Thursday, February 28, 2013

MORE HAPPY HOURS FRIDAY MARCH 1, 8; CAMILLE AND I WILL BE AT QUEENS GET TOGETHER



We Promise - food, fun, drinks, great conversation, and good times!


Are you:
ü  Nervous about a pending teacher evaluation deal?
ü  Wondering what a more democratic, member led union could look like?
ü  Sick of the onslaught of paperwork, Danielson, Common Core, Test Prep, Unfair Evaluations?

Come meet MORE's candidates. We will have election literature to distribute at your school
We are a new rank and file organized caucus of the UFT, we are running in the April ’13 elections as a positive alternative to the current leadership

All Teachers, Counselors, Paras, School Staff  and Friends are welcome.

Please bring all your friends and forward this email
Fri March 1st 4-7pm Bay Ridge Brooklyn 
Harp Bar
7710 3rd Ave (btwn 77th & 78th St)
Fri March 1st 5-7pm Nassau/Queens 
Nancy's Restaurant
255-41 Jericho Turnpike (near Little Neck Parkway)
Floral Park
Fri, March 8th4:30 – 6:30 Uptown Manhattan
Noche Mexicano
842 Amsterdam Ave at West 102nd St
Fri. March 8th 4-7pm Bronx
The Clock Bar
112 Lincoln Ave. btwn Bruckner Blvd and 134th St

https://www.facebook.com/events/380286228745924/




View the MORE campaign ad here.

Go to Ed Notes to see MORE candidates in action.

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

SPIRITED BCAE SCHOOL CLOSING HEARING LAST NIGHT

My wife, my daughter and I were back at Campus Magnet Campus for the second time in just two weeks for yet another Joint Public Hearing on a school slated for phase out. This time it was Business Computer Applications and Entrepreneurship High School.  As this was the second time this school has been placed on the DOE chopping block (it was saved by a UFT-NAACP lawsuit in 2010), the small school had already been downsized.  However, this did not dampen the enthusiasm of the audience which included virtually the whole staff along with some passionate students and parents.

The UFT was represented by VP for Academic High Schools Janella Hinds and some folks from the Queens office.  Other UFT leaders from Campus Magnet including Camille Eterno and Clarence Reynolds were in attendance.

The person who stole the show this time with a remarkable power point presentation exposing the DOE numbers for the sham they are and proving how high needs students and closing schools go hand in hand was the BCAE Chapter Leader Joel Vigne.  He showed how BCAE, Beach Channel and Jamaica are three of the four schools who have the highest percentage of high needs students in Queens and all three are being closed instead of being given proper resources.  He also pointed out how DOE has schools with comparable statistics yet some close while others get grades of A or B and stay open.

Camille Eterno told the audience how these social experiments in Southeast Queens must stop. She said closing Jackson in the nineties was an experiment and now with two of the four replacement schools being closed, the experiment obviously failed.

 PTA leaders at BCAE made emotional presentations as did students and staff.  It was a very spirited night.  Will the PEP be moved?  We doubt it but at least the Queens representative on the PEP was there to voice his opposition to the phase out.


Chapter Leader Joel Vigne makes case for BCAE




MORE Treasurer candidate Camille Eterno addresses the school closing hearing at BCAE HS


A BCAE Student

Saturday, February 23, 2013

IN JOHN KING WE TRUST; TEACHER EVALUATION SYSTEM BASED ON JUNK SCIENCE COMING SOON

Below in italics is an excerpt from the weekly UFT Chapter Leader Update. The UFT will support legislation to allow State Education Commissioner John King to impose a teacher evaluation system on New York City teachers.

You can bet your pension it will be a lousy system based on student test scores (junk science) and the easily abused Danielson framework.

The only hope for not seeing this system imposed on us is to vote for MORE in the UFT election. Instead of saying we must comply with the evaluation law as the current union leadership does, let's collectively stand up against this unjust law in the tradition of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King.


