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9486 in the collection
Successful charter school cuts staff, hours over union contract: KIPP Ujima says it can't afford overtime
Comment by Marietta English, President, Baltimore Teachers Union: The Baltimore Teachers Union feels the article "Successful charter schools cuts staff, hours over union contract" by Liz Bowie published in the Tuesday, July 21, 2009 edition of The Sun paints an inaccurate picture of the union's roll in contract negotiations with the KIPP School. Ms. Bowie failed to accurately define the purpose of a union. The Union is not separate from teachers, teachers and paraprofessionals are the union.
In addition, the Union negotiated terms with all charter schools in Baltimore, not just the KIPP School. The other Charter Schools agreed to the contract negotiated by the union and initially, so did KIPP. In fact, KIPP signed a contract saying they would pay their teachers a fair wage and then broke their contract saying they couldn't afford the pay increase.
KIPP's financial records were made available to the Union and our lawyer and we could not find anything that demonstrated KIPP would not be able to pay its teachers the negotiated pay increase. What those financial records did show, however, the Director and his wife, who is the principal at the school, are each making more than $100,000 per year.
Ms. Bowie also did not report that during the seven years KIPP was in existence in the city prior to the union negotiated contract, KIPP was not paying into their teacher's base salary, which means the state was not contributing to teachers pension. This would not have cost KIPP anything and yet, they still chose not to pay their base. This isn't fair, they could have helped their teachers and chose not to. When asked why they didn't take care of the teachers they responded, "We just didn't do it."
It seems it's acceptable for a company to make money off of teachers, but it's not acceptable for teachers to earn a fair wage from that company. This is one of the reasons why school systems around the country continue to struggle to attract new teachers. This country will continue to have a shortage of teachers unless companies and administrations begin to recognize the importance of teachers and paraprofessionals not just in the school system, but also in the community.
by Liz Bowie
Baltimore's most successful middle school is laying off staff and shortening its school day to meet demands of a teachers union contract in what is one of the first major disputes over teacher pay between a charter school and a union.
KIPP Ujima Village Academy, based on a model that has forged a successful track record among poor students in more than a dozen states, has been violating a contract requiring teachers to be paid more if they work extra hours, school and union leaders acknowledge.
After seven years of ignoring the issue, the Baltimore Teachers Union told the charter school earlier this year that it must pay its teachers 33 percent more than other city school teachers because they were working nine hours and 15 minutes a day, as well as every other Saturday. The standard workday for teachers is seven hours and five minutes.
KIPP leaders say the majority of its more than two dozen teachers are comfortable with their hours and pay, but the union spokeswoman, Jessica Aldon, said the union was responding to complaints.
Advocates say the confrontation goes to the heart of what they see as a major weakness of Maryland's charter school law: Teachers must be part of the union in their school district and subject to the contract. If the issue is not resolved, KIPP may ask state lawmakers to allow schools greater flexibility in determining teachers' pay and workdays.
KIPP has been paying its teachers 18 percent above the salary scale, but could not afford to increase all teachers' salaries by 33 percent, according to Jason Botel, executive director of KIPP Baltimore. So it decided to stagger staff starting times and cut back on the hours students are in school when they return to classes next month.
Students will attend classes for eight hours in the next school year, and Saturday classes have been canceled. The four layoffs include one music and one art teacher who were recently let go, as well as two staff members who worked with special education and struggling students.
Botel said he hopes to negotiate a compromise that will provide more flexibility "for the good of the teachers and the viability of the KIPP model in Baltimore."
The changes have been hard, he said, but teachers worked out a schedule they believe will have the least effect on the school's 340 students in the months ahead. However, he said, the situation is not viable long-term.
In a union contract ratified by the city school board last week, the union agreed to the idea of allowing teachers in a school to decide whether they want to work longer hours - a measure that charter school backers say falls short of what is needed.
David Stone, the lone school board member to vote against the contract ratification, said he was disappointed that the school district did not stand up for the KIPP school more during the negotiations.
"For another year, KIPP is going to be forced to pay rates that even the teachers weren't asking for. If the teachers at a school agree, then it should be their prerogative," Stone said.
Stone suggested that the union contract could allow exceptions if 80 percent or 85 percent of teachers voted to accept a certain amount of pay or work longer hours. He said the exceptions wouldn't necessarily have to apply just to charter schools. All schools in the district, he said, have been given more autonomy and that should be extended to teachers.
KIPP, or the Knowledge is Power Program, was developed by two Teach for America teachers in Houston in 1994 and has spread to 82 schools in 19 states. The schools serve 20,000 students, 80 percent of whom qualify for free and reduced-price meals. KIPP stresses discipline, hard work, a college preparatory curriculum and personal responsibility. Some 80 percent of KIPP alumni go to college. Only five of the schools employ teachers represented by unions and none of them have had to significantly alter the model, according to a KIPP spokesman.
In 2008, 96 percent of the eighth-graders at KIPP passed the Maryland School Assessment in math and 56 percent passed in reading. Overall, the students scored among the top 10 percent of all middle schools in the state.
KIPP will open an elementary school in the Malcolm X Youth Center in the lower Park Heights area this fall, and has plans for another five schools in Baltimore. But that expansion, Botel said, is subject to the schools being able to be faithful to the model of a longer school day.
The school leaders seem puzzled as to why the union challenged the pay issue after seven years. Union president Marietta English declined to comment, but Aldon, the spokeswoman, said the union intervention was the result of complaints from KIPP teachers.
Shelton Goines was one of those teachers who had concerns. Goines, who taught instrumental music for four years before leaving KIPP at the end of the school year, said he wasn't aware of the fact that he wasn't getting paid union scale until the most recent contract negotiations began. He said he felt the school had not been honest with him when he signed a contract. He said KIPP works because of the dedication of its teachers. "Where is the dedication on [the school's part] to assure that I am getting an appropriate salary?" he said. "That is where I had a parting of the ways with my colleagues."
Most teachers, however, apparently believe their 18 percent salary premium was enough. They signed on to teach at KIPP, some said, knowing what they would be paid.
But Brad Nornhold, a math teacher and seven-year veteran of KIPP, said he was not aware that other teachers were concerned about the pay issue. "It is a school for choice for teachers as well as students. I didn't feel I was tricked. It was worth it for me to teach at a school that is working so well," he said.
As time went on, he said, the school leaders worked to make the workload more manageable for teachers. He worries, he said, about cuts in the school day. "I hope we can get the same results, but I think it will be harder," he said.
Baltimore now has dozens of charter and transformation schools that operate more independently of the school system. Aldon said that the union has negotiated with 30 other such schools in the city and that none of them has had issues regarding pay. A coalition of city charter schools has decided not to team with KIPP in negotiations with the union.
Carl Stokes, who heads the Bluford Drew Jemison Math Science Technology Academy in East Baltimore, said the school has longer hours as well. It got around the union contract, he said, by having a different pay scale for after-school activities than for the academic day. Teachers are not required to work after school, he said, but many do.
Stokes, like other charter school leaders, believes the state's charter school rules need to be strengthened, but he said a coalition of charter schools will probably wait at least a year before going to the legislature to request changes. "The Maryland law is one of the weakest in the nation," said Stokes, a former city school board member.
Besides the issue of the pay, he said, charters would like to be able to get public funding for construction and renovation to buildings as well as a formula for per-pupil funding.
Baltimore Sun
2009-07-21
www.baltimoresun.com/news/education/bal-md.kipp21jul21,0,5806375.story baltimoresun.com
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