The city’s teachers union and principals union are suing to stall the turnaround plan that was approved last month to close 24 schools citywide and seven in Queens.
On May 7, the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) and Council of School Supervisors and Administrators (CSA) went to New York Supreme Court seeking a temporary restraining order and injunction that would send the issue to arbitration.
At issue is the Department of Education’s (DOE) plan that closes the 24 schools and almost immediately reopens them under a new name and in the same building.
The process forces all current educators at the school to reapply for their jobs but keeps the same students.
The unions argue that these are not school closings, just an excuse to get around labor agreements and fire teachers.
“These ‘sham closings’ are an attempt by the Department of Education to evade its duty to help these struggling schools succeed,” UFT President Michael Mulgrew and CSA President Ernest Logan said in a statement. “We are asking the court to ensure that no final decisions are made on the staffing of these schools, pending an independent review by an arbitrator on the issue of whether the DOE is trying to get around its labor agreements.”
The DOE fired back the same day.
“The UFT and CSA have shown that they would rather leave our students’ futures to the courts than do the difficult work of turning around failing schools and giving students the education they deserve,” said Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott. “We have already begun preparations to open these 24 new schools next fall, training their leadership teams and holding productive meetings with the UFT to begin the process of staffing the new schools. Sadly, today’s lawsuit could have damaging consequences for that process, jeopardizing the creation of exciting new schools with new programs, teachers, and leadership structures.”
The Panel for Educational policy voted to approve the turnaround plan last month.
All the hiring decisions will be left up to a panel formed at each new school including the principal, UFT representatives and DOE representatives.
However, on Tuesday, the DOE agreed in court that it would hold off on any personnel decisions until the court’s hearing on May 16 that the unions requested for the injunction.
By Jeremiah Dobruck
