Friday, January 22, 2016

Urban Prep's anti-union version of teacher professional development


“Urban Prep has always respected teachers’ right to organize." --  Chief operations officer Evan Lewis 
Urban Prep Charter Academy, one of the most highly touted, yet worst performing charters in Chicago, had its own special version of staff development. No, it wasn't about improving reading or math instruction. Instead, the school used staff time and PD funds to train teachers on the evils of unionization.

Thanks to Chicago ACTS Pres. Brian Harris for getting me Urban Prep's power point slides, used to propagandize the staff. It looks like they were put together by Andrew Broy's union-busting team at INCS.

Slide 1: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8RpkGJdu8iyUlhtNV9zMHRxN2M/view
Slide 2: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8RpkGJdu8iyTGVNQjRlNTJhTjg/view?usp=sharing

Needless to say, their tactics failed. UP teachers voted to unionize. So Tim King and his board fired 17 teachers -- most of them African-American -- suspected of being involved in union activity. But after the NLRB ruled that the teachers were fired illegally, UP was forced to hire them back and pay out some $261,000 in back pay plus interest.

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