimes with special needs left unaddressed. This year, the assault on city-funded Day Care again spiraled out of control, when ACS, the social service agency in charge, said it would close16 more programs and send the children to centers farther from home. More recently, ACS came up with a scheme called EarlyLearnNYC that will fund fewer slots, serve fewer children and shut down many more small community-based centers. Meanwhile, the city has been discouraging teachers and administrators by canceling one contract negotiation after another. The truth is that the universal pre-K system – including city-funded Day Care – is beyond the abilities of ACS. It needs to be replaced by a system under the expert eye of DOE. To start that ball rolling, CSA has put forward a bill in Albany to study administrative control of early childhood education.
Moving ahead in my second term as CSA President, I’ll continue to fight for a fair Day Care contract and an early childhood system that is seamless and comprehensive and to reach a new contract for our thousands of DOE members. Having been re-elected by acclamation last November, my fellow officers and I are acutely aware of the gratitude we owe our tireless in-service members and exceptionally active retirees. New challenges await us, many starkly economic. One challenge will involve the city’s plan to overhaul special education, mainstreaming thousands of special needs children into local schools. While it’s clear that the responsibility will fall squarely on the shoulders of Principals and Assistant Principals, it is not at all clear if you will be given the resources to do right by the students during a time of treacherous budget cuts. With this and every other formidable situation that comes our way; we will stand together and, as usual, make things work for children.
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