Tuesday, September 24, 2019

RANK & FILE + PUBLIC PRESSURE WORKED: SCHOOL CLOSED ON DECEMBER 23!

There was no fanfare and no announcement at last night's UFT Executive Board but the Department of Education has quietly changed the calendar for the 2019-20 school year. School is now closed on Monday, December 23rd, 2019 in New York City.

The updated calendar says this:

Dec 23-Jan 1 Winter Recess (Schools closed)-Dates updated

We can take a little bit of credit for the change as pressure from parents and rank and file teachers, which we certainly helped to motivate, convinced the UFT to keep fighting for December 23. Our April 26 blog piece and our NY 1 appearance did something to bring this issue to the public sphere where we looked reasonable by using precedent. When December 23rd came on a Monday in the past, it was always a day off going back 33 years. It will be this year too. We didn't ask to give back a day like others did either. The rest of the calendar is unchanged.

Enjoy your full Winter Recess everyone!


46 comments:

ed notes online said...

You and MORE can fight it out since they will claim their 30k sigs did it. And of course the UFT itself will claim credit which they say they have been fighting for behind the scene from Day 1. None of you deserve credit -- the powers that be realized how much of a joke they will be in Dec 23 if kids had to go to school.

ed notes online said...

Where are these anonymous people now- let's mark their words from just a few days ago before they crawled back under their rocks.

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Like I said before, our fearless leader made the comment, "everyone else works on the 23rd", get ready to lose all holidays and breaks, it's coming for sure, summertime babysitting and daycare ain't cheap, but we are, hell we are free! I envision July fourth to around august 15th as our one and only break, luckily I'll be retired by then, but those of you just starting who don't care about the 23rd? You will when you are taking in the poop soot over everything else that comes after and you will be thinking it all started with the 23rd of December 2019. Just like losing 1.25 percent on the TDA started the ball rolling downhill, look at all the givebacks since then! You know they thought "if they are dumb enough to exchange thousands in interest for what works out to, over a 30 year career, be 60 extra days they will take anything! BEND OVER TEACHERS IT"S ON IT"S WAY , you won't feel a thing trust me.....until you are bleeding from your butt.

Monday, September 23, 2019 5:29:00 PM
Anonymous Anonymous said...


Monday, September 23, 2019 5:55:00 PM
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Even the sweatshops know as Success Academy are going to be closed on December 23rd. Mulgrew will now forever be known as Mulscrooge from now on. And what does he care? The dues money keeps rolling in. Shit, he will probably be out on vacation by then. He does not have to worry about the DOE launching an investigation on him for calling out that day.

Monday, September 23, 2019 8:04:00 PM
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Excellent point. If we call our wonderful UFT office on Dec 23rd will they actually answer the phone or will we hold for 20 minutes and then speak to the concierge? If we are WORKING on Dec 23rd WE SHOULD CALL OUR UNION AND MAKE SURE THEY ARE WORKING TOO!!!!!!!!! After all as Mugew said most people work on Dec 23rd.

If we are working they should be too. Call the union on Dec 23! Here us MIKe Mugew!!!

Monday, September 23, 2019 9:43:00 PM
Anonymous Anonymous said...

No dues from me, and proven correct every day.

Monday, September 23, 2019 11:13:00 PM

Anonymous said...

Is this a day we are going to have to make up!?

James Eterno said...

MORE wanted to trade a day. We did not. Our April 26 post, which UFT people admitted was right, went back 33 years for the precedents. We got the history straight for people fighting on UFT facebook. NY 1 then became interested and called. That helped bring in parents.

We will get no credit from UFT or MORE or you apparently Norm but we feel pretty good right now.

Anonymous said...

Excuse me, Mulgrew himself admitted this should never have been there in the first place. Uft credit for what. There are a million other reasons why one could opt out and complain.

Anonymous said...

So I could have booked flight last April, had to wait, price doubled. Credit? Haha. It's a joke. Now get the 8.25 reinstated and I'll be thankful. Get a real discipline code.

James Eterno said...


No makeup day anonymous 12:11 p.m. The rest of the calendar is unchanged.

James Eterno said...

Yeah 12:36 pm there are plenty of reasons to complain but for today the UFT does get credit for not giving up on this issue.

James Eterno said...

12:39, You can't even be happy for a day? Some could see the cloud in every silver lining.

Anonymous said...

Merry Christmas

ed notes online said...

