JOINT INTENTIONS AND COMMITMENTS

Jun 1, 2006 11:18 AM

Enhanced student achievement based upon high standards and expectations must be the driving force behind every activity of New York City public schools. To accomplish this, we must reinvent schools so that decision making is shared by those closest to students, including parents, teachers, administrators and other stakeholders. Layers of bureaucratic impediments must be peeled away so that flexibility, creativity, entrepreneurship, trust and risk-taking become the new reality of our schools. The factory model schools of the 1900s must make way for the child-centered schools of this century.

To this end, the Union and the Board mutually agree to join together with other partners in the redesign and improvement of our schools, including closing those that have failed and supporting their restructuring. We must challenge ourselves each day to improve student learning, based upon academic rigor, newfound flexibility, meaningful assessments and true accountability. Roles and responsibilities of parents, staff and other partners must be defined. The standards to which we hold our students must never be lower than those we hold for our own children. To accomplish this, we must focus on both the depth and breadth of each proposed instructional and operational change, each designed to support the children and their teachers, whom we expect to meet these rigorous standards.

Change must be service-oriented, supportive and sufficiently flexible so that each school’s educational vision can become a reality. It must be practical, possible, efficient and timely. Respect for each other and for every student must be unconditional if we are to accomplish what we must.

To reach these goals, we commit to working together along with other stakeholders to develop specific recommendations in areas requiring immediate attention. These will include, but not be limited to:

- School Based Budgeting

- Early Intervention and Prevention of Inappropriate Referrals to Special Education

- Professional Development

- Parent Outreach and Support

- Workload Standards.

This commitment is our pledge to the children of the City of New York, not just to a promise but to a reality of educational excellence.

AGREEMENT MADE AND ENTERED INTO on the _________ day of _________, by and between THE BOARD OF EDUCATION OF THE CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK (hereinafter referred to as the "Board") and UNITED FEDERATION OF TEACHERS, Local 2, American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO (hereinafter referred to as the "Union").

WHEREAS, the Board has voluntarily endorsed the practices and procedures of collective bargaining as a peaceful, fair and orderly way of conducting its relations with its employees insofar as such practices and procedures are appropriate to the special functions and obligations of the Board, are permitted by law and are consonant with the paramount interests of the school children, the school system and the public; and

WHEREAS, in a special referendum conducted among the professional educational personnel, over seventy percent of those who participated favored collective bargaining as a way of conducting their relations with the Board; and

WHEREAS, the Union has demonstrated in a secret ballot election that it represents a majority of those assigned as classroom teachers in the regular day school instructional program and has shown by other satisfactory evidence that it represents a majority of those employed as per session teachers, a majority of those assigned as WNYE teachers, a majority of teachers employed in WIN, a majority of teachers and counselors employed in WEP, a majority of employees employed by MDTP, a majority of teachers assigned to central headquarters and district offices, and, in accordance with Board policy, is therefore the exclusive collective bargaining representative for all such employees; and

WHEREAS, pursuant to the Arbitration Award in AAA Case No. 1339-0416-80 certain education administrators were accreted to the bargaining unit; and

WHEREAS, pursuant to the operation of Article One of this Agreement, certain education officers, education analysts, associate education officers and associate education analysts, other than managerial or confidential employees, are accreted to the bargaining unit; and

WHEREAS, other than occasional per diem substitutes were accreted to the bargaining unit pursuant to a determination by the Public Employment Relations Board; and

WHEREAS, the Union has shown by satisfactory evidence that a majority of substitute vocational assistants wish to be represented by the Union for purposes of collective bargaining, and the Union was designated as the exclusive collective bargaining representative for all such employees; and

WHEREAS, the Union has shown by satisfactory evidence that a majority of teacher's assistants wish to be represented by the Union for purposes of collective bargaining, and the Union was designated as the exclusive collective bargaining representative for all such employees; and

WHEREAS, the parties entered into a Memorandum of Agreement on June 10, 2002 effective November 16, 2000; and

WHEREAS, the parties entered into an Agreement effective November 16, 2000 until May 31, 2003; and

WHEREAS, the parties entered into a Memorandum of Agreement on October 3, 2005, effective from June 1, 2003 through October 12, 2007; and

WHEREAS, the Board and its designated representatives have met with representatives of the Union and fully considered and discussed with them, in behalf of the employees in the bargaining unit, changes in salary schedules, improvements in working conditions, and machinery for the presentation and adjustment of certain types of complaints, it is agreed as follows: