Paterson School 21 Principal Resigns.

According to a recent news story, at the end of his second year, School 21 principal Everett Thompson has resigned to take a position in the Bergen County school district of Bergenfield.

Reports from those who have worked with Thompson at School 21 describe him as "ineffective" and a "joke."  The academic environment at School 21 has been described by some as "mayhem" and "out of control." 

A police report indicates that in November a student assaulted another student by stomping on his head and then punching a staff member in the face.  On information and belief, students assaulting each other, and school staff members, are more common at School 21 than principal Everett Thompson would have us believe.

A chief complaint about Thompson noted by some teachers at School 21 has been that he doesn't provide meaningful support to teachers.  "He's all talk and no game" remarks one teacher on condition of anonymity. 

Another teacher at School 21 complains that Thompson engages in nepotism with certain teachers described by former PEA union president Pete Tirri as "FOPs," or Friends of Principals. Such FOPs are alleged to engage in dereliction of duty, unprofessional behavior, and various misconduct right under the noses of the principal and assistant principal, with impunity.

School 21 students seem to echo teacher concerns.  One recent School 21 graduate remarks that "basically, teachers are getting paid to watch us, not teach us."  Another student states "some teachers act like they teach but they really don't ... you need to teach in order to be a teacher."

A former teacher at School 21 under Thompson's first year as interim principal claims that "it became clear early in the school year that the previous teacher in that position taught the wrong curriculum and used the wrong book!  The curriculum is posted on the district web site, it's not difficult to find and to follow." 

The teacher claims that Thompson didn't seem too concerned about it, and offered very little toward correcting the situation.  The teacher believes that Thompson didn't want to acknowledge the situation because it reflected poorly on Thompson's lack of oversight of a teacher who is alleged to be an FOP.  "Basically, the previous teacher of that class was not under enough scrutiny by the Thompson administration to detect such a glaring error for an entire school year."

Thompson's departure from the Paterson Public School district may just be a blessing for the district, opening up the potential for real improvement in one of Paterson's academically lowest-ranked schools.  One must wonder, what is wrong with Bergenfield that it would actually give Everett Thompson a job?

How to cut your NJ teacher's union dues in half.

First of all, I am not your advisor.  You are a professional adult.  I am going to tell you how I do this, but if you choose to follow my path, you take all of the risk on your own shoulders. 

Every year, I pay just under 43% of the total union dues that a full NJEA member pays.  I am still covered by the employment contract, and I enjoy all of the same rights as a full member, except that I cannot vote in ANY union elections (including union officers, contracts, etc.).  I am a "representation fee" payer.

Here's how it works:

1. You must terminate your NJEA-NEA Active Membership.  There are two deadlines for doing this: January 1 or July 1 of any year.  Send a letter to the NJEA telling them to terminate your membership effective one of those two dates.  You might also copy that letter to the payroll department of your district, just to cover your bases (the payroll department takes the union dues out of your paycheck).
2. Once you have terminated your membership in the union, the district will start taking out the representation fee from your paycheck (starting in January, I think), which can be as much as 85% of the regular union dues.  You already started paying less!  But wait, there's more.
3. In January of the year following the year that you started paying the representation fee, you will receive a large envelope of papers from the NJEA.  It is an accounting statement of all union expenses at the national, state, county, and local levels.  The part that you should be interested in is known as the "Demand and Return System" (see NJSA 34:13A–5.6).  This is how you can recover about half of the 85% of the dues you paid out as a representation fee.
4. In short, before the mid-February deadline, you send a short, generic letter to the NJEA objecting to paying the full representation fee (don't provide any specific reasons).  Be careful to follow the instructions about what to include in the letter (your employer, your social security #, the name of the local union, etc.).  Send that letter and wait. 
5. You will eventually receive a packet from the arbitration company with a court date where you can make your case.  I have never had to go to the arbitration meeting.  Sometime before that court date (sometimes only a week ahead), an attorney for the NJEA calls you looking to make a deal.   See what he/she offers you.  A typical settlement amount is about half your representation fee returned to you.  Whatever the offer, ask them to put it in writing and to email it to you.  Sign it and email it back.  You will receive a refund check shortly.
6. Do it all again next year.

So, in a nutshell, you pay 15% less in union dues during the school year.  In the spring, you make a deal for return of a portion of the amount you did pay.  If you get half back, you paid about 43% of what every union member pays.  My union dues for the 2013 fiscal year were under $380. 

How much did you pay to a union that doesn't represent your interests?

Too Many School Days Wasted in November.

Economic woes abound all around us and fiscal preservation has come to the forefront.  However, the month of November underscores the enormous waste programmed into the NJ public education's school year.

The month of November is a dud as far as NJ public education is concerned.  School is held on only 2/3 of the possible days!

First, we have Election Day on November 2.  Many public schools are voting locations, so the school Districts are closed that day.

That same week is the NJEA Teacher Convention in Atlantic City.  Even though a small percentage of teachers actually attend the Convention, NJ public school districts close down for three days!  Those teachers who go, typically only go for one day.

This situation needs to be repaired.  If teachers want to go to the Convention for professional development, then teachers should request time off from their Districts.  This is the procedure followed during any other month of the year.  Closing entire school Districts for three days for the few teachers who actually attend the Convention is absurd.

A lot of education is lost during those three days.  A lot of money is wasted paying teachers for a five day weekend because of those three days.  The NJEA is the cause.

Next, there's November 11--Veterans Day--another day off.

Finally, there's November 25--Thanksgiving.  Typically, schools have a half day the day before.  That half day is a dud because nobody is in the mood to work on the cusp of a four day holiday weekend.

