Much of the attention focused on the new teachers contract in NYC has surrounded the changing start and end times for students under the new tutoring scheme.

For teachers, the big non-salary news right now is that they now have the ability to throw out all the bad stuff in their personnel files that is more than three years old. (It can only be tossed if the material was not used in subsequent disciplinary proceedings against a teacher.)

For you charter school teachers who want to understand how the bureaucratic mindset pervades the NYC school system, this is how the UFT recommends to teachers that they exercise this new, hard-fought right:

1. The member should submit a written request to the principal to review his or her file. If no response is received in three days, the member should file a grievance under Article 21A3.
2. If the file contains material that is three years old or older that was not used in further disciplinary action (i.e., 3020a charges, an unsatisfactory rating or a suspension), the member should identify those letters that he or she would like removed by marking each with a Post-it and should request the originals from the principal. If a member does not receive the originals, he or she should file a grievance under the Memorandum of Agreement Section 10.
3. The member should request a file review again in the near future in order to check that all the materials were indeed removed and no copies are in the file.
   The member should make an inventory of the file using the UFT's file review form, which is available from chapter leaders or district representatives. On that form, the member should record the number of letters received over the past year as well as cumulatively over his or her career.

Once you've done all that, if you have any energy left, you are free to try to teach your students.

The Chalkboard has long believed that school systems often end up with the labor agreements they deservee, i.e. all these goofy protections for teachers usually came about for reasons that had a lot to do with wretched principals who ran their schools as political dens and ego trips rather than cultures that promoted the best teaching possible for children. But look how many times the word "grievance" comes up in this relatively simple operation of removing bad stuff from the file. Is this any way to run a quality school system? Isn't this why so many teachers are eager to work in charter schools where the focus can be on actually teaching?