The school board approved the charter and the state Board of Education gave it official status. With the longer school year, teachers at the beginning end of the salary schedule stand to receive a slightly higher daily rate of pay while veteran teachers could receive a sightly lower rate than the district schedule. In addition, teachers no longer have collective bargaining or a grievance procedure that ends in binding arbitration. There is a grievance procedure, but a leadership team of lead teachers, administrators, the principal, community members and Edison Project people has the final word. Teacher evaluation procedures designed by the Edison Project lack the procedural safeguards in the CVEA contract.
Teachers also lose bereavement and maternity leave.
The school is essentially being privatized, he adds. The Edison Project is a for-profit corporation whose responsibility is to investors.