Union, city battle over pilot schools

Business and school district leaders lashed out at the Boston Teachers Union yesterday, saying it was trying to stop school innovation by offering a weaker alternative to a decade-old movement to create experimental schools in the city's public school system.

The union yesterday proposed reinventing 20 schools as discovery schools. The problem, critics said, is that the union's proposed schools sound just like the system's 10-year-old pilot schools, with one exception: Teachers would be paid overtime.

In about half of the city's current 19 pilot schools, which the union's proposal would not affect, teachers work additional hours for free so they can get more training or give children more schooling.

The controversy over experimental schools threatens strides the school system has made toward creating more high-achieving schools, district leaders say. Their talks with the union president, who has the power to veto creation of new pilot schools, broke down last Tuesday.

''The union leadership is shutting down the most promising avenue for school reform in Boston," said Paul Grogan, president of the Boston Foundation, which has given $700,000 in grants to pilot schools. ''They're trying to avoid the justifiable outrage of the community by putting out a bogus proposal to cover the fact that they are killing an incredibly successful experiment."

Richard Stutman, the union president, disputed accusations that the union is trying to halt innovation. He said the union supports expanding the number of experimental schools, as long as the pay issue is resolved.

The school system is holding up progress, Stutman said. ''If they want more pilot schools, they're going to have to pay people for their overtime," he said. ''They're trying to get reform on the cheap. But you have to pay for innovations."

The creation of pilot schools was negotiated as part of the Boston Teachers Union contract in 1994, a year after the Legislature approved charter schools, which are public, independently run experimental schools. Fearing they would lose students to charter schools, the school system and union leaders agreed to allow schools to apply to become innovative pilot schools. A pilot school has control over its budget, staffing, curriculum, governance, and length of the school day. Pilot school teachers agree to waive various contractual benefits, including overtime pay.

In a pilot school, teachers can decide to teach a course blending English, social studies, and language arts, instead of having three separate classes, and principals can hire teachers without having to follow the union's seniority rules.

Under the union's plan, any school could apply for discovery school status; a committee of 10 teachers and administrators selected by the union president and school superintendent would name the discovery schools. Those schools' teachers would work under contractual rules. For every new pilot school, 10 more discovery schools would have to be created at the same time, according to the union.

Stutman said he wants to force the school system to replicate the success of the pilot schools. Too many teachers in traditional schools feel stifled by the system's scripted math and reading curriculum and want more flexibility on what they teach, he said.

School system leaders, noting that the pilot schools offer flexibility now, said they are unlikely to approve the discovery school concept and prefer to expand the number of pilot schools.

Elizabeth Reilinger, School Committee chairwoman, called the union's proposal ''ludicrous."

''Is this about meeting the needs of our students? Or is it about meeting the needs of the union?" Reilinger said. ''The model for education reform already exists. They are the pilot schools."

The first three pilot schools opened in September 1995, and the six newest ones opened two years ago. The schools span elementary through high school and serve about 6,100 students, or nearly 10 percent of the city schools' students.

According to a 2004 study of the experimental schools, they typically have some of the highest student waiting lists for enrollment in the city, the highest student attendance rates, and lowest suspension rates. In the middle and high schools, a lower percentage of students transfer out of the schools compared to other city schools, according to the report by The Center for Collaborative Education-Metro Boston Inc., a center founded by the codirectors of the city's first pilot school.

Academic performance, however, has been mixed, the report showed. Among the five schools with middle-school-age students, three performed at or above the system average on 2003 MCAS exams, but one tested near the bottom in math. Students at three of the six pilot high schools scored almost as high as the district's top-performing exam schools, but two scored neared the bottom of the pack.

''The pilot schools were developed to be truly different," said Michael Contompasis, chief operating officer of Boston schools. ''The freedom of the pilots was a freedom from management control and freedom from union working rules."

Stutman, who became the union's president in 2003, has been criticized for his lack of support of the pilot schools. Last June, Stutman blocked a proposal to convert the Thomas Gardner Elementary School in Allston into a pilot school, even though 28 of 29 teachers at the school voted for it.

Stutman said he opposed the unpaid overtime and recruitment of part-time music and art teachers from outside the school system proposed by Gardner teachers and administrators.

Shannon Oatey, a Spanish teacher at TechBoston Academy, a pilot high school in Dorchester, said she knew what she was signing up for when she applied to teach there. She likes getting a voice in how the school is run.

''Pilot school teachers choose longer hours for the same pay because teaching is more than just clocking the hours," Oatey said. ''You're doing something bigger and better than you could do elsewhere. It's a tradeoff."

At the same time, she said, the extended days without pay makes pilot school teachers, many of whom are just beginning their careers, more prone to burn out.

Lisa MacGeorge, a fifth-grade teacher at the Samuel Adams School in East Boston, said she wants more flexibility, but prefers the union's proposal to the current pilot school design.

She said she could file a grievance if her contractual rights were violated under the discovery model, but would not have the same protection at a pilot school.

She's not concerned, though, about the overtime issue.

''I understand why people would not want to work for free, but I would offer to meet with kids for free before and after school," MacGeorge said.

Tracy Jan can be reached at tjan@globe.com.