For Immediate Release
Teachers at KIPP’s AMP Academy Charter School organize to join the UFT
Jan 13, 2009 2:01 PM
Teachers at the KIPP AMP Academy Charter School in Brooklyn on Jan. 13 informed the school’s administration that they are organizing themselves into a union and are seeking official recognition from the state Public Employees Relations Board. In a letter the organizing committee delivered to the school’s co-principals the morning of Jan. 13, the teachers said that they had decided to unionize in order to secure a stronger voice in their school and to develop a more collaborative workplace.
Three quarters of the KIPP AMP teaching faculty have signed union authorization cards to be represented by the UFT. Today, the UFT petitioned the KIPP Board of Trustees to be the teachers’ collective bargaining agent. The union has pledged to work cooperatively with KIPP to ensure that its New York City schools provide the very best education for their students and families.
“KIPP teachers want what all good teachers want — the respect, the support and the tools necessary to do the best possible job of educating their students,” said UFT President Randi Weingarten. “Organizing into a union of educational professionals will give them the collective voice and support to make that happen.”
The teachers at KIPP AMP are deeply committed to the school community and their students. They are concerned about high turnover of staff at the school, which they believe has harmed their efforts to build a positive and stable school culture for their students.
KIPP AMP teacher Leila Chakravarty makes a powerful case that organizing a union is necessary to “build a sustainable community in our school” and address the problem of teacher turnover. “Because as KIPP teachers we are so invested in our kids and form such close bonds with them, because we are always available to our students by telephone and email and spend ten hours every day with them, it is so vital and important that they feel they can count on us, and we will continue to be there. When they become close to a teacher who is gone in three months because she has burnt out, it undermines the trust we are working so hard to build.”
“For us, unionization is ultimately all about student achievement, and the ability of teachers to best serve students at this crucial middle school time in their education,” said KIPP AMP teacher Emily Fernandez.
“We organized to make sure teachers had a voice and could speak their minds on educational matters without fearing for their job,” said KIPP AMP teacher Luisa Bonifacio. “There is a need to make the teacher position more sustainable so that teachers don’t burn out, but are able to make a long-term commitment to the students and the school.”
“We know that teacher turnover is a major concern across the charter school movement,” Weingarten noted. “The unionization of KIPP’s New York City schools provides a unique opportunity to create a model of sustainable teacher recruitment, development and retention.”
One of the teachers’ goals is to help create a PTA, which up until now has not been permitted. In a letter to parents, the group said, “We value parent input and know a school cannot run effectively without parent involvement and voice.”
“I firmly believe in the importance of having a school that’s viable and sustainable for the students who attend here,” said Kashi Nelson, a KIPP AMP social studies teacher who has a daughter in the school. “As a member of this school community, I am committed to doing whatever it takes to make our school a place we all feel good about.”
The KIPP AMP Academy Charter School was founded in 2005 and currently serves approximately 260 students in grades 5 - 8. The school day has extended hours, and students also attend programs on the weekends and during the summer.
The UFT today also informed the KIPP Board of Trustees of its intention to enter into collective bargaining at the KIPP Infinity Charter School, another New York City KIPP school where the teaching staff are members of the UFT. Since the original KIPP Academy Charter School is a conversion charter school with UFT representation, educators at three of the four KIPP schools in New York City will now be members of the UFT.
"The law allows workers like the teachers at KIPP AMP to legally unionize through union check-off cards, which is a crucial method of protecting employees from the harassment and intimidation campaigns that are so widespread around the country,” said Weingarten. “We hope that KIPP will respect the will of these teachers and recognize them, rather then doing what so many charter employers do and fight it. We look forward to negotiating with the management of KIPP.”
The UFT already operates three unionized charter schools, the newest of which is a Bronx High School run in collaboration with Green Dot, a successful and labor-friendly charter school operator and educational reform organization based in Los Angeles. The UFT also represents educators at several other successful charters in New York City.
