k.. I dont get it.. are the teachers given a punishment like arrested by the cops or is this a room in the school they are held in detention in like a kid would be for like and hour?

-just another example of N.Y.C. loopholes. Like the cockroaches, N.Y.C. is full of mismanagement, corruption, and fiscal waste. After 13 years I left. Who’s the Senator over there anyway?

Well, today’s faculty lunch topic for discussion was….”rubber rooms.” After initially sharing what I read last night my colleagues had never heard of such a thing. I think this needs to be made more public especially after viewing the photos on your blog. It’s quite frightening that individuals can be treated so inhumanely. I’m smelling a huge expose. I want to know where is the representation of the union! Like I said in my last blog entry, I teach in a small private school that is represented by a union and they would never allow for such atrocities to occur. I happen to be the union representative in my school and the union is always advocating for us even for things as minor as filing a rebuttal for a negative classroom observation. I am very curious to see how this develops and unfolds. Please keep us posted as to when this will make air. Thank you for all your efforts in bringing news to the table.

Jamie,
Why don’t some of these teachers clean up this mess instead of just sitting around looking at it? I know it’s not their job to do this but at least they would be doing something positive in a difficult situation.

Jamie,

Great story. The whole concept is unbelievable and quite disqusting. You are correct – those in the criminal justice system get a quick and fair trial. These teachers get little to no due process…and the cost to the taxpayers is staggering.

I wonder what if our presedential candidates have a position on this issue…

WOW …even in jail they would get better surroundings then this..

I HAVE seen something like this before. Worker’s unions in the Midwest sometime have holding tanks where they keep workers who are waiting for work with union companies. I don’t fully understand the mechanism, but a small group have actually been kept in these holding tanks at union wages for 2, 3 and even 4 years.

I have to wonder if the thought process and/or politics of these Union holding tanks and your rubber rooms have anything in common.

Just a random thought, Im not even sure it that is relevant to tell you the truth.

The outrage should be over the fact that they are still drawing a salary. When my superiors are dissatisfied with my work, I get fired! If they were competent, they would be in the classroom. (Well actually if they were competent they would have real jobs.) The solution? Vouchers for education. Let the market decide.

Based on complaints there are not enough teachers available for kids today, it seems a bit incredulous that NYC or any school district would tolerate having teachers just sitting around doing nothing, collecting full pay, if they thought they were innocent of some sort of charges.

Additionally, making people wait & suffer for “years” in some cases is simply despicable treatment
of an individual. If NYC needs more arbitrators, they should contract for them & get them in. Across this nation there are many professional arbitrators who could easily step in and conduct the necessary hearings so “justice” could be done.

Having this many teachers sitting around waiting adjudication demonstrates that paying for all of those administrators to run the school systems, is a total waste of time and money. Teachers issues like these can be dealt with fairly and quickly, except when you have monopoly systems like education that “force” everyone to use the one size fits all, like it or not, your feelings are not important only the integrity of maintaining the socialist government run system is, type of operation.

BTW, theres something wrong with the pictures you’re showing: I think they’re phony. At the very least they explain nothing, and lack any semblance of authenticity.
They could be anywhere. One appears to show a parking garage, one shows dead bugs and a fixture of some sort, and one clearly altered one shows about 20 people sitting around in some kind of meeting room.
Do you mean to imply that one school has 20 teachers sitting around doing nothing? Those people are clearly *not crowded – I see 3 at a 6-place table, the furniture is decent, theres no crap on the walls or floor – so what exactly is the point?

The rubber rooms do not house teachers from one school. They are central holding pens. They are spread out across the city, a kind of archipelago if you will.

And you are right – -they are indeed just sitting around some kind of meeting room. Except that there is no meeting. And they sit there every day for 6 or 7 hours a day, often for months or even years (all the rubber room people I know were there for more than a year).

It’s a little like sitting at Motor Vehicles waiting for your number to be called. Except it never is. So you go home, and come back the next day and do it all over again.

Jamie … Another good issue you are dealing with directly. Since that’s becoming a ‘dead-end’ I suggest you do an “end run” by asking some “political leaders” about this issue. Before, that, however, you should gather a dollar amount per teacher and do a ballpark estimate of the amount the school district is spending for year for doing nothing.

Then, you can have somebody come on from a municipality or even a non-profit, that really needs help that these people can provide. What about these teachers going to prison and teaching the inmates? Or picking up aluminum cans in the park; get them into some productive activity since the taxpayer is paying.

One of the keys is to attach a dollar amount to this. 700 teachers in NY (with a lot of seniority) is easily $100,000 / teacher including benefits (health ins, reitrement, etc.). Well, we’re already up to $70 million for just one year just for their compensation.

Questions to Hilary Clinton: “Is it worth to the children of NY to spend $70 million a year that these teachers do nothing? Do you think this money could be better spent or that these teachers be made more productive? What would you do?”

