Alum Rock schools made AYP goal, still faced reconstitution
Volume 12, Issue 6 - March 2008
In the Alum Rock Union Elementary School District, reconstitution happened in two Title I elementary schools that were anything but failing. In fact, many teachers believe that administrators used reconstitution — a sanction under No Child Left Behind (NCLB) — as an excuse to retaliate against teachers involved in union activity and as a tactic to intimidate staff into submissiveness.
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| Lina Nichols, a member of the AREA bargaining team, reports that kids would cry at times knowing that beloved teachers were leaving. |
Shields Elementary School was closed last June and reopened as two smaller, renamed schools on the site this fall, with only a handful of teachers allowed to remain. Last year, the campus met 20 of 21 criteria for meeting Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) and raised its score on the Academic Performance Index (API) 34 points, going from 651 to 685. Amazingly, the school was only in year 2 of Program Improvement. And under NCLB, drastic sanctions such as reconstitution are supposed to be planned in year 4 of PI and then implemented in year 5.
The real reason for early sanctions at Shields Elementary School, say teachers, was to punish teachers for union activity that is protected by law. Last year teachers were “working to rule” — or not doing extra duties such as supervising clubs or after-school tutoring — to express their unhappiness with the principal’s leadership style.
The other reconstituted campus — Hubbard Elementary School — was among the highest-scoring schools in the county, and its API rose from 689 to 745 during the 2006-07 school year. In May 2006 it was one of five San Jose schools recognized for making the greatest academic improvements over a two-year period, and received the “Progress to Excellence” award from the mayor, in a ceremony attended by community leaders and representatives of the San Jose police and fire departments.
Hubbard Elementary School was in year 4 of PI in 2006-07 when plans were announced for reconstitution this year. Ironically, while planning for reconstitution last year, the school met its AYP goal for 2006-07.
It should have been a time for celebration. Instead, teachers were reapplying for their jobs. Only a few were rehired.
Both sites, which have a high percentage of English learners, participated in the state’s Immediate Intervention/Underperforming Schools Program. They were assigned a School Assistance and Intervention Team (SAIT) to provide interventions.
Many teachers say they felt betrayed by the district-hired consultant, who reassured them that nothing drastic would happen and then recommended to the school board that most or all of the staff be replaced, along with the extremely popular school principal at Hubbard Elementary.
At both San Jose campuses, there was emotional damage. Good teachers were involuntarily transferred to other schools without regard for their feelings or the feelings of their students, who were traumatized by the events.
“The kids were very sad,” says Lina Nichols, a member of the Alum Rock Education Association (AREA) bargaining team, who taught at Shields for six years and now teaches at Goss Elementary School. “They would cry at times knowing that we were leaving. The parents were upset. I had parents crying and giving me hugs when we left.”
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| Petrina Lister, Alyssa Sigala, Diane Gardner, Penny Brennan and Alexandria Dominguez pose behind a San Jose mayor’s award for progress. |
The district tried to suggest that they were “bad teachers” by sending them away. But reconstituted teachers don’t see it that way.
“I don’t think my reputation is damaged at all,” says Nichols. “Every evaluation I ever had was stellar.”
CTA fought on behalf of AREA members by filing an unfair labor practice and grievance against the district. The district, in turn, filed an unfair labor practice charge against the teachers association in an attempt to stop an arbitration date scheduled in December. The Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) turned down the district’s request and issued a settlement ruling in favor of AREA in January.
Some see it as a bittersweet legal victory, but a victory nonetheless.
“It took legal action, but the district has finally acknowledged the hard work and contributions of these teachers,” says Leti Gutierrez, president of AREA. “I am hoping the district has learned an important lesson — teachers should be respected and valued.”
Under the settlement agreement, reconstituted teachers were also granted a $400 relocation voucher, two days of their per diem salary and the “priority right” to return to their former schools next year if a vacancy
occurs — as well as priority transfer and reassignment rights.
“It’s better than nothing, but it’s a day late and a dollar short,” says former Shields Elementary School teacher Laura Nilson, who is now teaching at Slonaker Academy. Like most reconstituted teachers, she is still seething over the situation.
Last year, Nilson learned she was losing her job at Shields on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend. Her vice principal handed her an envelope containing her new teaching assignment while she was in front of her students. She was devastated.
“I had to borrow my husband’s big gas guzzling truck, load it all by myself and drive home, schlepping 22 years worth of stuff with me,” recalls Nilson. “The district said it wasn’t responsible for moving anything. And two days before school ended, they told me they had movers to help move my things. It was a very stressful time. Teachers were crying. Parents were devastated and kids were devastated.”
But she held her head up high. “I know I do a good job. And they can say whatever they want about us. But we’re here because we want to be here, not just to grab a paycheck. They can do whatever they want to me, but they’re not going to break me.”
“When I went back to work the next school year, there were 20 little faces looking at me. That’s what it is all about.”
Kristin Hagstrom, a K-1 teacher at Shields, was eight months pregnant when she learned that she would be transferred to teach fifth grade at another elementary school. “I was bawling,” she recalls. “I was getting ready to have a baby and I was supposed to learn all new curriculum.” Eventually someone in human resources transferred her to a first-grade classroom at her new school.
“It was a learning experience,” says Hagstrom, who is enrolled in a master’s program in educational leadership, which she hopes will lead to an administrator’s position some day. “It was an eye-opener on do’s and don’ts of how you run an effective school.”
While life has been an emotional roller coaster for teachers who were reconstituted, it has also been stressful for those who stayed behind — and those hired as replacements. Some compare it to having a family torn apart.
At Hubbard Elementary School, the eight remaining teachers say this year has been almost like starting over from scratch. And it was especially difficult, they say, when the school had been so successful the previous year. New teachers confide that sometimes they feel like they’ve been left in a battle zone.
This school year at Hubbard began with an assembly to let the students know that they had done a fantastic job on their CST exams last year. (Teachers were never acknowledged by the district for their role in this.) Afterwards, says rehired third-grade teacher Serena Gingold, many students asked her, “Since we did so well, can we have our teachers back?”
“It’s a very different atmosphere this year,” says Gingold. “We had a really motivated, cohesive team throughout the entire school last year and that doesn’t exist anymore. Most of the staff is so new we haven’t had time to jell.”
Veteran teachers have been trying to help the many brand new teachers who now work at the site, but it’s overwhelming, says first-grade teacher Penny Brennan.
“When you replace a whole bunch of experienced teachers with brand new teachers, it’s very difficult. The new teachers have been working very hard — arriving early and staying late — but they still need to learn about many things, like curriculum or classroom management. Veteran teachers have been trying to assist those who need a lot of help.”
Some teachers admit that because of the trauma and turmoil, they would not be at all surprised if standardized test scores drop this year.
“We were doing extremely well last year,” says Petrina Lister, a second grade teacher at the school. “We met our AYP. Our test scores went up 56 points. I don’t understand why they didn’t just leave us alone."
