Editorials

‘Cooperate when we can, fight when we must’

Mar 13, 2008 3:27 PM

With the school system shifting its responsibility for running schools onto the shoulders of principals, it is essential that there be a spirit of cooperation between administrators and staff if a school is to be successful. In many instances, principals working with teachers have been able to make big gains in school environment and student achievement. At its Teacher Union Day celebration last fall, the UFT, for the first time, gave out Partnership Awards to five schools that exemplified that collaborative ethos, and this newspaper is publishing stories about such “schools that work.” At the March 6 Delegate Assembly, a chapter leader and his principal spoke about how they were working together to create an effective learning environment for kids, including a code of conduct with a student removal process for disruptive kids. And the principals union and the UFT are working together to fight the budget cuts.

But there are also the other schools — thankfully a minority, but even one is one too many.

At the same DA, the union recognized several members who bravely fought back — and won — when there is no respect, much less a climate of collaboration: a federal whistle-blower, four teachers who received punitive letters in the file, and two chapter leaders whose principals did not want to establish a student removal process.

The union’s cooperate-if-possible-or-fight-if-it-must approach is a solid, long-term policy.

And it works.