In victory for staff, charter acknowledges workers’ union rights – in three languages

October 6, 2015 by
Community School of Excellence is a charter school focused on Hmong language and culture in St. Paul's North End.

Community School of Excellence is a charter school focused on Hmong language and culture in St. Paul’s North End.

Staff at Community School of Excellence in St. Paul, still fighting for a first contract more than a year after organizing their union, have compelled Superintendent Mo Chang to acknowledge her administration infringed on workers’ legally protected rights on the job.

The admission comes in a notice to all employees, signed by Chang, affirming CSE employees’ legally protected rights to union representation and to engage in collective action for better wages and working conditions.

Posted Friday in English, Hmong and Karenni, the notice (view PDF) reiterates for staff members of all cultural backgrounds “that the federal government and the National Labor Relations Act are advocating for them,” CSE teacher Eric Johnson said.

CSE, located in St. Paul’s North End neighborhood, is a charter school focused on Hmong language and culture. About 100 teachers and other staff members voted in June 2014 to join the Federation of Charter School Employees, an affiliate of Education Minnesota.

“I don’t know many other situations where you’ve got notices like this to employees in these specific Southeast Asian languages,” Johnson added. “It’s a step forward in educating a variety of immigrant groups about how unionization can help them.”

CSE agreed to post the notice as part of a settlement agreement stemming from charges of unfair labor practices filed by CSE employees last winter. The Minneapolis regional office of the National Labor Relations Board approved the settlement last month.

The notice references interactions between workers and management last school year, after employees voted to unionize, and it provides a glimpse into the backlash workers faced for publicly supporting the organizing drive. For example:

“We will not threaten employees that their comments are appalling because they exercise their right to discuss or protest working conditions with employees, or because they publicize labor disputes at meetings with third parties.”

As part of the settlement, CSE agreed to “engage in further training” on workers’ rights under federal law, provided by the Minneapolis branch of the NLRB. And the district rescinded disciplinary actions against four pro-union employees, including Johnson, who is now president of the Federation of Charter School Employees.

“Because a lot of the events coincided with unionization, including reprimands of union leadership, we felt these things were all just too coincidental and seemed to be retaliatory,” Johnson said. “But as a union these issues now have been resolved, and we look forward to negotiating a first contract with the school.”

The two sides have held six negotiating sessions, and they plan to meet regularly until reaching a tentative agreement, according to Johnson.

CSE is one of two unionized charter schools in St. Paul. Teachers at the Twin Cities German Immersion School, who voted for union representation in January 2014, approved a first contract earlier this school year.

When union members at CSE have a tentative agreement of their own to vote on, Johnson said, “we’ll continue to legitimize charter school unions in Minnesota.”

Filed Under: Organizing Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Turnover Problems: Union staff want charter-school board to address ‘revolving door’

February 16, 2015 by
Teachers and staff wore matching blue shirts with gold stars on the back and the text "because our WORKING environment is the students' LEARNING environment" to the CSE board's Jan. 21 meeting. (submitted photo)

Teachers and staff wore matching blue shirts with gold stars on the back and the text “because our WORKING environment is the students’ LEARNING environment” to the CSE board’s Jan. 21 meeting. (submitted photo)

After another third-grade teacher at the Community School of Excellence in St. Paul “got fed up with some of the disrespect” and resigned last October, Eric Johnson saw the number of students in his classroom swell from 22 to 31.

“The third-grade teachers, we agreed we’d absorb the kids,” Johnson said. “It’s better than the alternative – getting somebody who’s not the best teacher who we have to help teach our curriculum.

“But it’s not in the best interest of the kids at all.”

Johnson, vice president of the Education Minnesota Federation of Charter School Employees, was among roughly 30 staff members who showed up at a Jan. 21 meeting of CSE’s board of directors to register their concerns about the high rate of staff turnover at CSE, a 900-student school, located at Rice Street and Rose Avenue, that focuses on Hmong language and culture.

