Sandbagging a pilot school

GIVE BOSTON Teachers Union President Richard Stutman credit for this: He's not just a hard-nosed union boss, he's also an accomplished actor.

When last we left Stutman, the BTU chief was slyly posing as a force for educational progress. It was February, and the BTU and the Boston school department had finally resolved a long impasse over pilot schools.

Under that agreement, the promise was that the city would have more pilots, which often feature longer days and a tailored curriculum and focus.

That was good news. Born of a need to compete with charter schools, which are independent of the district system, pilots are a proud Boston initiative, one being copied around the country.

Still, they had hit a snag here. Although a school can become a pilot only if two-thirds of the faculty votes to do so, Stutman had blocked the pilot-conversion process because he and the BTU old guard thought pilot teachers were being asked to work too many unpaid hours. The new pact limited those unpaid hours to 95 a year, with $36 an hour for any time above that. The agreement called for at least seven new pilots by September 2008 -- and with the popularity and performance of the schools, which enjoy autonomy over their budget, curriculum, staffing, schedule, and governance, that seemed like a sure bet.

Even Stutman professed to think so.

"I do think this will pave the way for more schools to become pilots because it gets rid of some of the problems we were facing," he told me.

In retrospect, the wily union chief pretty clearly had other plans. Just a few months later, the BTU passed a rule stipulating that "before scheduling a vote on whether or not to convert to a pilot school, a school must schedule a staff meeting with union leadership for an explanation of the ramifications of conversion."

And last month, we saw the, well, ramifications of that rule.

In October, the faculty of the John F. Kennedy Elementary School in Jamaica Plain voted 30 to 7 to convert to a pilot school. (The union claims three ineligible teachers voted, but even without their votes, the tally would have cleared the two-thirds threshold.)

Enter the BTU. Citing its new rule, the union objected. Stutman then held three meetings with the staff, the last of which was closed to all but BTU members. A second vote was later taken. And this time, though the proposal still won a majority of votes, it failed to garner the required two-thirds.

Principal Eileen Morales has told the Globe that the BTU "basically came in and put the fear of God into some people." Not so, says BTU spokesman Steve Crawford, who claims Stutman merely explained the effects of becoming a pilot.

"The school department seems to be upset that this was an informed vote," he says.

But one need only look at the "Pilot Schools Q&A" the union has compiled for its membership in order to get a sense of the BTU's pitch. The clear take-away is that pilots, rather than being an exciting, union-endorsed initiative, represent a perilous leap into the unknown, a leap likely to mean more work and fewer protections. One example: "Within a pilot school, you have no job security."

Now, there is no provision for a second vote in the pilot-conversion process. Nor does the agreement between the city and the BTU recognize the union rule that the faculty must meet with union leadership before any pilot school vote.

Usually any process concerns would go to a joint school department-BTU steering committee.

But according to Superintendent Michael Contompasis, the BTU, which is now working to rule (that is, performing only required duties) to protest their lack of a contract, has said it will not participate in steering committee meetings. What's more, the union has conveyed that any communication about the pilot matter must be through the BTU's attorney.

"You have a faculty that had already met the criteria in the contract, and the union has basically sandbagged the whole thing," laments Contompasis.

So despite Stutman's beguiling February performance , it's hard to avoid the conclusion that he has shown where the BTU really stands: In determined, if disguised, opposition to pilot schools.

Mayor Menino and Governor-elect Patrick -- and anyone else who cites pilots as their preferred, union-blessed, alternative to charters -- would do well to take note.

Scot Lehigh's e-mail address is lehigh@globe.com.