DNH

A tale of woe from one CPS teacher put on DNH

By Jim Vail

Patricia Breckenridge speaks at the Chicago Board of Education meeting in 2009

African American teachers have been hit hard by the racist policies of the Chicago Public Schools agenda to close mostly black schools and eliminate many black teaching professionals.

The latest casualty today is a veteran black teacher known for her fiery rhetoric inside union halls that criticizes the powers that be for the war on black teachers.

Patricia Breckenridge had worked as a temporarily assigned teacher at Addams Elementary School last year and assumed that she would continue her job this year. So she reported to the school for duty at the beginning of the school year. But the principal said she no longer had a position and called CPS Security on her and the Chicago police had to escort her out when she went to swipe in at the school. 

"No teacher should have to call city police to swipe into the job she's staffed in," Breckridge said.

Ariel Academy, another school where Breckenridge had subbed, likely sent a letter to CPS after the school clerk was directed to delete some of her assignments on Frontline/Aesop as a substitute teacher and would appoint her and put her in a PAT (Probationary Assigned Teacher) track position. The clerk requested that she be terminated and placed on the Do Not Hire (DNH) list by Mary Ernesti in the Office of Employment Engagement, Breckenridge said.

“As you know throughout the years that you have managed my CPS Substitute teacher status I have done nothing to be terminated and placed on Do Not Hire (DNH) list,” she wrote in a letter to CPS.  

“Addams falsely accused me of reporting to work when released from TAT position," she added. "There was a false aggravated assault charge made and I could have been arrested. The principal told CPD I was a trespasser 8/30/18, the next 8/31/18 the teacher filed the false aggravated assault charge."

She said Ariel took her assignment off of Frontline to stop her earned PAT status after teaching in a vacant position for 30 days.  

"The 23 year veteran principal then called Mary Ernesti at Office of Employment Engagement (OEE) to have me terminated and placed on a Do Not Hire (DNH) list in violation of CBOE/CPS policy and CTU contract," she said.

“By All Means Necessary I was terminated and placed on a Do Not Hire (DNH) after 23 years of teaching never to be tenured and historically became one of the 12,000 teachers to be terminated and or DNHed, leaving a population of only 4,000 African American teachers to date,” Breckridge wrote in a message to Second City Teachers.

“The conspiracy started with me taking a maternity leave teacher’s position as a Temporary Assigned Teacher (TAT) with the contractual right to the position when it became vacant or the teacher was not reinstated,” she stated. “When I tried to show my employment status it was disregarded. The second principal left me in a vacant position for more than 30 days and on-boarded another teacher.”

“So, if you wonder one day do AA (African American) teachers still exist, this is the tale of one teacher under attack by two principals and the ‘PERA (Performance Evalutation Reform Act) Lynch mob.’”

Patrcia Breckenridge, far left, has been an active CORE member.
Unfortunately, she has become another black teacher casualty due to the harsh CPS system.

A TAT or Temporary Assigned Teacher is assigned before a PAT Probationary Appointed Teacher. A principal can hire a PAT anytime bypassing TAT status.   After 10 days of service TATs in a vacant position become appointed. According to Breckenridge, PATs are put on tenure track for 3-4 years to be tenured or dismissed contingent on "unfounded and not research-based evaluations. Many inner-city students and teachers can’t be held accountable to be scientifically 'ready' to meet and exceed standards which is why PERA is a form of figurative 'lynching' by taking teacher’s livelihoods," she wrote.

“TATs have all salary and benefits of a PAT except tenure track for 3-4 years, so they can literally be left in limbo for their entire teaching career like me,” Breckenridge said. “I have been Cadre, Day to Day, FTB, TAT, PAT, Reinstated PAT, but never allowed to complete tenure track with Excellent evaluations in the late 90s to early turn of the century.”

Breckenridge said that the teacher evaluation system today – REACH from PERA, has assured that a tenured teacher can be dismissed if he or she receives two basic or needs improvement ratings and fails 90 day remediation without a proficient rating the next school year. Principals are evaluated by networks using the same metrics, she said.

"PERA “Lynch” started its implementation in 2011 and became fully implemented across the state in 2016 in essence to historically “lynch” principals and teachers who are already working with underprivileged students that are not raised in print-rich households with a myriad of impediments to their academic success to totally decimate the idea of love to teach and love to learn or love to administrate in fear of the PERA “Lynch mob,” she said.

Performance Evaluation Reform Act (PERA) that fires tenured teachers after 2 needs improvement evaluations change to unsatisfactory, then fired the following year if not proficient.

Excellent. 400 - 340
Proficient 339-285
Developing (Needs Improvement). 284-210
Unsatisfactory 209-100