Teacher eval impasse will go to binding arbitration if no agreement reached by May

Given the city’s failure to meet the state-imposed Jan. 17 deadline, which cost our schools $240 million, the governor added an amendment to his budget submission on Thursday that empowers state Education Commissioner John King to act as a binding arbitrator to settle any elements of the agreement that have not been finalized in negotiations by May 29. In that event, after reviewing position papers and hearing oral arguments by both sides in May, Commissioner King will establish New York City’s new teacher evaluation plan by June 1. New York City would have to put the plan into effect by Sept. 1. What the governor proposes is a natural next step in collective bargaining when there is an impasse. King, a lifelong educator who is serious about education, has approved more than 700 evaluation plans across New York State. “We’ve seen the kinds of plans the state has approved,” said UFT President Michael Mulgrew. “We are comfortable with them because they are about helping teachers help kids, which is something that we don’t often hear from the city. So while I would prefer to get to a negotiated settlement, with this in place I know a deal will get done.”


MORE OFFICER CANDIDATES TOGETHER AT NYCORE MEETING

Last night downtown Manhattan had a chance to see and hear four MORE candidates for top UFT offices speak at a public forum.  To say the least, they were at the top of their game.

UFT Presidential candidate Julie Cavanagh, Secretary candidate Brian Jones, Treasurer nominee Camille Eterno and Assistant Secretary nominee Michael Fiorello addressed a number of union and public education concerns and then they fielded questions from the audience at a NYCORE meeting.  Issues covered included bloated union officer salaries and double pensions which leads to our leadership being out of touch with the membership, the history of the UFT, how to stop principals from abusing the UFT contract, what a member driven union would look like in practice, how destructive closing schools is for communities, privatization of education both here and abroad and many others.

A main theme is that now the UFT has a top-down bureaucratic structure that does not work for the benefit of the membership or the schools.  If MORE is elected, the pyramid will be inverted with the members put into the driver's seat. The recent activism of the Chicago teachers can serve as a model.

I hope to see these four and other MORE candidates in action again.  I was sitting in the audience imagining a debate between MORE"S top candidates and the UFT's current leaders from the Unity Caucus. I couldn't think of a bigger mismatch.  I can see why Unity's President Mulgrew and company would never want a debate. I think we should have several.

Today is part 2 of the activist weekend at the CUNY Graduate Center.

Movement of Rank & File Educators

Weekly Update #44 - February 22nd, 2013

MORE - The Social Justice Caucus of the UFT

Upcoming:

Democracy & Dignity in Education 
Sat., Feb. 23
3:00-5:00 PM
365 5th Ave., Rm. 5414

Planning/Election
Committee

Mon., Mar. 4
5:00 PM
Cosi (55 Broad St.)

General Meeting
Sat., March 9
12:00-3:00 PM
224 W. 29th St., 14th Fl.

Planning/Election
Committee

Thurs., Mar. 21
5:00 PM
Cosi (55 Broad St.)

General Meeting
Sat., April 13

General Meeting
Sat., May 18

Dignity and Democracy in Education:  
A Public Forum About Blowing the Whistle on the Culture of Fear and Corruption in NYC Public Schools

Saturday, February 23rd
3:00 to 5:00pm


CUNY Graduate Center
365 5th Ave., Rm. 5414
(@ 34th St.)
Photo ID Required
Panelists include:

Lois Weiner, Ed.D. scholar-activist; author of The Future of Our Schools: Teacher Unions and Social Justice; Professor of Education at New Jersey City University 
Francesco Portelos - S.T.E.M. teacher; UFT Chapter Leader and whistleblower; "rubber roomed" for exposing alleged financial corruption of school administration
Harris Lirtzman - former Special Education/mathematics teacher charged with "employee misconduct" after reporting misadministration of his school's special education program

Moderated by:
Brian Jones - teacher and co-narrator of the film "The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman" (http://vimeo.com/41994760)

Pizza will be served afterwards to all those who stay to help with petition signing and MORE's election effort. Make sure to bring any and all signed petitions to the event!
THIS IS A FREE EVENT - BUT PLEASE BRING YOUR CHECKBOOK TO MAKE A DONATION TO MORE'S ELECTION EFFORTS

Come hear speakers from MORE's UFT election slate, help circulate our petition for a membership vote on the evaluation system, and join the movement! Click links to RSVP

