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Teacher evaluation change fuels race for union job

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BY ROB SHAW

The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 13, 2012

TAMPA - Teachers have fumed and griped about it.

Now, two high school social studies teachers are doing something about it.

The controversy surrounding the teacher performance evaluation system in the Hillsborough County school district has led to a three-way race to be the next president of the Classroom Teachers Association.

Leo Haggerty, a teacher at Wharton High, and Joe Thomas, who works at Newsome High, are on the ballot along with incumbent president Jean Clements. Online balloting begins at noon today and continues for 10 days in the race to lead a union with more than 9,000 members.

"I believe this election is truly a referendum on the whole evaluation process. A lot of teachers are dissatisfied," said the 43-year-old Thomas. "This is going to be an outlet for them to express their views."

Haggerty, 58, agrees.

"I think the problem as a whole is the district doesn't realize how unhappy teachers are with this," he said. "The morale is horrible. It's the worst I have seen it in 25 years."

At issue is the new evaluation system, called Empowering Effective Teachers, which went into effect last school year as part of the $100 million grant from Bill and Melinda Gates.

Formerly, teachers were evaluated by their principals. Now, they are evaluated by a peer and the principal, taking into account their students' academic progress.

Clements, who has been president of the union for more than nine years, said there is more to the CTA leadership role than just the evaluation issue. She said it's about curriculum, management, workload and other policy and procedural issues.

She acknowledges the evaluation system needs work.

"It is absolutely a work in progress. We are making changes to it all the time," Clements said. "We never expected that we thought we knew everything. We knew we would learn things every day, every week."

Thomas ran afoul of the new evaluation system when he said the district sent him an elementary school teacher to be his peer evaluator. He refused to accept the evaluator because the evaluator had no experience in secondary education.

Thomas, who has taught for 18 years, half of it at Newsome, was suspended for three days pending an investigation. After he complained to the union and the district, he said, he was given a new peer evaluator and the process worked.

"I was extremely dissatisfied with the way Jean Clements addressed my issue in the press," Thomas said. "At no point in time did I ever hear from her personally. That made me feel like I was not satisfied with the leadership of the union.

"I felt like her priorities were more about making it work for the district."

Haggerty echoed those comments.

He said the union's position should not necessarily reflect what is best for the district or the students, but what is best for teachers.

He said the PTA can speak for the kids, while the school board can lead the district. The CTA, he said, should support the teachers.

"There are times we need to draw a line in the sand," Haggerty said. "A lot of people don't know where that line is drawn. My job will be to see if it's good for the teachers."

The 25-year teaching veteran does not dispute that Clements labors long for the union.

"If you're looking for somebody to work harder, we're not going to find it," Haggerty said. "The time and energy she puts into the union is ridiculous."

Now on leave from the district, Clements, 56, was a teacher for 23 years before taking the president's role more than nine years ago. Her last district job was as the head of the special education department at Plant High.

Clements said she is happy to have opposition in the election. This will be the third contested race she has faced.

"I think that's very healthy," she said. "I far prefer to have a membership that's aware and engaged and interested, and members who want to be more involved to help us make a bigger and better difference."

Some teachers are unhappy, Clements said, because the evaluation system is different than what they have been used to. But, she added, it is far better than the system imposed on Florida's other districts by state lawmakers, who allowed Hillsborough to continue with its new Empowering Effective Teachers effort.

"These changes are controversial and a very difficult transition for schools and teachers to make," she said. "But the world has changed in public education."

rshaw@tampatrib.com (813) 259-7999

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