In the wake of an overwhelming teachers union vote in favor of school reform, city officials called on Yale, the feds and the state to follow suit.
Officials lauded the vote as a first-in-the-nation agreement between a city and a teachers union to work together to change the way public schools work.
New Haven’s teachers ratified a new, four-year labor contract Tuesday night by an vote of 842 to 39.
The contract includes an average annual pay hike of 3 percent, a half-percent increase in medical contributions — and opens the door to sweeping school reform plans.
Officials lauded the vote as a first-in-the-nation agreement between a city and a teachers union to work together to change the way public schools work. They said it would help New Haven snag federal dollars to support reform initiatives.
The agreement covers 1,700 public school teachers in the American Federation of Teachers Local 933. It now passes to the Board of Aldermen for final approval.
Teachers praised the opportunity to retain their benefits, and even get a pay hike, in a tough economy.
Wednesday morning, the teacher’s union and top city officials joined in a press conference at City Hall touting the contract as a milestone in New Haven’s journey toward closing the achievement gap in five years, cutting the dropout rate in half, and ensuring each student goes to college.
Schools superintendent Reggie Mayo and Mayor John DeStefano seized the moment to issue a call to other community partners to join the school change team.
Mayo applauded teachers for supporting New Haven’s efforts by ratifying the contract.
Public school teachers “didn’t just hit a single. They hit a home run for the children of this city,” Mayo said. He called on others to follow suit. (Click on the play arrow to watch excerpts.)
“We’re expecting others to step up to the plate,” Mayo said. “If you can’t hit a home run, hit a triple. We’re not interested in singles and doubles here. We’re interested in triples and better and grand slams.”
He said he’s counting on help from: Yale and other universities, the state, federal government, and the philanthropic community.
“There’s certainly a lot of dollars out there that we’re going to need in order to make this a reality,” Mayo said. “We will be calling on you and hoping that you will stand up to the plate.”
The teachers contract commits the city to pay for wage increases and medical benefits. DeStefano said other components of the school reform drive — such as the Promise college scholarship program, teacher support, longer school days and teacher bonuses — will require financing.
The contract allows the district to issue bonus payments for teachers based on student performance, as well as leadership. The bonuses won’t be given to individuals, but rather to groups and the entire staff of a particular school.
The Community Foundation For Greater New Haven has committed to help fund the reforms and to act as a conduit for other philanthropic money.
State education commissioner Mark McQuillan has promised to include New Haven’s reform plans in its application to the $4.35 billion federal Race to the Top Fund, according to spokesman Tom Murphy. McQuillan is also offering to help New Haven by pursuing legislation that would ensure there’s no cap on the number of charter schools in the state and that the state does not prohibit tying teacher evaluations to school performance. Those two stipulations are requirements for getting Race to the Top funds, as well as for New Haven’s reforms, Murphy said.
A Commitment To Reform
Teachers ratified the contract Tuesday night in a vote at Career High School.
The union executive board (including Cynthia Plude and Michael Mazzacane, left to right in photo) staffed the polling station.
The agreement covers 1,700 public school teachers in the American Federation of Teachers Local 933. It now passes to the Board of Aldermen for final approval.
Teachers praised the opportunity to retain their benefits, and even get a pay hike, in a tough economy.
The contract, which would take effect in July, includes an average 3 percent annual pay hike and a half-percent increase in medical costs per year, and opens the door to a number of major reforms. It would allow the district to close failing schools and reopen them as charters; tie teacher evaluations to student performance; and give schools more autonomy in how they operate. Click here for more details.
The changes pave the way for Mayor John DeStefano’s ambitious school reform drive. The initiative has four planks: grading schools; differentiated management of schools, including closing failing schools and reopening them as charters; attracting and recruiting talented staff; and a “Promise” college scholarship program.
DeStefano closed out a mayoral candidate debate Tuesday night by focusing on the significance of the contract ratification.
“You don’t get that overwhelming number of votes without a strong teacher commitment to reform,” he said.
Union president Dave Cicarella had a slightly different interpretation.
“The reform was coming with or without us,” he said. He said the agreement in the contract enables teachers to have input in the changes.
The contract sets up committees to oversee reforms: A committee of administrators and teachers will work this year to come up with a metric for evaluating teachers and school staff. Teachers will be evaluated based on student performance, but not only on test scores. Another committee will add teachers’ voices to the process of evaluating low-performing teachers. The committee will draw new guidelines that give struggling teachers more support.
