NYC Public School Parents: Patrick Sullivan on the DOE's acquisition of Reliant bus company: Why the PEP should vote no.

NYC Public School Parents: Patrick Sullivan on the DOE's acquisition of Reliant bus company: Why the PEP should vote no.

Patrick Sullivan on the DOE's acquisition of Reliant bus company: Why the PEP should vote no.

Patrick Sullivan, a former member of the Panel for Educational Policy, sent this to current members in opposition to the DOE acquisition of Reliant bus company.  For more on this issue, see Sue Edelman's article yesterday  in the New York Post and the editorial today.  The PEP is voting on this contract tonight.  Livestream here.

From: Patrick Sullivan <patk.j.sullivan@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Dec 13, 2020 at 7:08 PM
Subject: Vote no/abstain vote on NYCSBUS contract due to pension risk
To: <AChapman7@schools.nyc.gov>, <GChacon@schools.nyc.gov>, <ICarmignani@schools.nyc.gov>, <DDillingham@schools.nyc.gov>, <NGreenGiles@schools.nyc.gov>, <MKraft2@schools.nyc.gov>, <VLeung@schools.nyc.gov>, <GLinnen@schools.nyc.gov>, <LPodvesker@schools.nyc.gov>, <kparkprice@schools.nyc.gov>, <SWaite3@schools.nyc.gov>

 

Dear Panel for Educational Policy Members,

I am writing to express my concerns about the contract with the new NYCSBUS entity for school bus services.  I ask you to abstain or vote against the contract.

The contract is part of a two-pronged program to create a DOE-controlled busing company.  One component is the new non-profit intended to buy Reliant from its parent MV Transport.   The non-profit has a board controlled by the Chancellor and his appointees.   The non-profit will get Reliant's assets including buses owned outright and leases for both buses and bus depots.   The non-profit will also be responsible for Reliant's pension obligations.  The pension is a private one for the union's members and funded by all the bus company employers.  Like most pensions, it's underfunded.  The responsibility to make up any underfunding is with the employers.   When NYCSBUS buys Reliant, it becomes responsible for the pension.  Their share of the underfunding is about $140 million.  

I do not believe the DOE has been either comprehensive or candid in explaining the risks involved in their plans:

NYCSBUS fails to deliver services - the company only exists on paper right now so a number of scenarios could derail operations including inability to staff management, CONTINUE READING: NYC Public School Parents: Patrick Sullivan on the DOE's acquisition of Reliant bus company: Why the PEP should vote no.

Education Matters: Why isn't planning fair across grade levels

Education Matters: Why isn't planning fair across grade levels

Why isn't planning fair across grade levels

 If you follow my blog, you know I am not happy with the new contract offer; however, the district's disrespect and playing a shell game with money, moving it around to keep it out of the hands of teachers who should be getting it, aren't my only concerns; another is why isn't planning equitable across grade levels? Why in some schools do teachers get 90 minutes, others 45, and in more than a few practically none. That's not fair, and it has to change.

Full disclosure I work at a center school, and we get ninety minutes a day and I will be honest when IEPs are due, and now that I am teaching five different classes instead of two, sometimes that's not nearly enough.   

Middle and high on block scheduling were getting a ninety-minute period a day. When some of those schools switched to a 7 period day, they lost half their planning. 

I have written about going to a seven-period day for years. I think 90 minutes is too long, but when I did so, the idea was for teachers to have two planning periods. Also, do my friends at those schools think they are going to get that 90 minutes back? My bet is no; the district has seen a way to save some money. 

Then in elementary school, and please forgive me if I get something wrong, Teachers would get 40 CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: Why isn't planning fair across grade levels

Education Matters: Before you vote to approve the new DCPS contract you should really consider these things.

Education Matters: Before you vote to approve the new DCPS contract you should really consider these things.

Before you vote to approve the new DCPS contract you should really consider these things.

Teachers pivoted to online learning in a weekend. They have risked life and limb during the pandemic too. So what has DCPS done for them? Doubled down on testing, stolen planning time, and offered them a bad faith contract, all while sitting on nearly 70 million dollars. Please consider a few things before voting.

The district has nearly 70 million in reserves, something like 15 million over what they are contractually required to do.

The district said it was spending 500k a month on emergency maintenance, something it will not have to do anymore. 

If there were no COVID or bill 641, money for this year was already allocated. The one good thing that the state did was hold schools harmless and give them as much as last year. This means we would have gotten our steps or performance pay.

New teachers and newer teachers will get their raise sooner or later; that's going to happen. So why not continue to fight for better working conditions like equitable planning and doing away with unpaid faculty meetings. 

New and newer teachers should also realize that someday, some will be veterans, and they will wish they CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: Before you vote to approve the new DCPS contract you should really consider these things.

