The ever-changing situation in NYC schools today took some real twists and turns. This is from Sue Edelman in the NY Post:
Tottenville High School is giving up on Mayor de Blasio’s blended learning plan, saying it will nix in-person classes and go 100% remote.
Gina Battista, principal of the 3,500-student Staten Island campus, sent a letter to parents on Saturday blaming her defiant decision on a teacher shortage.
“To execute the original plan of blended and remote learning, Tottenville High School would need an excess of additional teachers that is just not presently available,” Battista wrote.
Under her plan, however, all students will get live instruction online five days a week from Tottenville’s own faculty, she said. showing that Tottenville HS's principal sent a letter saying the school is going all remote.
Sue's conclusion:
One DOE insider said at least a dozen other schools in the system have also gone rogue — and scheduled all remote classes.
CSA militancy? The DOE empowering administrators over the years has resulted in administrators leading this fight, not teachers. The Post has another piece on principal anger over the latest UFT-DOE Memorandum of Agreement that expands UFTers who can work remotely but continues in-person learning for some. One principal called the last-minute MOA a "programming clusterf**k.
Michael Mulgrew in his usual concessionary way decided to delay the new MOA until October 5 so everyone scheduled to work in buildings has to come in next week. This makes no sense. Putting the maximum number of staff and students in the school buildings for two to four days, as Mulgrew agreed to today (see email below), seems to be an almost ideal way to spread COVID-19 to as many as possible in the schools next week. Mulgrew could change the line in his email from: "It is important that we're all together to support one another in the first days of in-person instruction;" to: "It is important that we're all together to infect one another..."
If principals are dancing off on their own, I cannot for the life of me understand why UFTers, DC37ers, and other CSAers just don't take action. The easiest way is to adhere to the DOE rules. What if thousands of you fail the required daily self-health screening and stay home for the next two work weeks without loss of CAR days if you have any COVID-19 symptom which could be as simple as a runny nose causing you to lose some sense of smell?
Even if DOEers are accused of striking and breaking the dreaded Taylor Law, you could use telemedicine to get a note. In the past, teachers truly didn't give a damn about the even more draconian Condon Wadlin Act and just did what they had to do to gain respect. For example, the 1959 successful strike by the Evening High School Teachers technically was not a strike. The teachers all resigned to get around the law that said they would be fired for striking. I believe the 1967 UFT strike used the same method. You don't need to resign as those brave teachers led by Roger Parente did in 1959, just fail the daily health screening. The DOE will even pay you for ten school days to do it and they will still cover you without loss of CAR days if, God forbid, you come down with COVID-19 separately.
While I respect those who worked hard to file a lawsuit to expand remote accommodations and those who have protested by working outside of their buildings, I am still surprised that it is principals, not teachers, who are showing real defiance. I will take my labor militancy anywhere I can find it as there is COVID-19 in 150 school buildings that have been opened for staff for only three weeks. This is about our collective health.
I hope I am not insulting anyone by playing amateur psychologist here and saying this might be mass learned helplessness. It appears you guys have been beaten down for so long by an uncaring employer and union leadership that fights harder for its dues than your health so you are resigned to it. Or maybe all of you just feel it's safe.
Please no comments on opting out. Not paying union dues won't stop a single COVID-19 infection now. It's not about money; it's about diminishing a probable second wave of a deadly virus.
Mulgrew's email:
Dear _________,
The provision in our new agreement that gives UFT members with no on-site duties the option to work remotely takes effect on Monday, Oct. 5.
Everyone must continue to report to school buildings and other sites for one more week, except those with medical accommodations. It is important that we’re all together to support one another in the first days of in-person instruction.
Stay safe and healthy.
Sincerely,
Michael Mulgrew
UFT President
The Tottenville HS letter:
It took him a whole 24 hours to conceed again. They should raise dues for that service.
ReplyDeleteThis is ridiculous. Can't anybody stand up and say "FUCK YOU, we are not going in?"
ReplyDeleteIt is not about dues. It is about getting rid of those in power. I wish you all the best.
