New Haven Independent

The exchange took place outside the mayor’s office in City Hall Tuesday, in a break during day-long discussions aimed at nailing down the details of sweeping school reform plans.

Harries, the assistant superintendent in charge of school reform, was greeting Joan Devlin (pictured) of the national American Federation of Teachers on his way back into the negotiating room. Her presence in town signaled the seriousness with which both sides are taking the process.

Amid the progress, Tuesday’s session also revealed some tension the talks will need to overcome — a feeling by the local union that the city has left it out of the loop.

Devlin and city officials said they hope a good relationship will spell success as both sides sit down this week to work through details of the city’s school reform initiative. The initiative gets underway with school beginning Wednesday; officials promise to make New Haven’s the best school system in the country through dramatic changes.

The initiative has four goals: building a culture of high expectations; attracting and retaining top teachers and administrators; gaining community and parental involvement; and shifting accountability onto individual schools. Schools will be evaluated and placed in a three-tiered system based on student improvement; schools that fail may be closed and reorganized as charters.

The point of this week’s talks, said Mayor John DeStefano, is to create language that will put those reform goals into practice. He said he’s been “pleased” with the progress.

Devlin, the senior associate director for educational issues for the national AFT, flew up from D.C. this week to work alongside school officials and local union reps.

The national union is focusing on New Haven as a battleground for big changes in the classroom — the same type of changes that have proved elusive in Washington, D.C.

The D.C. school district’s Michelle Rhee made a splash by announcing sweeping school reform goals. Then she saw those aspirations stall due to a contract dispute with the AFT.

Tuesday, Devlin said the AFT is taking lessons from D.C. to New Haven. She’s optimistic that better relationships between the union and school administrators will make way for finding common ground on school reform.

This week, she has been sitting down at a table in the mayor’s office with DeStefano, Harries, four top school administrators, two local union reps, mayoral staff, as well as James Zuehl (at right in photo above), a Chicago-based attorney the city hired to give technical support for school reform.

Devlin and Zuehl said this is their sixth trip into town to discuss the issue. They both said they hope it will be their last: They aim to wrap up discussions and come to an agreement on key issues by Friday.

Zuehl came to New Haven after aiding school reform negotiations in Chicago. He said the New Haven talks are “making good progress.”

Devlin agreed.

Home Stretch

Devlin has spent the last 15 years advising school districts and locals on how to restructure schools. Her union represents 1.4 million teachers across the nation. Devlin was called into New Haven by the city’s local union president, Dave Cicarella, to help the local navigate massive changes to the school system.

Cicarella said while the local union is on board with the school reform’s larger goals, there is some tension about whether the union’s being involved.

Tuesday’s session addressed the concern about whether the union is an “equal partner” in school reform decisions. Cicarella said when school officials make decisions, they can choose to involve the union in one of four ways: by making decisions, by making recommendations, as consultants, or lastly, by being informed.

Too often, the union is falling under that “bottom rung,” merely being informed of school system plans, Cicarella said.

For example: On Aug. 10, DeStefano, Harries and Mayo took a trip to Washington, D.C. to talk to President Obama’s education secretary, Arne Duncan, about school reform plans. The union wasn’t invited. That didn’t sit right with Cicarella. He said the union is excited about the reform and on board with the plans. The city would have a stronger case if it included the union in that meeting, he said.

“Why the hell wouldn’t you take us to Washington with you?” Cicarella asked. The union was also left out of the loop at a recent briefing before aldermen, when Cicarella found out about the meeting only 10 minutes before it started.

Cicarella said that flew in the face of the union being an “equal partner” in the reforms. “If we’re doing school reform together and they have questions about the process, I want to be there with you,” he said.

Cicarella raised those concerns at Tuesday’s session. Overall, he said, there has been good collaboration with school officials. Talks will continue throughout the next year, he said, but one goal may be achieved this week: By Friday, he hopes the team will have sketched out what it would look like to “reconstitute” a school.

All parties are working against the clock: The union contract expires on June 30, 2010. By state statute, the city is required to have a contract in place by the end of this calendar year. Other deadlines could move the city toward binding arbitration with unions if they can’t reach an agreement — an outcome both sides would like to avoid, DeStefano said. That makes September “an important month” for finalizing an agreement with the teachers.

