Here is part of Arthur's question about December 23 from his report and answers from UFT Officers Evelyn de Jesus and Howie Schoor.
Arthur: There
are four snow days next year. Aside from Sandy, we’ve never taken four snow
days. Based on 30 years of precedent, people have already booked trips for this
week. This feels like we’re giving something back and it needs to be fixed.
Last time I looked, the school calendar was not the Ten Commandments. Is there
any chance someone can talk sense to Tweed on this? I’ve seen the chancellor a
few times, and he appears to be not insane.
Evelyn de Jesus—On the case. Not DOE but NYSED. Commissioner started this. DOE and UFT agree. Trying to get it together. Have Regents meeting and we will be fighting that.
Schoor—SED said not only do you need days, but also hours.
De Jesus—What happens is commissioner doesn’t want to include passing time. Pressuring DOE. We are working on that. She feels we have to make it up.
Evelyn de Jesus—On the case. Not DOE but NYSED. Commissioner started this. DOE and UFT agree. Trying to get it together. Have Regents meeting and we will be fighting that.
Schoor—SED said not only do you need days, but also hours.
De Jesus—What happens is commissioner doesn’t want to include passing time. Pressuring DOE. We are working on that. She feels we have to make it up.
Later
President Michael Mulgrew chimed in:
Michael
Mulgrew—Calendar—Issue is they are "adhering to contract"--that's the
nicest way I can say it. Reason you would never open on Monday is it makes no
sense. We do not agree. There is ongoing problem with commissioner. At first
they weren’t even covering Passover. We said this makes no sense. We will go
and deal with problem in Albany. I don’t know if it will work. We are very
upset about it. They should’ve fixed it. They are adhering to contract, have
legal right.(A paragraph was removed after doing research as it no longer applies.)
How many other districts in NYS have school on Monday, December 23? If it is a state problem, other districts would be impacted. Let's find out please.
If we don't have enough instructional hours because of passing time in NYC, there are easy solutions. The DOE could simply convert all schools to 6 hour and 50 minute days, every day. Presto, instant extra instructional hours added from 6 hours and 20 minutes. They could also take away one minute of passing time from each school which would add 7 minutes to each day in the classroom, times 180 instructional days for a total of 1,260 minutes. Divide that by 60 and we have a grand total of 21 more instructional hours. That's 3.5 added instructional days which would more than make up for Monday, December 23 being a day off.
After hearing from UFT leaders, it still feels like something doesn't quite add up.
27 comments:
Be a part of it!! The Great Sick Out of 2019!!! Take the Day and enjoy your family. TELL NO ONE and you are good to go. Maybe the UFT and the DOE will see we mean business or maybe collectively we will be too scared to stand up for our selves. We have the balls to teach bloods and crips, have the balls to call in sick!
I SUPPORT THE SICKOUT ON DEC 23RD, 2019! IF THE UFT AND THE DOE WON'T USE COMMON SENSE THEN WE WILL. SICKOUT 12/23/19!
Please clarify as I am confused. What does the State and the Commissioner have to do with our working on December 23rd? I do not understand this. Also, what does "sticking to the contract" mean?
I find it hilarious that there were over 700 posts on the UFT Facebook page bitching about having to work on December 23rd. However, there were a mere handful of teachers who complained when the UFT sold us out on our shitty evaluation system 6 years. As for NYC teachers "having the balls to teach bloods and crips", I say that the bloods and crips are not as scary as the DOE. Bloods and crips can't do investigations of teachers who might be taking a day off on December 23rd without a documented medical excuse. Bloods and crips are snowflakes compared to DOE investigators.
Started researching Nassau County school districts alphabetically (listed here http://www.newyorkschools.com/counties/nassau.html ). Baldwin, Bellmore, Bellmore-Merrick, Bethpage, East Meadow, East Rockaway, Farmingdale ALL CLOSED ON 12/23/19. (Carle Place, Elmont, Floral Park-Bellmore, Franklin Square didn't have final published calendars easily accessible on their websites). East Williston has five drafts published; 4 of 5 showing 12-23 as day off. Don't have time to continue search, but feel free to pick up where I left off. Not expecting too much deviation.
Seems readily apparent that it's NOT a "state problem."
Port Washington, L.I. school district is closed for students and staff on Monday December 23rd, 2019.
I think something is fishy.... A quick google search finds all of these districts are off December 23rd for their approved 2019-2020 calendars. How did all these districts get approved by SED and not us?I have yet to click on a calendar that is OPEN on December 23rd......Look at how many districts in NYS are off!!!!! This is not just Long Island districts but also every upstate school district I have seen so far...
