Saturday, March 14, 2020

MULGREW'S MESSAGE TO PARENTS

Message from Michael Mulgrew:

To the parents and guardians of our public school students:

Because of his irresponsible decision to keep the public schools open, Mayor Bill de Blasio can no longer assure the health and safety of our students and school communities.

The mayor is recklessly putting the health of our students, their families and school staff in jeopardy by refusing to close public schools. We have a small window of time to contain the coronavirus before it penetrates into our communities and overwhelms our health care system’s capacity to safely care for all the New Yorkers who may become gravely ill.

More than 21,000 U.S. schools, serving over 15 million students, across the country have closed to help check the spread of the virus. New York City museums have closed, Broadway has gone dark and major sports leagues have canceled or postponed their seasons, yet Mayor de Blasio refuses to close public schools.

The city can find ways — even with the schools closed — to keep our children safe, to see that they are fed and to provide other supports for working families.

We UFT members are asking you to come together with us to demand that the mayor protect our city and our children by executing a plan to:

Close New York City public schools immediately.
Maintain services for our medically fragile students and other vulnerable children.
Set up an emergency support plan for all first responders and health care workers to support their childcare and other needs.
Provide access to appropriate tests and care.
Call 311 to demand the mayor close schools now!

The health and safety of our school communities — and indeed the entire city — hangs in the balance.

Sincerely,

Michael Mulgrew
UFT President

37 comments:

waitingforsupport said...

And so it goes. If I had a school aged child...I'd collect all emails and/or assignments and keep my child home. I would tell my principal that I have to be out (if child is under 16) and that's that. But that's me.

Anonymous said...

According to
@IchabodCraneCSD
superintendent all 23 public schools in the
@QuestarIII
BOCES region (Rensselaer, Columbia and Greene counties) will close Tuesday March 17 and reopen Monday March 30.
@WNYT

Anonymous said...

I'm done playing.

@BilldeBlasio
You are murdering people.

Every other large school system is closed. NY Catholic churches are closed. NYPL is closed. The NY State Capitol is closed. City Council is closed.

But you keep schools open.

How dare you?

Anonymous said...

From Italy: “Many of us were too selfish to follow suggestions to change our behavior. Now we’re in lockdown and people are needlessly dying.”

Anonymous said...

Mayor and Gov Cuomo need to treat this as a Public Health Emergency and shut down
Quote Tweet

Mark D. Levine
@MarkLevineNYC
· 30m
NYC has a sense of normalcy tonight. Lots of bars and restaurants are full.

And this is huge problem.

We need everybody to avoid crowds and congested places. To avoid close contact with strangers. To shelter at home if at all possible.

We need to end the denial and skepticism.

Anonymous said...

Forbes has an article about thirty-six NYC scientists urging Mayor deBlasio to close NYC public schools due to the COVID-19 virus. If SCIENTISTS are urging the mayor to close the schools it's because it's the best thing to do.

Anonymous said...

A school Superintendent said something profound in his address cancelling school for the next 3 weeks. “In the end, it will be impossible to know if we overreacted or did too much, but it will be QUITE apparent if we under reacted or did too little.”

Hear those words my friends.

Anonymous said...

S: CUNY Alert - College of Staten Island Main Campus and St. George Campus Closed Sunday, March 15th and Monday, March 16th
CUNY Alert - College of Staten Island Main Campus and St. George Campus Closed Sunday, March 15th and Monday, March 16th

The College of Staten Island Main Campus and St. George Campus will be closed on Sunday, March 15th and Monday, March 16th. All scheduled activities on both campuses will not take place. During this time only essential personnel are to report to campus. Dolphin Cove will remain open.

Anonymous said...

Mayor Bill really boxed himself into a corner with this one. Governor Andy jumped right off the bridge with him. I will go into work Monday, open all the windows in the classroom, spread the students out as much as possible and do the best I can...I really implore my colleagues not to be foolish and pull some sort of job action... The scientists, doctors, and public around the country and WORLD are with us. A lot of teachers will not be in on Monday anyway because ironically they live in the suburbs and their childrens' SCHOOLS ARE CLOSED! They have no daycare and CAN'T GO TO WORK! Diblasio and Cuomo made a HUGE unforced political (and public safety) error that can work for us for decades if we play our cards right...

