School Board majority links reform plans to BTF contract
Links reform plan to contract talks
Buffalo Teachers Federation President Philip Rumore, shown in foreground during an October protest, says the School Board majority’s plan is designed to help charter schools gain access to closed public schools. Robert Kirkham/News file photo
Members of the Buffalo Board of Education majority now say they will refuse to act on plans for four struggling schools until they can negotiate a new contract with the Buffalo Teachers Federation, a bold move that likely foreshadows how the board will handle future turnaround plans at other schools.
If the board does not act on the proposed plans, the four schools will continue a gradual phase out that eventually leads to closure. Critics, including BTF President Philip Rumore, say that would facilitate the opening of more charter schools interested in using district buildings.
A resolution that President James Sampson sent board members Monday states that the board asked teachers for their ideas to turn around student performance at the four out-of-time schools. Each school came up with a plan that requires a longer school day and additional teacher training, changes that would require exceptions to the BTF contract.
Rather than make those changes in isolation at the four schools, the resolution says the district should aim to apply those principles throughout the district, where more schools are soon expected to be placed on the state’s list for overhaul or closure.
“The teacher-generated turnaround plans all propose solutions that have a common thread,” states the resolution, which is partly based on recommendations interim Superintendent Donald A. Ogilvie presented last week. “They have told us the school day and year need to be longer; teacher professional development is strategically important and should be mandatory; and the school teaching teams have to be tailored to meet the specific needs of the student population for each unique school. Although these system changes have been proposed for four schools, they should be applied as a strategy for all our schools.”
“It’s sort of logical, right?” Sampson said. “Why would we renegotiate these things 57 times?”
The resolution – from Sampson, Jason McCarthy, Carl Paladino, Patricia Pierce and Larry Quinn – also calls for phasing out Riverside High School by 2016, and exploring other programmatic options such as an elementary visual and performing arts school and a single-sex school for boys.
The proposal adds an unexpected twist to the saga involving the district’s four out-of-time schools – Bennett, East and Lafayette high schools along with the Martin Luther King Jr. Multicultural Institute. The four schools have consistently failed to meet state academic standards, prompting the state to demand the district make dramatic changes to their programs or phase them out. Riverside apparently is targeted because it is expected to be added to the list of out-of-time schools next year.
The majority’s proposal also casts teacher contract negotiations in a new light, for the first time using plans for the schools – and the ultimate threat of closure – as leverage to gain concessions from the union. Some board members now want to form a committee that will take a more hands-on role in the negotiating process, with the aim of incorporating work-rule changes into the contract as well as reforming health care and benefits for retired teachers.
Contract negotiations have been a sore spot for the city schools, with talks for a new agreement mired for more than a decade in a wage freeze, strikes and legal challenges. Under state law, teachers continue working under the terms of the expired contract until a new agreement can be reached. The old contract guarantees them annual raises and fully covered health insurance, something that some board members say gives the Buffalo Teachers Federation little incentive to make concessions.
BTF leaders have lobbied for the board to approve the phase-in plans generated by the individual schools, and said they would support any work-rule changes agreed upon by the staffs at those schools.
Whether they would apply those changes across the board is another question.
Rumore, the union president, criticized the board majority for coming up with the resolution
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