This edition of the Notebook NEWSFLASH is also available online at: www.thenotebook.org/newsflash/2004/september
Notebook NEWSFLASH: September 2004
In contract talks, SRC calls for diminished teacher role in school management
Declaration rally highlights unity, reveals challenges
Questions raised about decision to close Wanamaker
Events
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As teachers’ contract negotiations enter a crucial phase, some education advocates are expressing concern about the School District’s desire to give principals more authority to act unilaterally in school decision-making.
In an effort not to disrupt the start of the new school year, the School Reform Commission (SRC) and the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers (PFT) union have agreed to extend the current contract from August 31 to September 10 while the two parties continue to negotiate over many of the SRC’s 419 proposed contract changes.
Reaffirming the SRC’s support for districtwide site-based hiring of teachers, known as “site selection,” SRC Chairman James Nevels called the proposed overhaul of the seniority-based teacher hiring and assignment system the District’s “top priority” in the contract negotiations during an August 26 interview with the Notebook. But he noted that the assignment process overhaul is just one leg of a “three-legged stool” that includes reducing healthcare costs and revamping school governance.
The SRC’s contract proposals are characterized by a shift away from a collaborative school management model towards a principal-controlled one where principals are no longer required to include teachers in certain school decisions. In several areas where teachers’ elected representatives at a school now play a role in decision-making – including teacher hiring – that role would be eliminated.
In the SRC’s contract proposals, PFT-elected building committees – now composed of at least one teacher and other unionized school staff members – would be supplanted by a principal-appointed “Education Leadership Team” at every school. This new team would be composed of the school’s administrative team and “other staff members deemed necessary and appropriate by the principal.”
According to the current teachers’ contract, principals and building committees “work cooperatively on items regarding school operations and questions relating to the implementation of the [contract],” including creating student rosters each spring, and deciding on changes to local school policy and some professional development issues.
Although he defended the move to a principal-controlled model of school operations, Nevels said “wise principals” concerned with increasing student achievement would see it in their “best interest” to include teachers on the proposed school leadership team.
“There has to be some individual who is directly accountable. We see that focal point in the principal,” commented Nevels.
He pointed out that the most recent principals’contract increased the stakes for the system’s principals by doing away with same-day tenure. Under the agreement, all principals are categorized as “acting” for their first two years and must attain a “satisfactory” personnel rating to merit a salary increase.
PFT president Ted Kirsch said the proposed changes to the teachers’ contract “severely limit the functions of PFT Building Committees” in the August edition of the PFT Reporter.
“These proposals have nothing to do with improving quality education for children. It’s all about management prerogative,” Kirsch said. “The SRC wants principals to be able to do what they want, when they want and to whomever they want.”
The current teachers’ contract enables school staff members to vote to create school-based personnel committees staffed by teacher, parent, and in some cases student representatives, and 44 schools currently use the process to fill teacher vacancies. But the personnel committee is not the model advanced by the SRC for conducting teacher selection.
Liza Herzog, director of research at the Philadelphia Education Fund (PEF) said that in expanding site selection, the District should see these site selection schools as a successful pilot program to be replicated districtwide.
“It is better to stick with the current system,” said Herzog. “Other [schools] should scale up that model.”
PEF, Philadelphia Citizens for Children and Youth (PCCY), and several other local organizations submitted a group statement to the SRC at their August 18 public meeting urging the Commission to include teachers, parents, and students in “real decision-making roles” by maintaining the current site selection model as the District moves to expand site selection districtwide.
“When applicants interview at a school site with the principal, teachers, parents, and students, they begin to understand the school’s students, mission, and curriculum and are better able to determine if the teaching assignment would be an appropriate match,” the groups’ statement said.
The proposed contract changes advanced by the SRC would give principals sole authority both to hire and to remove teachers in schools deemed “nonperforming” by state No Child Left Behind standards – as well as in new and replacement schools. There would be no personnel committee involved in teacher hiring in these schools. Under the current contract principals must adhere to a PFT-monitored disciplinary process before a teacher can be removed.
At so-called “performing” schools, the SRC’s contract proposals would empower a “staff selection committee” – composed of the school’s administrative team and two teachers – to make hiring decisions. Principals would “consult” with the school’s Educational Leadership Team and Home and School Association in forming the committee. No parent or student participation is required in the language put forth by the SRC, and teacher representatives would not be elected.
