Contracts, pay and tenure remain in limbo

July 1 marked the start of the 2014-15 budget year,  but crucial decisions about educator pay and working conditions remain in the hands of the N.C. General Assembly,  where GOP leaders remain deeply divided.

That means leaders of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and other districts had better come back from the July 4 week revved up and ready to hustle.  Consider:

*The fate of hundreds of teacher assistants remains uncertain. The Senate plan cuts jobs to boost teacher pay, while plans from the House and governor preserve them.  Additional teacher jobs that were promised in last year's two-year spending plan also remain in limbo.  The result:  Schools will have to adjust staffing plans whenever lawmakers come to agreement.

*  The Senate's budget requires teachers to choose between a scale where they keep tenure and get locked into current pay or a  "professional scale"  that provides significant raises with no job protection.  The House and governor's plans do not.  If the Senate approach prevails,  districts will have to figure out how to get thousands of teachers to indicate their choice,  then adjust their pay accordingly.  If that's not done by the state of the academic year,  which seems likely,  they could  have to calculate retroactive pay.

*Teachers who are working on master's degrees don't yet know whether they'll be compensated for them.

*Under the  "25 percent plan"  approved last year,  CMS had to designate teachers eligible for four-year contracts,  and teachers selected would have had to say yes or no by Monday.  A judge put that plan on hold,  but the Senate budget would revive it.

CMS never notified teachers whether they made the 25 percent cut.  But in June the district did offer one-year contracts to teachers who haven't qualified for career status,  or tenure.  Spokeswoman Kathryn Block says just over 84 percent of those contracts have been signed,  and the rest are getting reminders.  Six who didn't sign have resigned,  she added.

*Money for textbooks,  technology and three new college-based high schools that CMS will open in August also remain up in the air.

All of this makes the back-to-school countdown nerve-wracking for all concerned.  And while Aug. 25 is the big day,  it comes even earlier for students in year-round Project LIFT schools and the high schools based on Central Piedmont Community College campuses and at UNC Charlotte.

Charter schools are exempt from many of the state rules about tenure and pay.  But they,  too,  are waiting on passage of a state budget to know how much money they can count on.

Senate plan: Big raises, big questions

For Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, the Senate's sweeping plan to raise and revamp teacher pay has officials scrambling to sort out its implications.

At a news conference less than 24 hours after seeing the plan, Superintendent Heath Morrison was quick to say he's  "very grateful"  that the Senate has proposed raises that would make a real difference in North Carolina's national standing and teachers' ability to earn a living wage.  "We certainly support that increase at the state level being as high as possible,"  he said.

Morrison

But he noted that Gov. Pat McCrory's budget and the Senate's are substantially different,  with the House version yet to come.  Both plans revealed so far contain significant changes in pay and other conditions for teachers,  and Gov. Pat McCrory is already raising challenges about the Senate's plan for education.

That means huge unanswered questions as CMS and other districts prepare for a budget year that starts July 1 and a school year that starts Aug. 25.  Morrison said he worried about the tradeoffs in the Senate plan;  CMS stands to lose 900 teacher assistants,  77 teachers,  $3.8 million in transportation money and $200,000 for central offices,  he said.

Morrison,  an unaffiliated voter who tries to stay out of partisan crossfire,  said he's not opposed to rethinking tenure  (he prefers to call it due process),  but prefers that such a discussion would have happened more deliberately,  with educators involved.  The Senate plan came out late Wednesday and is expected to be approved by week's end.

Berger

But Senate leader Phil Berger told me Thursday afternoon that he and other GOP senators have been listening for three years,  since they took control of the General Assembly.  The biggest message from educators,  parents and policymakers,  he said,  is that teachers are the most important factor in children's education,  and North Carolina's low national ranking for teacher pay threatens public education.

"We've heard loud and clear the complaints that we're in the 40s,  and not even the high 40s,  on teacher pay,  and that has become an embarrassment for the state,"  he said.  He said the Senate plan would move North Carolina up to 27th  --  assuming every teacher chooses  to give up tenure and move onto the higher pay track with year-to-year contract.  "It is critical for North Carolina to move ahead and to do everything we can to improve outcomes in public education.  Teachers are at the center of that."