The Harp Irish Pub
7710 3rd Ave
(btwn 77th 
& 78th Sts.)
Bay Ridge, Brooklyn
Queens:
Terrazza 7 Cafe 
40-19 Gleane St.
Elmhurst, NY
(7 Train to 82nd St.)
***************
Friday, March 1 
5:00pm-7:00pm
Nancy’s Restaurant
255-41 Jericho Turnpike (near Little Neck Parkway)
Floral Park, Queens
YOUR VOTE COUNTS

Find out what you can do to get out the vote!
Check out MORE'slatest blog post and find out how to help mobilize UFT members to vote.

Reply to this email to become part of MORE's discussion listserv.

Also, our message has crept into the Ivy League! Check out this Yale student on why we should "Just Say No" to Charter Schools



Help Distribute Literature for MORE!

Volunteers needed help distributing campaign literature at your school and schools nearby.

Reply to this email or check our website...

Fundraising Skills?

MORE Needs Help Raising Money
Please reply to this email if you would be interested in helping to organize fundraising events during the election season


Thursday, February 21, 2013

MARC EPSTEIN DEBUNKS NYC SMALL SCHOOL MIIRACLE

My colleague Marc Epstein is at it again at Huffington.  He takes on the new small high schools in NYC in his latest piece.  He completely destroys the notion that everything can be reduced to data and then describes the reality of what life is like in several of our small schools.

Please read this scathing report on what is going on in NY high schools. I can verify the incidents he describes from his old building which is Jamaica.

As with most of Marc's pieces, I very much doubt it will be linked at gothamschools.org. If this was another era, investigative journalists would be all over this to find out what conditions are really like in many of our schools.


Tuesday, February 19, 2013

MORE CANDIDATE FOR TREASURER CAMILLE ETERNO SPEAKS AT LAW AND GOVERNMENT SCHOOL CLOSING HEARING

It's school closing season again in New York City.  As there are only ten months left in Mayor Michael Bloomberg's disastrous term as dictator over the schools, this is his last shot to close schools. 26 are on the list this year to be closed or phased out.

The UFT should be ratcheting up the pressure for one last fight over this totally failed policy.  Law and Government High School in Queens was conducting their Joint Public Hearing last Wednesday and the UFT presence, while strong, did not include one of the eleven Officers.

The only potential UFT Officer there was my wife, Camille Eterno, who is a candidate for UFT Treasurer from the new MORE slate.  During the public comment portion of the hearing, Camille brought the house down when she came right out and said that the policy of closing schools is pure racism.  She asserted that there are never schools that have significant white populations that are targeted for closure but rather it is in places like Southeast Queens, a mostly African American neighborhood and in other predominantly African American or Latino areas where schools are closed. Camille went on to say how Law and Government was denied resources, particularly guidance help and lower class sizes, and then deemed a failure. She was very well received by the audience.

William McDonald from the NAACP followed a few minutes later and cited Camille's remarks on racism in his speech.  Law and Government's School Leadership Team gave a fantastic presentation comparing numbers and proving that the Department of Education was arbitrary in selecting them for closure and leaving other schools alone that have much worse results. Many speakers pointed out how Andrew Jackson High School was phased out in the 1990s and replaced with small schools and now the DOE is admitting that these small schools are a failure too.

The UFT was represented by Borough Representative Rona Freiser, District Representative James Vasquez and others from the Queens UFT office as well as some Chapter Leaders including the head of the Lab Specialist Chapter.  Also, Greg Lundhal from the phasing out Washington Irving in Manhattan spoke for Vice President Janella Hinds.  While this was a good turnout of UFT people, at past Joint Public Hearings I have attended, the Union usually sent an Officer or the Staff Director to show support.

Perhaps no Officer was in attendance because there were just too many school closing hearings on this particular evening, or maybe the UFT is downplaying the fight to stop school phase outs this year because our protests are normally futile and the Union's main strategy is now to wait for the next mayor.  Under a new mayor, they reason, we can hope for better results. I agree we need to vote smart but a new mayor will not solve all of our problems, no matter how friendly.  We should be turning up the heat against school closings now by applying maximum public pressure.