So, count it up, at least EIGHT school days are lost during the month of November.  That's almost two weeks of school!  At least four or five of those days can, and should, be recovered.

4000 Unemployed NJ Teachers, $4 million deficit for the NJEA.

New Jersey's largest teacher's union recently estimated that there are about 4000 unemployed teachers across NJ this fall. 

If all of those unemployed teachers are no longer paying dues to the NJEA, that's about $4,000,000 (4 million) taken out of the pockets of the local and national teachers' unions.

Yet, the NJEA, which collects a premium from all members is powerless to get anybody their job back.  If it could do something, then it would, because $4 million is a BIG hit to take.

If you are an unemployed teacher, think to yourself, why did you pay dues to a union that can't help you?

Non-tenured teachers are subject to employment at will, so the union can do NOTHING to protect your job.  Non-tenured teachers should consider NOT joining the union this fall, or ever.

Tenured teacher jobs are protected by NJ law, NOT by the union.  Tenured teachers do not need the union to protect their jobs.  Tenured teachers should consider NOT joining the union this fall, or ever.

If you have a job as a teacher this fall, support all of your unemployed colleagues by considering NOT joining the NJEA teacher's union.  The NJEA takes a lot of your money and is truly capable of doing very little. 

The NJEA is just another money mill for political fun on your dime.

New & Nontenured Teachers: DON'T Join the NJEA.

As new teachers take their first jobs in public school districts across New Jersey, and as veteran teachers take their new jobs in new school districts, they are all in the same boat: if they are nontenured, they have no rights to their jobs and there is very little, if anything, that the teacher's union can do to help if there is a problem.

I strongly urge you to consider NOT joining the teacher's union at all.

Unfortunately, because of the monopoly and scam the NJEA has got going in New Jersey, you will still have to pay a significant fraction of the full union dues (aka "agency fee"), but you will still PAY LESS of your hard-earned money, and you'll never even know any difference because the union has no power to represent nontenured teachers with any influence.

If you wind up having any issues, you're better off making sure you've covered your butt, and ultimately, if you're in the right, fight it out for yourself.  It won't make a bit of difference to a nontenured teacher whether the union backs you or not. 

In fact, if any problems arise with new or nontenured teachers, in my experience, the union doesn't want to hear it and just wants you to go away.  Again, the NJEA has no power to help you, so why would they spin their wheels trying? 

They just don't want you to know this, but it's the truth.

Nontenured NJ Teachers are Separate and Unequal.

I paid $1084 (that's more than 2% of my salary) into the local teacher's union this past school year.  It was my second year in this huge urban north Jersey public school district, and I was in good standing.

Then came the budget cuts, no thanks to Gov. Christie.  In the spring of 2010, the district premptively riffed many hundreds of tenured and nontenured teachers.  "Riffed" refers to a Reduction In Force letter that basically tells you that you are laid off because it is necessary to reduce the staff in the district.  It's a "pink slip," so-to-speak, but you are not terminated, your employment with the district is put on hold pending the availability of funds to hire you back (you can be "recalled").

Not to worry, the union's got our backs.  Or so I thought.

Immediately, the local union starts trying to make sense of the layoffs and eventually to determine if recalls are following the law according to seniority and tenure, which does not help me, a nontenured teacher.

All summer long, the head of the local union emails me, often two or three times a week, to say that the situation is in disarray, one hand doesn't know what the other hand is doing in this disfunctional district, but he is diligently working on the situation.  Well, actually, he's working to get the tenured teachers their jobs back first.

September 1, 2010 rolls around--the first day of school for teachers.  I am still unemployed. 

I receive word from contacts at my former school that all of the nontenured teachers have returned to work.  In fact, a fellow nontenured teacher in my department with less experience and training, and fewer certifications has returned, AND, a tenured teacher from the district has been hired into my department.

One of these two has, in effect, replaced me!

Regarding the tenured teacher taking my job, the NJEA's position is clear:  tenured teachers have the right to be rehired, and a nontenured teacher has no rights at all.

Regarding the nontenured teacher in my department (with less experience, training, and fewer certifications) taking my job, the NJEA's position is clear: a nontenured teacher has no rights at all, not even the right to a job by seniority or by an objective assessment of the better teacher's performance.  My district uses a point system on our evaluations, so an objective evaluation from the same supervisor, whom we shared, would easily suffice.

I have since seen jobs posted on the district web site for which I am qualified, yet I have NOT been recalled to work, even though I have served the district for two years in good standing.  I emailed the assistant superintendent about this, and I was told to apply for any jobs that I may want!

Oh, that's right, a nontenured teacher has no rights, not even the right to a job over any other applicant not already employed in the district!

Herein lies the problem:

• A nontenured teacher pays the same union dues as a tenured teacher, but the union doesn't represent a nontenured teacher's interests equally.  A tenured teacher can take a nontenured teacher's job because a tenured teacher is part of a separate and privileged class supported by the same union as a nontenured teacher.
• A nontenured teacher working in this district pays union dues, and a non-union member not working in this district pays no union dues, yet, they share equal footing in competition for a job in this district.  The NJEA cannot support a nontenured teacher's rights to a job in a district because the union admits that nontenured teachers have no defensible rights to a job.

For nontenured New Jersey public school teachers in the NJEA, this situation is tantamount to taxation without representation.

Nontenured teachers should not pay union dues to the NJEA that are equal to that of tenured teachers, because our rights and representations secured by the union ARE NOT EQUAL.

The solution:

• eliminate or revise tenure laws, OR
• revise the NJEA union dues to reflect the unequal treatment of nontenured union members