Monday, April 10, 2017

STRONGER TOGETHER LETTER TO MEMBERS

Stronger Together's letter to its members is printed below. Note the caucus won some Board of Director positions and a resolution passed at the RA calling for us to lobby for the end of mandatiing that student performance being part of teacher ratings.

As NYC Educator told us today, the frustrations of teachers having to be part of NYSUT and the UFT, two organizations that do not run elections on a level playing field, may soon have consequences internally as union locals are talking about pulling out of NYSUT.


James --
We would like to take a moment to thank you for your participation and support during this weekend’s NYSUT Representative Assembly in New York City. 

We also want to thank Mike Lillis, Bianca Tanis, Megan DeLaRosa, and Nate Hathaway for their campaign for the NYSUT Officer positions.  Over the past four months, they have helped define the vision of the ST Caucus and communicated that vision to NYSUT members around the state.  While we lost in our attempt to win the officer positions, we have won in our continued desire to change the narrative within NYSUT.

We are happy to report that seven members of the ST Caucus won positions to the NYSUT Board of Directors as Regional Directors including Kevin Coyne and Laura Spencer, members of the ST Caucus Executive Committee.  We remain optimistic that these BOD members will be able to hold NYSUT accountable to the will of the membership that was established at the Representative Assembly.

You should be aware that two important resolutions (#15 and #17) were enthusiastically endorsed by the ST Caucus, fought for in committee debate, and subsequently, unanimously ratified by NYSUT’s delegate body. Here are some important NYSUT positions adopted this week with the significant support of Stronger Together;
  • NYSUT refuses to participate in any endeavor to promote, support or organize efforts to have teachers write test items for the NYS Math and ELA tests in grades 3-8 until the career and college ready benchmarks have been corrected.
  • NYSUT will oppose, through legislative lobbying efforts, any teacher evaluation regimen mandating the use of student performance measures. NYSUT will lobby to have the current law (3012-d) changed to make student performance measures non-mandatory.
We anticipate that these resolutions can be the start to an unwavering pushback against the corporate reform agenda that the members of ST Caucus demand.

While the RA has come to a close, the work of the ST Caucus will continue as we advocate for the needs of educators and students around New York State.  We are thankful that we were able to meet so many of you this past weekend and look forward to working with many more of you throughout the course of the year.  
We remain, STRONGER TOGETHER!

In Solidarity,

ST Caucus Executive Committee


ST Caucus

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey James, maybe you should do more reporting on this, since this happened in a school.
Should my kids lose their mom because I was stupid enough to become a teacher? This is a rare case...From the Daily News...Violence struck Queens’ troubled John Bowne High School again on Friday, marking the third day of disturbances in a week of unhappy events for students and staff at the Flushing school.

School safety agents who conducted random metal-detector scanning busted a student with a butterfly knife at 7:50 a.m. that day, as well as two other students packing smaller knives with blades shorter than 4 inches.

Police issued a desk appearance ticket to the student caught with the butterfly knife, identified by cops as a 16-year-old boy from Flushing.
But more serious danger erupted later that day when cops arrested a second teen after he punched a 32-year-old police officer who was attempting to break up a fight between the teen and another student.

Last Tuesday, cops arrested three teens at John Bowne in the stabbing of a 16-year-old male classmate in a busy hallway near the cafeteria. The victim, who was stabbed in the side, was transported to New York-Presbyterian Hospital Queens in stable condition.

Anonymous said...

Sarcastic rare case I meant, weapons are brought in to schools every day, or people attempt to bring them in...Which means I can get caught in the crossfire before or after my workday starts or finishes.

Anonymous said...

@James Eterno, thank you for posting this vital information that neither the UFT or NYSUT would be promoting. I appreciate your willingness to delve into the political issues facing teachers particularly NYS teachers. We are all impacted by these political issues, now and in the future.

Hey, anonymous 11:22pm - why don't you write about the activities and crimes going on in the schools, if you want someone to expose this.
Great idea you have there, you can fill the gap that you are noticing.

Anonymous said...

We are still going to have 4 observations next year. NYSUT/UFT is not going to do squat about it. I have not seen one Unity slug visit our school since the observation sell out happened right before Christmas. Coincidence? I think not.

waitingforsupport said...

Yes @11:22pm - your writing skills are amazing. You should write about these events!!!

James Eterno said...

A few errors have taken place as I have been doing most of the blogging the last two days on a smartphone from the road on the way to Georgia. My ability on smartphone, which as I have stated, is often not that smart. Back on a computer now so a little easier.

I know about Bowne and we have written about it. Chaz has done more.

Anonymous said...

I beg to differ with Anon. Certain Unity leaders come to a number of schools regularly. They come to do business off the record and behind the back of the CL and the members. I am aware of a prin with the divisional vp on speed dial, always ready to do business, both happy to toss a sincere active CL under the bus. I think the administrators should start paying dues to the UFT since they seem to get more benefits than us.

Anonymous said...

The UFT and Mulgrew should be ashamed of themselves when so many good teachers are being targeted.