“That freight train is rolling and we can’t stop it,” Cicarella added. “We have to get things done.”

New Haven is one of about 100 cities across the nation where the national AFT is directly involved in discussions surrounding school reform or union contracts, Devlin said. National union reps don’t take part in the official contract negotiations, but they do take part in preliminary talks concerning the guidelines for reform, she said.

Issues under discussion include: alternatives to tenure, reward and incentive programs for teachers, rules for hiring and firing school staff, and setting up an evaluation system for everyone from the superintendent to the teachers.

The team is also discussing what would happen to a failing school if it needs to be reconstituted. The changes could include longer school days and more staff meetings for teachers.

Many components of New Haven’s school reform plan can’t happen without changing the union contract.

Some components of school reform, however, don’t need to be bargained in the contract. For example: The teachers union is working with the school district to establish criteria that will determine which “tier” a school falls into. Under the proposed new system, schools will be managed based on three tiers, with the highest-performing receiving more autonomy, and the lowest facing possible closure.

Anything that’s decided this week would be a recommendation requiring approval from the school board. Contractual issues will need approval from the union membership, too.

A New Approach

Devlin has personally worked with school systems in L.A., Baltimore, New York City and St. Louis, to name a few. This is a tough year to push for big changes, she said — sometimes you can “buy reform” in teacher’s contracts, but not in this time of financial stress, during a national recession. A lot of cities are attempting school reform, and a lot of them are angling for new pots of federal dollars to do so.

Devlin (pictured) said the city’s plans are among the boldest she’s seen. New Haven stands out in two ways, Devlin said: in the scope of its plans, and in the “deep involvement by the mayor’s office.” She’s optimistic that New Haven stands to make serious changes.

Her optimism comes after what some call a crushing defeat for the national AFT in Washington, D.C. The national AFT has been sitting at the table in the D.C. school district’s discussions, too. It’s embroiled in what has become an ugly fight over a new contract.

Devlin said she has not been involved the D.C. talks — “thank God.”

She called New Haven’s negotiations “extremely different.”

“We’re able to bring the experiences that we had in D.C., which have not been great,” she said, and make a fresh start in New Haven.

The goals for school change in New Haven and D.C. “are all the same,” Devlin said, but “the approach differs, and matters.”

As she spoke, mayoral staffer Emily Byrne, the mayor’s point person on the school reform effort, made her way up the stairs to the second floor of City Hall. Byrne stopped over to say hello. Devlin joked that the two have a “mutual admiration club.”

“We don’t have anyone [in D.C.] like Emily,” Devlin said, “that could really help bring people together.”

“We are extremely lucky in New Haven that relationships are so much better than they are in D.C.,” Devlin said. “You can have better conversations, and you can get to agreements.”

“You can have good and honest conversations when you have a relationship that is open and trusting,” said Devlin. “You can’t have those conversations if you have a relationship that is contentious and distrustful.”

At that point, Harries walked into the hall.

“I’m telling her that our relationships are really good, Garth,” said Devlin. He popped over and gave her a high-five in front of a reporter.

“Take a picture of that!” joked Harries. Devlin laughed.

“It’s not that we agree on everything,” Devlin emphasized, “but we agree that it is important to have these conversations, and it is important to establish relationships that allow that to happen.”

Zuehl, the city-hired attorney, shared her optimism. He credited New Haven with consulting different points of view, rather than acting “unilaterally” on policy changes. He said he thinks that the city, school officials and unions are moving steadily toward an agreement this week on the major planks of the reforms.

“I think it won’t be long,” he said.

Some previous stories about New Haven’s school reform drive:

• Mayo Unveils Discipline Plan
• Mayor Launches “School Change” Campaign
• Reform Drive Snags “New Teacher” Team
• Can He Work School Reform Magic?
• Some Parental Non-Involvement Is OK, Too
• Mayor: Close Failing Schools
• Union Chief: Don’t Blame The Teachers
• 3-Tiered School Reform Comes Into Focus
• At NAACP, Mayo Outlines School Reform
• Post Created To Bring In School Reform
• Board of Ed Assembles Legal Team