After a vote held last June, CSE teachers and support staff became the just the second group of charter school employees to unionize in Minnesota history. Negotiations on a first contract remain in the preliminary stages.

But by speaking up en masse about the turnover problem, Johnsons said, CSE staff put administrators on notice that they remain committed to winning a voice on the job.

Speaking up at the meeting “took guts,” Johnson said. “Especially with some of the intimidation that’s going on at the school, it’s hard to get people to participate in this stuff because of that track record of the past.”

Fourth-grade teacher Bong Xiong, second from right, was active in efforts to organize a staff union at CSE. He was fired over the winter break.

Fourth-grade teacher Bong Xiong, second from right, was active in efforts to organize a staff union at CSE. He was fired over the winter break.

‘A revolving door’

Most of the staff turnover at CSE this school year has been voluntary. Staff members and parents at the Jan. 21 meeting urged board members to investigate why the school has trouble retraining – and attracting – qualified staff.

Meanwhile, the turnover has continued. Two days after the board meeting, two middle-school teachers resigned, bringing the total number of resignations this school year to seven, Johnson said.

Fourth-grade teacher Bong Xiong, who was active in efforts to form a staff union at CSE, was terminated over the winter break.

All eight former staff members were “qualified people that a school like this really needs to have around to improve the achievement of the students,” Johnson said.

But high turnover rates “are not unusual for this school – and that’s the problem,” he added. “It’s a revolving door.”

Why? An outside investigation, initiated by state regulators in 2013, provided a glimpse of the work environment at CSE. In addition to confirming reports of financial and procedural mismanagement at the school, the investigation revealed an incident in which Superintendent Mo Chang disclosed the identity of a teacher who reported to authorities suspicions of child abuse at home.

Staff members described a culture of fear within the school, plagued by instability and poor communication, as a motivating factor in their successful organizing campaign last year.

Recruiting qualified applicants to CSE has been difficult as well, Johnson said.

“If a qualified candidate is going to go out on a limb with a charter school, they want to see what’s going on at the school,” he said. “I would imagine some of these questionable ethical activities come up on a Google search, and I would assume that has something to do with why we’re having a hard time recruiting qualified candidates.”

Kids suffer

Whatever its cause, the high level of staff turnover at CSE isn’t good for the students’ learning environment, teachers, parents and community members told board members. They asked board members to look for answers to the school’s turnover problems by reviewing exit interviews conducted with outgoing staff.

“We know for a fact some of the people who have left have done exit interviews” with administrators, Johnson said. “We’re asking the board to do their own inquiry, without an agenda, of why so many people working here are less than happy.

“Finding the answer to this problem isn’t tough. It’s what are you going to do with the answers you find? That’s the tough part.”

Filed Under: Union Events Tagged With: , , , ,

Staff at two St. Paul charter schools are back to school, union strong

September 25, 2014 by
More than 100 teachers and support staff at Community School of Excellence in St. Paul voted to form a union with Education Minnesota last June. Activists in the union drive included (L to R) Mee Yang, Casey Seeling, Bong Xiong and Billie Yang.

More than 100 teachers and support staff at Community School of Excellence in St. Paul voted to form a union with Education Minnesota last June. Activists in the union drive included (L to R) Mee Yang, Casey Seeling, Bong Xiong and Billie Yang.

 

The state that introduced charter school legislation to the country has its first union of charter-school employees, as teachers from two St. Paul schools returned to the classroom this fall as members of Education Minnesota.

About two dozen teachers at Twin Cities German Immersion School, a K-8th grade charter located at 1031 Como Ave., voted in January to form a union. Five months later, more than 100 staff members at Community School of Excellence, a K-8, Hmong-culture charter on Rice Street and Rose Avenue, did the same.

By voting to unionize, TCGIS and CSE educators and support staff gave the Federation of Charter School Employees its first two chapters – but hopefully not its last, Federation President Susan Johnson said.

Susan Johnson

Susan Johnson

“We felt really proud, like we were pioneers,” she said. “As we continue to grow, it will give charter-school teachers an opportunity to network, exchange ideas and collaborate.”