Wah, wah, wah. You guys whined about this constantly -- you must be bummed out that you can't complain about Dec 23 anymore. Fact is it should never have been there and Mulgrew did what he was supposed to do but I also think he didn't have to do much -- the idiots at State Ed knew they looked stupid.

Hey, you can use the money you saved on not paying dues to book a flight.

-- Anonymous Anonymous said...

Excuse me, Mulgrew himself admitted this should never have been there in the first place. Uft credit for what. There are a million other reasons why one could opt out and complain.

Tuesday, September 24, 2019 12:36:00 PM
Anonymous Anonymous said...

So I could have booked flight last April, had to wait, price doubled. Credit? Haha. It's a joke. Now get the 8.25 reinstated and I'll be thankful. Get a real discipline code.

James Eterno said...

Norm's revisionist history. Calendar should have never been released with school on Dec 23. Precedent should have held. I saw an email sent from Leroy Barr to a member. It is not far fetched at all to say the UFT accepted the calendar and would not have fought at all if not for rank and file outrage.

Anonymous said...

Barr told me the doe had no reason to cancel school, they had not violated contract. Uft accepted it. That is why i dont pay...

Anonymous said...

Technically State ed didn't fix anything. We still have a problem with instructional hours. The DOE changed the calendar just like they did last year. Its putting a band-aid on an open wound. So we will have one less snow day this year. Point is, if the state and city do not come to an agreement on what is considered instructional time, we will continue to have this issue every year. Last year we got lucky and didn't use another snow day, so city changed June 24th to a regents day last minute.

Lets hope city and state can still work this out

Bronx ATR said...

Yes, the UFT had to have had agreed and approved the 2019-20 calendar. Perhaps this is why the G&T (gin and tonic) crowd aren’t screaming from their bullhorns about this latest UFT victory? Congrats to all. Savor it for the rare delicacy it is and think about what could be attained by a motivated Rank & File.

James Eterno said...

Bronx ATR got it right. This is a small hint of what rank and file could do if we tried.

John G said...

It's a more responsive union. Absolutely.

But I don't think the push back (either here or through some tone deaf nonsenical petition that practically begged the UFT to do a give back of one extra day in the school year) is why the date was switched. I think this was switched because NYSED saw how stupid it would be.
Don't forget, NYSED is more responsive as well. Betty Rosa is FAMOUS for listening to stakeholders.

Anonymous said...

From Chalkbeat

The education department announced the update through its official Twitter account, writing: “Every year, we work towards a calendar that meets the needs of students and families. In response to feedback, we have adjusted the 2019-20 School Calendar.”

The pressure worked.

James Eterno said...

DOE's own statement says they made the change in "response to feedback." That was feedback from the parents and the UFT rank and file. We just got it publicized.

Anonymous said...

Norm needs a hobby and a PD on anger management.

John G said...

Lol. I don't care what the DoE says. This day was placed in via NYSED and was taken out via the same way. Don,'t forget the hours of instruction rule change was via the state, not the DoE.

And thank Christ the DoE didn't really listen to any feedback. That petition ... that thing would have had me at work for one more day this year. No thanks.

James Eterno said...

You don't believe DOE who said it was our feedback. How about Mulgrew?

Here is what he told exec bd. at first meeting:

"December 23—We are continuing convos with state and city. Commissioner has resigned. Thinks we’ll get there. Should never have happened, they know they were wrong. Safety issue, under ESSA we have to report attendance. Thanks parents and teachers for getting voices heard."

"Thanks parents and teachers for getting voices heard."That was us, not him, encouraging voices to be heard.

State approved original calendar that UFT was consulted on and probably accepted. Can't change it without state okay. No pressure from parents and teachers and this does not happen. MORE asking for a tradeoff was a dumb move that we pointed out here.

Anonymous said...

UFT shouldn't get any credit. They agreed to this calendar in the first place. How could they agree to 4 snow days and have us work on the 23rd? In 20 years I only remember having 1 or 2 snow days built in. Instructional time isn't the issue if you have 4 snow days. If the UFT wants credit get us a longer memorial day weekend when we don't use snow days.
The whole thing was probably a scam so that UFT could look like they fought for us. Mulgrew probably already agreed to future crap raises in order to get this hero moment out of the city.

Anonymous said...

The phrase "Mulgrew admitted" means he never should have let it happen in the first place. The title of this post says it best, and I give the union little credit. Kudos to all who didn't do the usual rollover on this.