The mayor has said he worked hard to reach a peaceful accord because it would establish New Haven as a prime candidate for a new batch of federal grants. Tuesday, he said New Haven and its union are the first in the country to do as President Obama is directing: To work together rather than fight each other over school reform.
The contract “signals the real possibility of getting this job done,” DeStefano said.
The union knew what was at stake, too.
“The city wanted the reform, because with reform comes federal money,” said Mary McNerney, an adult ed teacher who sits on the union executive board.
“Reform gave us leverage” at the negotiating table, she said.
“They need us to buy into this,” added Kathy Lembo, another teacher on the union’s e‑board.
As a result, teachers got an average 2.87 percent pay hike in the first year.
DeStefano said if the contract had gone to binding arbitration, that pay hike would have been a zero. If the contract had gone to binding arbitration, he added, the city also wouldn’t have gotten school reform.
“They’re getting fairly compensated for taking the risk of not doing the same thing over and over again,” he said.
He said the contract will give New Haven “the flexibility to turn around schools in an unprecedented fashion.”
An Incentive Seen
Teachers weighed in on the package at an auditorium at Career High School, where they stuck purple slips of paper into makeshift ballot boxes.
Several teachers said they thought the contract would be far worse if they voted no, which would kick off the binding arbitration process.
“It’s as good as we could get” in a tough economy, said Evelyn Gallagher, who teaches at Nathan Hale.
“I just feel we’re really blessed to be getting a raise,” said Sue Brown, a teacher at Mauro-Sheridan.
Kevin Inge said he wasn’t wowed about his pay raise, but he was won over by an opportunity to make more money — and help a struggling school transform — as part of the new reforms.
“What really grabbed me was the Tier 3 schools,” said Inge (pictured).
Inge, a sixth-grade teacher at King/Robinson, was referring to a part of the contract that allows for schools to be graded and placed into three tiers. The top-performing schools, Tier 1, would be given more autonomy. A small number of the Tier 3 schools, the lowest-performing, would be closed and reopened, possibly as charter schools, under new rules. In those “turnaround” schools, teachers could work extended schooldays or school years, and would be paid extra accordingly.
“Working in a struggling school to get it up to par is something I’d be interested in — along with the pay,” he said.
Enough Notice?
The overwhelming vote came after some disagreement over how much time teachers were given to look at the new contract. Even as aldermen and school board members paged through the agreement last week, teachers were not officially briefed, nor were they allowed to see the contract, prior to Tuesday at 4 p.m.
Leslie Blatteau, who teaches at CT Scholars, said she came into the meeting feeling frustrated by the lack of information. She said teachers should be modeling what they want their students to do — make informed decisions based on their own critical thinking skills.
Union executive board members said they did not want to open a can of worms by letting the details out before Tuesday.
Both the New Haven Register and New Haven Independent published details of the contract on Monday.
“Protocol calls for everyone to hear the same thing at the same time,” said union vice-president Tom Burns, the local’s lead negotiator. He said on a negotiated contract, union members must trust their leadership to do the right thing. That trust was proven by the 842 yes votes, he said.
There wasn’t enough time to postpone the vote, because of an Oct. 17 deadline for binding arbitration, he added.
Cicarella presented details of the deal to members in a meeting that began at 4 p.m. Tuesday. During the meeting, one woman requested that the vote be postponed for 24 hours so teachers could get the chance to read the material. The motion failed due to lack of a quorum.
Blatteau supported the idea: “Would that have hurt the contract that much?” she asked. The third-year teacher said her frustrations were later allayed when she learned the union’s history: This is only the second time in 30 years that teachers have been allowed to vote on their contract. On past contracts, the deal was sealed through binding arbitration, or the president opted for a stipulated agreement without a rank-and-file vote.
Cicarella, who took office in 2006, said he understands the concerns about not having enough time to read the contract, but this is a much more open process than in years past.
City and union leaders are planning a 10 a.m. press conference Wednesday to celebrate the accord and discuss its significance.
Paul Bass contributed reporting.
Some previous stories about New Haven’s school reform drive:
• Will Teacher Contract Bring D.C. Reward?
• What About The Parents?
• Teachers, City Reach Tentative Pact
• Philanthropists Join School Reform Drive
• Wanted: Great Teachers
• “Class of 2026” Gets Started
• Principal Keeps School On The Move
• With National Push, Reform Talks Advance
• Nice New School! Now Do Your Homework
• 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
I bet within two years,King john will be asking for give backs!!!!