New Rochelle School Union Shows Fortitude and Futility in Union Negotiations

Every employer, including schools, hire folks in similar fashion: Impressive credentials on paper, they interview well and their references check out. Every unionized employer envisions having poor performing employees and because of this, there is always a section in the collective bargaining agreement whereby progressive discipline is in place so that an unsatisfactory employee is warned several times up to and including termination. I have been involved in this process a thousand times in 20 years. Public schools are different, even here in New Rochelle. Since we are not accustomed to firing poor-performing teachers, we don’t even think of doing anything new or different about poor performing teachers. Year after year, principals and senior school administrators endure the cry of parents, students and even their own staff about what to do about these bad teachers. Please note that the overwhelming majority of teachers in our schools are good teachers. I just find it hard to believe that FUSE would honestly say that ALL of the teachers continue to be good after they attain tenure. And I’m sure many of you in the community have the names of some really bad teachers you’ve complained about over the years who you may be pleasantly surprised are still teaching and teaching the same way as when you noted their poor teaching style.
So in a way, we are now fortunate to have the possibility of getting awarded the Race to the Top monies that the federal government will soon be sending to NY. There will now be a provision to evaluate all teachers and see how they are doing in terms of their success in promoting excellence in their classroom.
In anticipation of these new beginnings, let me suggest that the school district of New Rochelle propose to FUSE during upcoming union negotiations that if a teacher is a poor performer, you freeze their salary for that year; they involuntarily forgo their annual increase as per the collective bargaining agreement. Is this possible? You bet. It does not violate any state or federal law. How could FUSE refuse this measure of responsibility? How could they subscribe to a policy that all teachers are good and continue to promote mediocre teachers in tandem with good teachers? Hypocrisy? Certainly unfair to those good teachers who have be lumped in with bad teachers. You be the judge. Does the schools district have the courage to propose this? Have the schools been evaluating tenure teachers with such regularity that this type of review would be possible? I don’t know. I don’t think we’ve been good at evaluating ALL of the teachers. Will the school’s union negotiator, the law firm that has singularly and without board participation, negotiated on behalf of the schools for years, have the courage to agree to this or will they say “well other districts would be upset”. Do we care what other districts think? Is there enough leadership in our leadership to suggest this at the next round of union negotiations?

Have the courage; have the fortitude – Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, “I will try again tomorrow.” (MA Radmacher-social commentator/artist)