NYC to close 'rubber rooms' for teachers

[tonysam]

Big story; I just saw this over at the Gotham Schools blog:

Mayor Bloomberg and the city's teachers' union are set to announce today an agreement that will shutter the controversial teacher reassignment centers known as "rubber rooms," The Post has learned.

The centers won't close until the fall under the deal, sources said.

The centers house more than 600 teachers accused of misbehavior -- ranging from educational incompetence to sexual abuse -- who wait for hearings for months and years on end while doing nothing at full salary.

The Post has campaigned against rubber rooms for months. Columnist Andrea Peyser wrote in February, "Rubber rooms have become the symbol of everything in city government that makes one's head want to explode. These oases of waste and neglect exist in all five boroughs, playing host to a whopping 660 educators who've been accused of everything from sexual abuse and stealing to incompetence."

Under the deal, teachers accused of lesser charges will now report to Department of Education administrative offices or schools to perform clerical duties, sources said.

The city will also hire more arbitrators and set a strict time limit on the length of investigations in order clear up the logjam in disciplinary hearings.

NY Post


Interesting this is coming out right before the premiere of the documentary about these rooms, which is set for tomorrow night.

[Smarmie Doofus]

1. Interesting indeed.

>>>>Interesting this is coming out right before the premiere of the documentary about these rooms, which is set for tomorrow night.>>>>

Also curious that it happened one week after UFT's Mulgrew was reelected with 91% of the vote.

I'm withholding judgment. The devil here may be in the details.

[tonysam]

2. Details mentioned here

NBC reports the following:

* A teacher will only be able to be removed from a classroom for 60 days. If by then the teacher has not been charged, he or she can return to the classroom unless there are serious accusations involved.
* The deal gives the city greater ability to suspend teachers without pay in more severe cases, and saves taxpayers from spending $30 million a year to pay teachers to essentially do nothing.
* The hearing process will be expedited in part by hiring more hearing officers to adjudicate. In less serious cases, there will be an expedited hearing processs in which the case will be resolved in three hearings over a period of two weeks.



The key is who doesn't get paid in the more "severe" cases. Look for these to be expanded to a wide level - like anything having to do with a child. I'm not talking things like sexual charges (which is already a reason to not get paid - and teachers have been exonerated based on false charges). I'm thinking things like ANY physical confrontation. Who knows what else? Will there be enough ambiguity to give the DOE wide latitude not to pay people?

And what are "serious" accusations? Does anyone trust the UFT to assure bullet proof protections? Will they tell you to file a useless grievance? Expect a report from experts Jeff K and James E on the ICE blog soon.

Ed Notes

Hell, I wasn't paid while I was "suspended" for eight months because those bastards at WCSD wanted me to settle. Mind you, this was over a fucking clerical error on an FMLA form, which the principal lied and said I committed "dishonesty," "negligent of duty," "inefficient," and a host of other slanders resulting from my having been so seriously ill.

[tonysam]

3. Gotham Schools blog has more

To speed up the hearing process, the city plans to increase the number of arbitrators who hear teachers’ cases from 23 to 39, and to increase the number of days per month arbitrators hear cases from five to seven. The city is accordingly also planning to hire more lawyers and investigators who handle cases of teacher misconduct and incompetence, city officials said. Union officials said they would push for more cases to be settled rather than go through hearings, which would speed up the process even more.

Under the new process, the city will have 60 days after removing a teacher from the classroom to bring charges of misconduct and 10 days to charge a teacher with incompetence. If the DOE fails to bring charges during that time, the teacher will automatically return to the classroom. This is a major change from the previous system, under which the city’s six month deadline to issue charges was sometimes ignored. Some teachers sat in reassignment centers for months or even years without charges.

City officials are also hoping to shorten the time between when charges are filed and when teachers’ hearings begin. Under the new system, hearings must start two weeks after teachers request them. Most teachers are now supposed to have 10 to 14 hearing days over the next two months, and arbitrators will now be expected to hand down a decision within a month of the final hearing. Extensions to this period under “extraordinary circumstances” are legally allowed, but yesterday’s agreement instructs hearing officers to make extensions “the exception and not the rule.”

The deal calls for the small minority of teachers charged with non-fireable offenses to go through an
even faster process of a 3-day hearing.

More

"Incompetence," of course, is whatever a principal says it is. It's typically leveled at more experienced teachers.