PFT spokeswoman Barbara Goodman said the SRC’s move to empower principals at the expense of teachers has “touched a nerve” with its 11,300 teacher members.
“Our teachers feel outraged by the proposal because they don’t feel like they are being treated like professionals,” she said.
Elizabeth Useem, senior researcher with Research for Action, said all principals should be required to work in collaboration with a hiring committee to choose new and transferring staff.
“The committee structure helps professionalize the hiring process so that teachers are selected solely on merit,” said Useem. “Principals acting alone are more vulnerable to pressures to hire friends and relatives.”
Useem also pointed out that “not including teachers in the hiring decisions at their schools is likely to increase animosity rather than fostering the collegiality that is an essential ingredient of school improvement.”
Nevels said he believes most principals would solicit “the input of various constituencies” in making personnel decisions, even if the teachers’ contract does not require it.
But Useem said giving principals unilateral authority over personnel decisions is misguided.
“In some schools, unskilled and unsupportive principals are a major reason why teachers transfer out. It makes little sense to have such principals manage the hiring process alone,” she said.
Clemente Middle School Principal Pat Mazzuca said while she understands “where the SRC is coming from” in moving towards increased principal control, a collaborative site selection model works best. Clemente is one of the 44 schools where teachers have voted to implement site selection.
“My leadership style has always been to solicit input from all stakeholders involved, and that means parents, students, and teachers,” Mazzuca said, who noted that Clemente’s site-based hiring committee has a history of reaching consensus.
Mazzuca added, “Every principal who hasn’t been involved in personnel hiring needs to receive professional development on how to best work in that type of a model.”
Site selection was one of the priority issues raised last spring by a coalition of 27 local groups known as the Teacher Equity Campaign when they presented a platform to the SRC to address the inequitable distribution of qualified teachers across the District.
But as the teachers’ contract talks come to a head, the coalition continues to advocate for a comprehensive approach to remedying teacher quality gaps districtwide by creating a package of “teacher incentive grants” for teachers at “hard-to-staff” schools with chronic teacher vacancies.
“Site selection alone won’t do the job,” said PCCY Executive Director Shelly Yanoff, whose organization was a driving force behind the creation of the campaign. “Schools that struggle the most to attract and keep qualified staff should have extra incentives to make their critical work more achievable.”
Financial incentives, reduced work loads, extra money for classroom supplies, smaller class size, and professional development and training opportunities could go a long way to better staffing struggling schools, she said.
The SRC’s published contract proposals made no mention of such incentives. But Nevels said he supports including a “pre-approved list of resources” for hard-to-staff schools in the contract.
Goodman of the PFT said instead of focusing on how teachers would be moved from school to school, the District should concentrate on increasing the pool of highly qualified teachers working in the District. She noted that 20 percent of Philadelphia’s teachers have emergency teaching certificates from the state.
“If this goal is to have every student have an experienced, qualified teacher, you can’t do that if 20 percent of your teachers are not yet qualified,” she said.
Other key provisions in the SRC’s proposed changes to the current teachers’
contract call for:
· Requiring teachers to pay up to 2 percent of their salary for health
insurance coverage
· Adding 26 minutes to the school day, while reducing elementary teachers’
lunch periods by 15 minutes
· Eliminating overtime pay for teachers who cover classes during their
prep period
· Ending the requirement that middle and high school teachers would not
have to teach more than 3 hours consecutively without a break
· Allowing teachers to be assigned without their consent to more than
five periods a week of teaching outside the subject area they were hired to
teach
· Allowing the use of “electronic devices” to monitor employees
without their consent.
The contract changes advanced by the SRC do not address compensation, but District CEO Paul Vallas said pay increases will be included in the final agreement.
“There will be no additional mandated instructional time without the School District paying for it,” Vallas said at an August 25 press conference.
Contact Notebook staff writer Beandrea Davis at 215-951-0330 x156 or beandrea@thenotebook.org.
The School District’s new set of school performance goals, called the
“Declaration
of Education,” is the focal point of the District back-to-school push
this year, which included an August 30 “March for Excellence” and
a $607,000 advertising campaign.
The District’s School Reform Commission (SRC) created the Declaration
of Education, an ambitious statement of 18
goals it wants to achieve by 2008 in the areas of academic achievement,
early childhood education, school safety, community participation, equity, and
school support operations.