Education Matters: I will be voting no on the new contract and if you are a teacher in DCPS so should you

Education Matters: I will be voting no on the new contract and if you are a teacher in DCPS so should you

I will be voting no on the new contract and if you are a teacher in DCPS so should you

You know a contract offer is bad when even people voting for it admit it. Over and over again, I have heard, yeah, it's not good, but what are we going to do. I will tell you what you should do, say no. Say no to the disrespect, say no to the shoddy offer, that robs Peter to pay Paul, say no to the threats, just say no.

First, friends, nobody should be voting on anything until after the Georgia elections. If the Democrats control the senate, help will be coming. Why the rush to lock us in now? Because it saves the district money, money they don't want to spend on staff.

I have heard over and over budget cuts are coming. Um, I have been writing about those budget cuts since April. Maybe now isn't the time to get concerned about them. Where is the super and board informing the public and rallying them against the cuts? Where is the press conference, the editorials, the town halls, and CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: I will be voting no on the new contract and if you are a teacher in DCPS so should you

NYC Public School Parents: DOE delays Panel vote on acquiring Reliant busing

NYC Public School Parents: DOE delays Panel vote on acquiring Reliant busing

DOE delays Panel vote on acquiring Reliant busing

DOE has made another incongruous and costly decision related to busing, this time to create a new non-profit that will acquire the Reliant company that apparently owes millions in unpaid pension and health insurance costs.  Their debt, according to the NY Post, may be as large as $148 million.  The contract was about to be voted on tonight Nov. 17 at the Panel for Educational Policy but was postponed because of the unresolved questions and concerns of Panel members.

As I said to the NY Post, "Without knowing the cost of the company and what kind of debt the city may be assuming, it is impossible to tell whether this is a good deal or not. In any case, for the DOE to take on more financial risks and obligations at this time seems irresponsible, given the economic crisis we face.”

DOE officials have so far refused to release the proposed contract with this new non-profit, called NYC School BUS, CONTINUE READING: 

Lump Sums Delayed, on Average, 4 1/2 months | JD2718

Lump Sums Delayed, on Average, 4 1/2 months | JD2718

Lump Sums Delayed, on Average, 4 1/2 months

Thursday, two days ago, Bill de blasio announced NYC would not pay UFT members the lump sum payments owed them on time. Michael Mulgrew announced that the UFT would fight – by going straight to arbitration.

The arbitrator, on Friday, ordered the city to pay half the amount in two weeks (October 31 instead of October 15), and the other half July 1, 2021.

The payment was the last and largest chunk left over from when Bloomberg refused to negotiate fairly with us. When de blasio came in we got a new contract, but some of the money owed us was pushed forward. And instead of being retroactive, it was made into “lump sums” – more about that, later.

This affects members who worked 2009-11. We should be aware that for the many members hired after that, they experienced the events of the last few days as a fight between City leadership and Union leadership, just as they have experienced much of the news from the last seven months. Does anyone know how many in service members have no financial stake in this? I am guessing 40-50%, but I could be wildly off.

In my school only 5 or 6 members are not due a payment – but we are probably not typical. At the other end of the spectrum, members who are paycheck to paycheck, or who had spent the lump sum in advance, or who had upped their TDA without backup, they still will hurt – but now they are looking at CONTINUE READING: Lump Sums Delayed, on Average, 4 1/2 months | JD2718

NYC Public School Parents: Millions in DOE contracts awarded for buses even if they're not running & scoring guides for tests that may never be given

NYC Public School Parents: Millions in DOE contracts awarded for buses even if they're not running & scoring guides for tests that may never be given

Millions in DOE contracts awarded for buses even if they're not running & scoring guides for tests that may never be given

As Sue Edelman reports in today's NY Post, last week the PEP approved the extension of contracts with busing companies through 2025 that will guarantee them 43% of the full amount -- amounting to more than $500 million per year ---whether buses are running or not.  

The  DOE also agreed to pay 40% of the regular cost of busing for May and June when buses were idling because schools were closed, which is less than the 85% they originally planned to pay before we sounded the alarm last April, but is still far more than they had to hand over.  

These contracts, like most others, contained a force majeure clause, which would allow all payments to be stopped in case of a pandemic, as a letter from the NYC Comptroller pointed out. The NY Post article doesn't reveal what the DOE paid for the six weeks in March and April when the schools were closed and buses weren't running, but one can assume DOE paid these companies the full contracted amount of nearly $200 million per month during this period.

As I am quoted in today's article, the decision of the DOE to guarantee these payments, starting this year through 2025, is irresponsible, given the fiscal crisis the city is facing which may lead to additional and grievous budget cuts to schools and school staffing.  