Berger said his party made tough choices to make a big raise possible,  including sacrificing teacher assistants.  But he said party leaders have also made concessions,  such as letting teachers keep tenure if that's what's most important to them.   (Not all teachers are grateful;  N.C. Association of Educators President Rodney Ellis said it amounted to treating teachers like  "political pawns in an election year,"  and suggested tenure provided the protection teachers needed to speak up about the problems with low pay.)

Berger said changes in the Read to Achieve Act also show that GOP leaders have been listening and learning.   He said the revisions approved Wednesday preserve the focus on getting third-graders up to grade level in reading while responding to legitimate concerns,  such as the previous lack of flexibility in setting up summer reading programs.  "We listened to those concerns,"  Berger said.

Grundy at General Assembly

It looks like a lively summer debate is just getting cranked up.  Pamela Grundy of Mecklenburg ACTS went to Raleigh to argue against the part of Read to Achieve that requires retention for struggling third-grade readers,  which she says does little to help them.  "Berger's response: not retaining students isn't working, so they have to try something else. The measure passed, but at least the truth made an appearance,"  Grundy posted on Facebook.

And state Superintendent June Atkinson,  a Democrat,  released a statement lauding a  "long overdue"  major raise for teachers,  but saying that the Senate's education budget  "continues to undercut support for teachers and for learning."

"The key to teacher recruitment and retention is pay plus working conditions,"  Atkinson said.  "Student success requires both."

Update:  A Winthrop professor just tweeted me a link to this blog post berating N.C. legislators for offering the "raises or tenure" tradeoff.  "Curmudgucation,"  by a self-described grumpy old teacher,  says the real message is that teachers can't make a career here and that North Carolina now has  "the worst legislature in all of America."

Teacher pay, taxes and charters: What's on table

Rep. Bill Brawley, a Matthews Republican,  wants to order counties to levy a 1-cent property tax hike for teacher raises.

Hartsell

Sen. Fletcher Hartsell, a Concord Republican,  wants to let school districts get involved in authorizing charter schools.

And Reps. Becky Carney and Beverly Earle, Democrats from Charlotte, are among a group that wants to tighten state supervision of charter schools.

Welcome to the 2014 legislative session,  which is supposed to be relatively short and simple.

Ha.

Last year's long session brought plenty of surprises in public education.  I'm beginning to see why so many of us got caught off guard.  I've trolled through the list of bills filed in the first two weeks and come up with this list.  I don't pretend to understand them all,  let alone feel confident about which stand a chance and which are DOA.

In the spirit of crowdsourcing,  I'm linking everyone up and eager to hear thoughts. (HB signifies a House bill, SB a Senate bill.)

Brawley

Teacher pay: SB 833 and HB 1186 direct the state Board of Education to come up with a performance pay plan for educators to roll out in 2016-17. SB 787, which I reported on recently, requires that at least 51 percent of the state allocation for K-12 education go toward classroom teachers. HB 1174 extends the cutoff date to qualify for additional pay based on earning a master's degree. And Brawley's HB 1177 calls for the additional 1-cent property tax for teacher raises.

Tenure:  HB 1199 would restore career status, commonly known as tenure,  after last summer's decision to phase it out by 2018.  A Wake County judge recently ruled that decision unconstitutional.

Common Core:  SB 812 and HB 1061 call for rejecting the Common Core standards and creating a new study commission to create standards specific to North Carolina.

Carney

Online classes:  SB 748 and HB 1039 provide a tuition waiver for private-school students to take N.C. Virtual Public School courses.

Charter schools:  SB 754 and HB 1041 would allow school districts and public universities to grant preliminary approval for charter schools, with the final decisions continuing to rest with the state Board of Education. HB 1085 strengthens supervision of charter schools. SB 752, HB 1042 and SB 793 set up an appeal process for charter applicants rejected by the state advisory board. SB 793 also raises the application fee to $1,000 and clarifies that charter schools are subject to the same public records law, including disclosure of salaries, as other public bodies. HB 1084 would establish an alternative accountability system for charter schools that serve large percentages of students with disabilities.

