Central Falls to fire every high school teacher
Saturday, February 13, 2010
By Jennifer D. Jordan and LINDA bORG, Projo.com

CENTRAL FALLS –– The teachers didn’t blink.

Under threat of losing their jobs if they didn’t go along with extra work for not a lot of extra pay, the Central Falls Teachers’ Union refused Friday morning to accept a reform plan for one of the worst-performing high schools in the state.

The superintendent didn’t blink either.

After learning of the union’s position, School Supt. Frances Gallo notified the state that she was switching to an alternative she was hoping to avoid: firing the entire staff at Central Falls High School. In total, about 100 teachers, administrators and assistants will lose their jobs.

Gallo blamed the union’s “callous disregard” for the situation, saying union leaders “knew full well what would happen” if they rejected the six conditions Gallo said were crucial to improving the school. The conditions are adding 25 minutes to the school day, providing tutoring on a rotating schedule before and after school, eating lunch with students once a week, submitting to more rigorous evaluations, attending weekly after-school planning sessions with other teachers and participating in two weeks of training in the summer.

The high school’s 74 teachers will receive letters during school vacation advising them to attend a Feb. 22 meeting where each will be handed a termination notice that takes effect for the 2010-’11 school year, Gallo said.

Gallo said she was devastated and that she had thought the union would agree to her conditions, even though she did not offer to pay the teachers more for most of the additional responsibilities.

A month ago, Education Commissioner Deborah A. Gist mandated that the district adopt one of four models to fix the troubled school, which has some of the lowest graduation rates and test scores in the state.

Gallo’s first choice, the “transformation” model, was consistent with her conditions on how to improve the high school. But if the teachers would not agree, the superintendent said she would select her second choice, the “turnaround” model, which requires the removal of the entire staff of the school. The turnaround model allows the district to hire back no more than 50 percent of the old staff.

“I am saddened and shaken at the core by the enormous ramifications of my responsibilities,” Gallo said. “The only solace I have is that I know I provided every opportunity possible, in fully public and transparent ways, the means to avoid this.”

Union officials say they, too, want to improve the high school but are unwilling to sign off on the six conditions, especially without receiving additional pay. In a letter, union officials said they do not think Gallo has the authority to fire the teachers and she must negotiate the terms of the reforms.

In an interview, Jane M. Sessums, union president, said the union intends to fight the terminations, although she was not ready to say how.

Students Friday expressed sadness, frustration and dismay at learning that their teachers would be fired en masse. Most had no idea why their teachers were being let go.

“They are very sweet,” said André Monteiro, 19, a senior. “They help us out and get the job done. They treat us with respect.”

“It’s sad,” said Jessica Lemur, another senior. “They stay when we need help. They love us. I was shocked when I heard the rumors.”

A couple of parents said they were stunned by the announcement and said they blamed students, not teachers, for the high school’s consistently poor performance.

“It’s not fair,” said Angela Perez, who has a daughter at the high school. “They shouldn’t be punished because the students are lazy.”

“The teachers care so much,” said Perez’s daughter, Ivannah Perez, a recent Central Falls graduate. “I’ve seen them stay after school. I’ve seen them struggle. It’s the students. They don’t want to learn.”

Most teachers declined to talk as they left school yesterday. But a couple of teachers paused long enough to share their thoughts.

Sheila Lawless-Burke, an English-as-a-Second Language teacher, said teachers are not opposed to working harder — or longer; they simply want the opportunity to negotiate the details of their contract, not have it imposed from above.

“It’s all about the politics,” she said, “about making Fran Gallo look good. The issue is having the right to negotiate. Once we allow the superintendent to get her foot in the door, where will it stop?”

Gist, who has 10 days to review Gallo’s proposal, said she expects to make a decision early next week.

“We know she is moving forward urgently and we want to support that,” Gist said.

Gallo and Gist say they have the authority to make these changes, based on federal education regulations and on state law that allows the state to intervene in chronically failing schools and districts.

“We’re very confident we are following both state and federal laws very carefully,” Gist said, “and, in fact, it’s the expectation both in state and federal law that we take these steps.”

TIMELINE Showdown over Central Falls HS

March 17, 2007: Frances A. Gallo, veteran educator and former deputy superintendent of Providence schools, is chosen as Central Falls school superintendent.

2008-2009: Test scores remain a problem at Central Falls High School as only 3 percent of 11th graders are proficient in math in 2008 and 7 percent in 2009.

November 2009: Gallo begins talks with teachers on her plans to reform the high school.

Jan. 11, 2010: State Education Commissioner Deborah A. Gist names the high school as one of the state’s worst schools and in need of closure or complete overhaul. Gallo says she already has a plan ready to implement in the fall. The plan would include a longer school day, more training, more tutoring.

Feb. 1-5, 2010: Gallo and union leaders are unable to reach an agreement on pay issues for the extra work. She says the failure is forcing her to switch to a reform model that calls for firing all teachers at the high school.

Feb. 9, 2010: During a packed meeting, Gallo gives the teachers’ union more time to agree on her original plan.

Feb. 12, 2010 Talks fail; Gallo proceeds with across-the-board firing plan.

jjordan@projo.com

U.S. Secretary of Education Lauds Decision to Fire Entire School Staff
by Amy Hatch (Subscribe to Amy Hatch's posts) Feb 24th 2010 2:03PM
LINK

Superintendent Frances Gallo followed through on her controversial plan to fire all the teachers at Central Falls High School in Rhode Island Feb. 23, after the district and the teachers union failed to come to an agreement about how to fix the failing school -- and U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan lauded the decision.

