Forcing Out Effective Educators in DCPS Through Buyouts

Forcing Out DCPS Effective Educators Through Buyouts

By Candi Peterson

Forty three DC Public schools Educators out of fifty-five signed up to testify at the DC City Education Chairman, David Catania's Round table on Public Education held on Saturday, December 14, 2013 at McKinley Senior High. I was among those DC educators willing to endure the brisk cold wintry Saturday morning to express my perspective on public education and discuss ways to help our students succeed.

The title of the round table was "Setting Students up to Succeed" although many in attendance questioned the motives of Chairman Catania's as seeking to get a political leg up on other DC mayoral candidates using support of public education as  his platform.

I was glad that the Washington Teachers' Union (WTU) saw this event as an opportunity to elevate the voice of educators who as the inside experts can speak truth to power about what our students really need to succeed. WTU had panels of educators to bring testimony in a number of different areas including, budget and assessments, professional development, special education and teacher evaluations.

DCPS Chief of Human Capital, Jason Kamras was among those seated  in the McKinley auditorium and didn't escape the attention of some teachers who expressed concern about fear of reprisal for testifying. Before the start of the hearing, I mentioned the audiences comments to Mr. Catania and he gladly made an announcement that work place reprisal for participants testimony could constitute a misdemeanor and wouldn't be tolerated. Whatever the reason for Jason's appearance, I hope his note taking will find it's way back to DCPS  and be the impetus for much needed changes to this corporate model of education reform that sets our students up to fail.

Here's my testimony that I didn't get a chance to present in its entirety due to the strictly imposed two minute time limit on the afternoon panels.

12/14/13 - Testimony of Candi Peterson, WTU General Vice President

Panel # 2: Budget and Assessments (presented with Guy Brandenburg,/WTU retiree, Erich Martel/WTU retiree, Angela Thompson Murphy/Teacher Lasalle-Backus Education Campus

 My name is Candi Peterson and I am the Washington Teachers Union (WTU) General Vice President. I have 21 years as a DCPS educator. In 2013, I was excessed from Cardozo High School due to a school restructuring . I had been unable to find another position and had it not been for my election to WTU, I most likely would have faced termination from DCPS  within the next school year, despite my Effective Impact evaluation rating.

Given that DCPS has one of the highest teacher turnover rates in the nation with 55 % of new teachers leaving in their first two years and 80% gone by their sixth year, I want to focus on the churning out of effective & highly effective educators who are pushed out through a process known as excessing. Turnover of our best teachers creates instability for our students and schools and negatively impacts student achievement.

Fix my Life is a reality TV series hosted by life coach, Iyanla Vanzant. This TV program focuses on offering solutions guests present. When it comes to teacher churn in DC public schools, we are desperately in need of an intervention like the one offered on the Fix My Life TV series. We need to stop the purging of effective and highly effective educators through excessing which by definition is "an elimination of a teachers position due to a decline in student enrollment, a reduction in the local school budget, a closing or consolidation, a restructuring or change in the local school program where such an elimination is not a reduction in force or abolishment."

When the WTU Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA)  was negotiated in 2010, little did many of our teachers know that an excess under this contract would likely lead to their termination as there would no longer be a requirement for teachers to be placed. Under this contract if teachers are unable to secure a position within the 60 calendar days following their excess through mutual consent, if they are probationary teachers - they are terminated from the school system. What the general public isn't aware of is that our effective and highly effective educators are among the growing pool of candidates facing termination from DCPS. Under the WTU CBA, effective and highly effective educators with permanent status are offered a series of three options if they are unable to find another position following the 60 days after excess. These three options include a $25,000 cash buyout, an early retirement option to eligible teachers and a one year placement option.

Option 1 and option 3 involve financial incentives to push effective and highly effective teachers out of the school stem. Option 1 is a $25,000 cash buyout offered to these teachers unable to find another position and results in their termination. According to the DCPS Fiscal year 2012 WTU Teacher buyout document which was made available to the Council at the Oversight hearing indicates that 34 effective and/or highly effective teachers were terminated and offered buyouts totaling $835,000 to the school district.

A second costly option to the school district is the early retirement option. Under this option, DCPS funds a VEBA (Voluntary Employment Beneficiary Association) which is a trust that provides financial benefits to effective and highly effective teachers after being unable to secure a teaching position following an excess. Teachers who select this option must have 20 years of creditable service and an effective or highly effective rating. DCPS funds 1.7 million dollars yearly  beginning Fiscal year 2012 through Fiscal year 2018 totaling 11.9 million dollars. This option forces out teachers who would likely continue working until full retirement age.

