Boston Teachers Union e-Bulletin #18 (2009-10),  12/21/09

  Greetings!

         The superintendent has sent a directive to all principals and headmasters instructing them to distribute a letter to all students on Tuesday that lobbies for the city's proposal on Ed Reform and the charter school bill before the legislature.  This political letter is unprecedented as well as misleading.
 
         The letter suggests that we need in-district charter schools, now called Horace Mann Charter schools, in order to be competitive in the Race to the Top funding. These new Horace Mann Schools have nothing to do with underperforming status. Any BPS school, underperforming or not, is a potential target. In-district charter school conversions are simply a quick and easy way to eliminate due process rights for every school employee without improving one bit the delivery of educational services.
 
         Regrettably the superintendent's letter also engages in the blame game.

          "...we must be able to make personnel changes without being hindered by a long process of appeals, hearings, and paperwork... our current collective bargaining agreements, in some cases, have prevented us from retaining effective teachers and having the flexibility to make staffing decisions that best meet the needs of our students..."
 
          Suggesting that our contract  prohibits our schools from making decisions that would help our schools is simply untrue. In 2005 a survey of the schools labeled by the department as the 15 lowest performing schools found that 85% of the vacancies in those schools were filled with new hires chosen unilaterally by principals and headmasters. This type of control over new hires, specifically in underperforming schools, gives the department ample opportunity to groom a good staff.
 
            We all want to improve our schools. In fact, we have met frequently with the school department this year for just that purpose. There are some parts of the bill we support. But we don't support any proposal that takes away our rights just for the pure sake of doing so.

             Thank you.

Sincerely,

Richard Stutman
BTU President

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