Milwaukee Teacher Contract

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 3, 2007, 2:31 p.m.
By Sarah Carr
MPS announces new contract with teachers
Milwaukee Public Schools officials this afternoon announced a new
teachers contract that significantly boosts teacher recruitment and
retention efforts.

The contract with the Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association, the
teachers union, covers the 2007-'09 period and calls for greater
flexibility in teacher hiring and the reinstatement of a mentoring
program for new teachers.

Specifically, it would move up the timeline for the teacher interview
process to help the district be more competitive against other
districts. It also would allow low-achieving schools to interview
candidates from outside the district in the first cycle of interviews,
a change from past practice. Also, all schools would now be allowed to
interview outside candidates in high-need areas such as special
education or high-school science in the first round of interviews.

"We've changed our systems and processes to try to level the playing
field in making sure we have highly qualified teachers in the
lowest-performing schools," said MPS Superintendent William
Andrekopoulos.

He added that "this bargain was focused mainly on teacher quality."

The contract also calls for a 2.5% raise for teachers in each of the
two years. It makes no significant changes to the teachers' benefits
package, or the residency requirement.

There are also several changes related to school safety in the
contract. Andrekopoulos said it would provide more consistency in
student discipline procedures, so that teachers are more universally a
part of the conversation when a student returns from a suspension. It
also opens the door for more teachers to testify at expulsion hearings
when they have been the victim of an assault.

The teachers still have to ratify the contract, which goes before the
School Board on Oct. 30.