PS 90 Chapter Leader Vicky Giasemis Wins Her Grievance to Change Her "Ineffective" Rating Given by Bully Principal Greta Hawkins

I hope this is "historic", as the UFT badly needs a good case to overcome the scam they have supported in the grievance process for too many years.

Historic rating ruling

Brooklyn principal forced to change Ineffective thanks to appeals process UFT fought for

BY DOROTHY CALLACI | APRIL 2, 2015 NEW YORK TEACHER ISSUE

PS 90 Chapter Leader Vicky Giasemis (right), whose Ineffective rating from her principal was overturned by an arbitrator,
and delegate Betty Matos outside the Brooklyn school.

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For the very first time, a teacher rating of Ineffective has been overturned and a principal has been ordered to submit a different rating, thanks to the appeals process that the UFT insisted on as an essential part of any fair and impartial teacher evaluation system.

This was the first case before a three-member rating- appeals panel consisting of a neutral arbitrator and panelists selected by the UFT and the Department of Education. The union proved that the rating of Ineffective for the 2013–14 school year for Vicky Giasemis, the chapter leader at PS 90 in Coney Island, was due to harassment and animus by her principal, Greta Hawkins, and was not related to her job performance.

Greta Hawkins with Former Mayor Mike Bloomberg

Hawkins was ordered on March 3 to submit a different rating to the panel for their approval.

UFT President Michael Mulgrew hailed the decision as “the culmination of a long battle to win meaningful protection for members rated Ineffective for no fault of their own.”

UFT General Counsel Adam Ross said the new protection against supervisory harassment was a major milestone.

“We never got ratings reversed on substance under Bloomberg, but now we have secured due-process rights for teachers in state education law,” he pointed out.

Giasemis was rated Effective on both the state and local measures of student learning, which account for 40 percent of her rating. But Hawkins slapped her with an Ineffective rating for measures of teacher practice even though, according to the arbitrator, the principal did not detail deficiencies in the physical environment and student-teacher interaction in Giasemis’ classroom in her observation reports.

The arbitrator found “that had the principal observed deficiencies in these readily observable classroom components they would have been included in her observations.”

The arbitrator further noted that there was no doubt that Giasemis “was a teacher for whom the principal had great dislike and little regard.”

The new ruling is just the most recent of a string of decisions nailing Hawkins as a bully.

In June 2013, an arbitrator ordered Hawkins to stop “harassing or otherwise discriminating” against union members lawfully exercising their union rights after she tried to intimidate 14 teachers who were named in a Step 1 grievance concerning lesson plans.

At Giasemis’ appeals hearing, teachers at PS 90 testified that Hawkins hung a copy of a New York Teacher story heralding that arbitration victory, “Staff wins grievance against ‘bully’ Coney Island principal,” on a bulletin board in her office as a badge of honor.

The arbitrator in the rating appeal said that article on the bulletin board was “in essence a daily reminder of who the principal held responsible for that award — the UFT — and more specifically, its chief representative at the school, the chapter leader.”

Giasemis said she is “delighted” that she has been vindicated, but she added, “There is no way to explain how I feel when I walk into school every day. After all the abuse, the damage is done.”

Judy Gerowitz, the UFT’s representative for District 21, noted that “the arbitrator left no doubt that animus toward the union and not poor pedagogy was the reason for her Ineffective rating.”

Diane Mazzola, the UFT coordinator of appeals, savored the broader meaning of the arbitration victory.

“The UFT fought long and hard to get a process which would result in fair hearings for those teachers whose ratings do not reflect their work in the classroom,” Mazzola said. “This appeal award demonstrates that we have, at last, achieved that goal.”

Read more: News stories

Arbitrator Deborah Gaines Rules That Lesson Plans Are For The Personal Use of the Teacher

 UFT wins lesson-plan grievance

Specifics of plan must be left up to teacher

BY DOROTHY CALLACI | PUBLISHED MAY 20, 2014

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In a resounding win for teacher professionalism and teacher voice, an arbitrator has ruled that “lesson plans are for the personal use of the teacher” and that principals may not “mandate specific elements of lesson plans.”

UFT President Michael Mulgrew said the ruling validated what the union has insisted throughout the yearlong arbitration hearings: “You as the teacher should decide what information you need to write down in order to teach a particular lesson.”

While arbitrator Deborah Gaines acknowledged that written lesson plans are required of all teachers, she specifically noted that “the specifics of the plan will be left to the professional judgment of the teacher.”

Mulgrew noted that the arbitrator’s decision “also helps to reduce the amount of paperwork required of teachers, a goal that is mirrored in our proposed contract.”

The union-initiated grievance charged that the Department of Education was violating Articles 8E and 20, specifically Special Circular 28, which was agreed to in contract negotiations in 1990, by allowing principals to require that teachers include specific elements in their lesson plans. The contract articles and the circular establish that what goes into a lesson plan is up to the discretion of the teacher and further prohibits the “routinized and mechanical” collection of lesson plans in schools.

