Rhee Gets Say Over Teacher Transfers

Some Denounce Agreement With Union President

D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee has signed a controversial agreement with the president of the Washington Teachers' Union giving her the right to reassign all teachers at 23 schools slated to be closed with no guarantee that they would move to the schools where their students are to be transferred.

Some parents say they are upset because the agreement counters statements Rhee made at hearings this year that teachers would transfer with students to ensure a smoother transition at the receiving schools.

Parents at the hearings asked Rhee, " 'Is it possible for the students to have the teachers from the old school to ease them into their transition?' The response was, 'Oh, sure. We can take care of that,' " said Nicola Turner, who has twins in first grade at Stevens Elementary School in Northwest Washington, which is slated to close.

But at a meeting last week, Turner said, Rhee told parents that the teacher transfer was not automatic and that teachers would have to interview for positions at the receiving schools.

"It's important to me that the teachers transition with the students," Turner said. The students are being disrupted enough "going into unfamiliar surroundings," she said.

Rhee's spokeswoman Mafara Hobson said in a statement that it would be impossible for all teachers at the closing schools to relocate to the receiving schools. The agreement "directly points out the fact that teachers won't automatically lose their jobs but in fact will have the opportunity to seek opportunities at receiving schools and/or transfer to other schools in the school system," she said.

In a two-page agreement signed April 18 by Rhee and George Parker, union president, teachers at the 23 schools would be identified as "excessed," subjecting them to an involuntarily placement at any school in the system. The agreement says the teachers have the "first right of interview" for vacancies at the receiving schools.

Two officers of the union assert that the agreement strips the teachers of contract rights that require the school system to give first preference to positions at the receiving schools to those teachers with the most seniority from the closing schools. The senior teachers, they said, have the right to "bump" less-experienced teachers. The remaining teachers would be placed in the "excess" pool and required to apply for vacancies at other schools.

Union members are at odds over whether Parker had the right to sign the agreement without approval from the board. John Tatum, the union's parliamentarian, said its constitution authorizes Parker to represent the union on such matters. But the officers disagree.

Parker "has got to be stopped; he's giving away the store," said Nathan Saunders, the union's general vice president. "This will affect the union forever and a day."

The dispute is the latest battle roiling the leadership of the 4,200-member union. On Friday, Saunders filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court charging Parker with violating his free-speech rights by introducing a policy banning anyone other than Parker from speaking publicly on behalf of the union.

Parker said he signed the agreement with Rhee because there are loopholes in the contract that could hurt teachers at the 23 schools. Parker disagreed with Saunders's interpretation of the contract, saying it allows the system to declare teachers at closing schools as excessed with no guarantee that they would follow their students. He said seniority does not apply to teachers at buildings where the entire staff is being given that status.

"The way our contract is written, an excessed teacher is guaranteed a placement, but it doesn't tell you where" the teacher will be placed, Parker said. The agreement, he said, gives the unassigned teachers priority in applying for jobs at the receiving schools.

However, "you can't say that no other teacher could interview for those jobs," Parker said. "You'd be discriminating against excessed teachers from other schools."

Rhee had offered buyouts to 700 teachers from 50 schools slated for closure or academic overhaul, but only 289 applied, Hobson said. Some union officials said they are concerned that Rhee might use the agreement to get rid of teachers from those schools.

Candi Peterson, a trustee in the union, said union leaders learned of the agreement last week -- six days after it had been signed. She said officers directed Saunders to send a letter to Rhee demanding that teachers at the closed schools be guaranteed jobs. She said she fears that some teachers who are not hired through the interview process would be let go if not placed sometime in the fall.

Older teachers are concerned that "when they go for an interview, they won't get picked up [because principals] will get two younger teachers for their salaries," said Peterson, a special education service provider at four schools.

"It looks like [Parker] sold us out," she said.