Monday, February 8, 2010
Know Your Rights: Program preferences and professional activities
Program preferences
Each spring (or each term in some high schools) you may request an assignment for the following school year (or term) on a preference sheet that your principal will hand out. (This is the same preference sheet as for professional activities.) You should indicate the subject and grade level you desire in priority order.
If you are a special education teacher, you should place in priority order the age range of special education classes you want, as well as the special education program designation you want to teach. Requests for special teaching positions (cluster positions) or compensatory time positions should be made in a separate application to your principal as they are posted and become available.
If you don’t get your first choice for two consecutive years, you can file a reorganization grievance. Talk to your chapter leader.
Professional activity options
Most secondary school teachers and elementary teachers in eight-period schools are programmed for a professional period, for which they elect a professional activity. (You are required to select a professional activity and to work on it — but you need not spend every minute of your professional period working on it.)
You select your activity from a menu appropriate to your grade level that is specified in Article 7 of our contract. If you want to participate in an activity not listed on the menu, you can do so with the permission of your principal.
Your principal is required to meet with your chapter leader to consult on the number of positions and qualifications for each menu item. If your principal fails to consult, the chapter leader should file an appeal to the chancellor and, if denied, to the city Office of Labor Relations.
If you are assigned homeroom or AM/PM bus duty, you are fulfilling the responsibilities of the professional period; your professional period becomes one for you to use like a preparation period.
Professional activity procedures
If you have a professional period in your teaching program, your principal will give you a preference sheet listing the appropriate menu (this is the same preference sheet for choosing your program). You must prioritize three of the activities and the principal will make the final decision. Selection will be based upon the established criteria for the requested activity and the availability of the item. If you are not given one of your three choices, you may select three other menu items.
If the principal assigns you to an administrative assignment (e.g., lunchroom, hall or yard duty) voluntarily or involuntarily, he or she cannot assign you to any administrative duty the following year unless you voluntarily agree to do it. Principals must make all involuntary administrative assignments on a rotational basis in inverse seniority order. Before the end of the current school year, your principal must notify you in writing as to which professional activity you’ve been assigned for the coming school year.
If you are new to the school system or in danger of receiving a U-rating, the principal can assign you to either professional development or common planning as your professional activity, regardless of your preference.
Text From Section 6A:
Teachers at all levels must select a professional or administrative activity in accordance with this section and the provisions of Article 7U (Professional Activity Assignment Procedures). Except as described in paragraph (d) below, this provision shall not create an additional teaching period, as that term is defined in the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
The menu of activities to be offered to each teacher shall be from among the following:
(1) Small group instruction (not to exceed 10 students)
(2) One to one tutoring
(3) Advise student activities such as clubs, teams or publications
(4) Perform student assessment activities (including portfolios, performance tests, IEPs, ECLAS, etc.)
(5) Professional development/prepare staff development workshops and demonstration lessons
(6) Common planning time
(7) Conflict resolution for students
(8) Cafeteria duty
(9) Schoolyard duty
(10) Hallway duty
(11) AM bus duty
(12) PM bus duty
(13) Homeroom
(14) Provide inter-disciplinary articulation
(15) Develop multi-cultural curriculum
(16) Develop programs to integrate technology into the daily life of the classroom Teachers performing homeroom fulfill the requirement of the professional period.
Teachers selecting AM or PM bus duty will use their professional activity period as a preparation period.
Any teacher who wishes to participate in a professional activity not listed on the above menu may, upon approval of the principal, select such an activity.
Know Your Rights: School Based Options
SBOs — in accordance with Article 8B of the contract — allow staff the flexibility to collaboratively modify contractual articles and/or create positions that the contract does not automatically allow for. An SBO is adopted in a school when 55 percent of the UFT members who vote support it.
The following are some examples of the SBO modifications to the collective-bargaining agreement or Department of Education regulations that you and your colleagues can make:
· Change the configuration of the extended time
· Move evening and afternoon parent conferences to the same day
· Create a block program
· Start the school day before 8 a.m. or end it after 3:45 p.m.
· Decrease the contractual class size limits for lower achieving classes, and increase class size limits for higher achieving classes.
The SBO remains in effect for only one school year. It must be renewed every year to continue. The only SBO modification that does not sunset at the end of the school year is changing from an eight-period day to a seven-period day for elementary schools. If your school wishes to return to an eight-period day, another SBO is required to revert back.
Article 7 SBOs
All schools may also create or renew compensatory-time jobs using an Article 7 SBO. In elementary schools, these out-of-classroom positions may, for example, include dean, testing coordinator, bilingual coordinator and staff developer. At the middle and high school levels, compensatory-time jobs may, for example, include administrative assistant, site coordinator, unit coordinator, senior advisor, college advisor and yearbook advisor. If you hold a compensatory-time job that is not renewed the following year, you return to a full teaching program. If the job is restored in a subsequent year, and you still have time left in that comp-time position, you will have first dibs at the position.
The ratification process
The chapter leader should survey the school’s staff to gauge interest in the SBOs under consideration. The survey, which can be done either informally by a show of hands at a union meeting or formally on paper, helps the chapter leader decide whether or not to pursue those SBOs and whether to put a particular SBO up for a vote.
It is at the sole discretion of the chapter leader whether or not an SBO goes to a formal vote. Voting, if it occurs, is by secret ballot following the procedures used in chapter leader elections. Only UFT members in the school are eligible to vote on SBOs; agency fee payers are not.
Chapter leaders must notify members of the date, time and place for the vote and where and when ballots will be counted. Absentee ballots are not permitted.
Ballots must describe exactly what modification is being proposed, including the contractual article being modified. Each SBO proposal must be voted on separately.
If an SBO proposal fails to win the support of a majority of those who voted, the school reverts to the collective-bargaining agreement. A new SBO, however, can be proposed and voted on.
The description of the compensatory-time jobs in an SBO should include the duties and time allotted. Each compensatory-time job must be voted on separately.
Out-of-classroom jobs that are not subject to the SBO process, including lunchroom coordinator, ESL coordinator and high school programmer, must be posted.
An SBO is ratified when 55 percent of the UFT members who actually vote — not 55 percent of all UFT members at the school — support it. All SBOs must be signed by the UFT district rep and UFT president, as well as the chancellor.
If you or your chapter leader has questions or concerns about the proposed SBOs in your school, contact your district representative immediately. Do not wait until the process is completed to voice those concerns.
Monday, February 1, 2010
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