In a union contract ratified by the city school board last week, the union agreed to the idea of allowing teachers in a school to decide whether they want to work longer hours - a measure that charter school backers say falls short of what is needed.
David Stone, the lone school board member to vote against the contract ratification, said he was disappointed that the school district did not stand up for the KIPP school more during the negotiations.
"For another year, KIPP is going to be forced to pay rates that even the teachers weren't asking for. If the teachers at a school agree, then it should be their prerogative," Stone said.
Stone suggested that the union contract could allow exceptions if 80 percent or 85 percent of teachers voted to accept a certain amount of pay or work longer hours. He said the exceptions wouldn't necessarily have to apply just to charter schools. All schools in the district, he said, have been given more autonomy and that should be extended to teachers.
KIPP, or the Knowledge is Power Program, was developed by two Teach for America teachers in Houston in 1994 and has spread to 82 schools in 19 states. The schools serve 20,000 students, 80 percent of whom qualify for free and reduced-price meals. KIPP stresses discipline, hard work, a college preparatory curriculum and personal responsibility. Some 80 percent of KIPP alumni go to college. Only five of the schools employ teachers represented by unions and none of them have had to significantly alter the model, according to a KIPP spokesman.
In 2008, 96 percent of the eighth-graders at KIPP passed the Maryland School Assessment in math and 56 percent passed in reading. Overall, the students scored among the top 10 percent of all middle schools in the state.
KIPP will open an elementary school in the Malcolm X Youth Center in the lower Park Heights area this fall, and has plans for another five schools in Baltimore. But that expansion, Botel said, is subject to the schools being able to be faithful to the model of a longer school day.
The school leaders seem puzzled as to why the union challenged the pay issue after seven years. Union president Marietta English declined to comment, but Aldon, the spokeswoman, said the union intervention was the result of complaints from KIPP teachers.
