The slightly edited email below was sent to UFT President Michael Mulgrew from a teacher at Forest Hills High School, where there have been numerous problems with Principal Ben Sherman violating the UFT Contract. The teacher signed the email but wanted to have the name removed for the blog as well as a reference to any specific teacher.
Dear Mr. Mulgrew,
We are still very much looking forward to your visit to our high school this month to help inspire us through our current crisis with our new Principal. It's too bad it could not take place when we clearly had the momentum back in June, but we understand there was a conflict with a parental leave announcement. We were coming off a resounding No vote concerning the school's proposed SBO. Our situation hasn't changed much. If anything, it has escalated with the Chapter Chair now put on the late session, making it impossible for him to attend Delegate Assembly meetings.
Despite an extraordinary summit between representatives of the Superintendent's office, the UFT, and CSA, no corrective action has been taken. He seems to be waiting us out and refusing to take any action concerning previously filed grievances, continuing his plans to destroy the union. We made a big sacrifice to put our names out there and all we have to show for it is a punitive schedule, no Circular 6R choice, and additional observations.
What's our next move? What can the union do for us? Can we look forward to your support?
Sincerely,
A Forest Hills High School Teacher
57 comments:
What? Mulgoon is actually going to visit a school? I'll alert the media.
Like it will change anything...As we wait for our next tiny bit of retro.
Mulgrew allowed Dwarka to take Bryant High School to the ground.
The same Union does not enforce the contract.
You watch how they target the older teachers.
Mulgrew deletes emails, from the rank and file, en masse. He’ll never visit Forrest Hills, Queens (unless he can find a five star restaurant or good strip club) - he rarely leaves his own borough and Manhattan.
I'm curious, while I strongly believe in collaboration between staff and administration, I fail to see how the principal is anti-union just because the teachers disagree with his vision for the school.
Check out the uft paper, there is an article about hiring black men. Could you imagine if the opposite had been written? Whites only? It would be front page news about racism. How dare the doe and uft do this so often? How disgusting. Thank God Im quitting next month. This has turned into a pathetic job. Totally anti white. And I go around begging on the Open Market after 20 years with a stellar record and get ignored.
How about gloating about all the new teachers but no job in Staten Island for me? I hope the Forest Hills teachers dont expect much.
Is this another principal bashing post? Getting tired of this.
Don't see what racism has to do with this though.
Well, article was about lack of uft help. Uft clearly has their eyes on other things like ripping off our dues, like being buddy-buddy with mayor and chancellor at our expense, making the staff blacker and not penalizing students for anything. I think articles endorsed by doe or uft saying they want to hire black people are offensive and out of line.
They want newbies because they are cheaper and less qualified.
Watch this Principal how he starts targeting teachers in their 50s,and the UFT will look the other way. Dwarka did the same.
There is still hope Townsend Harris was able to stop the targeting and harassment of older teachers.
Ben Sherman is not black. Put the racial stuff somewhere else.
I aspire to be a principal but people like you James, who are quick to label and judge school leaders who wish to turn a school around makes it difficult.
As soon as teachers disagree with a Principal they are deemed anti union or harassers by you.
Let me ask you James, when is it justifiable for a principal to remove a teacher(s)?
While I will not pretend all Principals are right, James you give this notion that teachers are always innocent which is not true.
It's easy to judge and criticize someone when you are not sitting in their chair.
The fact that the uft constantly slaps the white male teacher in the face is alarming. Only looking to hire black male teachers is racist.
Forest Hills is a pretty good school that did not need to be turned around.
Ask Patrick Lynch when it is alright to remove a cop. UFT needs to take the same my teachers right or wrong approach. We pay union dues for protection,not to stand up for our bosses.
They are just going after older teachers like Dwarka did, to replace them with newbies so the school would be worse off.
Just because they're newbies doesn't mean the school will be worse off. Stop hating on newbies. They're part of the UFT too.
We were all newbies once, but now there is a coordinated campaign to eliminate older and more experienced teachers to eliminate their institutional memory and of course their salaries off the books.
At least this school seems to have a strong chapter that fights back. So, where is the DR and heavy artillery from 52 B'way?
In my school we already had a meeting go 14 minutes past the end of teacher time and only 1/4 of Tuesday devoted to room setup. CL does nothing.
My school has ict classes with 1 teacher, mixed gen ed and sped with 1 teacher, broken incidental teaching rule, shortened teacher lunch period. Need I say more?
I agree with 11:13. The PBA will stand up for cops who are LITERALLY MURDERERS. The UFT will seize on any technical violation of regulations as an excuse not to defend a member.
Yikes
Who is James?
And after all this bitching we do, they get rich off our dues, we live tortured lives, nothing changes.
James refers to James Eterno.
5:51, It continues because we the rank and file do nothing collectively to stop it.
Ok, do what? Are we all walking out on Wednesday? Are we all filing grievances which would be ignored?
In Townsend Harris they were going after the older teachers, and they were successful to stop it.
How about using our real names en masse and just saying we aren't taking it a second longer and we will publicly expose the reality that is our schools? How about a few key people in 100 schools filing grievances/going to the press and the PEP? How about showing up in public, not alone, but with many others? Yes we have the power if we just use it.A few hundred people could make a big difference.
You watch how the school is dragged to the ground when they start replacing the older teachers with new ones.
