Overtime still key issue for adding pilot schools
With only days before a deadline set by the mayor, the movement to expand Boston's experimental pilot schools remains at a standstill, raising questions about whether Mayor Thomas M. Menino will make good on his pledge to push for more charter schools because he's miffed by the lack of progress.
Last week, teachers union and school district administrators met and, once again, could not resolve their differences. The teachers union has said it won't budge unless the school system agrees to pay overtime to pilot school teachers when they are required to work more hours than regular teachers.
Menino earlier this year vowed to work to expand the number of charter schools in the city if an agreement isn't reached by the end of the year. If he does carry out his threat, it would be a blow for the pilot schools and the school system's united front against expanding charter schools. And it could create ill will in the system at a time when the city is searching for candidates to replace Superintendent of Schools Thomas W. Payzant, who will retire in June.
Menino did not respond to numerous requests for comment.
Payzant and teachers union President Richard Stutman also declined to comment. Spokesmen for both sides said they are still in talks but the issue is unresolved.
The union and the school system joined forces to create pilot schools in 1994, a year after the Legislature passed a law authorizing charter schools.
Charters and pilot schools are similar in that they have more freedom over their budgets, class schedules, and staffing than regular public schools.
But charter schools, which report to a board of trustees and the state Department of Education, take students and money away from the Boston public school system. Pilot school students, and the money attached to them, stay in the system.
Charter school proponents say it is time for the mayor to follow through on his vow.
''If the pilot school movement has stopped because of the union, the mayor needs to support more charter schools to force the union to move," said Marc Kenen, executive director of the Massachusetts Charter Public School Association.
A growing number of voices, from city councilors to leaders of nonprofit associations, are urging the school system and the union to resolve the issue. Both sides have quietly negotiated since the union blocked teachers' efforts to turn the Thomas Gardner Elementary School in Allston into a pilot school in June 2004, though the majority of teachers voted in favor of it.
Stutman wanted the district to pay all teachers overtime if they are required to work longer hours, as is the policy in regular public schools. Not all pilot schools require teachers to work longer hours.
School system officials say the union's stance reneged on the agreement both sides reached in 1994. They say teachers know how charter schools operate and reap some benefits, such as increased training or greater freedom over the classes they teach.
The standoff limits parents' choices at a time when they are comparison-shopping for schools for their children next fall, said David Vaughn, whose son is a kindergartner at the Mason Pilot Elementary School in Roxbury.
About 4,300 Boston students attend charter schools, and some of those schools are expanding. About 5,700 of the district's 58,000 students attend 19 pilot schools, but there are no immediate plans to create new ones.
Vaughn said the pilots help the city hold on to middle-class parents who could afford to send their children elsewhere. A pilot school has more control over its budget, so its board can decide to spend money where parents and teachers see fit, such as on teachers' aides or music classes.
''It's very frustrating for parents when the powers that be are losing sight of what's really important," said Vaughn. ''They should look at what parents want, and I think it's pretty clear."
The ongoing dispute also dismays public school proponents, who worry that charter schools are cutting into their turf.
''The road they are both going down is a loss for both," said Maura Hennigan, a city councilor who helped found a pilot school in the city. ''It's stubbornness. Nobody's blinking, and what happens is the kids lose."
John Tobin, a city councilor and chairman of the council's education committee, said he worries that the dispute will alienate parents who want more choices, and will hurt the city's image as officials launch a search for a new superintendent.
He held a hearing on the issue last month and was dismayed that the school system and the union haven't worked harder to resolve the dispute.
''The parties involved should be spending every waking moment trying to hammer out an agreement," said Tobin. ''They've had ample time."
Thomas F. Birmingham, a Boston lawyer and former state senator from Chelsea who coauthored the state Education Reform Act, is mediating the talks, but said only modest progress has been made.
''I do think there is hope," said Birmingham. ''It's not impasse. But it's not resolved, either."
Paul Grogan, president of the Boston Foundation, which offers financial support for both charter and pilot schools, said the lack of agreement puts pressure on all sides to resolve the issue quickly.
''I take the mayor at his word," said Grogan. ''I don't think anybody would say he's not serious."
Maria Sacchetti can be reached at msacchetti@globe.com