By Anna Gustafson
Queens lawmakers from both sides of the aisle cheered last week’s agreement between Mayor Michael Bloomberg, city Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and the teachers’ union to eliminate educators’ temporary reassignment centers otherwise known as “rubber rooms.”
“For far too long, New Yorkers have been exposed to repeated and outrageous stories regarding the notorious rubber room system,” said state Sen. Frank Padavan (R-Bellerose). “The rubber room system has long been synonymous with dysfunction and ineffectiveness, drawing the ire and disgust of New Yorkers.”
Bloomberg, Klein and the United Federation of Teachers announced what they said was a “landmark agreement” last Thursday, saying it aims to get rid of the rubber rooms, where teachers accused of wrongdoing can sit for years and do nothing while still getting paid.
Under the new agreement, which goes into effect next school year, most teachers accused of misconduct or incompetence will be assigned to perform administrative work in city Department of Education offices or given non-classroom duties in their schools while their cases are resolved.
“Despite everything we’ve accomplished together to improve our city’s public schools, we still have major reforms and improvements to tackle and that is exactly what we are doing,” Bloomberg said. “Fixing this broken process gets us all back to what we want to be doing, giving our kids the education they need and deserve.”
There are currently about 550 teachers assigned to the rubber rooms, costing the city some $30 million a year, according to Bloomberg, Klein and UFT President Michael Mulgrew. Beginning next year, the DOE will have 10 days to file incompetence charges or 60 days to file misconduct charges after officials remove a teacher from a classroom. Currently, cases can drag on for years.
If reassigned teachers investigated for misconduct are not charged within the 60-day window, they will be returned to their classrooms. Teachers accused of incompetence who are not charged will also be able to return to their schools.
State Sen. Malcolm Smith (D-St. Albans) said this decision was “the right thing to do for the taxpayers of New York.”
“Rubber rooms should never have existed,” Smith said.
Under the new agreement, the number of arbitrators will increase from 23 to 39, and arbitrators will now hear incompetence charges seven days a month rather than five. Additional arbitrators will be hired to hear non-termination cases in the expedited disciplinary process.
Reach reporter Anna Gustafson by e-mail at agustafson@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4574.