Vouchers:  HB 1075 would repeal the Opportunity Scholarship program and restore the $10 million set aside for it to public schools.

Earle

School calendar:  HB 1049 would give local districts more flexibility in deciding when to start and stop the school year.

Money:  HB 1107 would require the state to spend specific percentages of lottery money on school construction.  SB 789 would provide extra money for  "geographically sparse"  small school districts. (That wouldn't seem to affect the Charlotte area,  unless it reduced the money available for bigger districts.)  HB 1119 would provide a tax credit for teachers who spend their own money on classroom supplies.  HB 1063 would appropriate $340,000 to restore the teacher cadet program for high school students.

Safety: HB 1062 and SB 770 would require public schools to provide keys and schematic diagrams to law enforcement.

Education data:  SB 806 and HB 1150 deal with data for K-12 and higher education, but darned if I can figure out what these bills mean. SB815 deals with privacy of student records.

Tenure resolution on CMS board agenda

A resolution asking the General Assembly to defer its controversial  "25 percent plan"  so Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools can craft its own plan for teacher pay and contracts is on tonight's school board agenda.

The request seeks a reprieve from the mandate to choose 25 percent of teachers who meet requirements for experience and job ratings to receive four-year contracts and $500-a-year raises.  Instead,  CMS will ask lawmakers to save the money designated for the first year's raises and combine it with additional state money for a revamped pay scale and contract plan to be designed by CMS.

It's a less confrontational approach than that taken by Guilford and Durham counties,  which have voted to take the state to court to block the 25 percent plan.

Teachers applaud Wake's vote

Wake County's board drew a large, enthusiastic crowd of teachers and supporters when it passed a resolution last week seeking repeal of the law.  The resolution didn't appear on the CMS agenda until Monday,  so it's unclear how much audience response this one will draw.  But there's still time to sign up for the three-minute public comment period;  call 980-343-5139  by noon or sign up on site before the meeting, which starts at 6 p.m. at the Government Center, 600 E. Fourth St.

Wake crafts plan to pick top 25 percent of teachers

The Wake County school board got a briefing Tuesday on the superintendent's plan to reward 25 percent of teachers with four-year contracts and $500-a-year raises.

The  "25 percent rule,"  created by state legislators last summer,  is part of a program to phase out career status,  also known as tenure.  It's posing challenges for districts across North Carolina as they try to figure out how to make it work.  The biggest issue is choosing among teachers who meet the mandated requirements for three years' experience and proficient job evaluations.

Echoing a discussion by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board last month,  Wake board members gave the state-mandated program thumbs down.

“This is a bad way for rewarding teachers,” said Wake board member Jim Martin, according to the News & Observer. “This is a bad way for just about everything.”

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/01/07/3513778/wake-schools-grapple-with-end.html#storylink=cpy

Wake's plan creates separate eligibility pools for each school,  dealing with the concern that  districtwide selection could leave some schools shortchanged.  Wake also plans to ask eligible teachers whether they want to participate.  That's a good question,  given that accepting a four-year contract means voluntarily surrendering tenure.  Some teachers say they'll refuse the contract and the raise if it's offered,  and the N.C. Association of Educators is suing to protect tenure.

Once each school has a pool of eligible and willing teachers,  selection will be done based on the highest job ratings in the past two years,  with seniority as a tie-breaker.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools plans to unveil its plan later this month.  The school board discussed  issues and challenges at a December meeting (read the CMS presentation here).

N.C. 25 percent law: Headaches, costs and questions

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board spent an hour last night hashing through the state law that phases out teacher tenure.

The gist boils down to three words:  What a mess.

The law,  passed this summer,  requires school districts to offer four-year contracts that include $500-a-year raises to 25 percent of teachers who have worked three consecutive years and earned  "proficient" job ratings.  Teachers who accept those contracts have to voluntarily sign away their  "career status"  rights,  which will disappear for all teachers in 2018.

Districts across the state have spent the ensuing months grappling with how to put that into practice,  looking at everything from who qualifies as a teacher to how you choose one in four without getting sued,  Superintendent Heath Morrison and CMS lawyer Jonathan Sink told the board.  (Read the presentation here.)