NYS schools
Off Dec 23
1. Bellmore
2. Chappaqua central
3. Comsweogue
4. Garden city
5. Half hollow hills
6. Hicksville
7. Long Beach
8. Long wood
9. Manhasset
10. Massapequa
11. Middle country
12. Mount Sinai
13. North port east north port
14. North shore
15. Patchogue medford
16. Plainedge
17. Plainview
18. Port washington
19. Rockville center
20. Three village
21. Valley stream district 13
22. Ardsley
23. Brewster central schools
24. Byron Bergen central
25. Canandaigua
26. Cazenovia central
27. Chenango forks
28. Churchville-Chili central school district
29. Clarence central schools
30. Clarkson central schools
31. Cornwall central school district
32. East Syracuse Minoa
33. Greenberg’s eleven Ufsd
34. Guilderland
35. Haldane
36. Hilton central schools
37. Homer central schools
38. Kingston city school district
39. Lakeland central
40. Lansing central
41. Middletown
42. New Hartford
43. Palmyra-Macedon central
44. Pelham public
45. Pembroke central
46. Phelps-Clifton springs
47. Pittsford centra
48. Rye union free district
49. Saratoga springs
50. Scarsdale
51. Scotia- glenville central
52. Starpoint central
53. Troy
54. Valhalla ufsd
55. Victor central schools
56. Voorheesville central
57. Washingtonville central
58. Webster
59. West genesee central
60. Williamson central
61. Williamsville central
62. Yonkers
63. Capital region Boces
64. Nassau Boces
I heard a UFT rep say this once and I quote, “The common house fly has bigger balls than the average teacher.” The UFT however has none at all. Therein lies the problem - the UFT should have become militant during Bloomberg’s reign, but it became completely impotent. Mulgrew stopped talking to Bloomberg as every large neighborhood high school in the Bronx was closed and their teachers turned into ATRs. Every historic, hard earned employee right is being slowly stripped away or sold for a smile from City Hall. December 23rd is not really what’s at issue here - it’s what it represents - a complacent and complicit UFT.
Mulgrew, et. al. most likely figured no one would notice the change until next November and then he would give a lame excuse (much like the one he’s currently giving) as to why it couldn’t be changed, and/or (and this is equally as disturbing) they didn’t give a crap one way or the other and just allowed the DOE to do as it pleased.
Will this be the straw that broke the camel’s back? It could be. Until the rank and file collectively say enough is enough, not from the city’s attempts but, from the UFT serial acquiescence , this will continue and get worse. I say the UFT and not the City because the City will take as much as it can legally. The UFT has betrayed us all.
Typical doe, typical uft. $62 per check for this. Can they get 1 thing right? How about the job fairs for NEW TEACHERS ONLY while nothing s on the Open market?
We've been told for years now that attendance (by students) doesn't matter, just mastery of the content.
The argument for instructional hours is laughable and not consistent with state and city policy.
This is the most activated I have seen membership in years. Where the hell were you all when we got this crappy contract? Could you please make an alphabetical list of all of the school districts with HS teachers getting rated on tests and two 15 min observations? Because, as of right now, it’s just us. And, it looks like next year is set up to be a bloodbath.
Also, could someone explain why we have been working under two consecutive Memoranda of Agreements and haven’t actually gotten a contract since 2007? Is that because UFT doesn’t actually want to ratify any of this crapy APPR law into our contract lest we have to bargain it away by trading in benefits when we want to get rid of it later? Better to purge the law in the Assembly then to swallow the terms of the law in a new contract? Maybe I’m being charitable. I think UFT doesn’t have any clue, really.
It is easy to say the UFT should have become militant and to blame the UFT for the lack of teacher militancy. The UFT can do a lot more in that area and the major problem is the district rep aparatchiks. But imagine the no union situation c. 1959-60. With no UFT to fuel militancy, somehow there was a militant group of teachers - certainly not a majority - far from it - they struck when it was against the law - I remember it - I was in high school. So it is possible to be militant from below without the union - it happened in W Virginia and Oklahoma and tomorrow in North Carolina. So get up and take off on Dec 23 - not only take off but organize a protest march. But then again, there is that common house fly.
Do they all get Jewish holidays, Vets day, midwinter break?
It has nothing to do with the actual day of 23rd. The state changed the rules last year.. Instead of 180 days.. Districts must meet a certain number of hours. So they are fighting the city and saying that passing time doesn't count as instructional time . Doe policy says it does. There's the problem. So we would need to do about 182 days to hit the hours the state wants. So this is a battle that needs to be fought and fixed, otherwise this will happen every year. Could you imagine if all holidays fell in a weekday??
What is passing time? Time traveling between classes? How are all other districts getting enough hours, but we're not.
Most elementary students don't travel to classes.
