UFT SOLIDARITY PUTS OUT CARING ADMINISTRATORS LIST

I am sometimes a little cautious, maybe too cautious, about lists of good bosses because it can influence working people to be coerced into giving a supervisor a positive rating he/she may not deserve. That said, I think the UFT Solidarity Caucus certainly has a decent idea to publish the names of administrators who care as well as keeping a list of those who need improvement. It harkens back to when John Soldini was the UFT Vice President for Academic High Schools and he would give out "Apples and Worms" to certain administrators in his newsletter for high school teachers. The 21st Century UFT will continue to publicize the "Apples" but not the "Worms" so Solidarity is now doing it for both.

Here is what Solidarity says about who qualifies as an administrator who cares:

I see you, CARE List nominees!

Collaboration is key to a healthy and safe school community that fosters education for our 1.1 million students. While many of our 1,800 schools communities lack quality educational leaders, we are happy to report that we have been hearing positive stories of great educational leaders in our schools. UFT Solidarity has made it our mission to find these diamonds in the rough and celebrate them here!

We asked the community to nominate not just principals, but any administrators that are leading adults and children with love, logic, fairness, and dignity. This includes instructional coaches, assistant principals, district leadership, and borough support staff.

Our hope is that by having this list out there positive change can occur to benefit the students, staff and entire school communities affected.

If you want to nominate a leader for this list, go here.

I personally know of one administrator on Solidatiry's list who is Cheryl Quatrano from Veritas Academy in Flushing. From everything I've heard, the recently retired Principal Quatrano is certainly a collegial leader who was respected by her staff and the students. I worked for administrators like Cheryl too.

The first two that come to mind are Bob Consigli, who hired me at Jamaica High School, and his Assistant Principal of Guidance Harris Sarney. Sarney would later go on to a successful stint as Principal of Bayside High School. My first direct supervisor was Assistant Principal for Social Studies James Killoran who was very pleasant to work for although he left administration to write some successful history review books. I don't know if I would have survived my first few years if I worked for less supportive administrators.

If we're talking real leaders, I would be crazy if I didn't mention the last principal I worked for who was Linda Siegmund at Middle College High School. She rescued me from the ATR pool when it was not a politically wize move for her to do so. Linda was such an inspirational person that I think I would have washed her car if she asked me to and figured out a reason why I wasn't violating the UFT Contract by cleaning it. Letters for the file and ineffective observations were unheard of under Linda's leadership yet somehow the work got done, the students learned and people were generally content. She cared about everyone in her school.

There are the "Apples" but UFT Solidarity also exposes many of the "Worms" and unfortunately, their updated Administrators in Need of Improvement list has almost 300 names on it. That number hurts.