Chicago Teachers Forced Out of Their Public School Positions Get Placed on the Do Not Hire List Just Like Here in NYC

The inspector general for Chicago Public Schools found that dozens of employees who were barred from the district found working in new jobs at city charter and contract schools last year. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)

New York City is not the only place that teachers are thrown out of their jobs, tarred and feathered, and placed on the "Do Not Hire" ("problem code") list.

Anyone charged with 3020-a, and anyone discontinued or terminated, whether tenured or not, is immediately placed onto a "problem code" - unless you are a VIP like Santiago Taveras, Carmen Farina or other people at their 'untouchable' level.

The UFT is not willing to end this blacklist. Some representatives say it does not exist. But it does, and it is, in my non-lawyer opinion, a libelous label used to back up false or unproven charges.

Indeed, when I worked for the UFT from 2007-2010, and my office was right next to Amy Arundel's office, I used to get calls all the time from members who wanted to know whether or not they were on this list, and I would walk next door and ask Amy, who would look up their file, and then she would tell me yes or no.

The problem code is a red flag put onto your file number to alert anyone that your fingerprints have been tagged as not cleared to work for the DOE or any vendors.

When a potential employer calls up the Department, and they ask about you and say that they are thinking of hiring you, all the DOE is permitted to say is how many years you worked for them. But seldom do they stop there. They go on to say that your file has a "Problem code".

Try it. Have a friend call DOE Human Resources and ask if you can be hired.

Joe McCarthy, where are you?

Anyway, if you are on the problem code, you must try to get off of it. What you need to do is, contact the Office of Personnel Investigations (OPI) at 65 Court Street, and ask for an appointment to discuss clearing your fingerprints. Bring someone with you who can support what you are saying - a teacher or educator who knows your skills and character is best.

At this meeting make an argument as to why you must have this red flag removed from your employee profile. Get the person's name and email address with whom you spoke, and email them what your argument was, after the meeting. Then wait for the decision. When you get the OPI decision, than you may file an Article 78 to overturn it, and then you can also sue the DOE if you have filed a Notice of Claim.

Read Chancellor's Regulations C-105.

OPI is here:


NYC Department of Education/DHRT
Office of Personnel Investigation
65 Court Street, Room 200
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Fax: 718-935-4366

Betsy Combier

betsy@advocatz.com

Editor, Advocatz

Editor, NYC Rubber Room Reporter
Editor, Parentadvocates.org
Editor, New York Court Corruption
Editor, National Public Voice
Editor, NYC Public Voice
Editor, Inside 3020-a Teacher Trials

Teachers barred from Chicago Public Schools found work at city charters: inspector general

By Juan Perez Jr.

Chicago Tribune, October 24, 2017

More than 160 Chicago Public Schools employees who were barred from the district because of alleged abuse, misconduct or poor performance were found working in new jobs at city charter and contract schools last year, according to a report from the district’s inspector general.

The list included three workers who were fired or resigned and blocked from being re-hired at CPS because of sexual abuse accusations, according to the report, which was released Tuesday. Twenty-two were put on a “Do Not Hire” list “due to improper corporal punishment or physical abuse of students,” according to the report.

Nearly 80 others were blocked from returning to the district due to incompetence or violating school rules. That included a list of probationary teachers who were blocked from future employment at CPS because of poor performance.

The 163 unidentified employees — 98 of them teachers — represented a small fraction of the workforce at the city’s publicly funded but independently operated charter and contract schools, the reported noted.

But Inspector General Nicholas Schuler’s office also found that CPS had no system for those schools to determine if their potential employees had been blacklisted by CPS with the “Do Not Hire” designation. Despite preliminary steps taken to fix the problem, the IG’s office said CPS has not finalized a policy on how to handle such situations.

The report did not name schools that hired the former district employees. Officials from three of the city’s largest charter school operators either declined to comment on Schuler’s report or said their schools conduct criminal background checks but don’t have access to CPS’ list of prohibited employees.

Kelley Quinn, spokeswoman for the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, said in a statement that “charter schools have not had access to the Do Not Hire list, but are required to run independent background checks for all staff, which they have done.”

“We also look forward to working with the district to ensure charter public schools have timely access to the Do Not Hire list in the future.” Quinn said.

A district spokesman said CPS conducts background checks for more than half of all charter and contract operators. In those cases, job candidates agree to share whether they’re blocked from working at CPS.

Schuler’s office said CPS is “developing a protocol” for alerting independently run schools of job candidates who are prohibited from working in the district. The IG said CPS also hopes to cover current charter and contract school employees as well.

It’s not clear how many employees on the Do Not Hire list are still on the job at charters or contract schools. The IG’s office reached its conclusions after reviewing a list of charter and contract school employees from last winter.

The three school workers accused of sex abuse are no longer working at the charters that hired them, the IG said.

“The charter data that we asked for was effective in December of last year,” Schuler said in an interview. “It’s a snapshot date in December of last year. Therefore, we’re unable to say exactly how many of these people in the (group of) 163 are still at the charters today.”

One challenge, Schuler noted, is that the law allows charter schools “considerable latitude” on their hiring decisions.

State law prohibits schools from hiring candidates who have been convicted of certain criminal offenses. CPS also elects to bar a range of other offenders from being hired, though charter schools are not required to follow suit.

“Although the Board decides not to hire those individuals, it does not have a statutory basis to require charter schools to defer to the Board’s conclusions about the risks presented by those individuals,” Schuler’s office said.

jjperez@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @PerezJr

Chicago Teachers Union and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel Reach a Tentative Contract Settlement

Karen Lewis, CTU President

Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago Teachers Union Reach A Tentative Contract Settlement That Averts a Strike
re-posted by Betsy Combier, Editor of Parentadvocates.org and NYC Rubber Room Reporter

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Emanuel said the tentative agreement "invested in strengthening the classroom and helped our teachers financially, but actually did it in a way that CPS is on a better sustainable path than every contract preceding." The union got many of the things it wanted, including the continuation of the district paying the bulk of pension contributions for current teachers. CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey praised the pay raises and job guarantees teachers would see under the tentative agreement.

