Half of them fired in push for union

A BRONX charter school dedicated to educating students about social justice and the law fired 11 of its 15 teachers with no notice last month — including eight who were trying to bargain a union contract with management.

The abrupt dismissals prompted the United Federation of Teachers, which represents educators at the Charter High School for Law and Social Justice in the Bronx, to file a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board.

“By discharging approximately 73% of the 15 bargaining unit members, (the school) sent a clear message . . . support the UFT and you will be fired,” the complaint said. The school’s “actions demonstrate a clear attempt to derail the UFT’s status and support . . . and will irreparably chill bargaining unit members’ rights,” the union said.

The dismissals came after a year of attempts from teachers to negotiate a contract with Charter High, which was approved as a charter in 2013 and opened its doors in 2015.

Serving roughly 220 students in the ninth and 10th grades, the school’s mission called for a special emphasis on community development and social justice issues.

Steve Campbell, 42, was among the 15 teachers hired by the school — and among the 11 fired last month.

“I am job-searching right now. I was told on June 20, when I was fired, that my last paycheck was June 30,” said Campbell, an English literature teacher.

Attracted by the school’s core goals, Campbell signed on in 2015 and — after a short and successful organizing drive by the UFT — voted to join the union along with his colleagues on March 28, 2016.

Soon after, Campbell said, he and seven others on the union bargaining committee opened talks with the school’s management, including Principal Sean Harrell and school founder Richard Marsico.

Marsico, director of the Justice Action Center at New York Law School and a law professor, is a frequent speaker on social justice issues in high schools and elsewhere.

Campbell said the contract talks started off well, and the eight members of the bargaining committee felt progress was being made. “Some verbal commitments were made . . . parameters around salary and working situations and hours and those sorts of things,” Campbell said.

But a year later, nothing had been settled, he said. The eightmember UFT bargaining committee began to suspect the charter school was dragging its feet to run the clock out on the school year, he said.

“From the administrative side, there was a total lack of communication,” he said.

When he was let go, administrators told him only that the school was going in another direction, he said.

“No reason was given,” Campbell said of his firing.

Reached at his Westchester County home by the Daily News, Marsico said he couldn’t talk about the firings.

“We can’t comment on personnel matters,” he said.

A school employee who answered the phone Wednesday at the Morris Heights facility said Harrell wasn’t available. Asked to provide an email address for the principal, the call was put on hold and never picked back up.

Special-education support specialist Kelly Diaz, 31, who was also fired, said she had believed the charter school would be a special place to work because of its social justice focus.

“I was really blindsided. I thought (contract talks) were moving slowly, but still moving in a direction that was beneficial to the students, staff and the school as a whole,” she said. Despite being a new teacher, Diaz said she didn’t receive a single evaluation from higherups during her first year. “There were a lot of gaps where management was concerned,” she said. On top of the eight members of the UFT bargaining committee who were fired, the three other teachers dismissed were all union members who had spoken to management about school issues, the union said. It called on the National Labor Relations Board to issue an injunction against school and reinstate the dismissed teachers. “The administration’s actions are a lesson in hypocrisy. A school that claims to teach law and social justice summarily fires most of its teachers because they had the nerve to advocate for their kids and for their own rights as employees,” UFT President Michael Mulgrew (photo inset) said.

Student Zsakaiyah Gardner, 15, cried when she heard Campbell and the other teachers were fired, said her mom, Renaye Gardner.

“These kids came to school in the morning, and these teachers met them at the door, shook their hands. They had a community meeting every morning to get ready for the day,” said Gardner.

“It wasn’t a perfect school . . . but the teachers were incredible. Each one of them formed a relationship with their students.”

Gardner said she’s had several problems with Harrell and administrators at the school — and on June 6 sent an eight-page letter to the school’s board members detailing some of her issues.

One of those problems related to two students allegedly having sex in a bathroom, with a video of it shared on Snapchat, Gardner said.