A bully principal with a grudge against the UFT gives the school’s chapter leader a rating of Ineffective, reflecting the principal’s animus toward the union, not the teacher’s job performance.

A three-member appeals panel overturns the rating and orders the principal to submit a new rating.

That is due process in action.

The recent ruling in support of Vicky Giasemis, the chapter leader of PS 90 in Coney Island, is also a landmark because it is the first time that a principal’s rating has been overturned under an appeals process that the UFT insisted on as an essential part of any fair and impartial teacher evaluation system. [See “Historic rating ruling” on page 13.]

Under the Bloomberg administration, ratings were rarely overturned. But we fought to ensure that the new evaluation system includes an appeals process with a fair hearing for teachers whose ratings have nothing to do with their work in the classroom.

Giasemis was rated Effective on state and local measures of student learning. Her principal, Greta Hawkins, gave her an Ineffective rating based on measures of teacher practice even though, as an arbitrator found, the principal failed to rate observable components in Giasemis’ classroom in her observation reports.

It is precisely for cases like this that teachers need due process.

A principal may harbor hatred toward the union or nurture a strong dislike of a particular teacher. When those subjective feelings affect that teacher’s evaluation through no fault of the teacher’s, a process must be in place to ensure fairness.

This panel ruling affirms that we have won this important protection for our union’s members.