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Summary and Complete Tentative Agreement

Costs of deal with Chicago Teachers Union not yet clear
LINK

Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the Chicago Teachers Union both declared victory after reaching a tentative contract settlement that averted a strike.

What wasn't immediately clear, however, was the financial cost of the deal that was reached Monday moments before a midnight strike deadline.

To finance the deal for this year alone, Emanuel tapped nearly $90 million in tax increment financing district surplus, even though he had for months dismissed the idea of using TIF money to shore up the school district's shaky finances.

On Tuesday, though, he called using those funds "the right thing to do."

Emanuel said the tentative agreement "invested in strengthening the classroom and helped our teachers financially, but actually did it in a way that CPS is on a better sustainable path than every contract preceding."

The union got many of the things it wanted, including the continuation of the district paying the bulk of pension contributions for current teachers. CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey praised the pay raises and job guarantees teachers would see under the tentative agreement.

"I think that we achieved really most of our bargaining objectives," Sharkey said Tuesday. "And the things which we didn't achieve largely have to do with not getting some of the things that we aspired to."

Chicago Public Schools officials say the district would save $300 million over the life of the four-year contract. But a spokeswoman could not provide an accounting for that figure.

An eight-page summary of the tentative agreement, which covers July 1, 2015, to June 30, 2019, indicates some uncertain financial consequences of the pending contract.

Veteran union members can qualify for a hefty cash bonus if they resign or retire by next summer. That would allow the district to replace higher-salary employees with younger and less expensive workers. But that provision won't kick in for teachers unless at least 1,500 of them retire.

The retirement bonus option could raise some immediate expenses for the district. Teachers would receive a one-time bonus that pays $1,500 for each year of service. That means a teacher with 25 years experience would see a $37,500 payout that wouldn't affect their pension earnings.

Paraprofessionals with at least a decade of service would be eligible for a similar deal, if at least 600 of them resign by June.

CTU represents nearly 30,000 teachers and educational support personnel.

CTU's current membership will continue to have 7 percentage points of their required pension contributions paid for by the district, but a future generation of teachers — those hired Jan. 1 and after — won't receive the lucrative perk. In return, those new hires will get pay boosts that even out the loss of the pension pickup.

Teachers won't get cost of living raises for the first two years of the contract, with pay hikes of 2 percent and 2.5 percent in the final two years. Raises based on experience and education would be part of the contract's final three years. Members will start paying higher health insurance costs in 2019.

Absent from Monday's agreement is language from a January proposal from the city that barred the district from laying off teachers to save money. A deal on teacher layoffs was one of the last aspects of the contract agreed to on Monday, Sharkey said.

Most tenured teachers who are laid off at the end of a school year would be eligible to fill temporarily vacant positions in 10 month stints. If no such vacancies exist, the teacher would be able to substitute teach for 10 months while earning full pay and benefits.

The district's $5.4 billion operating budget assumed savings of $31 million through renegotiated contracts with unions including the CTU. That budget also assumed it would take in $32.5 million from TIF districts, but that figure would now increase to $87.5 million.

"It does not appear that they are going to get that savings, although the (TIF) surplus that they have declared will help pay for some of it," said Laurence Msall, head of the nonpartisan Civic Federation budget watchdog group.

The mayor agreed to increase the amount taken from those funds, which are used at city discretion to boost economic development — to $175 million from the originally proposed $60 million. About half of the money declared as "surplus" is going to CPS.

That amount is larger than any the mayor has agreed to since taking office in 2011, and it presents a contrast to what Emanuel has been saying in recent weeks when asked if declaring larger TIF surpluses — something the CTU has long sought — could lead to a teachers' contract agreement.

The mayor repeatedly described a larger TIF surplus as a one-time revenue source and not a long-term solution, even though the amount of money going into those funds not dedicated to specific projects grew significantly this year and is expected to remain at higher levels for years to come, barring a severe economic downturn.

On Tuesday, with negotiations complete and his last minute gambit to avoid a strike successful, Emanuel made a different case to the Tribune editorial board. "Every year, I've surplussed," the mayor said, noting his policy of declaring 25 percent of TIF revenue not dedicated to projects as surplus. "So it's not new. It's part of a pattern."

"I don't have a problem with what we've done," Emanuel said. "I know it's the right thing to do."

The union would see one of its biggest victories in negotiations start to take shape in the second semester of the 2016-17 school year. That's when kindergarten through second grade teachers with 32 or more students in their classrooms become eligible to receive an assistant to help with instruction, according to the tentative deal. Sharkey estimated that agreement would cost about $10 million a year.

In the end, CPS might not have to depend on TIF surplus funds as heavily in coming years, said Carole Brown, the city's chief financial officer.

Costs are higher in 2017 under the new contract because of planned buyouts of longtime teachers. Salaries paid to their replacements will be lower, and they will pick up the full cost of their required pension contributions, she said.

Msall said he wanted more details on how the early retirement system would work.

"In this case, definitely, the new teachers who are replacing them are going to be paying more to the pensions," he said. "They are going to see a lesser pension benefit than existing employees, but we have to see the value of the lump sum that is being added before we can make a determination of how much savings or costs are associated."

The union's House of Delegates are set to weigh in on the deal next week, Sharkey said. The contract has to be approved by the delegates and then voted on by full membership before a final deal is signed.

jjperez@chicagotribune.com

hdardick@chicagotribune.com