Khepera Charter ratifies union contract
by Will Treece on Jan 12 2012 Posted in Latest news
The Board of Directors at Khepera Charter School and the year-old bargaining unit representing its teachers ratified their first contract Monday. The contract establishes a salary scale and regularizes procedures for labor-management communications and teacher evaluation.
Khepera is a K-8 African-centered academy in West Mount Airy that opened in 2004.
The teachers voted last June to be represented by the Alliance of Charter Schools and Employees, an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers Pennsylvania.
“I look forward to working together with the ACSE as a stakeholder and partner in the continued growth and development of Khepera Charter School,” said Khepera CEO Charles A. Highsmith in a press release from the union.
According to the release, the contract includes “a defined salary scale, the creation of a labor-management committee for ongoing communications and collaboration, and clarifications to the teacher evaluation and support system.”
Charter schools were established in part to free schools from requirements imposed by teacher contracts and administrative mandates. Very few have unions.
Third-grade teacher and building rep Mari Rivers, a former member of a union at a District-operated school, said that union membership at a charter is no different. “A union is a union. It’s always about teachers having a voice,” she said.
Khepera is the fifth among Philadelphia’s 80 charter schools that the ACSE has organized.
The school, with 450 students, has met its federal learning goals for the past two years.
Comments (3)
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 01/12/2012 - 18:28.
Great to see this and I am no fan of Charters. This is a giant step in the right direction. More and more staffs will be demanding their rights so we'll see what happens going for forward. Having said that, what Ms. Rivers said is silly, well intentioned but not real serious. It would be interesting to see the salary scale just for comparison purposes. Overall, a wonderful thing to see.
Submitted by tom-104 on Thu, 01/12/2012 - 21:37.
This is good. I hope there are more. I'd like to know the terms of their contract and how it compares to non-Charter school contracts.
We should be paying attention to what is happening in Chester-Upland School District where teacher are working without pay. The School District is out of money. If it shuts down due to lack of funds, it will be the first time in the state's history. The school board and some parents have filed suit for the state to meet its obligations. Note the role that charters are playing in this situation as stated in the Inquirer article about the lawsuit:
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"The money should come from state allocations normally due the district which are now being diverted to pay charter schools, the lawsuit said, and from state education department reserve funds.
State officials have repeatedly said they will not send money to the district, which they said caused its own problems through irresponsible spending.
The district, which saw big cuts in state education funding last June and which used money allocated for this year to pay debts it ran up last year, ran out of money last week and will not be able to meet its payroll Wednesday.
Almost half the district's students attend charter schools, with payments following the students, further contributing to Chester Upland's financial troubles.
The state has been withholding allocations that would normally go to Chester Upland to pay those charter schools that have Chester Upland students enrolled in them, and to repay itself $8.7 million it advanced to the district last year to pay off some of its debts for 2010-11. From January to June 2012, $36.3 million in state subsidies are due the district.
State officials have said they are obliged to pay the charters before sending any money on to the district, and that has used up all the state allegations. But the lawsuit cites a section of the School Code that says payroll obligations in school districts are "preferential claims."
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The full article is at http://tinyurl.com/7rrkchm.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 01/12/2012 - 22:39.
I agree--it's all a way to pay for charters and to hell with the real Public Schools. I've said repeatedly on this site that the folks are going to have to demand their rights--by any means necessary---or Corbett will keep doing the same destruction of our kids' future. Clearly, he has no conscience where our children are concerned so we have to step it up several notches and do whatever is necessary to secure appropriate funding for the real, non corporate, wink, wink schools.
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