“The academic achievement of all students in the School District of Philadelphia must improve,” the Declaration states. “The School Reform Commission (SRC) believes that all children can reach their learning potential and that the achievement gap can be eliminated.”
Several of the boldest targets for 2008 are in the area of academic achievement.
The Declaration states that:
· Eighty percent of students in grades 3-11 will score at proficient
or above on standardized tests in reading, math, and science. This year, student
proficiency rates on the PSSA, the state’s standardized test, averaged
about 30 percent – ranging from a low of 23 percent in 11th grade math
to a high of 41 percent on eighth grade reading.
· The high school graduation rate will be 85 percent. In 2003, only 52
percent of high school students graduated.
· Average SAT and ACT scores will meet or exceed the national average
by 2008. District students had an average combined score of 840 points on the
SAT in 2002. The national average is 1,000 points out of a possible 1,600.
The August 30 rally on the Parkway, billed as a display of unity in support
of the Declaration, also revealed some of the divisions and challenges the District
currently faces.
While parents representing the citywide Home and School Council and students
joined School District personnel and local officials in speaking publicly in
support of the Declaration at the rally, teachers were conspicuously absent.
Members of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers (PFT) union have expressed outrage in response to the School Reform Commission’s proposed changes to their contract, which both PFT and District leaders are hoping to finalize in early September. PFT spokeswoman Barbara Goodman said union leaders were unable to attend because of preparations for the PFT’s August 31 membership meeting, but said individual teachers did attend the Declaration event.
Kensington High School junior Michael Mangual, a member of the organizing group
Youth United for Change
(YUC), said he came to the rally to support the Declaration’s ideals,
but said the document is too “generalized” and not specific enough
to create real change.
YUC members handed out copies of their platform on how to improve Philadelphia
high schools at the rally. The platform calls for a variety of improvements
including allowing students to take textbooks home in all subjects and making
school counselors more available to students.
Carol Hemingway, president of Pennsylvania ACORN,
a community organizing group, said the District needs to expand its parent outreach
beyond simply recruiting parents to Home and School organizations. The Declaration
states that every school will have an active Home and School Association by
2008.
“The rally is a beginning,” said Hemingway, who represented ACORN
at the event. “What’s going to make [the Declaration] happen is
commitment” from the District and the community, she added.
Members of the John Wanamaker school community in North Philadelphia are expressing concerns about the abrupt announcement, made just before the school year’s end last June, that the District would permanently close the school at the end of the 2004-05 school year.
Wanamaker had been scheduled to drop seventh grade and serve grades 8-10 this fall as part of the process of being converted to a small high school under the leadership of its school manager, Temple University.
But due to the closing, 250 students in grades 7-9 transferred out and the school will serve only about 85 eighth graders when school opens.
Although District officials met with members of the school community to discuss the decision to close the school, public hearings were not held to enable community participation in the decision. Both District and Temple officials say the final decision to close the school was made by the District.
“It’s a disappointment not to be creating a high school, but it gives us a clear focus for our work in the next few years, which is to build a network of really great K-8 schools,” said John DiPaolo, Temple’s executive director for partnership schools.
Elverson, the other middle school in the North Philadelphia neighborhood surrounding Temple, is also scheduled to close at the end of the upcoming school year. District CEO Paul Vallas said K-8 conversions of the neighborhood’s elementary schools eliminated the need for middle schools in the Temple area.
Vallas said Wanamaker was already “seriously underpopulated” prior to the decision to close the school and it didn’t make sense to spend an estimated $16 million needed to fix the building’s extensive structural problems.
“There’s not the population to support another high school in the area. You’re just not going to open the building for the sake of having the building open,” Vallas said at a July 21 press briefing.
Vallas dismissed speculation that a deal was involved for the Wanamaker property, which directly adjoins the Temple campus.
“There’s no real estate deals in the works. We haven’t promised Temple the Wanamaker property,” he said.
Teachers interviewed by the Notebook said Wanamaker staff first got wind of the school’s closure on a local radio show when District CEO Paul Vallas confirmed rumors of the closing for a caller. School staff then initiated a meeting that took place with representatives from the District’s high school office, Temple, and the teachers’ union, where the District officially revealed that the school would close.
