The teachers at the Philadelphia Performing Arts Charter School got the equivalent of a lump of coal in their stockings for the recent holidays.
The school’s instructors voted in favor of unionizing on Dec. 11. The next day, the school’s board president issued a memo that stated "due to recent events," the staff’s holiday dinner and Christmas bonuses had been cancelled and the building’s locks and alarm code had been changed.
The move has upset teachers at the school and officials with the Pennsylvania Federation of Teachers.
"It’s almost like the Grinch who stole Christmas here," said Jared Freedman, a staff representative for the statewide teachers union.
In response, the union is filing an unfair labor practice charge with the state against the school at Broad and Porter streets, Freedman said.
"I consider it union-busting," he said. "I consider it putting fear into people not to join the union."
Teachers at PPAC contacted Freedman more than a year ago requesting information on the benefits of forming a union and how to begin the process.
By early this school year, Freedman said, more than half of the school’s 21 teachers informed the Pennsylvania Federation of Teachers they wanted to vote on whether to organize — state labor laws require signatures from at least 30 percent of teachers before a union organizes a vote in a non-union shop.
Then earlier this month, 15 teachers at the charter voted in favor of creating the union, Freedman said. Five voted against it, he said, and there was one challenge.
School officials had five days to challenge the vote, Freedman said, but did not act. The state’s Union Labor Board is expected to certify the election by today, officially establishing the Philadelphia Performing Arts Charter School Federation of Teachers.
The school is the second charter in the city at which teachers have unionized. West Oak Lane Charter School became the first four years ago.
According to a copy of the memo obtained by the Review, the document issued Dec. 12 to PPAC’s teachers reads as follows:
"Due to recent events, the holiday dinner at La Vigna’s has been cancelled and Christmas bonuses have been rescinded.
"For security reasons the locks and alarm code has [sic] been changed and no keys will be issued to staff members. As of December 12, 2003 staff will be unable to enter the building before 7:15 a.m."
Freedman said he went to La Vigna the night the party was scheduled and saw the school administrators gathered for dinner.
"I have seen some stuff pulled over the years," he said, "but it is usually done prior to an election."
Repeated attempts to contact administrators at the school were unsuccessful. Messages and e-mails sent to the school’s chief administrative officer, Angela Corosanite, were unanswered.
The Performing Arts Charter opened in the old Winnet Community Center in September 2000. Today the school has about 400 students enrolled in grades kindergarten through five.
In addition to traditional subjects, children at PPAC also take two classical ballet classes per week, one music theory class, one instrumental music class, vocal workshop, visual arts and French three to five times per week.
The school day is longer — running from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. — to accommodate the extra classes.
Some teachers declined to be interviewed because they said they feared for their jobs. One former teacher agreed to speak about her time at the school on the condition of anonymity.
She described her experience as positive, until last year when the school hired a new principal. At that point, she said, the administrators began arbitrarily granting and denying supplies for their classrooms and stopped taking staff input.
"It was just the way we were being treated overall," she said. "The way we were being talked to. No one was listening to us. We were presenting ideas and they were being shot down."
Since leaving the school, the teacher said, she has remained in contact with several teachers. They have told her they do not regret unionizing.
"This has made them realize that this is a good thing that they [organized]," the former teacher said, "because if they had not, things would have been 10 times worse."
Freedman will have a meeting with PPAC’s teachers Jan. 8 to elect officers and select a negotiating team. State law requires teacher contract negotiations begin by Jan 10. Freedman said he has sent a letter to the school board requesting availability dates.
For their first contract, PPAC’s teachers will be looking for basic protections, Freedman said, like a multiyear contract with a salary schedule and a clause preventing teachers from being summarily fired.
"They are looking for the same kind of protection and rights that the Philadelphia teachers have," he said.
