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From the
NY Times:
Despite a high-profile effort by Mayor Bill de Blasio to reduce the number of city teachers without permanent jobs who draw full pay and benefits, the city spent $136 million this school year to keep them on the payroll, according to a study released Thursday.
The unassigned employees are part of a pool known as the Absent Teacher Reserve, and there were 1,202 teachers and other staff in it at the start of the school year, according to the report by the nonpartisan Citizens Budget Commission. Despite buyouts, mandatory placements in schools and a rule that all unassigned teachers must look for permanent posts, there were still 756 teachers in the pool in April.
Like teachers with full-time classroom assignments, those in the pool are entitled to regular pay raises, step increases and longevity increases, providing “no incentive for unmotivated or unsuitable teachers to secure new permanent placements,” the report notes.
Teachers in the pool have an average of 18 years on the job, and an average salary of $98,126. With a 3 percent raise for all city teachers going into effect on Saturday, combined with a 2 percent raise teachers received in May, senior teachers in the pool could now earn up to $119,472, the report found.
Teachers land in the reserve pool because their schools have been closed, or their budgets cut, or because they were the subject of unsatisfactory performance evaluations or disciplinary actions. They can stay in the pool indefinitely.
The United Federation of Teachers contract with the city expires in November, and the budget commission urged the city to use the contract negotiations to cap the time teachers can spend in the pool at six months.
From
NY1:
The city announced Thursday that the Department of Education has come to an agreement with the teacher's union to close the so-called rubber rooms.
Teachers being investigated for misconduct will no longer go to reassignment centers, where they receive full benefits and salary.
The teachers are required to spend all days in these "rubber rooms," but are not allowed to do any work.
Under the new agreement, the teachers will now be assigned to clerical duty, either in central offices or schools.
There will also be more arbitrators hired to expedite the hearing process. Under the current system, it can take teachers years to either be cleared of charges or officially disciplined.
The agreement will call for all teachers accused of misconduct to be formally charged within 60 days or they will return to the classroom. The DOE will have only 10 days to file charges against a teacher accused of incompetence.
From the
NY Post:
Assembly Democrats have quietly advanced sweeping legislation -- already being called the "Rubber Rooms for All Act" -- to extend tenure-like job protection to all public workers, countering efforts to roll back rigid regulations like those that keep hundreds of failed teachers on the city payroll.
The bill, introduced by Governmental Employees Chairman Peter Abbate Jr. (D-Brooklyn) -- who proudly proclaims himself "the unions' bulldog" -- would nix in-house disciplinary proceedings for all state civil servants accused of wrongdoing by their employers.
Instead, workers would be entitled to a binding ruling by an "independent" arbitrator approved by both the employer and the employee.
The bill makes no provision to break a stalemate, suggesting a dispute could drag on indefinitely.
The legislation would also ban state and local governments from suspending workers without pay while the arbitration process plays out. An exception would be made only for those accused of sale or possession of drugs.
The provisions mirror the state's "rubber room" law, which makes it nearly impossible to fire tenured teachers and has led the Department of Education to warehouse some 675 unwanted teachers in so-called reassignment centers daily at a cost of $40.5 million last year.
