Once again I find myself starting the school year in a school that doesn't even have classes in my subject area. However, this year the DOE is not even pretending to try to match ATRs with vacancies. Instead, the DOE will make a more determined effort to terminate ATRs, thanks to the new contract provisions negotiated with the disconnected UFT leadership.
True, the DOE claims that starting September 15th, the DOE will start interviewing ATRs for any vacancies that will become available after October 15th. The exceptions will be any ATR that survived their discipline hearings but received a $2,000 fine or more or received at least a 30 day suspension. This includes any ATR who took a stipulation in lieu of going through a 3020-a hearing. These ATRs are about 25% of the pool and are known as the "untouchables".
Its highly likely that any ATR who receive an unsatisfactory observation last year will also not be offered a vacancy since the DOE would rather go for two consecutive "U ratings" and start 3020-a termination proceeding then to allow the ATR to go through with the Danelson program since the ATR would need to get two consecutive annual "ineffective ratings" before the DOE could terminate the ATR.
This week the UFT will be giving their annual ATR"dog and pony show" and spin it in such a way as to make some of the more naive ATRs hope that the union will have their back and will make great efforts to drain the ATR pool by aggressively making sure that all school vacancies will be covered by the ATRs. They will also claim that principals will not have to pay for the ATRs for two years. However, they will not tell you that in the third year the ATR salary will become part of the school payroll and few, if any, principals will want to take a chance of seeing their budget reduced by being forced to pick up the ATR's salary.
The UFT meetings can be found on theICEUFT blog.