Celebrating the victory she helped to achieve, Grievance Director Ellen Gallin-Procida noted, “As someone who was teaching in 1990, I remember just how significant this change was, and I find it unthinkable that they would try to take away our voice.”

The arbitrator pointed out that since the lesson plan is only a part of the whole process of planning a lesson, it can serve as a starting point for a conversation on planning but cannot be evaluated in isolation. She made a distinction between evaluating an actual lesson, which supervisors have every right to do, and evaluating a lesson plan in a vacuum, which they may not do.

Addressing the union’s concern that the DOE might try to circumvent the ruling, the arbitrator warned the DOE not to “institute policies to serve as a smoke screen for the mechanical, ritualized collection of lesson plans or other types of impermissible activity under Article 8E of Special Circular 28.”

UFT Win Grievance Against PS 90 Principal Greta Hawkins

Staff wins grievance against ‘bully’ Coney Island principal

BY DOROTHY CALLACI | SEPTEMBER 5, 2013 NEW YORK TEACHER ISSUE
PRINCIPAL GRETA HAWKINS 'Antithesis' of a good administrator

A Coney Island principal repeatedly accused of bullying parents and staff and sent for sensitivity training by the Department of Education after making offensive racial remarks has been ordered
to stop “harassing or otherwise discriminating” against union members lawfully exercising their rights.

A June arbitration ruling upheld UFT charges that PS 90 Principal Greta Hawkins’ decision to
hold a separate meeting with each of the 14 teachers named in a Step 1 grievance concerning
lesson plans was both a violation of the contract and an “intimidating and hostile act.”

Hawkins initiated the individual meetings after holding a Step 1 hearing with Chapter Leader
Vicky Giasemis and Betty Matos, a teacher and UFT delegate who represented her 13 colleagues. That initial attempt to resolve the dispute over “excessive” demands to format lesson plans, said Matos, turned into a power play when Hawkins’ manner became “angry and belittling.”

Giasemis testified that at each of the individual meetings, which she attended after warning
Hawkins that they were improper, Hawkins was “belittling, bizarre and angry in tone and body language” as she essentially tried to bully each member into withdrawing the grievance.

In his June 26 decision, the arbitrator agreed with the UFT position that not only did Hawkins
act improperly under the contract by initiating individual meetings but that her goal was “more
aimed at browbeating each grievant than arriving at a mutually satisfactory resolution of the
et al grievance before her.” He called her actions “the antithesis” of a good administrator’s
conduct in addressing a grievance.

Since the original grievance was filed in 2012, nine of the 14 members who filed grievances,
fearing intimidation and reprisals, have transferred to other schools.

“After 15 years at PS 90, it broke my heart to leave but I just couldn’t work another year for
Hawkins,” said Jennifer Meisner, who is now at a Queens school.

The departure of those nine teachers — all veterans — were part of a mass exodus last year
of some 25 staffers, including teachers, paraprofessionals, secretaries and custodians, totaling
almost half of the small staff of 60 at the Brooklyn school.

Hawkins has been at the eye of the storm since her arrival at PS 90 in 2009. A New York
Teacher article about her [“Brooklyn principal a ‘bully,’” March 12, 2013 issue] detailed
complaints brought by parents and staff that Hawkins “took a healthy school culture and
made it toxic.”

Grievance Department Director Ellen Gallin-Procida hailed the arbitrator’s decision and the
teachers who stood up for their rights.

“Not only does this decision assure members that the contract protects them, it also
encourages them to stand up against harassment,” Gallin-Procida said.

The UFT also has an unfair labor practice charge against Hawkins on another matter pending
at the state Public Employment Relations Board.

Danielson Cannot Be Used in Evaluation Decisions

DOE prohibited from using the Danielson Framework in evaluation decisions

The UFT filed a charge with the state Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) based on the DOE’s improper attempt to evaluate teachers under the Danielson Framework for Teaching earlier this school year. That charge alleged that the DOE failed to negotiate with the UFT over the use of the Danielson Framework in teacher evaluations. The charge has now been resolved by a stipulation which clearly affirms that the DOE may not use the Danielson Framework or HEDI ratings (highly effective, effective, developing or ineffective) for any evaluative purpose whatsoever with respect to UFT members. 

This means that no checklists or even mentions of any of the ratings or Danielson domains, components or rubrics can enter a member’s file. The stipulation also prevents the DOE from using large portions of the Danielson language describing teacher competencies in any document which is placed in a teacher’s file. While supervisors or observers may use the Danielson Framework for formative or supportive work to assist teachers, supervisors cannot use the Danielson Framework for any official teacher evaluation. 

There is a special condition for evaluations at the TEP pilot schools: supervisors or observers may use the Danielson Framework in practice observation reports and may give HEDI ratings in these practice observation reports. However, these practice Danielson observation reports and ratings may not be placed in a teacher’s file. In ANY school where a teacher believes that there has been a breach of this stipulation, the member must first ask the supervisor, in writing, to remove, rewrite or redact any HEDI rating or Danielson language from the improper observation report. If the supervisor doesn’t comply within two weeks, the member may grieve this violation. Read the full stipulation. If you have any questions, please contact your district representative or your UFT borough office.