What's wrong with this picture? Teacher buyouts force our best teachers out and are costly to the District of Columbia and hurts our students. They also add to the pool of teachers who leave voluntarily, thereby creating a revolving door workforce. If DCPS can find monies to buy teachers out, then surely they should be able to brainstorm ways to financially support our public schools and retain good teachers.

 What we know from the research is that high teacher turnover harms students. In a study titled "How Teacher Turnover Harms Student Achievement" by Matthew Ronfeld, Susanna Loeb and James Wycoff presented at the National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research in 2012 - teacher turnover has a negative effect on student achievement in both math and reading. This study reveals that it is particularly harmful to the achievement of students in schools with large populations of low performing and black students.

In the words of Diane Ravitch, "good school districts don't have high attrition rates among teachers and principals. Good schools are schools professionals feel a part of and want to sustain and improve. Churn is not good for teachers and by now we know, it's not good for students." No creditable school system seeks to dismantle its effective teaching workforce.

My recommendation is to develop a plan which focuses on minimizing high rates of teacher turnover. We need to retain effective and highly effective educators, and work to develop and support novice teachers who shouldn't be expected to be proficient from the start.

Our first step should be to create a task force to review teacher churn. Next steps should include requesting detailed data from DCPS on teacher turnover rates including requesting the exact numbers of all educators who leave voluntarily and involuntarily with statistical breakdowns by race, gender, ward, school, years of teaching experience, date of hire, salary level, and Impact rating scores. Without this data, we are operating in the blind and unable to develop valid hypothesis, in addition we must demand to know the costs to the school district of teacher buyouts dating back to FY 2011.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify before the Education Committee at this round table discussion.

Copyright-2013

Brightwood Protest and Pushback to DC Public Schools Closings

Nathan Harrington protests meeting

By Candi Peterson
The last in a series of educational town hall meetings was held last week at the Brightwood education campus to hear from stakeholders re DC Public Schools consolidation plan to close 20 public schools.


Activist Nathan Harrington, a Congress Heights DC resident blew into the meeting talking over Chancellor Kaya Henderson creating a dramatic start to the meeting and appeared to create some hard feelings among participants who were politely waiting to be heard. “My fellow Washingtonians, it is abundantly clear that the intention of this meeting is to confuse and mislead the citizens of our city into passively accepting decisions that have already been made. A hour and a half of officials promoting their plans is not community input,” Harrington said.

Although stakeholders may not have agreed with how Harrington delivered his message, Henderson told the audience she had no problems allowing Harrington to continue if that’s what the audience wanted. Despite some mild protests by audience members, Harrington continued to deliver his two page speech as he moved throughout the room. A lone female security officer tugged and pulled on Harrington’s sweater trying to facilitate his departure from the room inefficaciously. Harrington concluded by inviting residents to boycott the meeting and reminded them of past experiences of trying to stop school closure plans was unsuccessful and fell on deaf ears.

“I want to hear from you. Come to me with your suggestions and we will incorporate your feedback and will show how we are going to include your ideas. You have my commitment that it will be different this time,” Henderson vowed as she promised participants to work through the month of December incorporating participants ideas in the consolidation plan.

The meeting represented multiple wards of 1,2, 3, 4, and 6. Parents with children in tow, teachers, community residents and activists filled the cafeteria/gymnasium discussing their concerns at tables representing their respective schools. The meeting resembled the same format offered at previous meetings with DCPS staffers facilitating the discussion mainly around questions that focused on what would make the consolidation plan a smoother transition and what had DCPS failed to consider.

An unusually high number of Council members made appearances including Muriel Bowser, Jack Evans, Tommy Wells and David Catania. City council members have not denounced school consolidation plans until Thursday night’s meeting where Council member Evans came out against the closures of Garrison elementary school and Francis-Stevens education campus.

Powerful testimony provided by parents from Garrison elementary school included David Sallie who lives one block from Garrison and has a 2 ½ year old daughter. “I applied for preschool because of the activism of the PTA (at Garrison), amazing things are going on and there is momentum, a new principal and population changes which have not been taken into account”, Sallie said.

Sallie appealed to the chancellor. "You are going to lose families if you cut Garrision. I don’t consider charter schools over public schools", he concluded.

The consolidation efforts had parents advocating for their schools and most often opposing the effort to merge their school with a lower performing school. Some of the most notable concerns of the evening were safety issues the school consolidations would create. The majority of participants opposed shuffling 6th grade students to high schools with significantly older students, students traveling into unsafe neighborhoods as well as the extinction of walkable neighborhood schools.

