Thursday, February 24, 2011

Takeaways from Today's PPSD/PTU Meeting

OK, so the teachers assembled today for a report from Supt. Brady and PTU head Steve Smith on the matter of their all being fired. Basically, they blame the new mayor, Angel Taveras for this scheme. The biggest factor seems to be trying to get around the (in NYC parlance) "ATR" problem. That is, having to retain displaced teachers who don't get new jobs as subs at full pay. If the teachers are fired instead of laid off, they don't have to add them to the sub pool. This'll let them close a few schools, and get all the hiring and firing for the various mandated turnarounds done; teacher at the rest of the schools will not be affected.

One thing to keep in mind is that this is still only a recommendation to the school board, which is appointed by the mayor, but as far as I know, they're all holdovers from the Cicilline administration. So it is not necessarily a done deal. Both the union and the PPSD believe they have other options.

Oddly, the famous Brady/Smith relationship seems to be intact for the moment.

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