Controversy surrounds new plan to cut two days from teachers’ school year
By Chantelle Walker
United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten describes the agreement on pension contributions reached on Friday, June 19th by the teachers’ union and the Bloomberg administration as a “win-win.” Much of the top level administration from the mayor’s camp also marks this as a positive and necessary decision. But the opinions of the teachers’ themselves are not as easily deciphered.
The new agreement states that the new teachers, as well as those transferring into the public system from private and Catholic schools, will pay nearly 5% of their salaries for pensions throughout their careers. Current teachers, who put nearly 5% of their salaries into pensions for just 10 years and then drop their contributions to less than 2%, will not be affected. Therefore, new teachers will now vest in 10 years, instead of the five years it takes their colleagues who were hired before them. The retirement age remains t he same, but teachers will now not be allowed to retire until they have worked for 27 years. It is unsure if this deal allows for premature retirees to receive partial pensions.
In exchange for this pension change, teachers will receive two extra summer vacation days. Until this point, teachers have arrived two business days prior to Labor Day for professional development. Professional development days were created so that each schools administration could get all of their faculty together to discuss goals, progress and shortcoming for the next school year. There are also other professional development days in the school year. These two specific days were for pre-school year preparation. With this switch, the teachers will now be reporting in to teach on the same day the students are scheduled to arrive. While some teachers see this as a gain of vacation days, others view it as a loss of professional development days – and a set up for a hectic and disorderly return to school This may be the case particularly for new teachers or teachers who work in large schools who often face large numbers of transfer students each year as the city continues to restructure high schools.
“Coming back the same day as students would be very chaotic,” said=2 0one Brooklyn high school teacher, who requested anonymity. Though she admitted the preparation days are only sometimes beneficial for teachers and students, she worries teachers won’t have adequate time to prepare for the school year. How the time has been used in the past has been largely left to the discretion of principals. Under some, the days have been packed with training’s, while others have a more flexible arrangement, allowing teachers’ to utilize their time as they see fit. “As long as teachers know they can come in before September 8th to set up their rooms, as they did prior to the professional development days, there shouldn’t be a problem.”
Many experienced teachers like her can recall the days when there were no professional development days. In the past, teachers were given the option to come in ahead of the school year, but it was not mandatory. Teachers were often left on their own to prepare. These professional development days came into existence only nine years ago, as control of the schools was transferred from the Board of Education to the Mayor. At one point, the city schools had six professional development days a year. Coincidentally, the mayor’s administration is now the same power removing the professional development days.
With these additional days, teachers will now have 10 ½ weeks of vacation, a move in the right, or longer, direction, in many teachers’ opinions. But some disagree, including many of the roughly 7,000 new teachers hired every year. Those who are new to some of the larger high schools will have to make a great effort to get acquainted with traveling the halls. Not knowing where their staff lounge, department, attendance and other administrative offices are located can mean a bumpy start to the school year. In addition to traveling, teachers will also need to familiarize themselves with their fellow staff and colleagues which can be imperative in operating successfully in a unified environment. Without meeting their colleagues and office space prior to the year they may enter into an environment where their students may know more than them which can be an intimidation factor on the first day of the school year.
One obvious reason for possible differences in opinion from new and veteran teachers is that there is no financial loss for veteran teachers. Their pensions remain untouched. For them, the additional two days vacation is a potential gain with no obvious disadvantages.&nb sp; The new teachers, on the other hand, will have to give up more financially and will more than likely work more years before retirement.
When asked about what possible differences of feelings this could pose for new teachers versus veteran teachers, another Brooklyn high school teacher with 5 years NYC teaching experience, expressed “I do believe it affects me less since I have more experience with dealing with students the first week of school. As a new teacher, there are so many additional concerns on your mind that having the professional development days may ease your mind.”
Many teachers are also concerned about what this lack of additional days could mean for students. The usefulness and utilization of these days varies greatly among new, veteran, elementary, middle school and high school teachers. Whether the teacher is working in a large high school with multiple classes or teaching at the high school level with one set of students all factor in to how much office and academic preparation some teachers’ may need.
The new teachers’ pension plan continues to remain an ambivalent topic largely because it affects different teachers differently. New teachers face the possibility of being underprepared in a new environment, while working longer and contributing more to their pensions. Older teachers’ pensions will remain the same, facing only the loss of professional development days or the gain of a longer summer vacation. A longer summer vacation may be the distinct benefit of this agreement, but it may be at the cost of the students. The Department of Education has yet to reveal if the current academic schedule, which has already been released, will remain.