I also spoke at the Law and Government hearing and described what life is like in a phasing out school. It is not pretty to watch students leave and those left behind not getting the programs and classes they were promised when they enrolled.

Unfortunately, too many other students and educators will be going through what my school, Jamaica high School, is going through in phase out.  I hope the UFT finds some legal grounds to at least sue the DOE again on this issue.

Sunday, February 10, 2013

OPPOSITION TO SCHOOL CLOSING SHOULD BE REQUIRED FOR A POLITICIAN TO RECEIVE UFT ENDORSEMENT

There are several issues that are core UFT concerns.  For example, if a politician supports ending the cap on new charter schools, he/she should not receive a UFT endorsement.  That politician is no friend of public education. Our endorsement means money but just as important, it means UFT volunteers work at phone banks to call our members to urge them to vote for a particular candidate.  Our support can make the ultimate difference in deciding whether a particular candidate wins or loses an election.

Keeping this in mind, I was completely dismayed  last Tuesday when I opened my agenda for the February Delegate Assembly and read that the UFT leadership wanted Delegates to endorse Rory Lancman for City Council.  Rory was the Assemblyman for the Jamaica High School area; to say the least he was not very helpful in the battle to save our 121 year old school.

At the DA last week, I think I was very successful in convincing the Delegates to oppose the Lancman endorsement.  Here is what I said:

I oppose endorsing Rory Lancman for any political office.  Rory may have been good on various UFT issues,but strong opposition to school closings should be a make or break issue for our endorsement and on the phase out of Jamaica High School, Assemblyman Lancman was not our friend.

When Jamaica was first put on the proposed phase out list at the end of 2009, not only was Lancman not friendly to a delegation that came to visit him, that included the Jamaica PTA President some students and me, he was spewing DOE talking points while simultaneously he was also involved in community meetings with DOE officials to help start the replacement schools.  When he saw that we had organized the community in January 2010 and pretty much filled up our one thousand seat auditorium against the closure, he temporarily changed his tune and spoke against the closure but then did nothing after to help us.

A year later after we won lawsuit one to stop the closure of Jamaica and many other schools, but Joel Klein deprived us any help and proposed phasing us out again, Assemblyman Lancman was back in our building to endorse not only phasing us out but also a DOE plan to take the best students out of Jamaica High School to put them in the new Jamaica Gateway to Sciences High School. Our top sophomores and juniors were transferred out to the new school with Lancman's full support. 

The kids generally hated being separated midway through their high school careers. One young man who won an Albert Shanker UFT Scholarship last June refused to acknowledge that he was from Jamaica Gateway and instead listed his school as Jamaica High School. (Click here to read my full opinion on Jamaica Gateway)

Other local politicians such as Senator Tony Avella and Councilman Mark Weprin signed on to the 2011 UFT second lawsuit to stop Jamaica's closure which I hope the UFT is not abandoning.  (President Michael Mulgrew interrupted me to say the UFT was not abandoning the suit to which I replied that this is very good news) Councilman Leroy Comrie and Assemblyman David Weprin have been great friends too (as have the local community boards, civic organizations, churches and others). Meanwhile, Lancman in the spring of 2011 told a delegation of students who went with the NAACP to Albany to lobby for Jamaica that there was nothing he could do.

Opposing school closings should be mandatory for any politician to get a UFT endorsement.  Rory Lancman by his actions has shown that he favored the totally unjustified phase out of Jamaica High School.  I strongly oppose this endorsement.

When I finished speaking, I received some nice applause from the Delegates.  Barbara Silberman, a retiree who was the political action person for Queens UFT, spoke next and pointed out that Lancman was good on UFT issues and in fact introduced a bill to lower class sizes.  She then said she was sorry for what happened at Jamaica. That was the end of the discussion.

The vote followed and clearly the Lancman endorsement did not have enough votes to carry.  Mulgrew must have been stunned that a recommendation from the leadership was going down to defeat so he called for a second vote.

