Union opposes ‘master’ from merger team

MEA cites conflict with 2 candidates

The Memphis Education Association weighed in Monday with U.S. Dist. Judge Samuel “Hardy” Mays on who should not be appointed special master overseeing schools merger — anyone connected with the case or with the Transition Planning Commission.

“To ensure actual neutrality,” the union representing teachers in the Memphis City Schools system reasoned, “the MEA believes that the court should exclude from consideration those who may reasonably be presumed to be predisposed toward certain outcomes on the matters the court may consider, either because of positions he or she may hold or opinions he or she may have expressed in public comments or writings.”

Mays has made it clear that implementation of the TPC plan should be among the urgent tasks of the unified Memphis and Shelby County school board. Some members of the County Commission, which funds public edu- cation, have criticized the board for not acting as assertively as it should to plow through the TPC’s 172 recommendations.

But the union claims that neither anyone associated with parties to the litigation nor members of the TPC, architects of a lengthy plan for consolidation, should be considered.

Two members of the TPC — commission chairwoman Barbara Prescott and Human Resources Committee chairwoman Christine Richards, who has also urged adoption of the plan — are among candidates for the job of special master, which would wield considerable power in the merger.

Both are “too close to the situation,” said MEA president Keith Williams. “To ask Barbara Prescott or Christine Richards to do it would be a mistake.

They’re the ones who dreamed this up.”

The MEA has been sharply critical of a wide range of TPC recommendations since they arrived in June after an eight-month study by the 23-member group, composed primarily of private citizens and aided by a team from the Boston Consulting Group.

The union has objected to the use in teacher evaluations of Tennessee Value Added Assessment System data — a linear tracking of student progress that found support on the TPC but has drawn criticism from others.

Its critique of the TPC recommendation for mutual consent between principals and teachers in hiring decisions is that it essentially puts the decision in the hands of the principals.

The union claims that cutting insurance benefits, a recommendation of the TPC that was adopted by the board last week, is a violation of a state law that prohibits merger-related diminution of compensation.

It also challenges TPC-endorsed abandonment of a traditional compensation plan that awards raises for teachers who earn advanced degrees.

Neither Prescott nor Richards could be reached i mmediately for comment.

Mays strongly indicated in talks last week an inclination toward naming a special master, essentially to serve as his agent, to speed along the process of merging MCS with Shelby County Schools.

Mays told attorneys in a Friday conference call the he was still deliberating whether to name a special master but would proceed with interviews of candidates.