What value does Fort Lee put on its teachers?

What value does Fort Lee put on its teachers?

In April 2013, the collective bargaining agreement between the teachers’ union (FLEA) and the Fort Lee Board of Education expired.   To the best of my knowledge, no negotiations were held prior to the expiration date of the contract, although the union had requested that negotiations begin prior to that date. Since that time, there have been approximately five formal meetings with the representatives of the teachers’ union and at least two meetings cancelled at the request of the BOE.  Eight months later and there has been little or no progress in these negotiations.   This is clearly not in the best interests of this community.  And while the BOE has stated on numerous occasions that the prior contract remains in force, this premise is not considered a “good faith” method of negotiation. 

In all fairness, any union negotiation would predictably be a long and tedious affair, with the union holding firm to its demands and the BOE being “hamstrung” by a 2% cap on increases by the State of New Jersey.  However, according to an article in the Record, one of the major stumbling blocks is a proposal by the Board of Education to convert current class scheduling to a “block schedule”.  www.northjersey.com 11/28/2013

For those community members who are not acquainted with “block scheduling”, it is a major transformation.  Children normally have each subject taught on a daily basis, with classes lasting for a period of approximately forty-two minutes.   Educators that promote block scheduling believe that teachers need a longer period of time to successfully teach a given lesson.  “Block scheduling” has students taking major subjects “every other day”, with longer class periods.   This is a radical change for teachers and students and is rarely implemented easily in any school system.  In almost all cases the impetus behind such a radical change is the superintendent.  Dr. Bandlow, a previous superintendent, had expressed a preference for block scheduling.  Without hearing anything to the contrary, one has to assume that Paul Saxton, Interim Superintendent, is a proponent of this proposal or theoretically it should not be on the bargaining table.   

There are several major problems with Mr. Saxton favoring this radical change: 

(1) Mr. Saxton will not be here in one year and eight months, leaving this system to a new superintendent, who may not advocate “block scheduling”.  (It is also theoretically possible that before this period a new superintendent may be located via a search, so that time frame is speculative.)  

(2) Dr. Frank Calabria, Interim High School Principal, has a contract that expires in one year and eight months.   It is highly probably that he is also a proponent of block scheduling. One certainly would hope that, as high school principal, he has had input into this decision.   However, when a permanent high school principal is engaged, he/she may not advocate this type of scheduling.  

Common sense would dictate that Fort Lee should not make this radical change until we have engaged those individuals that will lead Fort Lee schools into the future, not individuals that have no vested interest in Fort Lee.  No one is questioning the good intentions of Mr. Saxton and Dr. Calabria. Rather, the BOE should pursue a conservative path at this time until we have real stability in this district, something we have not had for many, many years.

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When I read the record article regarding block scheduling, I was a bit shocked by this revelation.   The original negotiation took place in June 2013, prior to the arrival of Mr. Saxton, Interim Superintendent, and Dr. Calabria, High School Principal.  It is highly unlikely that block scheduling would have been put on the negotiating table by a Board member, as none of them are professional educators.  The most likely candidate to have proposed such would have been Dr. Sharon Amato, who was interim Superintendent at the time.  This is of course speculation on my part.  However, since “block scheduling” appears to be a “stumbling block” in the negotiations, I would like to verify Mr. Saxton’s support for this radical change.  Since neither Mr. Saxton, nor anyone else, has brought this subject up at a BOE meeting as a proposal to institute in Fort Lee High, one has to question what the H… is going on?  Is there ever going to be any transparency on this Board?   Why is the public unaware of this change being considered?  Has it ever been debated?  It has never been on the agenda, to the best of my knowledge.  

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At last week’s BOE meeting, Gary Novosielski, a former president of FLEA, took the podium and expressed his disappointment at the state of negotiations between the teacher’s union and the Board of Education.   He also expressed his contempt for the apparent violation of the prior contract by the Board. 

Mr. Novosielski was followed by the current president of the teachers’ union, Bruna Capalbo.   She directly confronted the Interim Superintendent regarding his actions that she believed to violate the current contract that remains in force.   According to Ms. Capalbo (and Mr. Novosielski), letters were sent out by the BOE, assumedly approved by Mr. Saxton, requesting teachers to return $ 76,000 in alleged overpayments.    It appears that the “interim” business administrator” found some sort of discrepancy in stipends paid to certain teachers over the past three years.  

Now, I am not going to claim that I am an expert on whether the contract was interpreted correctly by the union or by administration because, in actuality, that is irrelevant. What is relevant is that in the middle of a union contract negotiation, letters were sent out to teachers to reclaim alleged overpayments.  

To be clear, this was not done by the Board of Education members; they are not involved in day to day affairs of our school system.    This was another misjudgment on the part of administration.  It appears that again Paul Saxton has created an unnecessary crisis.   First and foremost, there are two chances that the teachers will return the alleged overpayments, “zero and none”.  Secondly, if this was going to be done, would it not have been preferable if it were done subsequent to the settlement of a new contract, not at a critical juncture point in the negotiation?  Note:  the Record article also cited that Paul Saxton had stated that the Fort Lee Administrators’ Group is also at an impasse in their contract negotiations with the Board of Education.  It is somewhat difficult to comprehend why Mr. Saxton would exacerbate the negativity of the situation by publicly bringing up this fact to a reporter, i.e. that to date, the BOE has failed to settle not one, but two major negotiations.   www.northjersey.com 12/10/2013

Our teachers and principals are the heart and soul of the Fort Lee educational system.  Personal experience has demonstrated that there are a number of outstanding teachers that work diligently to educate our Fort Lee youth, not only by imbuing them with knowledge, but by turning them into outstanding citizens.   A prolonged union negotiation has the inevitable effect of creating an atmosphere of tension and a devastatingly negative effect on the morale of these valued employees.    As it stands now, negotiations will most probably go to mediation and then possibly binding arbitration.  Whatever direction that the negotiations should go, it is time to move this process along expeditiously.  To drag this negotiation on deep into next year would be a disservice to our children and to the community.

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Final Note: 

The “Field of Heroes” event to celebrate our veterans was a wonderful event staged by the Fort Lee Board of Education.   Inviting all those community members that participated in this Fort Lee “first”, then handing out certificates of merit to these individuals, particularly the veterans and the Fort Lee Police, was a nice PR touch.  Serving cookies and milk was cute, but in my opinion, the interim superintendent handing out certificates to the Board of Education members was a bit tacky and over the top. 

To be clear, “Field of Heroes” was a wonderful contribution to the community, a vehicle to build a better relationship with Fort Lee residents, but it was not a major educational accomplishment.  And there are too many educational issues in this community that remain unaddressed to dwell on a one day memorial.