From where I was sitting it was clear that a number of Unity Delegates, who all sign a pledge to support caucus positions in union and public forums as one of their caucus obligations, were moved by what I said and decided to abstain rather than support Lancman.  This was not good enough for Mulgrew.  Hence, the call for another vote.  This time, knowing that the leadership was watching close, the Unity faithful woke up and supported Lancman. His endorsement carried.

There are two lessons to be learned from this one small episode. First, the UFT leadership talks a good game about opposing school closings but when it's time to put their money where their mouth is, they sometimes come up short. The Lancman endorsement is proof.  Do others out there have similar stories with other local politicians on other UFT issues?

Next, I have said this over and over how the regular absence of so many Delegates, some are my closest friends, is what allows the leadership's Unity caucus to control the Delegate Assembly so easily.  If all of the non-Unity Delegates and Chapter Leaders would show up on a regular basis, it would make a real difference. I certainly could have used your help last Wednesday.



Thursday, February 07, 2013

CITY, STATE & NATIONAL POLITICS TAKE CENTER STAGE AT FEBRUARY DELEGATE ASSEMBLY MEETING

I arrived at this month’s DA as UFT President Michael Mulgrew just began his report with a countdown to how long Bloomberg has in office. The regular agenda was basically for political endorsements but, as usual, there was a lengthy report from the president.

President’s Report
Support for Striking Bus Drivers’ Rally
The report began with the president asking, and the Delegates allowing, a resolution in support of a rally for Local ATU 1181 bus drivers and matrons to move to the front of the agenda. Local 1181 has been on strike for several weeks over job protection. UFT Vice President Sterling Roberson motivated this motion by telling Delegates that 154,000 students are impacted by the strike including over 50,000 special education pupils. He and the President added that attendance among special education students is down 36% since the strike began. The resolution to support the Sunday, February 10 march over the Brooklyn Bridge starting at 12:30 pm and subsequent rally at City Hall carried unanimously.

Following the vote, Local 1181 President Michael Cordiello addressed the Delegates and was warmly received. He told us we need to stand up to the bully mayor and his union is doing that and so is the UFT. He thanked the UFT for support and said labor is being tested and we are fighting for the labor movement and for kids.

Evaluations
President Mulgrew stated that the deadline dates that are being talked about in the press are not exactly deadline dates. February 15 is the date when the Department of Education needs to resubmit a plan on how to train teachers under the new evaluation system because the first plan is not working. UFT says the plan is bad. Mulgrew then said that if DOE does not comply, then the state could either remove money from the system or take control over how up to $870,000,000 in state and federal aid is spent in NYC. In other words, he reasoned that State Education Commissioner John King could be de facto running a large part of the New York City school system.

He next talked about a February 22 deadline. February 22 is the last date to put amendments onto the state budget bill. He said that if there is no agreement between the UFT and the city on evaluations by this date, then there would be an amendment in the state budget adding binding arbitration by State Education Commissioner King for our evaluation system into the state budget bill. He later talked about how the new evaluation system would be an improvement because to change how we are evaluated, we must stop the proliferation of paperwork as well as providing teachers with curriculum that includes scope and sequence. 

He also referred to Student Learning Measures. Mulgrew told us that only 40% of teachers deal with standardized tests. He predicted that scores on these tests would go down but regardless, 7% of teachers will have growth scores that are ineffective, 9% will be highly effective and the rest will be in the middle.

Mulgrew then clarified what Student Learning Measures are about. He told Delegates that there will be a baseline assessment that schools would choose and then at the end of the semester there would be a look at student growth with student ability and attendance taken into account. He concluded that this would be a proper growth measurement.

AFT-Washington DC
Conditions for teachers are horrendous around the country according to Mulgrew. He said we have Democratic state legislatures and governors beating up on unions as now 24 states are “Right to Work” which even President Obama is calling “right to work for less.” He added that other states want our evaluation law where only 20% of a rating is based on student test scores on standardized tests. He carried on by noting that the education deform policies have failed and the federal government is walking away from ideas like closing schools. He then stated that there is a new federal study saying charter schools are doing the same as public schools but the charter schools can drop students. He added we must deal with poverty. He also told Delegates that No Child Left Behind has not been reauthorized for many years and according to that law, 100% of schools will be failures by next year because all students are not graduating.