Add attorney fees of school district; their union doesn’t want to speed it up … they’re still getting dues and the teacher is getting full salary. Who loses? Taxpayer but the students also lose in the long run.

Are there “rubber rooms” elsewhere? What a disgrace and people wonder why union membership has declined over the years. This is a good example.

The first time I even heard of a “rubber room” (outside of a movie about nutjobs in straitjackets) was this story.

I read the various posts on this blog, and to be honest, the reporter does a crummy job of explaining what a “rubber room” IS, and she’s vague to the point of useless as to why teachers are relegated there. But one gets a good idea of why they exist when you read the comments from some of the insiders (and some people who just don’t like the union, the NYC BOE, or public education in general.)

Apparently the teachers who get assigned to the rubber room are teachers who, for one reason or another, have gotten on the wrong side of an adminstrator (there can be good reasons for it, like being a whistleblower for corrupt practices, or other reasons, like the teacher is a PITA an admin doesn’t like.) Now why aren’t they given a hearing right away instead of being left to rot in limbo? It seems that the way the system is set up (i.e., the way the union contract is negotiated), it would be more expensive to try to get the teacher fired than to pay them to sit in a room for a few years.

They’re left to the rubber room because it’s cheaper, and the hope is probably that they’ll get so disgusted they’ll just quit (apparently a lot of them aren’t THAT disgusted.) The foot-dragging is apparently a bureaucratic maneuver – cruel and nasty (like why do teachers have to be accompanied to the restroom? What do these admins think they’re going to do? Plug up the toilets with a few rolls of toilet paper? Or is that just a further means of humiliating them?)

I can understand it from both sides. These rooms should be eliminated, and the teachers should get due process within a month of being put on leave – and the bad ones should be fired without further adieu.

But somehow I bet the way the union has it set up, it’s impossible to fire even the awful teachers.

Btw, what is the graduation rate again? Kinda hard to get all worked up about the lot of teachers in NYC when you see how abysmal the graduation rate is – but then, there’s more to it than just that, and it’s a whole ‘nother subject.

Suffice it to say it’s a bad situation all the way around (which is why my kids are educated in another state!)

I agree about the pictures. Poor quality, show little to nothing of the actual condition. What are the pictures trying to get across???

Sounds like their union sucks! Maybe the NY senators and congress people need to step in. I wonder if they even know about it! Maybe someone should tell them so something can be done. This treatment is atrocious!!!!!

I am an atty practicing in Queens
Sadly I can state that I am the expert on the rubber room for the following reasons:
I spent the better part of the last 6 yrs of my teaching career there
I hired the former top atty in the Office of Special Investigation to defend me in my 3020a case
I have worked on numerous 3020a cases
I spoke to the UFT Executive Bd on 2 occasions – one time Randi altered the schedule of the meeting to deal directly with my comments
I have great knowledge of the workings of both the law and the contract with respect to these state mandated hearings
I have knowledge of numerous state and contract violations exposed but not acted upon within the transcripts of these hearings
I have copies of settlement agreements made between the accused and the DOE
I am aware of at least 3 individuals who were cleared intheir hearings yet remain in the rubber room in violation of NYS law

I can go on and on…if The Colby Files wants to contact me – feel free to do so

To find out why I have been languishing in the rubber room for the last three years, please visit my website, where other cases — hardly incompetent or child molesters — are documented.
http://www.teacherabuse.com

After this is exposed maybe someone will open their eyes to see what’s going on in Long Island – the “elite” district, where administrators get paid for terminiating teachers if you are not part of the CONNECTED. Tenure does not exist anymore, and after you get your degree and your first job, it is like the line to the slaughter house to get axed. A. Coumo is investigating rampant Education abuses in NYS. Truley, it is like the WILD WEST out here in Long Island – yet to be discovered! There is EXTREME ABUSE in the NYS Education system!

For more information, see my website at:

http://teacheradvocacylongisland.blogspot.com/

For years, the DOE has been depicting the rubber room inmates as “child molesters”, “incompetent”,etc. I CHALLENGE THEM TO RELEASE THE LAST TEN YEARS RUBBER ROOM’S STATISTICS (BASED ON EDUCATION 3020A PROCEDURES), BROKEN DOWN INTO CATEGORIES :
1) Child Molestation
2) Incompetence
3) Insubordination
etc.
ALONG WITH THE PERCENTAGE OF GUILTY IN EACH CATEGORY, FOR THE PUBLIC TO JUDGE FOR THEMSELVES.
THEY WON’T BECAUSE THAT WOULD EXPOSE THEIR MANIPULATION AND PUT THIS OBSCENITY TO REST, ONCE FOR ALL.

I feel for you guys. where is that headed? why? weird. Looking forward to seeing more pictures and the documentary . I can’t imagine how dirty flithy the place is now.People take care of yourself and things around there. We need you.Dear God, help we need you.