Oct-Nov 2019 Advisor

ORGANIZING

4 CEA ADVISOR OCTOBER - NOVEMBER 2019

UNION SECURES VICTORY FOR BRIDGEPORT STUDENTS, TEACHERS Puts an end to repeated practice of not hiring substitute teachers

CEA IN YOUR CORNER

When Eric Marshall came to work at CEA as a UniServ Rep, one of the first battles he faced was a district’s controversial response to budget cuts. Bridgeport Public Schools announced that they would not be bringing in any substitute teachers for the first month of the school year. That was September 2017. “The Bridgeport Education Association came to me to ask what they could do,” Marshall recalls. “Our approach at the time was to try solving the problem diplomatically. If the district’s freeze on hiring subs was going to be very short-term and temporary, we knew a grievance would take longer than that. Administration assured us this was a one-time thing and that they wouldn’t repeat it.” In May 2018, however, the district announced once again that it would not be hiring substitutes. “We were shell-shocked,” Bridgeport Education Association President Gary Peluchette recalls. “We were told this would never happen again—and then it did." “That’s when CEA filed a class- action grievance—on a number of grounds,” Marshall explains. “By refusing to hire substitutes, they were exceeding class size limits, which are contractually set, and they were splitting classes—meaning that students without a substitute teacher were often put into classes with children from other grade levels.” Breach of contract Like class size, class splitting is limited by contract. “We understand that you may sometimes have to split classes, where you put older and younger students together,” Marshall acknowledges, “but not usually more than one grade level apart. We recognize it’s not optimal, but it happens.” With the freeze on substitutes in Bridgeport, however, children from multiple grades—often several grades apart—were occupying the same classroom.

stipulating that the district will not impose these

conditions on teachers and students again. In exchange, we decided not to seek damages for the teachers impacted by the ‘no-sub’ policy. This was a complete victory.” “The grievance process was long and involved, and many hours were put into collecting this information,” says BEA Grievance Chair Carmella Lorusso. “It is so important for children to always have coverage, and getting there was a big effort, with many people involved.” “Over the last two years,” says Marshall, “we’ve taken a number of grievances all the way to the school board after trying to resolve matters at the building level with the principal or at the central office with an assistant superintendent. Unfortunately, very little was getting resolved below the level of superintendent, so more matters were going before the board.” He adds, “We won nearly every case brought to the board, and that’s one of the reasons belonging to a union is so critical. Class size is not mandated by statute, so having a strong union is essential to limiting class size contractually. The Bridgeport contract also has specific stipulations to prevent splitting classes in the way Bridgeport was doing it.” With a new superintendent in place, Marshall is optimistic about future teaching and learning conditions in Bridgeport, and he urges CEA members throughout the state to stay active and involved with their local unions. “When we stand together, we can achieve meaningful change not only for our profession but for the students and communities we serve.”

BEA President Gary Peluchette and UniServ Rep Eric Marshall helped put an end to Bridgeport’s practice of leaving classrooms without substitute teachers.

“We had gathered districtwide data from teachers about the impact of class size and class splits when there was a freeze on hiring substitutes,” says Marshall, “and we ended up with an enormous amount of data showing how contractual class size limits had been exceeded all over the place, many times over.” “Without substitutes, we’re not educating our students,” Peluchette says. “We’re warehousing them.” BEA’s contract limits class sizes to 29 students in second through twelfth grade and 24 students in kindergarten and first grade. Data collected by BEA and CEA last spring showed at least 250 instances where class size limits were exceeded or students of different grades were lumped together. More shockingly, the district had mixed grade levels indiscriminately, multiple times over. “We had cases where kindergarten students were sharing a room with eighth-graders,” says Marshall. “Let that sink in for a moment. Clearly, no education was happening on those days. This not

only violated students’ right to an appropriate public education, but it also introduced serious potential safety issues.” Marshall points out that even in the course of normal activity and behavior, students who are much bigger and older can inadvertently harm younger, smaller students. “We were alarmed that the district refused to hire substitutes after assurances that they would never pursue that route again, and we were understandably concerned that this would happen again and again—starting at the beginning of the current school year.” The evidence is clear While that didn’t happen in September, BEA refused to withdraw its grievance on behalf of affected members. At a Board of Education meeting, Marshall presented all the data gathered on Bridgeport class sizes and splits. “This was all done very publicly, with parents and press in the room,” he says. “The board was clearly shocked by these revelations, and we now have a written agreement

CEA PARTNERS WITH NBC CONNECTICUT ON SURVEY OF TEACHERS’ CLASSROOM EXPENSES Most teachers spend $500+ of their own money

“I buy the things I know won’t be provided by my district and things that many families won’t be able to pay for. If I’m going to teach effectively and engage my students’ brains, I know what I need. Every teacher I know does a version of this every summer.” Indeed, NBC Connecticut shined a spotlight on just how much Connecticut

“I easily spend around $1,000 per year on my classroom,” says Bridgeport Education Association member Christopher Cormier, adding, “My husband easily does the same. Our household spends that $2,000 in addition to contributions we make to our own four boys’ classrooms throughout the year.” Cormier, who teaches at Edison Elementary School, has also applied for grants at the Southport Pequot Library Book Sale in order to replenish his personal classroom library. “Books are not provided to me,” he explains. Several days each year, Cormier can be found at book sales and office supply stores, where, among other things, he purchases • A single subject notebook for each subject, for a total of four per student • A composition notebook for writing for each student

and about one in five exceed $1,000. CEA President Jeff Leake and a number of Connecticut teachers were interviewed on the subject. To watch the investigative report, which aired September 9, go to nbcconnecticut.com/ investigations .

teachers are contributing out of their own pockets to make sure their students have what they need to successfully start and finish the school year. In partnership with CEA and AFT Connecticut, NBC Connecticut conducted a survey of hundreds of teachers in August and early September. The vast majority of those surveyed (87 percent) will spend a minimum of $300 of their own money on classroom supplies this year. Of those, most spend over $500,

• A box of crayons (each) • A box of markers (each) • A box of colored pencils (each) • A reading folder (each) • A glue stick (each)