Union Battles for Assistant Principals
by Anne Silverstein
CSA continues its battle with the city over snow days and parking permits as well as with negotiations about
Assistant Principal pay at transformation schools.
With regard to transformation schools, CSA has filed a grievance that all the supervisory staff at a school so labeled should receive a low-performing school differential as per the CSA contract.
“By definition,” said CSA General Counsel Bruce Bryant, “these schools are low-performing.” Assistant Principals at the 11 NYC transformation schools have complained to CSA about their increased workload, Mr.
Bryant said, and the union’s officers have been proactive in dealing with the DOE. The city is expected to announce
its next round of transformation schools in the next few weeks. Last year, the DOE designated 11 schools as
transformation schools. “Transformation” is one of the four models of “turnaround schools.” Each model is a distinct strategy for improving school performance. (To read about these models, visit the NYS website.) School districts that implement these strategies are eligible for federal funding through the state.
All four models require the removal of the Principal. CSA went to bat for the Principals at the 11 schools and negotiated a Mentor Principal title to prevent the forced removal of a school’s Principal who had tenure. (Of the 11 schools, six had tenured Principals.)
On March 17, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced that NYS will receive $45.9 million to turn around its persistently lowest achieving schools through the School Improvement Grants program. The funds are part of $546 million available to states for the SIG program in fiscal year 2010. In fiscal year 2009, states received a total of $3.5 billion for the SIG program.
The union’s three-year battle with the city over parking permits moved into its next stage recently after the city appealed a trial level court’s ruling in CSA’s favor to the NYS Appellate Division. The city has filed its brief and CSA expected to file its brief by the end of March. CSA won its first victory in the August 2009 when an arbitrator ruled in the union’s favor. The custodian’s union, Local 891, received a similar decision from PERB, Mr. Bryant said, and both Local 891 and the UFT are filing amicus briefs in CSA’s appeal. “We are the lead case in this dispute,” Mr. Bryant said.
This legal battle began after Mayor Bloomberg announced in January 2008 that he wanted every department to reduce the number of parking permits distributed to employees because of rampant abuse of the coveted permits throughout the city. Parking near schools is difficult for employees especially for Education Administrators, who often travel between schools on a daily basis; they told the union they waste an inordinate amount of time looking for parking.
Mr. Bryant expected the hearing to be held when the Appellate Division is next in session in May; he expected to have a decision in time for the fall, although the city could appeal the decision to the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, which would delay distribution again.
CSA has also been fighting about a number of snow days. One grievance concerns March 2, 2009, Feb. 10, 2010 and Feb. 26, 2010. The cases were filed on behalf of non-school based personnel who were required to be at work even though
schools were closed. The first hearing before an arbitrator was held Jan. 24; a second hearing will be scheduled this spring. “Extensive efforts have been made to settle this case,” said David Grandwetter, CSA Counsel, “but the DOE would not agree to the proposals we put forward.”
On Dec. 26, NYC was whalloped by its sixth worst snowstorm in its record-keeping history, and the city’s snow removal efforts were dismal; despite Mayor Bloomberg’s dictum that city government would remain open, many city employees
simply could not get to work including many of CSA’s Education Administrators. CSA has filed a grievance on their behalf because they were docked a day’s vacation. (Mayor Bloomberg also told New Yorkers to stay off the streets to keep roadways clear for emergency vehicles and to avoid accidents, but apparently city workers didn’t count in that decree.)
Mayor Bloomberg closed schools and government offices on Jan. 27 but changed his mind mid-morning. City workers were told they would be docked a day if they didn’t come in.
When asked about this on Feb. 2, Mr. Bloomberg said, “I don’t know how you were brought up; I was always brought up that you had an obligation to work. Maybe it’s different in your world … When you look out the window and it’s not as bad as you thought it was going to be, maybe a bell should go off and say, ‘Hey, maybe I can get to work today.'"
Mr. Bloomberg apparently does live in a different world, responded union officials. “When we’re told we should stay home, we do and don’t second guess a decision made at the top,” a union official said.
CSA worked out a deal with the DOE that those CSA members who could not get to work had to provide their supervisors with a written explanation to avoid losing a vacation day.