Quinn Zannoni said...

James there is a high probability you helped make this happen and anyone who says otherwise is way too confident in their limited powers of insight.

Anon2323 said...

Well done James! You chaz and others have made these issues known months before it was mainstreamed. You may not get credit, but you know in you're heart that you did your part which in turn helped make it happen.

It was the right thing to do, next year everyone will love our christmas break you can book that un April and enjoy 2 weeks,

Anonymous said...

So if we didnt all complain it would have remained, school would be in session. That is pretty pathetic. That isn't the uft fighting for us at all.

Anonymous said...

Bad news. Next year Rosh Hashanah falls on a weekend. As does Lunar New Year. Minus 3 days off.

Anonymous said...

If anybody, and I mean ANYBODY really believes that the DOE changed the calendar because of pressure from NYC teachers and the UFT, you are fooling yourselves in a huge way. The DOE does not care one bit about what teachers want. The fact is that parents made a stink for once and that is why the change was made. Oh yeah, everybody better get a good set of snow shoes because we all will be coming in on every single snow storm day as payback for this.

Anonymous said...

You're absolutely right Arthur is taking credit for it and he didn't do anything but sit around at UFT doing whatever Mulgrew told him to. it's awful they like like that Also he didn't get elected by the high schools because of the UFT regulations that let everybody vote for everything. Only you pused for this so thank you

James Eterno said...

Pressure was from parents and teachers. We certainly didn't hurt the cause by getting the parents on board by getting the story on NY 1 which kept the issue alive.

Arthur was elected by high school teachers only as HS Executive Board is exclusively voted on by high school teachers. MORE pushing out so many of us did not help.

Thanks for the acknowledgement 7:51.

Anonymous said...

No away did we vote for him or Mulgrew either. Can't believe you blame MORE out there fighting the good fight, cheated and probably won . Disgusting.

James Eterno said...

NOt sure I understand your comment 9:52. MORE pushed out so many of us in the last election cycle. That happened. It led to the Unity sweep.

Anonymous said...

"No away did we vote for him or Mulgrew either. Can't believe you blame MORE out there fighting the good fight, cheated and probably won . Disgusting."
Here is a MORE-ite -or -on who believes MORE won and the UFT cheated. There was one MORE who actually protested the election because he lost so badly and was ridiculed. He may not have the nerve to identify himself but insiders know who he is.

ed notes online said...

I do believe it was parent pressure the most but if anyone deserves credit it is James for being first out of the box to raise the issue. And it is more state ed dept than DOE. We know that principals were outraged too so inside Tweed there was a lot of pushback. And the costs to the DOE. So I never believed it was the DOE that was pushing this.

Anonymous said...

Now all we have to do is pushback on the rising union dues and the upcoming raid on the lump sum payment coming up. This money the union has collected in 2015, 2017 and 2018 adds up to hundreds of dollars that could have been used my members to spend as opposed to paying higher salaries for union officials. When you take a look at payroll portal soon that $150 or so of union dues would pile on to the other years. If the union believe in their workers this time and next let uft members keep the up and beyond amount.

Anonymous said...

QUESTION: Sooooo, how many snow days do we have locked in now?

James Eterno said...

We still have 3 snow days. We are still working 185 school days.

Anonymous said...

185? That's it. I'm not paying dues.

James Eterno said...

Haha. 185 is about average for the area.

Anonymous said...

Sit your ass down James. The NYSED was pulling the strings on this one. You are not the messiah you think you are. Your appetite to get praise and attention is sickening.

Anonymous said...

Clearly this was the work of MORE. you guys deserted them and didn't even defend them when Unity stole the election you are worthless should be ashamed of yourself.

Mike said...

Although I do not always agree w James or Chaz, these are the guys who let us know the issues and in some ways, are more detailed than the union or print news media.

Most information I know from being an atr comes from these two men.

Bottom line is although parents and principals did complain, however, James brings these issues to the front of the line.

For that, I’m thankful and informed.

Anonymous said...

NYSED just approves calendars. Districts make them. To everyone crediting the state here, there were 4 snow days in NYC calendar so there was no problem with the SED.

Anonymous said...

NYSED had to approve a change. That's it. If DOE didn't ask for it, it does not happen. They asked for it because of parent and teacher pressure. Good work everyone.

Anonymous said...

I'm not paying dues if it snows.