The Central Falls school board backed Gallo up and voted 5 to 2 in favor of her plan to clean house, the Providence Journal reports. Effective at the end of this school year, all 93 Central Falls staff members will be terminated, including classroom teachers, reading specialists, guidance counselors, physical education teachers, the school psychologist, the principal and three assistant principals.

According to the Journal, somewhere between 600 and 700 people -- many of them staunch union members -- came out to support the teachers, but to no avail. According to the Journal, George Nee, president of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO, told the rally crowd: "This is immoral, illegal, unjust, irresponsible, disgraceful and disrespectful. What is happening here tonight is the wrong thing ... and we're not going to put up with it."

His words, the paper reports, were received with shouts of approval from supporters.

Despite this public display of solidarity, heavyweights at the national level showed their own support for Gallo's plan and the board's approval. According to the Journal, Duncan says he "applauded" them for "showing courage and doing the right thing for kids."

Those kids may not agree, according to New England Cable News. The Web site reports that teachers and students stood shoulder-to-shoulder at the board meeting, many of them weeping as trustees read aloud all the names of all 93 staff members. Some wore the school colors, the Journal reports.

"It's not motivating me to come to school anymore," student Kelyn Salazar tells NECN, through tears. "It's not going to change any student's mind of learning."

How did it come to this? Secretary Duncan is requiring all states to identify the lowest 5 percent of their schools and correct them by one of four methods: school closure; takeover by a charter or school-management organization; transformation which requires a longer school day, among other changes; or "turnaround" which requires the entire teaching staff be fired and no more than 50 percent rehired in the fall.

Gallo first proposed the "transformation" method to address the problems at Central Falls, and asked teachers to do the following: Add 25 minutes to the school day, provide tutoring before and after school, eat lunch with students once a week, submit to more rigorous evaluations, attend weekly after-school planning sessions with fellow teachers and participate in two weeks of training during the summer break.

According to the Journal, Gallo and the union initially were on the same page. However, Gallo said she could only pay the teachers for some of those proposed extra duties and that's when talks broke down.

And so, Gallo opted for "turnaround."

Central Falls is a small town -- just one square mile -- but according to NECN it is one of the poorest in the state, and the statistics for its high school are grim, indeed: Only 7 percent of the students are proficient in math standards and 52 percent drop out before graduation.

"We don't take lightly that our scores are low. Everyone acknowledges that we have work to do," Central Falls Teachers' Union President Jane Sessums tells NECN.

The teachers who lost their jobs are allowed to reapply, but no more than 50 percent can be rehired under Gallo's plan. They may also apply for jobs elsewhere in the district.

B.K. Nordan, one of two board members who voted against firing all the teachers, nonetheless delivered stinging criticism of the school's staff, the Journal reports.

"I don't believe this is a worker's rights issue. I believe it's a children's rights issue," Nordan said. "... By every statistical measure I've seen, we are not doing a good enough job for our students ... The rhetoric that these are poor students, ESL students, you can imagine the home lives ... this is exactly why we need you to step up, regardless of the pay, regardless of the time involved. This city needs it more than anybody. I demand of you that you demand more of yourself and those around you."

Related: Japanese Teacher Robot Brings Us a Step Closer to Robot Armageddon

UPDATED: 'Turnaround' Not Only Policy Issue in R.I. Teacher Firings
By Stephen Sawchuk on February 24, 2010 3:55 PM
LINK

The decision of Central Falls, R.I., Superintendent Frances Gallo to fire every teacher in a high school building is making big headlines in Rhode Island, attracting outrage from teachers' unions and from AFT President Randi Weingarten, and becoming a big education reform story now that The New York Times has picked it up.

Under No Child Left Behind's 1003(g) school improvement grants, which are doled out by formula to states, the Obama administration outlined four possible models for dealing with the lowest-performing 5 percent of Title I and Title I-eligible schools. Gallo initially wanted to use a "transformation" model with extended learning time and other changes to instruction but couldn't reach agreement with the union about how to compensate teachers for putting in extra hours. So now she's going with the "turnaround" model, which requires teacher firing.

A couple things to keep in mind: This is not, repeat NOT the first time that teachers have been fired in the name of federal law. NCLB allows for teacher firing in schools reaching the "restructuring" phase of sanctions.

So the reasons this is especially newsy are twofold. First, the Obama administration's requirements for the grants are stricter than the NCLB law is—and much more prescriptive than the Bush administration sought to be when Congress first gave the 1003(g) program money back in 2007. It's clear from this example that the beefed-up program is going to come as political cover for districts that want to take aggressive action.

Second, Arne Duncan is already quoted in Jennifer Jordan's story (linked above) as saying that Gallo's decision is in the best interest of kids. That's pretty tough talk given that Duncan had promised to prioritize labor-management collaboration (vague though the term is) over top-down fixes.

What's too bad, though, is that all of this political stuff appears to be overrunning other important policy issues. Without a doubt, this story is about union v. the district with all the requisite finger-pointing over wages and bargaining in good faith and so forth. But it's also about questions that the education community doesn't have really good answers to: How should extended learning time be implemented? What changes will need to be made to contracts, school supports, time schedules, and compensation? And is it possible to do those things in a cost-neutral way?

UPDATED: The local teachers' union has apparently called in the cavalry. Weingarten has a statement out where she blasts Gallo and state superintendent Deborah Gist for "resisting" her overtures to meet. She also takes a dig at Arne Duncan, who she asserts "didn't get all the facts" or talk to teachers before weighing in on matters. (Call me cynical but it hardly seems surprising that he's backing up his department's own school-turnaround model.)