UFT/Green Dot Accord: Higher Pay, No Tenure

The Chief-Leader/Adrienne Haywood-James 'GREEN' GOES UNION: United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and Green Dot charter school executives Jeffrey T. Leeds and Steve Barr sign contract agreement for a school in The Bronx while its Principal, Ashish Kapadia, and Teacher Lauren Inzelbuch bear witness.

The United Federation of Teachers June 23 announced a contract agreement with the Green Dot New York Charter School in The Bronx, which does not grant Teachers tenure but pays salaries 14 percent above the standard city rate.

"This agreement is based on a very basic premise, that Teacher professionalism is the surest path to sustained student achievement," departing UFT President Randi Weingarten said before signing the contract with Green Dot founder and chairman Steve Barr and Green Dot New York chairman Jeffrey T. Leeds.

'Getting Support to Succeed'

"At its core, this contract is about shared expectations and shared responsibility. Our educators are being asked to take a leading role in the success of their school, and they're being provided with the professional supports needed to help make that success possible," she added.

Although the UFT has clashed with some charter school operators whose schools are not unionized and where Teacher turnover is relatively high, the Green Dot program, which began in Los Angeles, encourages its staff to be represented by unions and partnered with the UFT for the opening of its first school in New York, in the South Bronx.

The specialized contract was developed over the last six months through coast-to-coast negotiations, producing a deal that pays higher salaries because of a longer school day and a longer school year. Student-to-Teacher ratios are capped at 20 to 1, with a maximum class size of 30.

The other major difference from the citywide UFT contract is the lack of tenure, with employees instead guaranteed due-process rights and a probationary period of only one year, instead of the typical three. Ms. Weingarten indicated that she believed the Green Dot contract protected Teachers just as strongly as the citywide one does.

'Due Process, No Job Guarantee'

"The issue in terms of tenure is a complicated one, because tenure itself essentially means what we've negotiated," she said. "What tenure means is that before somebody is fired, there should be due process, a due-process proceeding, and the standard should be just cause . . . if we can de-link the idea that tenure equals lifetime job security, which we clearly have done in this school, that is a good thing.

"There are folks that sometimes think tenure means a job for life, which it does not mean . . . it is simply due process based upon just cause," she continued. "We went to the essence, which is how do you create a fair, working relationship, where if somebody is dismissed or disciplined in any way, there should be just cause."

A member of the school's three-person negotiating committee agreed. "I've worked in plenty of schools where tenure actually works against the environment," said Frances Sora, an English Teacher at Green Dot with eight years of experience. "You have certain members . . . that their contribution's fairly negative, or they don't do anything at all, and it affects the overall school."

Cites Law Dismissal Rate

Mr. Barr concurred, saying that tenure "does give excuses for leadership not to step up." But he also noted that in Green Dot's 10 years of operation, it has fired only two Teachers and four Principals.

The contract, which has already been ratified, will run for three years, retroactive from August 2008 until August 2011. It signing came as the UFT withdrew as bargaining agents for another charter school, KIPP Infinity in Harlem.

The union had only formally represented KIPP Infinity staff because of a legal technicality that existed during its founding, but the school faculty had requested the UFT withdraw after heated battles over its representation at another KIPP school, KIPP AMP in Brooklyn.