He said the debate in DC is not about the schools and that even Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan know that deform has not worked. He added that civil rights groups are filing federal civil rights complaints and lawsuits against school closings.

He also talked about many states not having curriculum for Common Core so test scores will plummet around the country because of this. He closed by saying we are starting a national offensive against what is going on.

Fact Finding Process-Contract
Mulgrew informed Delegates that the Negotiating Committee met last week and scaled down the issues for fact finding (non binding arbitration). The scaled down issues were approved by the Negotiating Committee. He added we have been working over three years without a contract and are hoping to start the fact finding hearings in March but the city is dragging its feet. He stated that all the unions in the city are currently working under expired contracts.

City Budget
Mulgrew said the city budget would cause a loss of teachers through attrition but since much of the State Legislature is from NYC, we should not lose more state aid because they do not want that to happen. He noted that the State of the City speech from the mayor would be on Valentine’s Day so we will see what the budget would be like.

State Budget
Mulgrew stated that there will be a 4.4% increase in state funding including money for Community Learning Schools and a career ladder so master teachers can mentor new teachers. He said there would also be all day Pre-Kindergarten in the budget but we have to work to ensure that it none of these funds are cut.

2013 City Elections
Mulgrew told Delegates that we won on Last in First Out Layoffs and we prevented all teacher layoffs so the mayor will continue to blame us for his educational legacy which is in shambles. Mulgrew continued by noting that according to polls, 20% think Bloomberg is doing a good job on education and 80% do not approve. He added that through the closing school fights, we earned many friends and now have trusting relationships with groups that are helping us. Mulgrew then emphasized that many unions are planning to sit out the Democratic primary but we plan on picking a candidate and going ahead. He added that all of the candidates for mayor want to change education and beyond this there are 26 open City Council seats and all of the other citywide offices are open. He then pointed out that the primary election will stay in September and we will work with candidates who want to help us. He closed his report by saying that we will make the winner and the process starts today.

Staff Directors' Report
Leroy Barr told the Delegates the “I Vote” campaign starts so we must have all of our friends, neighbors, parents and everyone we know vote if union households are to pick the next mayor. He talked about the 1181 (striking bus drivers and matrons) rally for Sunday and said it will start in Brooklyn at 12:30 pm; there will be a march over the Brooklyn Bridge and then a rally at City hall from 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm. Barr then gave some dates for other events including Lobby Day on March 6.

Question Period
Question about two year sunset provision on new evaluation system agreement that Bloomberg would not agree to..
Answer from Mulgrew: Mayor says plans around the state are a sham; mayor really objects to teachers having choice on the assessments and committees, not management exclusively, making decisions.

Question about divesting from Bloomberg companies
Answer from Mulgrew: His company is private and we have no stake it.

Question about why we are going into binding arbitration with State Education Commissioner on evaluations.
Answer from Mulgrew: Binding arbitration is part of collective bargaining while other states have evaluation systems imposed on them when there is no agreement in bargaining. We are closely watching how the amendment to the state budget law is written on arbitration.

Question about members who worked at shelters during Super-storm Sandy not getting paid yet.
Answer from Mulgrew: We are working on this with the City Office of labor Relations.

Question about PERB decision regarding teachers being evaluated using Danielson.
Answer from lawyer Adam Ross: Danielson cannot be used for evaluation purposes. Anything referencing Danielson must be removed from files. Mention of rubrics, numbers and ratings from Danielson can’t go in the file. It can be used for unofficial ratings in TEP schools.

Question on SESIS outside school hours after the arbitration decision.
Answer from Mulgrew: We met with the arbitrator and DOE is dragging their feet. Arbitrator has also called for impact bargaining.

New Motion Period
Motion was raised for this month for  UFT to support ACEI Charter School rally seeking a contract. It was added to agenda.

Motion for this month for UFT to support for 23 Cablevision workers who were fired for discussing bargaining with management. This also was added to the agenda.

Motion for next month on supporting May Day demonstrations was defeated.


Regular Business
Resolutions on many UFT endorsements for the City Council, Manhattan Borough President, Brooklyn District Attorney, and Comptroller were raised.

