Principals Stymied: CSA: Klein No Help With New UFT Pact

Principals Stymied
CSA: Klein No Help With New UFT Pact

JILL LEVY: In Klein's kitchen. The burden put upon the city's school administrators to implement the contract agreement between the United Federation of Teachers and the city has Council of School Supervisors and Administrators President Jill Levy questioning Chancellor Joel I. Klein's sanity.

"Does he think an elementary school with two school aides can reproduce week after week hundreds of letters to parents [about implementing the changes]?" Ms. Levy said during a Jan. 11 phone interview. "Is the Chancellor nuts?"

Many Problems Cited

The massive paperwork involved is just the beginning of Ms. Levy's objections to what she views as an accelerated timetable to put into place another union's contract provisions - even as her members continue to work for more than 30 months under an expired pact.

"I'm almost speechless," Ms. Levy said. "People are so angry with the Chancellor that he gives us all this work to take on without a contract. We have to look to our members in terms of our contract. If something is grievable, we will grieve it."

The DOE did not answer a request seeking comment, but the UFT saw mixed results to this point on implementation.

"What we've found is that in the schools where the Principal and the chapter leader are working collaboratively, they are working things out," said Michael Mendel, Director of Staff at UFT. "If they can work it out in a good way, they are doing it. In places where the Principal and the chapter are not working together, there are issues."

No Busing Plan

But the CSA President pointed out numerous logistical problems that still exist, despite the Department of Education's insistence that the implementation be in place by Feb. 6.

For instance, the contract stipulates that Teachers are to provide 37.5 minutes a day of extra help for students. However, Ms. Levy said that there is no plan in place for how busing will operate.

"Some schools will have the buses wait around, I guess," she said. "Some are trying to have the buses make their runs and then be back 37 minutes later. You tell me how that's going to work."

In order to get the UFT to agree to the extra help time, the DOE gave back 10 minutes of the regular school day, leaving Principals to reorganize their schools' entire day on the fly.

"So you've got lots of parents who will be picking up their children late," the CSA leader said. "And who will be responsible for the extra time, watching the kids? We will."

Late Hours Ahead

Some CSA members have said that a realistic estimate of the implementation's burden means they will be staying until 6 p.m. most nights for at least the first few weeks.

Reading about the sheer number of changes being mandated by the DOE left the CSA leader fatigued.

"I couldn't even plod my way through it," Ms. Levy said. "Given the amount of stuff that they have to do, not only regarding implementation, but in addition to all the other things we had to do, I got halfway through it and had to shut down the computer."

The schedule has only inflamed an already angry CSA to consider more direct action against the city in pursuit of a new contract.

CSA Plans to Pressure

"We've basically ruled out a strike, of course," she said. "But options include demonstrations, bringing parents into the mix, and doing anything else that unions have to do to bring our message across."

In the meantime, her belief in Chancellor Klein's repeated assertions that the city is "negotiating in earnest" has ebbed.

"It is clear to me that Joel speaks with a forked tongue," she said. "Maybe they're negotiating with Ernest [Logan, the CSA vice president], but they're sure not doing it in earnest."