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The Boston Globe
November 16, 2002, Saturday, Metro/Region, p. B4

Union urges halt on backing pilot school grants

By Anand Vaishnav, Globe Staff

Blasting administrators’ heavy-handedness, the Boston Teachers’ Union is urging members not to vote for thousands of dollars in grants to study converting schools into pilot schools that offer more innovation but fewer job protections.

Union members this week approved a moratorium on supporting grants offered by the Boston Foundation to study becoming pilot schools. Created in 1994 with the union’s backing as alternatives to charter schools - and as ways to lure more families into the school system - pilot schools have more flexibility in how they spend money and in curriculum development than other public schools. But teachers in the city’s 13 pilot schools also lose key collective-bargaining rights, such as the ability to contest some contract violations, said Edward Doherty, president of the Boston Teachers’ Union.

The impasse was triggered after the Boston Foundation offered $15,000 planning grants for schools interested in converting to pilot school status. The charitable organization held a Nov. 7 meeting to explain the grants, and principals, teachers, and parents from 30 schools - nearly a quarter of the district’s campuses - showed up. The application deadline is Dec. 5.

Doherty said that’s not enough time for teachers to study the matter and complained of delays in notifying some teachers about the grants.

“The membership was very upset that they’re being rushed into a vote on submitting a planning proposal for pilot school status without time for discussion,” Doherty said. “They were being intimidated by some principals to vote to become pilot schools, and some of the money is viewed by some teachers as a bribe to have them give up their contractual rights.”

But Boston school officials denied that administrators are seeking pilot status to increase their power over teachers.

“It surprises me that anyone would be interested in blocking teachers and principals from exploring an issue, because that’s all that is really on the table,” said Timothy Knowles, deputy superintendent for teaching and learning.

The teacher’s union sent a letter to members Thursday explaining the moratorium. It decreed that no teacher should participate in submitting proposals until the union distributes literature on how teachers’ rights could be altered in a pilot school. Pilot school teachers keep the union’s salary scale and benefits.

Paul S. Grogan, president of the Boston Foundation, called the move “unnecessary and unfortunate.” The foundation is ready to give money to schools to study the conversion to pilot status, but that isn’t the same thing as actually becoming one, he pointed out. Faculty votes and approval from district leaders are still required.

“A moratorium on votes to apply for planning grants? Come on,” Grogan said. “The idea that this is a stampede or a rush job forcing people into a corner - it’s just the reverse. This is a small, flexible planning grant that allows schools . . . to take months and months to look at the issue carefully, to talk to the union if they’d like, to consider the experience of other schools that are pilots.”

For schools that eventually earned pilot status, the Boston Foundation would award grants of up to $100,000 for their first year, Grogan said. He said he will speak with Doherty and Boston school officials to decide whether to delay the application deadline to give schools more time.

Despite this week’s actions, Doherty said the teacher’s union supports pilot schools and has approved four of them in the past year, including two new schools scheduled to open in September 2003.

Pilot schools are sought-after for their individual focuses, such as the arts or technology, or for their small, nurturing sizes. A report last year by Northeastern University’s Center for Collaborative Education, which supports pilot school development, found that many of them outperform their district counterparts.

Anand Vaishnav can be reached at vaishnav@globe.com

Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company