The most important book in the Cleveland school district is being rewritten: The union contract
By Thomas Ott, The Plain Dealer
May 30, 2010, 4:00AM
Michelle Rzucidlo-Rupright, a teacher at Cleveland's Anton Grdina Elementary School, works with student Terrance Hutton, 4, in a pre-kindergarten class.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A hard-fought effort to rewrite the Cleveland teachers contract places the district in the thick of a nationwide challenge to entrenched unions and their rights.School systems across the country are pressing for more flexibility in managing buildings and assigning teachers. Unions, on their heels and facing layoffs in a bleak economy, have given ground in stunning ways.
View full sizeBut in Cleveland, with the teachers' existing contract set to expire June 30, negotiations have essentially broken down.
The stalemate may jeopardize an "academic transformation plan" that Chief Executive Officer Eugene Sanders is to launch this fall. Nearly 550 teacher layoffs, which could be avoided if the union agrees to salary concessions, would swell classes to as many as 45 students and make the plan difficult to execute, Sanders has acknowledged.
The national agenda is simple: Evaluate teachers based on test scores, swiftly fire those who can't cut it, fill positions on merit, not seniority, and put charter-school operators in control of buildings. Encouragement and financial incentives come from an unlikely source: a Democratic president who won office with backing from teachers unions.