"It is one of the most complicated pieces of legislation I have ever seen,"  Morrison said.

Ellis-Stewart

" 'Complicated' is being very nice,"  responded board member Ericka Ellis-Stewart.

Ellis-Stewart is a Democrat,  and the 25 percent law is a creation of the Republican-dominated state legislature.  But frustration on the local board was bipartisan.

Vice chair Tim Morgan,  a Republican,  noted that teachers have vowed to fight the law in court.  "I hold no animosity toward the teachers who are going to be bringing the lawsuit,"  Morgan said,  looking at a handful of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Association of Educators officers in the audience.

Morgan

Morgan noted that CMS will likely be forced to spend county tax money defending a system that local officials didn't create and don't support  --  "dollars that would be better spent in the classroom."

Morrison repeatedly told the board he believes lawmakers'  intentions were good,  but said the plan is rife with confusion and unintended consequences.

Sink said several lawmakers have told him their intent was to reward and motivate classroom teachers.  But the state attorney general has ruled that the legal definition of  "teacher"  includes other certified people in instructional roles,  such as counselors,  social workers,  media specialists  (aka librarians)  and deans of students.  In CMS that's more than 10,000 people.

Once you rule out those who haven't worked three consecutive years,  you're looking at more than 6,000.  CMS currently has 5,789  "teachers"  who meet the three-year requirement and have no rating lower than proficient,  HR Chief Terri Cockerham said.

The district calculates that 25 percent of eligible teachers will come to about 1,500 people who will be offered the contract and raise.  And that poses the central question:  How do you sort the 25 percent who get the offer from the 75 percent who don't?

The obvious method,  taking those with the highest ratings,  won't work.  The district calculated that 45 percent of teachers have no rating below  advanced  or  distinguished,  which are higher than proficient.  Morrison noted that a literal reading of the law,  which says no teachers can get the contract offer unless they've shown effectiveness  "as demonstrated by proficiency on the teacher evaluation"  might eliminate those who are above proficient,  though the legislators clearly intended proficiency to be the minimum.

CMS administrators and teachers are looking at other criteria,  such as National Board Certification,  attendance records and the difficulty of filling the positions.  Morgan,  who is on the board of the N.C. School Boards Association,  said some districts have considered offering the contracts to the most experienced eligible teachers,  while others say it makes more sense to offer them to the newest and lowest-paid in hopes of enticing them to stay.

Tate

Board member Tom Tate captured the general sense of confusion and frustration when the discussion began.  "My question is how is this helping us?"  Tate asked.  "How much time and energy are we putting into this that we ought to be putting into other things?  Is it going to be a net gain or a net loss?"

So what comes next?  This post is running long, so come back tomorrow for a look at the race against the clock.

Teacher merit raises: $500 or $5,000?

I'm getting a lot of questions about a story in this morning's paper about the plan to offer four-year contracts to a limited number of teachers as tenure is phased out.

In the past, I've referred to it as a $500-a-year raise, which is the language in the budget bill.  T. Keung Hui,  my counterpart at the News & Observer and the lead writer on today's story,  called it a $5,000 raise.  People are understandably confused.

Hui used the four-year cumulative raise provided by $500 annual bumps.  The first year, a teacher who takes the four-year package will make $500 more than counterparts who don't get the raise.  The second year that teacher gets another $500 bump, so now she's $1,000 ahead of peers.  The third year she's up by $1,500 and the fourth by $2,000. If you add up the extra for those four years,  it comes to a total of $5,000.   The key is that the $500 specified in the law is a pay raise, not just a series of annual bonuses.

Walkout? Contract rejection? N.C. teachers simmering

Talk about a Nov. 4 North Carolina teacher walkout is floating on social media,  but will anything happen?

That's hard to tell.  Five hundred people have clicked "coming"  on the Facebook page for the walkout,  created by Mike Ladidadi  --  a false name,  according to a Huffington Post article on the walkout posted on Ladidadi's page. An unsigned  "NC Teacher Walkout" blog was recently added to the mix.

Online comments and conversations I've had with teachers reflect a tension between the desire to jolt lawmakers and the public and fear that staying home will jeopardize jobs and harm students.

