An agreement reached between Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) will mean the elimination of “rubber rooms” – centers where teachers waited while cases of “misconduct or incompetence” were being investigated.
Also called temporary reassignment centers, teachers would be there to wait for an outcome of the investigations, sometimes spending many years there, all while getting paid. About 550 teachers in New York City are currently in these centers.
The estimated cost of this is $30 million annually.
“The rubber rooms are a symptom of a disciplinary process that has not worked for anyone – not the kids, not the schools and not the teachers,” said UFT President Michael Mulgrew. “This agreement is designed to get teachers out of the rubber rooms and to ensure that they do not have to wait for months or years to have their cases heard.”
Under the new system, which will go into effect next fall, teachers will be reassigned to the Department of Education (DOE) office to do administrative work or will remain in their schools but will not be doing classroom duties.
The DOE will have to file charges for incompetence cases within 10 days and within 60 days for misconduct cases. If charges are not filed within those time frames, the teachers will be able to return to the classroom, although the investigation still will be able to continue.
There will also be a three-day disciplinary process for “non-termination” cases.
“The rubber rooms were the result of a broken and protracted teacher discipline process. This deal goes a long way in improving the way the union and the department deal with teachers accused of and charged with wrongdoings,” said Schools Chancellor Joel Klein.
“We are committed to adhering to the timetables outlined in the new agreement and confident that in the end our kids will benefit from this better process.”
Another change is that “the agreement expands the list of charges for which the [DOE] can suspend teachers without pay following a probable cause hearing to include violent felony crimes,” according to a press release. Teachers will be able to receive back pay should the charges be found to be unsubstantiated.
Other parts of the agreement include increasing the number of arbitrators from 23 to 39, increasing the number of days a week incompetent cases are heard from five to seven and having arbitrators specifically to hear “non-termination” cases.