Remember...

"The whole world is watching!...The whole world is watching!...The whole world is watching!"

Bronx ATR said...

This really isn’t deBlasio’s problem, anymore. He does what he wants, when he wants, especially with the schools and with teachers. This is issue is now on Mulgrew. Mulgrew approaches every challenge from a predisposition of weakness. However, his letter is strongly worded for him - calling the mayor ‘irresponsible’, but it’s still a form of groveling and pleading ; hoping to get the parents to back him up, like a scared kid taking on a bully. Hasn’t he learned anything from his time with Bloomberg? Stop asking and start doing. No one, especially deBlasio, has any respect for Mulgrew (everything deBlasio has asked for he got on a silver plate - no interest teacher loans for our back pay, an expedited ATR termination process, an inferior contract with givebacks, no discipline policy, grade fraud, the list goes and on ), and most rank and file members no longer believe anything that comes out of Mulgrew’s mouth. If the Mayor refuses to close schools for an extended time period (and in all likelihood he will refuse) Mulgrew has to refuse to send teachers to them. That’s it. If he doesn’t do that, he may as well shut down the UFT, because as teachers and their families start getting sick or worse, he and the UFT will not be forgiven.

Anonymous said...

If schools close, we still get paid, right?

Quinn Zannoni said...

You are spot on, and I hope you become a chapter leader one day.

The UFT says they are negotiating with the DOE around the specifics of this ongoing crisis. However, I don't see how they've won many gains beyond those blanket protections that Cuomo wants to offer private sector workers:

"Cuomo said Wednesday that revisions in the legislation should enable employees in the private sector be paid throughout the length of a quarantine should an individual be placed in mandatory or precautionary quarantine."
Beyond that, we've got:

-The guarantee of a 24-hour minimum school closure in the case of a proven case of COVID-19. Not nearly enough time to identify the people who may have been exposed. It takes an average of 5 days for symptoms of the virus to present. And the virus can live outside the body for a number of days. Are the maintenance people going to wipe down the entire shaft of every pencil in every classroom?

-The extension of "a reasonable number of days" granted for care of a family member whose school was shut due to a COVID-19 outbreak. Vague, and not strong enough of an incentive to keep the member home and away from spreading the virus. The viral spread is happening mostly invisibly; at least keep people home with confirmed possibility of exposure.

-The UFT is saying that a member can't be disciplined for staying home during this crisis, but I have yet to see that in writing from the DOE. I've known the UFT to make up it's own rules that it later can't back up in DOE court. They write: "During the COVID-19 outbreak period an employee’s absence related to their own health or for the care of a family member shall not be deemed excessive or used as the basis for discipline." Immediately after that, it says that once the crisis is over, admin can ask you to provide documentation to justify your absences, contradicting their statement that discipline is out of the question.

-The ability to borrow up to 30 CAR days. So the oldest, most medically fragile, and most prevention-minded among us will to take a financial hit down the road instead of the City taking it now. 

-A "medical accommodation" that does not allow for a medically fragile employee to stay home from work and receive pay. The UFT says they are working on that, but we have yet to see. Let's hope that somebody realizes it's bad HR to let staff members die.

Is this the best that the country's largest local can get?

Anonymous said...

It is the best the uft can do, just like the 2014 contract and all the flaws in it, which is why I dropped out. Remember, retro wasn't a God given right, we were lucky we got that along with the 1.4% average yearly raise. Yes, expect nothing from the uft and the doe, except abuse and more of the same.

Anonymous said...

I am hoping that this pandemic wakes people up to other health issues; especially those we cause to ourselves.

Perhaps this will get people to stop smoking pot, stop smoking cigarettes, stop vaping, stop being sexually promiscuous, start eating better and living healthier so we won't have so many underlying conditions!

I find it so ironic that the teachers in my school who are the most worried about COVID19 went home this weekend to get drunk and smoke pot!

