After months of students and teachers rallying against the turnaround plan, 24 schools were ordered to close. Now a ruling has suspended that process.
The controversial “turnaround” plan to reform under-performing schools is stalled once again.
The Bloomberg administration had planned to shutter 24 struggling schools, including seven in Queens, in an attempt to replace teachers and at the same time grab about almost $60 million in federal funding.
But after a state judge ruled last week to uphold an arbitrator’s decision that the plan violated union contracts, the Department of Education (DOE) may have to abandon the idea—although it still unclear exactly what will happen when students return to school in September.
The turnaround plan would close the 24 schools in order to force every teacher at each school to reapply for their jobs at a new school opened in the same building.
Half the teachers would be replaced by new talent in an attempt to hold onto only the cream of the crop.
When an arbitrator ruled that closing the schools violated teachers’ contracts because it was a roundabout way to fire them, the DOE took the decision to court.
The city’s lawyers asked a state judge to suspend the arbitrators ruling in order to move forward with the plan, but he declined.
Even though the DOE is now appealing the court’s decision, it must now move forward with the assumption that the turnaround plan is blocked.
“I have a responsibility to open our schools, and open our schools in a way that allows our students to learn,” Chancellor Dennis Walcott said on Wednesday July 11. “We have to operate under the principle that the staff who were at the school will be coming back.”
This decision extends what has already been a months-long rollercoaster ride for teachers.
In public hearings at all the turnaround schools including August Martin High School, John Adams High School, and Richmond Hill High School, teachers passionately denounced the idea.
At every hearing, teachers blasted the plan, saying it created undue disruption and did not address the needs of the school.
On April 26, the Panel for Educational Policy voted in favor of the plan, which was thought to seal the fate of the 24 schools.
But soon after, the United Federation of Teachers filed a lawsuit, claming it violated terms of the union’s contract with the Department of Education.
They have argued that the schools are not in fact closing because they are only being renamed and immediately reopened in the same buildings with the same students.
They say it’s a ploy to fire teachers.
After the arbitrator and judge agreed with them, the fight ensued.
Oral arguments on the city’s newest appeal will begin on July 24.
By Jeremiah Dobruck
j.dobruck@theforumnewsgroup.com
