Teachers Head Back To School "Late," Principals Upset

This fall, teachers will no longer have to arrive two days before students and prepare their classrooms, because the deal the United Federation of Teachers struck with the Bloomberg administration allows them to return on the same day as students, as part of a deal to save $2 billion in pensions. Of course, the principals are upset: PS 321 (Brooklyn) Principal Elizabeth Phillips asked, "Do parents want their children coming into rooms where furniture is stacked up and materials packed away?"while PS 221 (Queens) Principal Sheila Twomey said, "You don’t want to picture what it was like if a child comes to school and there’s nothing up around the room, you’re trying to find your pencil and everybody else around you is disorganized." And principals union president Earl Logan said the before-school's start meetings were helpful to integrate new teachers. UFT outgoing president Randi Weingarten pointed out that requiring teachers to arrive on the Thursday and Friday before Labor Day (school starts on the Tuesday after Labor Day) violated a 2005 labor agreement and said that the new deal could allow Schools Chancellor Joel Klein to simply move the students' start date to be two days later.

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By Jen Chung in Miscellaneous on June 24, 2009 3:15 PM

Comments [rss]

one

Would you want your kids to come to a room that is disorganized and not child friendly? That's what will happen. It takes at least 2 days to get a room set up properly. This includes cleaning, unstacking furniture, and receiving books and supplies. I always go in at least 3 days before the required reporting time, and I'm still scrambling around at the last minute. Imagine having to set up your office the day before clients come in for an important meeting.

angry_pickle

Why can't these concerned teachers go to school 2 days earlier voluntarily without pay?

simply move the students' start date to be two days later.

Move the date two days later and not move the end date sounds like something UFT would advocate. What parasites.

Scout1

Why can't these concerned teachers go to school 2 days earlier voluntarily without pay?

Presumably for the same reason train conductors can't keep their train at a station merely to stop a rape in progress.

NannyState

Teachers are a protected species that defend their habitat with loud shrieking noises and the occasional bared claw. While it's best to ignore them, one should always carry a can of mace in case of a chance encounter.

r1b2

Not so simple, Randi. There is a specified number of days children need to be in school, so simply move the students' start date to be two days later doesn't really fly.

Outter Burrougher

i'm not in favor of them getting these two days, but we could move the end date as well, no?

JacqueMehoff

charter schools are the biggest scams going. we need to get back to the old days with the ruler being used for other purposes than to make straight lines.

and troublemakers to the front of the class, see how they like it. of course, they won't.

felixthecat2

Do you know how much teachers and principals in Charter schools make? Some make more than NYC School Chancellor. when LOONEY GIULIANI cheated his 1994 election, the Schools budget was an outrageous $6 BILLION a year.

Today, it is $21 BILLION a year, after 16 years of Republican rule.

DOES ANYONE BELIEVE the schools are THREE TIMES BETTER than they were? $15 BILLION a year BETTER???

THe money was all STOLEN via fraudulent contracting! Suckers!

No wonder Bloombag laughs at you all.

barryap

Typing random words in ALL CAPS makes your argument sounder. No, really.

SomethingBetter

I'm sick of teachers with their full time pay for 180 days of work.....

The Vidiot

The teachers need a union to protect themselves from the UFT!

Honestly, this 'agreement' was ridiculous. The two days they gave the teachers were two days they took away just a few years ago. So, in essence, they are back where they were a few years ago AND they have to pay into their pensions forever (right now, they only pay into their pensions for the first 10 years of employment with the BOE).

Such a deal.

eyekantspel

Pay into their pensions "forever" equals while employed. Big deal. Most private sector workers don't get pensions, and the system can't afford them. Working 20 years and being "entitled" to half pay and benefits for life, subsidized by taxpayers, is unsustainable.