Hey Joe, I just went to the NYSUT site. The regulations on the calendar came out in September 2018. State approved our 2018-19 calendar that has only 183 days. Also, if this was so crucial UFT and DOE knew about these rules and were negotiating a new contract at that time, they could have addressed the hours then.
https://www.nysut.org/resources/all-listing/research/fact-sheets/fact-sheet-180-days-of-instruction-regulations
ya, passing time is the time kids go from one class to the next. In the city, they allow schools to make their own rules on passing time, so it fluctuates from school to school. If a class is 42 min and 3 min in between before next class, the city counts that as 45 min of instruction. The state doesn't believe it should be counted and says its only 42 min. When you add up all the minutes, it doesn't meet the 990 hour amount the state wants. Schools outside of the city have more time in the classroom, instead of the 155 min we have for pd and outreach and they easily hit the hours required. Most schools do just 180 days then if they need a snow day, it comes off one of their extended vacations. Some give only a week for spring break, some don't give Jewish holidays, Muslim holidays, lunar new year etc..and can give a longer Christmas and memorial break. If they use snow days, usually memorial day break shrinks or spring break...its different everywhere. But this is what we created with all the mandatory holidays. There is currently a bill upstate that would add on additional holidays across the state to make it equal...if that happens, you can say goodbye to Feb break. All in all, they had plenty of time to deal with this since first introduced last April, but of course, no one can come to an agreement. Not surprised
oh and the state approved last year in April before their new rules were finalized after public debate that ended in Sept.
Okay so let's deal with the math. 990 hours for a school year÷180 days=5.5 hours of instruction per day in secondary schools. That is 330 minutes. That leaves 50 minutes for lunch and passing in a 6 hour and 20 minute school. 2x7=14 for passing and there are still 36 minutes for lunch. Doable in a smaller school. Ten minutes of extended time could easily be put in for this and cut down on PD time. We have enough time in school day if DOE is really interested in fixing this.
For a big school with a 6 hour and 50 minute day, it is easy to get in 330 minutes for instruction, another 40 for lunch and 35 for passing (5×7) and still have 5 left over to make the state extra happy. Obviously, passing time could be reduced according to the school's size.
UFT knew about these revised regulations in September and still agreed to a contract in October that didn't deal with them. Someone should be held accountable but nobody will.
Also, if these regs were in effect for this year, how did the state approve the NYC calendar? Are we losing state aid?
2:12 it says on NYSUT site that districts had to comply for 2018-19 or would lose state sid and new collective bargaining agreements had to comply. Ee had a new agreement in October. Why wasn't this addressed then?
Thanks everyone for doing the research. I think we have a clearer picture now of the issue and what we need to do.
AS AN ELEMENTARY TEACHER I DO NOT, REPEAT, NO NOT WANT TO GET RID OF MONDAY AND TUESDAY TIME AND RETURN TO MORE CLASS INSTRUCTION! I hated more than life having to do the after school "small group instruction" after the shitty 2005 contract. The only good thing that Bloomberg allowed was us to have PD on Monday and parent engagement on Tuesday. I'd much rather sit through boring PD and do squat on Tuesdays then have to work more hours with tired, little kids again. I am sure that I am not alone in thinking this. The school day is long enough for elementary kids. They do not need extra time tacked on to their day. (And if that means I gotta work on December 23rd, that is fine with me.)
I did the figures for secondary schools. Gotta do the math for elementary but I don't think there is much passing time so you should be in better shape.
That was de Blasio that did the PD Monday and Parent Outreach and Other Professional Work Tuesday, not Bloomberg. 2014 contract.
This is going to be more than just December 23 because when holidays fall on weekdays in future years, we will be short several days.
The February break will go next watch and see.
Ya its a huge issue. I can see the DOE using this for contact negotiations for teachers to work longer than six hours and 20 min. If they refuse to count passing time, doe will be forced to add more instructional time, possibly taking some from pd time to ensure we hit the required minutes. Or we just suffer through like we will have to on the 23rd. My problem is, it looked like the state was easing the rules on 180 days, and not mandating districts to make up the time due to snow emergencies. I guess its really not helping us much here by mandating hours,instead of days. But you're absolutely right, someone had to see this coming and nothing was done.. Maybe they couldn't agree and now trying to point fingers at each other or state... Or my favorite thought.. No one thought to think about what it mean .
I will post link to NYSUT fact sheet. UFT knew about this for sure when new regulation was finalized in September. A month later they agreed to a new contract but ignored this issue when state told districts they had to deal with instructional time issue. UFT totally dropped the ball on this.
They have someone to deal with state and have a huge say in NYSUT. Not thinking about this would be showing total ineptitude.
The simple fact is the that the UFT thought nobody would notice that we have to work Dec 23rd till next Sept. This just shows what assholes the UFT really are. I am honestly sweating and freaking out now wondering if my elementary school is going to have to be open longer for my little students. This is a horrible, horrible situation. I don't mind working on Dec 23rd but as the poster above mentioned, I sure as heck do not want to work a longer day throughout the year if that is the alternative. The bottom line is that the UFT better involve the rank and file on this via surveys to see what we want. We as teachers who are effected by any possible change are the ones who should decide our fate rather that the goons at 52 Broadway who sit in their ivory towers all day collecting double pensions while chomping on caviar and steak via our hard earned dues money.
We have Dec. 23rd, 2019 off here in rural CNY, as agreed by our BOCES region.
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