The Rochester school board last night approved a plan from the University of Rochester to partner with East High School with the goal of dramatically improving student performance at East.
The vote was 6 to 0, with board member Melisza Campos absent. The plan, which allows the UR to take over the management of East starting in July 2015, still has to be approved by the State Education Department.
The UR envisions East as a smaller, neighborhood-oriented school that separates grades 6 to 8 from 9 to 12, and places special emphasis on added support for 9th graders. The new East will have a longer school day and an intense focus on reading and math literacy. The school will also draw heavily on the UR’s resources, such as career development in areas such as health care.
But the plan also included some tense last-minute negotiations. All four of the district’s unions had to agree to the plan before submission to the SED for final approval. And the school board and East’s teachers were still hammering out their differences this week. The hold up: extra compensation for East’s teachers.
In the general contract between the district and Rochester Teachers Association, teachers normally teach five classes and work seven hours a day. But under the UR’s management, East’s teachers will be required to teach six classes and work for an extra hour. And they will be paid $55 for that extra hour of work instead of the usual $37.
But RTA president Adam Urbanski says that East’s teachers are agreeing to take on a lot more responsibility, too. Each teacher will be required to “adopt” and mentor a family of eight to 10 students. They will also be required to attend mandatory professional development classes at the discretion of the UR, Urbanski says, and they will lose about an hour of planning and preparation time daily.
Teachers will most likely have to make up for that lost time during the evening and on weekends, says Kyle Crandall, one of the eight union representatives at East who helped negotiate the agreement.
Under the plan, all East employees will have to reapply for their jobs. And Steve Uebbing, UR Warner School professor, told school board members in an earlier presentation this week that those interviews will be rigorous.
Although East’s teachers have agreed to the UR arrangement, they will formally vote on the plan when they return from vacation in January, Crandall says.
“We’re excited and hopeful to working with the UR,” he says. “From the beginning, we definitely wanted to reach an agreement that was in the best interest of students and fair to teachers. And we think we have that.”
The arrangement between East and the UR is being carefully watched by teachers and principals throughout the district, and there are some skeptics. Critics say that the plan is going to cost a lot; an exact budget hasn’t been finalized. And they say that there are a lot of city schools that would like to have the support and added resources that East will be receiving.
“City schools have had varying degrees of support and East was on the bad end of that for many years,” says Van White, school board president. “That was a historic wrong and we’re going to rectify that. We have to start somewhere to show the state and other districts that this is what it takes. This could be the model.”
This article appears in Dec 17-23, 2014.
This process has made two facts very clear. First, the University of Rochester does nothing for free. They might do some good at East but it will come at a huge cost. Given their connections to places like the Rochester Community Foundation and other sources of financial aid, it is disappointing that they are asking the district to foot every penny. East’s gain will no doubt come on the backs of other schools. Secondly, their plan is no different than hundreds of others out there. Boston’s Pilot Schools, Los Angeles Community Schools and many others do the same thing for much less. This is not rocket science. The difference is that in those areas the leaders were bold and humble enough to put the power back where it belongs-in the schools themselves. In other cities educational leaders gave up some power. In this case it had to be taken from them. This deal confirms what many dedicated employees, parents and students have known for years. The influence of a powerful few drive change, not the dedication and desire of the masses.
Gotta Say It: I’ve read your post several times and still don’t know what you’re talking about. The school district receives a per pupil amount of money for education. East won’t get any more money than the per pupil amount that all the schools receive.
Gotta Say It:
One clarification. Nothing was taken from us. The Board of Education took the initiative and sought out this partnership. In fact, our District had other options which would have included “phasing out” the old East and “phasing in” a new school. But as you say we were “humble” enough to know that our best chance of improving East was looking for assistance from others. In doing so, we have supported a process of “putting the power back where it belongs in the schools”. Accordingly, in creating this plan, the U of R sought out the advice of school leaders, teachers, students, parents, and community leaders. We think the EPO proposal (viewable at http://www.rscdk12.org) is “bold”; innovative; and likely to generate the kind of results that will make this District proud.
For clarification. The per pupil amount for East will not come close to covering the amount required for the proposal. This was shared by the superintendent as a 10.5 million dollar deficit. In fact Commissioner Powell made the point that without tremendous financial help from the state, the cost would no doubt have implications for the rest of the district. She went so far as to mention Joe Morelle by name. There is no disputing the cost per per pupil for East students after this is done will far exceed PP costs in other schools.
“the usual $37” is a flat rate hourly pay for required hourly work beyond the 7hr day such as meetings and training. Some schools are using this flat hourly wage to pay for tutoring and extended day programs which it was not intended for initially. School leaders score big on budget when they can charm teachers into accepting this rate instead of a salary differnetial. Hourly wages do not account for planning, preparation, grading, parent contact, management and assessment that every group of students requires. My plumber makes about $50 and hour, and that is because he likes my family. My brother’s hourly HVAC/punchlist rate is about $95. I have no idea what my uncle’s hourly carpentry rate is, but think it’s over $150/ hr. $37/hr is NOT a good ad for recruiting teachers. Not a good precedent to set for teachers nationally. “Why teachers don’t have second homes and boats.” “Why teachers dress ‘like teachers'”