Virginia Spatz injected some much needed humor at the end of the night when she spoke of the un-central location of the meeting and how it took her 2 buses and a train to arrive at Brightwood from her Ward 6 residence. " The whole process is missing. We need the consolidation to be put on hold, and evaluation with research on grades 6-12. We didn't do so well before with the Pre K-8 model. We want to see some vision," Spatz said.

Speaker after speaker provided a laundry list of reasons why the school consolidations would create more problems then they would solve. Parents raised the issue that charter schools should not be off the chopping block and should be part of the consolidation plan as well.

Chancellor Henderson reassured the standing room only crowd at the end of the evening that, “We will make sure that every question will be answered and made public.” But admitted that of the final decision, “You’re darned if you do, and darned if you don't."

If Henderson's aim is to avoid the mistakes of 2008 school closures, then why was no consideration given to a 'community task force' to plan school consolidations ?  I concur with activist Nathan Harrington's assessment that promoting DC Public Schools' plans does not equate to community input. Somehow we are still putting the cart before the horse. There are better ways to consolidate schools that is if you are willing to do the research. Chancellor Kaya Henderson, like her predecessor is really no different than Michelle Rhee.

© Candi Peterson 2013

Deja Vu All over Again-DC Public School Closures

Written By Candi Peterson

Plans to consolidate twenty DC Public Schools were announced on November 13, 2012 followed by a rush of public hearings and neighborhood stakeholder discussions that gave precious little time for parents, teachers and administrators to respond. The edict sounded all too familiar to those of us who were around for the first round of closures in 2008.

In a nutshell, DC's Chancellor Kaya Henderson proposes to close twenty public schools because they are under enrolled and in DCPS’s opinion are too costly to operate. The list of school closures includes 8 elementary schools, 3 special education schools, 4 middle schools, 2 education campuses, the Choice program, 1 High School STAY program (School To Aid Youth) and 1 high school.

 Two days of City Council hearings that lasted until nearly midnight with over 50 witnesses followed the school closure announcement to allow for testimony from education stakeholders. Community stakeholder meetings were subsequently scheduled to get feedback at four ward-based meetings commencing November 27 at Savoy elementary school in Ward 8, a second meeting at Sousa middle school in Ward 7 on November 28 and a third meeting at McKinley senior high on November 29 in Ward 5. The last meeting will be held at Brightwood education campus on December 5. This meeting will represent multiple wards of 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6.

 Unlike the meetings of 2008 when stakeholders were escorted off to individual classrooms for private discussion, this year's format for ward based meetings included small table group discussions in an open meeting space like the school gymnasium. The discussions were facilitated by a DCPS staffer leading the dialogue around three main questions: [1] What has DCPS not thought about; [2] What can be done to strengthen the proposal; and [3] What could make the transition smoother. Participants reported back to the larger audience sharing their tables' response.

We need a moratorium on public school closings and charter school openings was a common recommendation expressed at the Ward 5 and 8 stakeholder meetings. When I attended the community meeting at McKinley, I couldn't help but feel the participants frustration and distrust that DCPS has already made its mind made up about going forward with the school closures .

Robert Vinson Brannum, VP of Ward 5 Council on Education questioned the school districts intentions. "The root question is are we working on the premise that the proposal is going forward. If at the end of everything, we say don't do it (close schools), are you going to go forward anyway”, Brannum said. 

 Comments from the McKinley audience ended with an obtrusive presence- none other than Ward 5 ANC commissioner Bob King. King who lives in the Fort Lincoln neighborhood has been a long time commissioner for 30 plus years and a community advocate as well as supporter of Thurgood Marshall elementary school. Commissioner King left a memorable impression when he spoke directly to Chancellor Henderson about Marshall's rich history, community support and the corporate sponsorships he garnered from Costco on behalf of the school.

"I have a written contract for $10,000 yearly from Costco, backpacks for all the students in Ward 5 and I personally delivered 68 computers, 10 smart boards and 1 projector to Marshall. You might be gone and the mayor might be gone, so please right your proposal to keep Marshall open," King said.

The ward 7 meeting at Sousa was markedly different than either of those in Wards 5 or 8. The Ward 7 education council took ownership of their meeting, decided not to entertain DCPS’ questions and presented a proposal of their own to keep schools open. Daniel del Pielago, education organizer of Empower DC said of the plan, "it reflected the concerns of parents and community and ultimately the plan said let's work to save and make our schools better instead of let's close more schools and see what happens as DCPS is saying."

