PCAPS statement on the District’s Seeking Court Approval for Imposing Work Rules
Teachers at CAPA demonstrating for full funding
The decision of the Philadelphia School District to seek Supreme Court approval for scrapping collective bargaining and unilaterally imposing so called work rules is a dangerous course of action that will not help us overcome the crisis in our schools.
While Superintendent Hite promotes this action as necessary to insure that every student gets “the right teacher with the right skill-sets to support quality learning”, the District has presented no evidence that universal site selection and elimination of seniority will lead to this outcome. Roughly half the positions in the District are already filled by means of site selection with mixed results. PCAPS believes that improved professional development and competitive compensation that could attract and retain good teachers is a course that would improve teaching and learning. But the District instead calls for cutting compensation and attacking due process rights that teachers across the state, including those in the highest performing schools, have had for decades.
While the District has made seniority the main target in its public statements, it also is calling for giving principals control over teacher prep time, modifying the caps on class size, eliminating contract language on ratios of counselors to students and other measures that