Already today, the Mayor announced that in nine zip codes in Brooklyn and Queens, 100 public schools and 200 non-public schools (for which we also pay for busing) will be CONTINUE READING: NYC Public School Parents: Millions in DOE contracts awarded for buses even if they're not running & scoring guides for tests that may never be given

Sacramento City Unified to begin distance learning Tuesday | abc10.com

Sacramento City Unified to begin distance learning Tuesday | abc10.com

Sacramento City Unified to begin distance learning Tuesday

The plan will move forward without an agreement with the Sacramento City Teachers Association, the district said in an announcement

Big Education Ape: Choosing Democracy: SCUSD Imposes a Plan for Distance Learning - Lets see what teachers do ! - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2020/09/choosing-democracy-scusd-imposes-plan.html

Teachers in the SCTA want flexibility in the learning styles for their students, not forcing them to be online at a specific time, doing specific work. They say all of the flexible language was taken out of the proposal.

"We can't in good faith use a one-size fits all approach. Our kids deserve better than that," said Ingrid Hutchin, a second grade teacher.

SCUSD and SCTA have been negotiating over the summer about distance learning. Two mediators were assigned, and a mediation session was held on Sept. 4, according to the school district.

"Eight hours of mediation failed to produce any significant movement towards a distance learning agreement. The fundamental difference centers on whether the district will allow teachers to exercise the same professional judgment in a distance learning platform that they exercise in a brick and mortar setting," SCTA said in a Facebook post Friday.

"In our plan our teachers were given the flexibility given the ability to use their professional judgement to determine what is best for their students in terms of how they design their classrooms and how they design their lessons," said Preston Jackson, a middle school teacher.

SCTA said the mediators concluded negotiations and released the parties to fact-finding, the next step in the negotiation process.

"One thing we know for sure is that no matter what happens teachers will be teaching their hearts out come Tuesday," SCTA said.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD) announced Saturday that it will implement a full distance learning plan beginning Sept. 8.

The plan will move forward without an agreement with the Sacramento City Teachers Association (SCTA), the district said in the announcement.

"We have little choice but to move forward without an agreement and are committed to providing our community with what they have been asking for: quality instruction, effective communication and accountability to ensure we meet our students’ academic, social and emotional needs," said Superintendent Jorge Aguilar. 

The district’s plan includes the following:

• Essential standards for every student, which are the building blocks for learning mastery and are part of the Common Core standards. 
• Recorded instruction to provide students from working families and those with multiple siblings, for example, to access instruction at a later time. 
• Assessments of student learning and identification of where targeted intervention and support are needed.
• Students with disabilities receive documented individualized services as required by their IEP and state and federal law. 
• Adequate live instruction rather than a reliance for students to learn on their own through independent work. 
• Professional Development for SCUSD Teachers as provided to teachers on Sept. 1 through 4 to provide teachers with the support to provide the quality distance learning program as indicated above.
• Consistent Google Classroom learning platform to provide consistency for our students, and access for site administrators and support providers to assist our teachers and students.
• Compliance with federal and state law, including SB 98 which establishes guardrails to ensure that distance learning isn’t the crisis learning of the spring. 

"We want to be clear: while we were unable to reach an agreement with SCTA, our decision today is not a judgment of our incredible teachers. However, our families and our educators have been kept in limbo far too long and need to know what distance learning will look like for their students, and their classes," Aguilar said. CONTINUE READING: Sacramento City Unified to begin distance learning Tuesday | abc10.com

Outraged parents want SCUSD, teachers union to agree on plan | abc10.com - https://www.abc10.com/article/news/education/outraged-parents-want-sacramento-city-educators-to-reach-agreement-on-distance-learning/103-d7986de5-90d2-4d0e-a41e-c4849f73d05b on ABC10

Sacramento school district, teachers union hit impasse days before start of school - YouTube - https://youtu.be/yaWwpLI3hbw on @youtube

Education Matters: Work to the contract and not a minute more.

Education Matters: Work to the contract and not a minute more.

Work to the contract and not a minute more.

Up till recently, the entire education system depended on teachers giving millions of unpaid hours, sacrificing their time with friends and family, and what little money they have to make sure things keep moving. Now it still requires all that, but now it also wants teachers to risk their and their families' health, and it is way past time teachers said no. The system will never change unless teachers give it a reason to do so.

If teachers aren’t going to be treated with respect and compensated appropriately, if our safety is not assured, then from now on, the system should just get an honest day’s work and nothing more. Then we can rush home with white knuckles so that we can decontaminate ourselves.

Some teachers and families and lots of elected officials might be thinking teachers can’t do that, that their students desperately need all the extra that they do, well friends, teachers need to survive. They need to get home to their families, and if that means not doing all the extra things they would normally do, and for free, then GOOD!!!

In a good year, not working to the contract was a bad thing. The system before the pandemic had no incentive to change. It churned and burned through teachers, and we see how little society has appreciated all the effort teachers did. They appreciated them so much that they now require many of them to risk their lives on top of all the other things they would do.  

For the last couple of years’ teachers all over the nation tired of being blamed for society’s ills and both paid CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: Work to the contract and not a minute more.