“I didn’t like the way [the District] went about it. It was very disrespectful,” said Rosaline Morgan, a physical education teacher at Wanamaker for 33 years. “I don’t think it was fair to our kids.” Morgan said she wondered why a new Wanamaker couldn’t be built.
Home and School Council President Patricia Raymond said parents also raised
concerns about the timing of the announcement to close Wanamaker.
Announcing Wanamaker’s closure in June meant that students missed the
crucial fall deadlines for choosing high schools – including applying
to selective admission schools – and teachers missed the spring deadline
to apply for voluntary transfers to teach in other schools.
Despite Wanamaker’s closing, Morgan said the three eighth grade teachers who will remain in the school this year have already met to create a plan for increasing student achievement in the upcoming year.
“We want to make sure that these kids get everything they possibly can to be academically ready to go onto high school,” said Morgan. “We want to do the best that we can for the kids.”
September 8: School Reform Commission Planning Meeting, 1 PM, School District of Philadelphia, 2120 Winter Street, 2nd floor Auditorium. To register to speak, call 215-299-7850 by 4:30 the day before the meeting.
September 9: “Getting Ready for School: New Policies and Plans”, 6-8 PM, 3828 Spring Garden St. Program will feature a presentation and Q & A with District Deputy Chief of Staff Claudia Averette. Sponsored by Sunnycrest Family Support Center. RSVP for the program by Sept. 3 to Angie Maury at 215-387-2050 x104.
September 10: Current teachers’ contract expires
September 13: Community Meeting on Policy 102, 5:30 PM, Friends Center, 1501 Cherry St. Meeting will address concerns raised about recent changes in District’s multiracial, multicultural, and gender fair education policy, formerly known as Policy 102. To learn more, contact Rita Adessa of Pennsylvania Lesbian and Gay Taskforce at plgtf@plgtf.org or 215-772-2001.
September 14: Citywide Public Action on School Safety, 6 PM, St. Matthew’s Church, 23rd & Fitzwater Sts. Event will focus on generating strategies to create safe pathways between home and school for Philadelphia’s children. Sponsored by Eastern Pennsylvania Organizing Project. To learn more, call EPOP at 215-634-8922.
September 15: School Reform Commission Action Meeting, 1 PM, School District of Philadelphia, 2120 Winter Street, 2nd floor Auditorium. To register to speak, call 215-299-7850 by 4:30 the day before the meeting.
September 18: Parent Resource Fair, 9 AM to 3 PM, Temple University Bell Tower, Berks Mall & Liacouras Walk, 1210 Berks St. Fair will include free workshops and provide information about free tutoring, after-school services, scholarship programs, and parent advocacy and support groups. Organized by the Consortium for Parent Information and Education (CPIE). For more information, call Germaine Edwards at 215-204-3000 or 1-800-892-5550.
September 22: Last day to register for Philadelphia Cares Serve-a-thon
in Philadelphia public schools.
On October 2, Greater Philadelphia Cares and School District will host 11th
annual marathon day of service at 150 District schools where 12,000 volunteers
will refurbish libraries and playground equipment, landscape green spaces, and
more. Register online at www.philacares.com or call 215-564-4544 for more information.
September 24: “Developing Effective Programs of Family and Community Involvement for Student Success,” PFT Building, 10 S. 19th Street, Pittsburgh, PA. A workshop conducted by Dr. Joyce Epstein and sponsored by the PA Parent Information and Resource Center. For more information, call 215-763-0883.
September 27: Community Meeting on Policy 102, 5:30 PM, Friends Center, 1501 Cherry St. Meeting will address concerns raised about recent changes in District’s multiracial, multicultural, and gender fair education policy, formerly known as Policy 102. To learn more, contact Rita Adessa of Pennsylvania Lesbian and Gay Taskforce at plgtf@plgtf.org or 215-772-2001.
September 2: Professional Development Day, Staff Only
September 3: Professional Development Day, Staff Only
September 6: Labor Day, all schools and District offices closed
September 7: First day for students in elementary and secondary grades
September 14: First day of kindergarten pupil attendance
September 16-17: Rosh Hashanah, all schools and administrative offices closed
The Notebook NEWSFLASH welcomes brief announcements of events addressing
issues of quality and equity in Philadelphia public schools. Email your submission
to flash@thenotebook.org with ‘coming
up’ in the subject line. We cannot guarantee the listing of your event.
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