One Delegate spoke against all of the endorsements. Others spoke against specific endorsements. The most controversial was Charles Hynes for Brooklyn District Attorney because of various prosecutions that have come out of that office. Even Unity’s Mark Koreshan was critical of Hynes. Hynes was endorsed but there was dissent.

The other controversial endorsement concerned Rory Lancman for City Council in Queens. I spoke against this endorsement because Lancman as a State Assemblyman worked to help close Jamaica High School and opposing school closings should be a litmus test issue for any candidate to receive a UFT endorsement.  (I will explain the Lancman-Jamaica High School story in detail in a separate post.) The first vote on this endorsement appeared to be a defeat for Lancman so Mulgrew called for a second vote and then it passed with a clear majority as the Unity Delegates fell in line and voted to support a candidate who worked to close a school.

The UFT also endorsed Scott Stringer for Comptroller and he was in the hall to address the Delegate Assembly.

UFT Endorsed Candidates
Brooklyn DA--Charles Hynes
Manhattan Borough President--Robert Jackson
NYC Comptroller--Scott Stringer (Primary/General)
City Council:
Manhattan 07--Mark Levine
Manhattan 10 Ydanis rodriquez
Bronx 11--Andrew Cohen
Bronx 18--Annabel Palma
Queens 32--Eric Ulrich
Queens 24--Rory Lancman
Queens 31--Donovan Richards-- Special Election Feb 19
Brooklyn 34--Antonio Reynoso
Brooklyn 45--Jumaaane D. Williams
Staten Island 49--Debi Rose
All are Democrats except for Republican Ulrich. All except Stringer are for primary.

Finally, a resolution in support of the staff at Garfield HS in Seattle, who refused to administer a standardized test, came up. This was raised last month by Megan Behrent from MORE but there was not time to address it. Instead of just passing it this time, the UFT had their own long winded substitute resolution that essentially said the same thing and Megan amended it and then it passed.

That's it for now. I will have more later on the Lancman fiasco.

Saturday, February 02, 2013

MORE ELECTION MEETING FEB 9 POSTPONED To February 16

UFT elections are coming soon.  ICE is supporting the brand new Movement of Rank and File Educators (MORE).   Julie Cavanagh is the MORE candidate for UFT President; she is an excellent choice to go up against Unity/New Action's Mulgrew.

MORE has nominated me to run on the slate for the High School Executive Board.

Everyone's help is welcome in support of this new MORE caucus that mixes long time activists such as Norm Scott, Kit Wainer (and others from Teachers for a Just Contract), my wife Camille and I along with many well motivated, highly energetic young and veteran educators.

We need about 2,000 more high school votes this time compared to last election to have a good chance to win the high schools and get a true opposition voice back on the UFT Executive Board. Your assistance is necessary if we are to grow a strong alternative to Unity and their New Action allies throughout the UFT.

Below is the MORE announcement for a general meeting on the UFT elections.  Please attend.


Open General Meeting- UFT Elections
The Movement of Rank & File Educators (MORE)
Saturday February 16th 12:00-4:00pm




The UFT elections are here- MORE needs your support to ensure union democracy. Help us petition for MORE to be on the UFT ballot and get out the vote! Come meet our top candidates for UFT office, learn how to petition in your school, and plan our campaign. We will have petitions on site for you to sign and petitions for you to bring back to your schools. There will also be campaign literature to distribute at your school and schools nearby. At the meeting we will plan city-wide distribution of  our literature- volunteers are needed.

If you are definitely coming to this meeting and you are running on our slate-tell us us via emailmore@morecaucusnyc.org we will pre-arrange a packet for you

If you are not running with us but can help with petition and literature distribution please send us your full name, last 4 digits of your SS #, and school name/borough to more@morecaucusnyc.org  we will pre-arrange a packet for you to pick at the meeting

Please see our platform at: http://morecaucusnyc.org/the-more-platform
Positive Alternative Leadership
It's time to expect MORE from OUR union, one that stands up and fights back! Defend our educators, students, and parents from reform that is motivated by profits not our children's best interests.

C