In school, stay away from computer keyboards; you and your students. Keyboards and a mouse are a simple way to pass illness to each other.

Anonymous said...

Mayor DiBlassio, Carranza, Cuomo and Trump are all going to have blood on their hands. Trump can handle this by closing all schools in the country. Nuff said. We're next after Spain and France I fear.

Anon2323 said...

WEAKEST AND MOST EXPENSIVE TEACHERS UNION IN THE COUNTRY! PUSSIES LIKE DIBLASIO, CARRANZA, CUOMO, REAL SOFT MARSHMALLOWS! WHAT ELSE YOU EXPECT?

Anonymous said...

Teachers are so dumb, they say we cant do a sick out, it's illegal, the taylor law. First, just call in or email and say you dont feel well, you dont announce a sick out on FB. 2nd, has the doe or the uft ever cared about fairness? You want to be out, just call in sick. Nobody is coming to your house to see if you are sick. They clearly dont give a shit about us.

Anonymous said...

All of Nassau county just closed.

Anonymous said...

What about the substitutes who the teachers are calling into subcentral think will be coming to cover their classes? I have 50 job offers already and it is not even 5Pm. The substitutes are not immune from Corona. We have no sick days or insurance. We should be able to collect unemployment during this time period. Time to close the schools.

Anonymous said...

You call 311 and all you get are recordings there is no prompt to leave a message this won't work.

Anonymous said...

Nassau just closed for month

Anonymous said...

The mayor said he doesnt want 1 million hoodlums released on nyc.

Anonymous said...

All Nassau County, NY Public and Private Schools and CLOSED for instruction. Duration: TWO WEEKS.

Anonymous said...

Borough president of Queens, Sharon Lee has told all parents to keep kids home from school. Good for her. She should be mayor.

Anonymous said...

and in 2022, when this contract expires, expect 1%-2% a year...again.

Anonymous said...

Finally! https://www.google.com/amp/s/nypost.com/2020/03/15/coronavirus-in-ny-teachers-union-vows-to-sue-nyc-to-close-schools/amp/

Anonymous said...

So because he is an unprepared mayor, we need to risk our lives!?!?!

https://www.google.com/amp/s/nypost.com/2020/03/15/de-blasio-admits-lack-of-contingency-plan-ready-to-close-public-schools/amp/

Anonymous said...

1:44: Not if these morons don't vote no on the contract and we vote against Mulgrew.

waitingforsupport said...

@10:07am...exactly!!! Why announce it. Just call in. Who the hell is going to tell you to come in? If the principal says you must come in, ask him to send you an email saying so.

waitingforsupport said...

Im scared for this country. If you can't make a decision for yourself then we are in deep crapola. Call in and say you have been sneezing...you don't want to take a chance and risk infecting others. I would take 2 days off. Go in 2 days and then repeat.

waitingforsupport said...

I think the mayor will close the schools this week. What a maroon.

Anonymous said...

On conference call
@NYGovCuomo
calls on healthcare worker union, teachers union and others to figure out childcare centers so he can close New York City schools.

Johnny Change said...

NYC City council suspended . Yet 1.1 M students must go through the crowded subway system to reach their crowded schools. The captains jumped the ship , leaving kids behind. Amazing.

Anonymous said...

As if teaching goes on any other day.

Anonymous said...

Gov. Cuomo on Sunday urged New York City to close its schools.

“I believe the New York City schools should be closed,” the governor told reporters on an afternoon conference call — after days of citing concerns over the move and reiterating his worries again as recently as Sunday morning.

Anonymous said...

Cuomo just said NYC schools should be closed, Health care union president said "close it mayor" what else do we need!!! I have preexisting conditions so I have to be penalized by losing car days so I don't risk my life? Have to worry about violating the Taylor law and all that comes with that? WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!!! Now DeBlasio is some one Mulgrew should be punching in the face!

Anonymous said...

Suffolk county just announced a two week closure too. Many schools in Brooklyn and Queens are going to be severly understaffed as many of the teachers who work in those boroughs live on Long Island. Now that they have no one to watch their kids, many probably will not be coming in. I guess there will be a lot of "doubling up" of classes?