Peace between Cleveland schools and teachers over?
Union shoots for 1,500-member protest at school board Tuesday
Cleveland schools CEO Eric Gordon, left, and Cleveland Teachers Union President David Quolke were happy with the 2012 agreement on the Cleveland Plan for Transforming Schools. Quolke is now accusing Gordon of not following parts of the plan. (Plain Dealer file)
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Cleveland Teachers Union hopes to draw 1,500 teachers to Tuesday's school board meeting to protest changes the district is imposing at 23 struggling schools targeted for improvement.
It's the latest in a series of protests the union has had since last year over portions of the Cleveland plan for Transforming Schools, the district's overall improvement plan that the state legislature and Gov. John Kasich backed in 2012. It would be the largest if the union meets its goals and members respond to a drumbeat of calls for solidarity and action made on Facebook, Twitter, email and through an online petition.
CTU leader Jillian Ahrens said she hopes teachers will overflow the 6:30 p.m. meeting atJames Ford Rhodes High School, 5100 Biddulph Avenue.
CTU President David Quolke accused the district of "reneging on the promises of the Cleveland Plan," one piece at a time since 2012.
"You're going to see some very unified and very frustrated members," he promised.
District CEO Eric Gordon denied Quolke's charge and said that a feud won't help teachers or the district. Other district officials say the union is responding to outside pressure to try to roll back parts of the Cleveland Plan, which gives the district broader powers -- and the union fewer -- than in any other district in Ohio.
"I think it is a national movement to get this local union to stand up and push back on this initiative," said Michele Pierre-Farid, the district's chief academic officer.
At issue: Corrective Action Plans at struggling schools
CTU's latest concern is over new "Corrective Action Plans," or CAPs for short, for the district's 23 "Investment Schools."
The district is tossing aside old CAPs at those schools and imposing new ones that set academic and culture goals, while also naming outside organizations that will come in to coach staff on improvements.
Just like the old ones, the new CAPs call for things like setting high expectations, creating a "college-going and career-oriented culture" and expanding mentoring opportunities for students.
They also set more specific requirements for teachers. These are drawing objections from the union. Among them:
• Requiring teachers to file advance lesson plans with principals;
• Requiring teachers to wear "professional" clothes;
• Requiring teachers to communicate more with parents, sometimes visiting them at home; and
Does CTU have a legitimate complaint? Tell us below.
• Requiring teachers to give students additional tests and incorporating those results into lessons.
District officials say the new action plans are needed to either accelerate improvements in schools or to jump-start schools that have not seen gains. Pierre-Farid said most of the expectations are standard in suburban districts and needed to help the schools succeed.
"My job is to make sure that our kids get the best education," she said, and to make that happen as soon as possible.
"This is about kids," she said. "We don't have 10 years to make it happen. We have to make it happen today."
Union says rules are vague and punitive
CTU, in its online petition, said that many of the changes "de-professionalize the staff and do little to address student success."
Quolke said in a letter to teachers that the CAPs "put in vague, punitive, 'gotcha' clauses.
"They demand repetitive rote tasks that are more compliance-driven than student-driven," he wrote. "The CAPs read more like a hodgepodge of top-down, central office, anti-teacher sentiment than a plan to improve our schools."
Ahrens agreed. "It devalues the role of the teacher," she said.
We'll have more details about some of the specific changes in the CAPs about noon today. Click here to see an example of a new Corrective Action Plan.
Fixing schools is a key part of the Cleveland Plan
The "Investment Schools" are just one portion of the Cleveland Plan, but an important one. While the district seeks to offer families choices by creating specialized schools or by partnering with high-performing charter schools, the district also promised in the plan to fix schools where students aren't learning.
The district named 13 schools for improvement efforts starting in the 2013-14 school year, all with failing or near-failing grades on their state report cards, and 10 more starting this school year. The 23 buildings amount to about a quarter of the district's schools.
As reported Thursday, the district will not start turnaround efforts at any new schools in the fall so it can focus on the 23.
Gordon said the objections from teachers were just one reason for not adding more schools.
Quolke and CTU said they are just as upset about how the district set the new CAPs as by what is in them. Union leaders said the district did not keep promises to collaborate with teachers to reach the best plans -- assurances Quolke has long said were key to the union agreeing in 2012 to the Cleveland Plan.
Gordon conceded that he could have involved teachers more early on, but said he has offered the union several opportunities that it is not taking.
District has the legal right to impose new plans
And the district said it followed House Bill 525, the state law creating the Cleveland Plan, when it changed the CAPs. That law allows a team of union members to give input on proposed changes, but gives Gordon power to impose the plan that he wants.
Teachers offered some objections to the CAPs that Gordon presented. He made some small changes and them imposed most of what he had proposed.
The state law reads: "If the chief executive officer disagrees with all or part of the recommendations of a corrective action team, or if a corrective action team fails to make timely recommendations on the implementation of all or part of the corrective plan, the chief executive officer may implement the corrective plan in the manner in which the chief executive officer determines to be in the best interest of the students."
Teachers also are objecting to a section of the new CAPs that reminds teachers that the CAPs overrule conflicting sections in the union's contract with the district. Some teachers complain that Gordon is attempting to take away their union's rights.
But that issue was settled in 2012 with HB 525, which reads: "The content and implementation of the corrective plan prevail over any conflicting provision of a collective bargaining agreement entered into on or after the effective date of this amendment."
Quolke agreed that Gordon has those powers, but said real partnership with teachers is the best way to find solutions that work. Imposing changes doesn't make teachers feel valued, he said.
"Do you get teacher buy-in that way?" Quolke asked. "No."
Did teachers already sign contracts for these schools?
CTU also objects to Gordon tossing aside the "commitment letters" that teachers at the Peace between Cleveland schools and teachers over? Union shoots for 1,500-member protest at school board Tuesday | cleveland.com: