City pact allows new pilot schools, one run by union
After stalling the expansion of Boston's popular pilot schools for more than a year, city and teachers union officials yesterday vowed to establish at least seven new pilot schools by 2009.
In an unprecedented move in Massachusetts, the city also agreed to allow the union to run one of the schools without a principal; teachers at the school would have control over the school staff, schedule, and what students should learn.
The agreement, reached more than six weeks after a deadline imposed by the mayor, resolves an embarrassing standoff between the city and union leaders as the city launches a national search for a school superintendent and scrambles to keep students in public schools. The pact also makes the teachers union as accountable as the school system for the performance of a pilot school.
The system opened pilot schools in 1995 as a response to the state law allowing charter schools, which take hundreds of students and the funding allotted to them away from regular public schools. The thought was that by giving teachers and administrators autonomy over the schools, the city could develop more innovative programs and give parents more choices within the public school system. About 4,300 Boston residents attend charter schools, while roughly 6,000 of the school system's 58,000 students attend pilot schools.
''Competition is keen," said Superintendent Thomas W. Payzant. ''It was a little bit of a roller-coaster ride, but this agreement helps us improve our competitive edge with respect to charter schools."
The city now has 19 pilot schools among the 145 schools in the public system. The experimental schools vary in design and include a science- and math-oriented school for kindergarten through eighth grades and an arts-focused high school. Teachers have freedom over the way they teach and, in some cases, may decide to teach a course blending English, social studies, and language arts. Principals can hire teachers without adhering to the union's seniority rules.
Development of new pilot schools came to an abrupt halt in summer 2004, when Boston Teachers Union president Richard Stutman vetoed converting the Thomas Gardner Elementary School in Allston into a pilot school, even though teachers there voted in favor of the change. Stutman said he wanted the school system to pay overtime to pilot school teachers, who often are required to work extended days. The future of pilot schools, which allow teachers and administrators to work free of most contractual constraints, became shaky.
Yesterday's agreement puts a cap on how many extra hours the teachers are required to work without receiving extra pay. It also allows the Gardner School to become a pilot school as early as September, following another vote by the faculty. The union's executive board approved the agreement last night, and the full union membership will vote on it March 8. The School Committee, which also must ratify the agreement, has not yet scheduled a vote.
''Hallelujah," said Councilor John Tobin, who had slammed both sides for failing to reach an agreement. ''The logjam has been lifted."
Mayor Thomas M. Menino had threatened to promote more charter schools if an agreement wasn't reached by the end of 2005, but backed away from that threat in recent weeks, as union leaders and city officials hammered out an accord. They reached the agreement late yesterday morning.
''I have my pilots," Menino said. ''That's what I need. I think that's a good start. No more charters."
Under the three-year agreement, pilot school teachers can only work about a half hour extra each day without pay, or about 100 extra hours a year. If the school requires teachers to work beyond that, the school system would pay teachers at their hourly rate for up to 50 additional hours a year. Any more required overtime would be paid by the school.
This school year, 58 percent of pilot school teachers worked a daily average of an hour and 20 minutes extra without pay, Stutman said. He said he hopes the new guidelines will make pilot schools think twice before requiring teachers to work extra.
Linda Nathan -- headmaster of the Boston Arts Academy, a pilot high school in the Fenway -- said she was excited that the agreement will produce a new generation of pilot schools. But Nathan, who helped develop the pilot school concept, said she was worried that the pay provision would be a subtle erosion of the autonomy on which pilot schools were founded. Other school systems in the state and the nation have said they plan to follow Boston's lead and open pilot schools.
Stutman hailed the establishment of a new pilot school run exclusively by teachers. He said the union intends to open a school, possibly serving students from kindergarten through the eighth grade, in September 2009 in the Thompson Middle School building in Dorchester.
''This is a new experiment and a very exciting concept," Stutman said.
Teachers union officials and the Massachusetts Association of School Committees said they had never heard of a public school in Massachusetts being governed by a teachers union. Nationally, the United Federation of Teachers opened what is believed to be the first union-run charter school in New York this school year.
Running a pilot school would be a bold step for Boston that could reflect on teachers unions statewide. The teachers unions, which are powerful lobbyists on Beacon Hill, have battled with the Romney administration over the best ways to fix public schools.
Romney frequently criticizes teachers unions for opposing his proposals, such as expanding charter schools, offering merit pay to teachers, and making it easier to remove teachers from failing schools. But union leaders late last year told the state Board of Education that they want a bigger role in improving schools.
Jan can be reached at tjan@globe.com; Sacchetti at msacchetti@globe.com