WTU Membership Approves Tentative Agreement

June 2, 2010 -- The Washington Teachers’ Union (WTU) announced today that its members have approved the tentative agreement between the WTU and DCPS.

Nearly 80% of the voting members approved the contract. Chancellor Rhee writes, “As a school system, at last we can better empower, challenge, support, and reward the teachers who influence and expand the minds of our students every day. The new contract makes real to teachers how much their work is valued. It also better enables us to support teachers who need help, and to more easily separate teachers who are ineffective despite these added supports”.

The provisions of this contract include:

• A 21% pay raise over five years, three of which are retroactive;
• A voluntary individual performance-based compensation system for teachers, which will improve both rewards and accountability;
• A requirement for mutual consent between teacher and principal that the teacher is placed in that school;
• Performance-based excessing to replace seniority-based excessing; and
• Due process when a teacher is separated for being ineffective but feels the decision did not properly follow the evaluative process.