We can all collectively stop paying dues. The answer is right in front of your face James and you can’t see it. You will never, ever change the UFT with your strategy. You’ve tried it for years and have only achieved sporadic and limited success. We need bold action and Janus has provided us with the remedy. Stop paying dues and start a new union. This could be your finest hour but instead you continue to convince people to keep paying dues to a union who has given a shit about it’s members for over 15yrs. Sad to say but the only way to see a dramatic change in the uft is to start a competing union that drains the resources from a very bloated bureaucracy. Yes members will have less leverage when negotiating with the city and be vulnerable to the whims of the doe but from some of the comments on the several educational blogs some teachers have nothing to lose. Janus is our one chance to break the uft monopoly. Janus is our opportunity to set ourselves free. James you could go down in history as the person who orchestrated one of the greatest union upsets. The man who brought the uft to its knees and saved the careers of tens of thousands of teachers.
You can also pledge to get 60 signatures to start a new divisional union if it is that bad or get involved in the UFT election.
Anonymous comments here can get frustrations out but they won't produce the changes we need to make the schools better places to work at.
Let me tell you what I did in June. I sent an anonymous email to my CL complaining about a bunch of issues in the school that CL never addressed. Ya know what she did? She printed the anonymous email and handed it to principal, who then yelled at all of us.
Anoymous anything won't win. Collective action can.
I agree with 10:50. Ithink the real problem is listening to James. We won't get anywhere lying dues as James suggest. Its the blind leading the blind. If we all stop paying dues the UFT will listen. The only thing James is good for is digging up "dirt" on school admin. You must have nothing better to do now that you're retired. I've had enough of your GOSSIP website which is what it has now become. We need to take advantage of Janis while we still can to restructure the UFT.
I love the idea of using dues as leverage. We have so little influence to assist teachers in bad schools with this union.
10:24 sounds like an anti union troll and not a teacher. Saying that the answer to anti union administrators is to quit the union and put each of us at the mercy of those administrators is among the most ridiculous arguments I have ever heard.
I have said this many times before: How is withholding dues going to make anyone listen? It just makes all of us weaker unless you plan on starting a better union which I very much doubt a group of anoymous commenters would do in a million years.
James, stop calling anyone who disagrees with you on any topic a troll. Not everyone bows down to the Eterno shrine. Everything with you seems to be personal vendetta or attack on others. They say money talks. If we withhold our dues until the union listen to our needs, that could force change.
You have been running this blog for many years now, what exactly has this website done to create change aside from being a personal vendetta against people you or your wife don't like?
You my friend, do not have all the answers, stop pretending like you do. I see why previous posts call you a bully. Lets see what name you will call me now that I dare to oppose the "all knowing" Eterno.
I absolutely agree that not paying dues will be the only way that change comes. By not paying dues you are taking away the extravagant lifestyle that these big-wigs have grown accustomed to. Why would they put in the extra work of going to other schools when they have no reason to? I've seen this situation play out in my last school. Literally, crimes were taking place within the school and the union did NOTHING! Our district representative actually told the staff to stop calling her. Do you know how many times she visited our school? Once. She came for a half hour ceremony so that she can have her picture taken with a colleague who won an award, then she snuck out of the school like a rat. Money makes the world go round. When you put peoples jobs and livelihoods on the line they will actually respond. An alternate union is the only thing that will help teachers. NO MORE UFT
The 5:43 comment is downright silly. I have no power to bully anyone. No personal attacks, just defending teachers and public education. I attack bad actions. It seems each time we call out a principal's anti-teacher behavior, the same person attacks calling me names. Same style and same insults. Must be CSA or CSA wannabe. No worries. We will keep writing. Hope teachers keep reading. We don't quit.
With all due respect James, you were the one that called the blogger a troll. No one called you a name.
Why do you feel that if someone posts an opposing comment they must not be a teacher. Do you really believe that all teachers must think and reason like you? You are acting no different from the principals you blog about.
I said it sounds like an anti-union troll, not a teacher. Anti union for sure. I hope it wasn't a teacher.
The principal suck up if it is a teacher. Probably runs into principal's office first thing in the morning to tell principal to look on line and see how I attacked a UFT blogger
Why use the word troll? It’s demeaning
From google:
In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room, or blog, with the primary intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.Nov 22, 2011
This Principal will lower the average salary for the school like Dwarka, and the UFT will look the other way like always.
In 5 years from now half of the staff will have 5 years of experience as they did with W.C. Bryant High School.
Veteran teachers and ATRs are being harassed through 3020A hearings to retire or resign. Most of the time these charges are only an excuse to push older teachers out. Most of the time these charges do violate tenure rights by not being voted in Executive Session of the PEP (Article 2A of Education Law 3020A). Only the PEP can determine probable cause. The UFT, and NYSUT will look the other way, and will blame each other. They are openly pushing experienced teachers out the system with the compliance of the UFT, and by violating our due process. This has all been planned for a long time by relaxing the rules, and making it easier for supervisors to abuse the system. Remember the UFT negotiated in a secret deal to have ATRs observed without having any assigned classes in 2014. Now even a roving ATR Field Supervisor can recommend termination since 2016. This is not a fair game anymore. They can start targeting anyone with no consequences if they are acting in bad faith. They will target anyone outspoken first, and they will go after you until they finish the job. The observation process is being manipulated in a way that a good lesson can turn into a bad one because the UFT will not challenge unfairness, further more they are not following on legitimate grievances. It is shameful to see so many teachers in their 50s, and 60s in the rubber room. All this is happening while they hire less qualified, and inexperienced teachers because of Fair Student Funding agreed by the UFT in 2007. It is just a matter of time before they will start targeting you. It is open season, and these supervisors have a blank check to go after ATRs. Once they start targeting you they will continue, and it does not matter if you had 20 t years or more of satisfactory service. Even the arbitrator will be pressured to rule for your termination because the DOE will not hired him back.
Some very disturbing points.
Just reality. They go after who they want while the UFT is silent.
The UFT needs to start doing their job because our schools are doing worse.
The UFT is very corrupt, and a disgrace.
The UFT is complicit with the targeting 9f older teachers.
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