Through two weeks of excruciating meetings the majority of community voices clearly oppose the closures, with only a promise from Chancellor Kaya Henderson to take the community’s recommendations into consideration before she makes a final verdict in January of 2013. A visceral lack of trust in the process exists at the community level, as DCPS and local council representatives appear to be hell bent on closing 20 schools regardless of community input, while ignoring loud persistent cries from the community to stop the madness and consider a moratorium. 

© Candi Peterson 2013

April 10 Rally To Defend Public Education

D.C. TEACHERS, STUDENTS,

PARENTS and COMMUNITY MEMBERS!

…join teachers from Detroit, Virginia, Washington, DC, Connecticut, California and others!

“RALLY TO DEFEND PUBLIC EDUCATION ”

Ø Demand Chancellor Michelle Rhee stop toying with our students’ lives!

Ø Demand An End To the IMPACT Evaluation Scheme Now!

Ø Release All Federal Education Funds to the States Based on Need Not Promises!

SATURDAY, APRIL 10, 2010

12 NOON

U.S. 400 Maryland Ave., S.W. (closest to L’Enfant Plaza)

End the Attacks Against Teachers

Stop Privatization of Public Education

Stop Wrongful Termination of Teachers

Aggressively Challenge Unfair Teacher Evaluation Systems

Endorsed by: Votesaunders2010.com, Nathan Saunders, WTU Gen. V.P., The Washington Teacher blog, John Burroughs PTA, Fight 4 Fired DC Personnel, Detroit Federation of Teachers, Detroit School Board, California Federation of Teachers, Defend Public Education, Save Our Students Caucus, Illinois Latino Council, Oakland Education Association (truncated list of endorsers) Posted by The Washington Teacher blog

Open Letter To AFT President Randi Weingarten

This letter was sent to the American Federation of Teachers national union president.

March 29, 2010

Dear President Weingarten:

“Thanks to Thursday’s (March 25) vote of the Washington Teachers Union, President George Parker and certain WTU Executive Board members will not support the April 10 march to the US Department of Education that has been organized by Steve Conn, a Detroit public schools teacher. The purpose of the march is to defend public education by taking a stand against the attacks on teachers; black, Latino, poor, working class and middle class students of all races; end privatization of public education; end separate and unequal schools; and restore Dr. King’s vision for America.

Thanks to Thursday’s vote (March 25), Washington Teachers Union President George Parker and certain WTU Executive Board members were unwilling to allow information about the April 10 march to be placed on the WTU Executive Board agenda so that I could explain why public school teachers and their students will travel here to DC on buses to stand up for public education. I was disappointed to learn that AFT, our parent organization, also will not support the April 10 march on the US Department of Education (as reported by WTU President George Parker)

This got me to thinking that, unlike teachers, neither you President Weingarten nor George Parker will be wiped out in July by an IMPACT evaluation that is grossly unfair to teachers, neither you President Weingarten nor George Parker have been wrongfully terminated at the whim of a chancellor and neither you President Weingarten nor George Parker will be forced to consider a contract proposal (tentative agreement) after three long years that gives more leverage to administrators to terminate Effective teachers or be faced with reassignment options under mutual consent provisions.

I am troubled that our current WTU president, George Parker, is unwilling to have an open discussion with our WTU Executive Board members informing them about the march simply because the AFT has not endorsed the event. I know that Steve Conn advanced this issue directly to George Parker and Monique Lenoir, WTU Communications Director, for consideration.

For this reason, I appeal to you to let members of the Washington Teachers Union, Local 6, decide whether they want to attend this event. At a time when public education is in peril, we all need to stand together as one in solidarity and struggle. If teachers can travel from across these United States, at the very least DC teachers should be afforded the option of standing alongside our colleagues. So far the Detroit Federation of Teachers, The California Federation of Teachers, California NEA State Federation, California AFT State Federation, West Haven (Connecticut) Federation of Teachers and the Detroit School Board have signed on to lend support.

I ask you President Weingarten to do the following: post an announcement on the AFT web site providing details about the April 10 Washington, DC, march to the U.S. Department of Education at 400 Maryland Avenue SW (time 12 noon) and send a letter to WTU/AFT members informing them about the upcoming event. As the American Federation of Teachers national union president, you have an obligation to represent all union members, not only those who share your point of view.

Signed, Candi Peterson

full dues paying member of WTU and AFT

Washington Teachers Union Board of Trustee

Washington Teachers Union Building Representative

Posted by The Washington Teacher