No Raises No Layoffs

So I heard today that His Mayoraliness, Mike Bloomberg is has rescinded his offer of 2% raises offered earlier and now has offered 0% raises in exchange for not laying off teachers. As always the devil is in the details.

When I started teaching in 1995 the city was in dire straits. The contract agreed upon that year was a five year contract with no raises for the first two years of its effect. I can live with this if it means to save jobs of teachers. But.

There must be something in return. We can begin with the extended day. Remove the 150 minutes a week. It is a waste of time for both staff and students.

Second, the right to grieve letters put in teacher's files must be restored. It has become all to easy for a administrator to just jam whatever into a teacher's file. Since we gave up that right, letters of the most mundane infractions, like carrying a can of Coke, or eating a french fry are more common place than one would think.

And lastly, an end to the ATR system. No, not laying these teachers off, but a truly concerted effort into placing these teachers in positions in schools and not just paying lip service.

Now let's see if Mulgrew can lead.