First, each chapter of the new federation must negotiate a collective bargaining agreement with its employer, work that will begin this fall. Members spent the summer electing negotiations committees and learning the nuts and bolts of collective bargaining.

“It’s not going to be a fast process, we know that,” Billie Yang, an education assistant at CSE, acknowledged. “But the end result will be beneficial for both staff and the students.”

Charter schools are publicly funded but exempt from some state laws in order to increase flexibility, autonomy and innovation. Members of the new unions said they are approaching negotiations with an open mind, hopeful their new contracts will reflect the unique identities of their schools.

“There is no template,” Johnson said. “Teachers in most public school districts already have a contract to go off of when they enter negotiations. We start from scratch.”

“We know, as educators, it’s not just about ourselves; it’s about other people too,” CSE kindergarten teacher Casey Seeling said. “We’re working together for the kids.”

Seeking fairness

While teachers at CSE and TCGIS are looking forward to working collaboratively with school administrators now, their organizing drives were not without challenges.

CSE was the subject of an outside investigation, initiated by state regulators last year, that confirmed reports of financial and procedural mismanagement at the school, including an incident in which Superintendent Mo Chang disclosed the identity of a teacher who reported to authorities suspicions of abuse at home. Teachers and support staff said the working environment at CSE was characterized by fear, mixed messages and high levels of employee turnover.

“There was no grievance process or process for disciplinary actions,” fourth-grade teacher Bong Xiong said. “Many of our colleagues were let go for what seemed like miniscule things, and there wasn’t really a process. It was just one person deciding we don’t really want you here anymore, and the next day they were gone.”

Mee Yang, a Hmong language teacher, lost nine colleagues in CSE’s middle school before the 2013-14 school year. She feared not only for her own workload, but her students’ learning environment. “All those teachers leaving, I think that definitely had a direct impact on our students,” she said. “The teachers that they trusted were leaving.”

Superintendent Chang is well regarded in St. Paul’s Hmong community – “she has done great things,” Xiong said – and many working inside the school worried that forming a union would be viewed as an attempt to tear down the institution she oversees.

“A lot of people were scared, and a lot of it was cultural,” Xiong said. “For many of us who are Hmong, it was a tough situation. A lot of staff I talked to who were Hmong, they were for the union but they did not want anyone to know.”

Pushback from parents

Teachers at TCGIS had similar concerns about turnover and grievance procedures as CSE staff. Their organizing drive, however, drew pushback from an unexpected source: parents.

Johnson, who teaches Spanish at TCGIS, said a “vocal minority” of parents approached teachers with concerns that a union would undermine parents’ role in decisions that affect the school.

One parent, Johnson said, told her, “Don’t negotiate for seniority because it’s going to be harder to get rid of those bad teachers.” But as the process played out, she added, some parents’ views softened. “They realized we actually have the same goals, and it was fear that was keeping us apart.”

A ‘First Amendment’ for charter employees

The success of Education Minnesota’s charter organizing drives in St. Paul is a good sign for the state’s largest teachers’ union. According to the U.S. Department of Education, charter schools are on the rise both locally and nationally.

The number of charter schools in Minnesota as a percent of total public schools has increased from 2.6 percent in the 1999-2000 school year to 7.3 percent in 2011-12, and the share of public-school students enrolled in charters has increased from 0.9 percent to 4.7 percent over the same time.

Still, teachers in most charter schools remain unorganized, and problems arise as a result, Education Minnesota President Denise Specht said.

“We often hear from teachers who are afraid to speak out about problems in their charter schools,” Specht told the union’s official publication, The Minnesota Educator. “A union contract can be their First Amendment, and the first step toward bringing back passion and patience to their classrooms.”

By winning a voice on the job, Yang said, staff at CSE and TCGIS have shown other charter school employees what’s possible.

“If they want greater stability and consistency for themselves and their students, other teachers can organize too,” she said.

 

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