Charter school may exit union

Teachers cite frustration with state federation

June 06, 2011|By James Vaznis, Globe Staff

Teachers at the first charter school in Massachusetts to form a union are now debating whether to dissolve it, dealing a potential blow to an effort to unionize charter schools statewide.

Three years ago, when teachers at Brighton’s Conservatory Lab Charter School formed a union, the elementary school quickly became a poster child for the American Federation of Teachers Massachusetts, the state’s second-largest teachers union, which had launched a charter-school unionization campaign.

The development stunned and embarrassed charter school supporters, who had long seen unions as antithetical to the very idea of these independent public schools, which rarely employ union teachers. They argued that it was the absence of unions at charter schools that allowed administrators to make quick changes to staffing and scheduling in the pursuit of innovation.

But now Conservatory Lab is facing dwindling union interest among its teachers and growing frustration over its affiliation with the federation, which frequently attacks the academic accomplishments of charter schools and last year tried unsuccessfully to block an aggressive expansion of these schools.

The teachers are weighing whether to stay affiliated with the federation or join a professional teacher group that is not a union organization. A decision is expected by the end of the month.

In many ways, the waning commitment reflects a fundamental challenge for the federation in organizing charter schools: Teacher turnover at these schools is typically high and new hires may not embrace a union, causing support to quickly dry up.

Almost all the teachers who established Conservatory Lab’s union have subsequently departed the elementary school, and now the union struggles with low attendance at membership meetings, said Becca Iskric, the union’s vice president and temporary president.

At least two teachers quit the union this year, a significant loss for a school with about 10 classroom teachers and 150 students, Iskric said.

“Our little school may not be an AFT member that long,’’ said Iskric, who joined Conservatory Lab a year after teachers unionized.

Many teachers have mixed feelings about having a union, Iskric said. While many see merit in having a contract — establishing a forum to discuss issues with administration and standards for pay, evaluations, and scheduling — some teachers feel the federation sometimes appears more interested in pushing its own agenda than tending to the needs of such a tiny school, Iskric said.

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