There has been persistent rumors floating around the schools that there will be changes to the ATR rotation this school year. One rumor has the ATRs staying in a school for a month rather than a week; the other is that the ATRs will be forced placed in the second semester. The rumors gained some credibility when Gotham Schools reported that the DOE and CSA made some changes to the ATR system for supervisors. Here. Even principals who I have spoken with believe changes are being implemented presently. However,its sad to say that"none of these rumors are true"! Where these rumors originated from, I could not tell you since I have received numerous calls and emails from various sources about the rumors. It seems to have a life of its own.
Therefore, to find out the truth I placed a call to the lead UFT official on the ATR committee, Special Representative Amy Arundell, and she informed me that the DOE is very happy with the ATR weekly rotation and there has been no meeting or one being planned to discuss changing the weekly rotation system. Furthermore, Ms. Arundell believes that the DOE will be unwilling to change the ATR system until a reorganization of the DOE leadership and policies occur when Bill de Blasio takes office in January and that will take time. Therefore, it will not be this school year that any changes to the ATR situation is expected.
Hopefully, when the UFT and the de Blasio Administration negotiates a new contract, the ATR situation will be resolved and for many of us it will be a bad memory of a secretive deal that ended up very badly for many of the members in the ATR pool.
For a more humorous take of what weekly rotating ATRs are experiencing go to the Traveling ATR blog.