All Doors are Locked! (Including, of course, the restroom.)

   

They must be ATRs! Lock the doors!

   Many (25 plus) of my fellow ATRs have applied to positions (one to 15 different schools) on the Open Market. None (!) have gotten an interview. I called a friend, who works in a particular school, to ask about a postion that was advertised. He said don't bother, a teacher has already been hired. I asked who it was and was told it was a 24 year old with no experience. I asked why are these imaginary positions being posted. I was told "they have to interview a certain number, even if the job has been filled". So, I replied, if I got the interview, with my 24 years of experience, two masters degrees and numerous awards, I wouldn't get the position? "That's right, it's been filled. Even if it wasn't, no one is going to hire an ATR permanently. If you're hired provisionally (temporarially) the school doesn't pay your salary." (So it makes no sense to hire an ATR, except provisionally. These are the positions that wouldn't  be filled by any sane person and will be forced upon ATRs in the Fall.)  But if we are hired provisionally, we will be subject to Danielson and and the voodoo rating system- all without the same rights as the permanently hired teachers. These diminished due rights were added to our last contract. (Let's all remember that next spring.)

    So who is being hired permanently? The Untenured, Inexperienced, and Inexpensive, or UIIs as I like to refer to them. I don't begrudge them their jobs-( they are the same age as some of my children, and heaven knows those just starting out need a chance), but don't play us for fools telling us there are positions and we need to apply for them. Then there's the union - ATRs don't need a chapter because they are a temporarially displaced group! Weingarten's AFT agrees with these lies, as you can read about in the current ICEUFT blog. Exactly how and when will we stop being temporarily displaced, if no one will hire us permanently?  I urge all ATRs to join Solidarity and vote next spring.