(C) Verite News New Orleans This story was originally published by Verite News New Orleans and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Educators at French immersion charter school vote overwhelmingly to unionize [1] ['Katie Jane Fernelius', 'More Katie Jane Fernelius', 'Verite News', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img', 'Height Auto Max-Width'] Date: 2024-05-14 With an overwhelming majority, educators at Lycée Français De La Nouvelle-Orléans voted 52 to 12 in favor of unionization in an election held by the National Labor Relations Board on Monday (May 13), making the French immersion school the latest New Orleans charter school to organize with the United Teachers of New Orleans. As a small group of educators and administrators tallied votes at the Priestley campus of the school, students and parents in support of the union crowded outside in the rain. “It was honestly pretty solemn proceedings,” said Sam Fick, a pre-K teacher at the school who was present during the counting of the votes. “It’s my first time participating in something like that, but I just felt like, ‘Oh, this is democracy right here.’ Like it’s just normal people counting pieces of paper and tallying votes.” Once it became apparent that the union had won a decisive victory, excitement began to bubble up. Outside, a parent exclaimed that they had received a text from someone inside claiming that the union had won. Less than a minute later, a group of teachers dashed out of the building, where they were greeted by cheers and applause. “I’m honestly pretty emotional,” Fick said, tearing up. “It’s been a long time coming.” Organizers at the school filed a petition to form a union earlier this year, following what union members described as months of frustration with the school’s leadership over failures to address complaints about wages, benefits and a lack of staff input in school decision-making. Lycée Français De La Nouvelle-Orléans joins a growing list of unionized schools in New Orleans, where for years after Hurricane Katrina — and the subsequent conversion of the city’s district-run schools to nonprofit-run charters — there was virtually no union presence in K-12 education. The school’s administrators have repeatedly come out against unionization since the petition was filed, and their position on it appeared to be unchanged after the vote. In a statement to Verite News, Superintendent Chase McLaurin said, “While Lycée leadership is completely open to working with staff on innovative ways to improve and strengthen the school, we generally see interjection of a union between administration and staff as complicating efforts at communication. We welcome the opportunity to learn more from our faculty about how we can make Lycée the best working and learning environment for our school family. Tonight’s vote doesn’t change that commitment.” The school recently sent out notices to a group of teachers, including some who were part of the original organizing committee of the union, informing them that their one-year employment contracts would not be renewed. McLaurin said in a statement that the decisions were not related to the union drive. Union leaders said Monday that they hope to convince the school to rescind the non-renewals. ‘It’s been a long process’ Going forward, the union will be known as the Union des Educateurs du LFNO (UELFNO) and will include “teachers, ESS staff, interventionists, counselors, social workers, nurses, and parent community liaisons,” but will not include teaching assistants, paraprofessionals, custodial staff or administrative staff. Crucially, it will cover a workforce that includes several workers who are foreign nationals, many of whom are from Francophone countries and live in the U.S. on J-1 visas, which are temporary visas used for educational exchange programs that require the school’s sponsorship. “It’s been a long process,” said Jonas Delpuech, a teacher at the school who is French. “I want to cry now that it has happened.” The election comes five months after the employees first announced they had organized a union, delivering a statement to school leaders asking for voluntary recognition. In the months since their filing, employees say that they’ve been exposed to frequent anti-union messaging from school administrators. In one February email titled “Union FAQs,” McLaurin sent out a list of questions that included “Will our Lycee Francais culture change if UTNO gets into our school?” and “I already have a voice at Lycee Francais through various committees–do I need to unionize to continue to have a voice at Lycee Francais?” In response to the latter question, McLaurin wrote: “UTNO will have the right to block any individual teacher from communicating directly with the administrator about virtually anything impacting teaching and working at Lycee Francais–that’s how collective bargaining works–you give up your individual voice.” ‘Admin has really tried to undermine our union’ Tensions between the union and the school have grown over the last week, as some teachers found out they would be losing their jobs. Elementary English teacher Emily Florance, who was part of the union organizing committee, said she found out on Friday, just three days before the vote, that her employment contract would not be renewed for the 2024-2025 school year. “I think the only way to go forward in a productive manner is to have representation from a union,” she said on Monday evening. Several educators characterized the personnel move as retaliatory in response to the union drive, something McLaurin disputed. “Any assertion that teachers were terminated due to union activity is fundamentally incorrect,” McLaurin said. “All our teachers were encouraged to vote in tonight’s election, and no one has been terminated for union support.” McLaurin said that the recent non-renewals were determined by curriculum changes, performance and decisions made by the Council for Development of French in Louisiana (CODOFIL), a state agency that recruits teachers from Francophone countries for language immersion programs in Louisiana. “CODOFIL, not Lycée, has ultimate control over placement, transfer and termination of CODOFIL teachers,” McLaurin said. CODOFIL did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday morning. But with the unionization drive successful, school employees said they hope that they can take action to bring back the teachers whose contracts had not been renewed. “We’re going to work really hard as a union to try and reinstate these teachers,” said Margot Marks, a fourth-grade teacher. “I’m personally excited – and I think our union is excited – to be able to share our voice and be involved in some of the day-to-day decisions of what it looks like to run the school.” But Marks, along with other educators, students and parents, believes there is a lot of work to be done to repair the school’s culture, given the school leaders’ antagonism to their union. “Admin has really tried to undermine our union, and they have done it through disciplinary actions, and it’s created a culture of fear within the supposed safety of the school building,” Marks said. “Going forward, I’m hoping the administration takes this as an opportunity to reset their approach, so we can work together collaboratively on building a better school.” McLaurin said that most teachers already seem to be happy with the school. “As an independent charter, Lycée strives to be a great place to work for our 152 employees,” McLaurin said. “The most recent intent-to-return survey showed 99% of staff desire to return to Lycée next year. This is the best return survey data on record. Morale is deeply important to us.” The unionization of Lycee Francais is part of a trend of unionization at charter schools in New Orleans. Before Hurricane Katrina, UTNO was the only union representing teachers in New Orleans, and had considerable political power as one of the largest unions in the state. But in late 2005, following Katrina, the state took over the schools, and by the next year, the school board had terminated over 7,000 teachers, foreclosing collective bargaining in the city’s schools. But beginning in 2013, educators at charter schools began to form their own unions: first at Morris Jeff Community School, then at Ben Franklin High School, Bricolage Academy, International High School and Rooted School. “Once again, teachers have come together to raise their voices in unison,” said Dave Cash, president of UTNO, in a statement. “This is a great day, not just for the teachers at Lycée Français, but for working people across New Orleans and far beyond.” Related Republish This Story Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license. [END] --- [1] Url: https://veritenews.org/2024/05/14/lycee-union-vote/ Published and (C) by Verite News New Orleans Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 US. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/veritenews/