Calabro

 "I am not sure that walking out is the the thing to do, but sure am motivated to do something," said  Beverly Woods Elementary teacher Marie Calabro, who has been trying to rally teachers and their supporters to stand outside schools every Wednesday afternoon to demonstrate support.  "To be honest, I think having a walkout may be a bit premature, and I wish teachers would either join NCAE and/or write their officials."

The N.C. Association of Educators isn't endorsing the walkout,  and is reminding members that striking or taking part in a "sick out"  is risky business in a right-to-work state.

"NCAE understands that this walkout is the consequence of the General Assembly and Governor McCrory for failing to live up to their constitutional requirements to enact budgets and policies that provide for a sound, basic education for all students in North Carolina’s public schools," the group's statement to members says. "NCAE is working within the legal and political systems to hold the politicians accountable for their actions this past year, including replacing them with elected leaders who will stand up for public education."

Judy Kidd, president of the Charlotte-based Classroom Teachers Association, isn't endorsing the walkout either.

But regardless of whether they're willing to take that kind of action,  many educators say they're far from ready to forget about a 2013 legislative session that brought sweeping changes for public education,  from the abolition of tenure and master's degree pay to the perpetuation of a pay scale that's gaining North Carolina a reputation as among the nation's worst places for teachers.

Kidd and Charles Smith, president of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Association of Educators, say the next battle may come when districts follow the state mandate to offer four-year contracts to 25 percent of teachers for 2014-15.  Those contracts will offer a $500-a-year raise for those four years in exchange for teachers signing away all rights to tenure.  Superintendent Heath Morrison recently told the school board he's trying to figure out how the state expects the selection process to work.

Kidd and Smith say they both expect the tenure changes in this year's budget to be challenged in court.  "I encourage anybody who's offered a four-year contract with a $500 raise to turn it down and let the courts rule,"  Kidd said.

Smith said the NCAE and CMAE haven't taken a position yet on the new contracts. But personally,  he's with Kidd.  Anyone who signs away tenure won't be eligible to get it back if the courts rule against the new system,  he said.

"If you offer me (the four-year contract) I'm going to tell you 'no thanks,' " Smith said.  "To paraphrase the old saying,  you can have my tenure when you pry my cold, dead fingers from it."

Teacher wants Wednesday walks of support

After reading one teacher's open letter to legislators,  Marie Calabro,  a fourth-grade teacher at Beverly Woods Elementary,  came up with her own plan to keep educators'  plight in legislators'  minds:  Walk to the Sidewalk Wednesdays.

Calabro

"Every Wednesday beginning on Aug. 28 and continuing until legislation has changed, every concerned teacher,  administrator,  parent,  student and citizen will walk to the sidewalks in front of every public school at precisely 5 p.m. and stand in solidarity and concern,"  Calabro proposes.  "Numbers and names will be collected,  tallied,  and sent to  (Gov.)  Pat McCrory,  (House Speaker Thom) Tillis,  and other state representatives along with a letter of concern. We will roar with a silent,  peaceful,  but forceful message that we love the children of North Carolina,  that we appreciate and revere the noble teaching profession,  that we are committed to higher levels of education for ourselves,  our students and our society.  However,  we are embarrassed to be teachers,  administrators,  parents,  students and citizens in the state of North Carolina in the year 2013, and we would like our state to move in the opposite direction in which it is going."

Like many other educators, Calabro is dismayed by the state's falling national ranking for teacher pay and by changes such as eliminating tenure and extra pay for advanced degrees.  Like many,  she thought about staging a walk-out from work.  But organizing a walk-out in a right-to-work state isn't a smart career move.  So she decided to follow Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools colleague Justin Ashley's approach to helping legislators see teachers as respectful and respectable neighbors.

"We will not be protesting during school hours or on school property,"  she said.  "We will not be screaming or yelling.  We will be peaceful,  hold signs, and stand firm in our belief that North Carolina can be,  once again,  at the top of the list for student achievement as well as teacher and parent satisfaction."

It's not a highly organized event.  Calabro encourages others who want to take part to contact her on Facebook.  She's hoping sidewalk Wednesdays will spread from her south Charlotte school to become a wider movement.