ReplyDeleteEveryday, the uft gives you another reason as to why they have no value. I strongly suggest everyone no-show work this week. I know nothing, I am not in the uft. Infections are skyrocketing in NYC. Make the wise decision. Mulgrew, Carranza and de blasio don't care if you are alive or dead. They proved it in March, they proved it in September. You have till Tuesday morning. Show the uft that you are not a bunch of sheep.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you...teachers are disposable.
DeleteEveryone knew this was going to implode one way or another. I have no sympathy for principals though. You have to know what you're getting into. The only reasons teachers become principals is because they were unsuccessful in the classroom and didn't like teaching and/or they want to make the big bucks now instead of waiting 20 years as a teacher. They deserve all the stress after the stress they caused their teachers. I think she is just coping out because she doesn't want to deal with it. The teachers there won't be able to work from home since they are still allowing kids to come in.
ReplyDeleteAh! I have the sniffles every morning in the autumn. Don’t you?
ReplyDeleteCyrano DeBergerac ( world renowned French language teacher, planning on going fully remote🤧🤧🤧)
Nothing to worry about, the uft has your back.
ReplyDeleteNumber of NYC schools with coronavirus-infected staffers rises to 150
By Susan EdelmanSeptember 26, 2020 | 6:11pm
When staff request remote accommodations for vulnerable family members it'll upend assignments/schedules again and cause more chaos. Shouldn't have been announced the afternoon of a 3-day weekend & Jewish holiday before most students start in-person: should've been months ago. But I'm sure they are happy to collect your dues while serving zero purpose. Hopefully by June you will all recognize this. James said it, this is like battered women's syndrome. Wake up.
ReplyDeleteThere were more than 54,000 new Covid cases yesterday. That’s way too many. Good luck next week.
ReplyDeleteI am confused . Does everyone on this blog think UFT has the power to control the pacing of negotiations?
ReplyDeleteI remember Mulgrew talking about Remote work in a Town Hall. Do people actually think that the UFT stalled an agreement until the Friday before a 3 day weekend?
Yes, because the agenda of the “negotiators” is one and the same: forcing NYC schools open at all costs to teachers, kids, community. Conscripting then UFT workforce to clean filthy buildings and do canary duty for the past two weeks served that agenda nicely.
DeleteThe gym I go to emailed to inform me that another member who has tested positive was checked in on back to back days at the same time I was - according to their system. I guess I have to check off yes Tuesday morning when I complete the screening. I do feel guilty though... kids comes in their first day and I'm not there...
ReplyDelete“CaughtBsMulgrewVirus”
ReplyDeleteSorry folks since last night I’ve been real sick. I went to CityMD where they diagnosed me with having caught the “BsMulgrew virus” and I must now quarantine in case it’s the ‘Rona. On a side note, I swear if the sellout CL so much opens mouth about a 🐂💩SBO vote— I’m going to lose it because the only vote/action we should be making is 💯 remote!
Your guilt about not welcoming kids into a giant petri dish is the problem. They should not be going near these buildings.
ReplyDeleteAt least we know how dumb nyc teachers are. If they won't opt out after this, we know death isn't even enough of a risk. Good luck negotiating contracts in the future.
ReplyDelete8:14, I agree that they shouldn't but its happening and my guilt hangs solely on the fact that I have a job to do regardless of the giant mess the city has created. And if your response is going to resemble something along the lines of "no one should go in on Tuesday" well save your breath/don't get carpal tunnel over that message.
ReplyDeleteYou don't have to be a good soldier 8:44. Kids are safer at home.
ReplyDeleteAgain, I agree that they're safer at home but as it stands right now the kids are coming in on Tuesday. I don't really see how me staying home changes anything except for uncertain supervision in an already understaffed school.
ReplyDeleteWhich has been managed worse?
ReplyDeleteUft response to Covid-19?
NYC's plan for re-opening?
Uft contract negotiations
I see some similarities.....little central governance....disregard for science....putting the responsbility on local actors.....seemingly clueless leaders.
Maybe if Janella stopped retweeting blm and other nonsense she could spend some time doing her job.
ReplyDeleteSo...Opt out or decertify?
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteWe all need to return to buildings as soon as it is safe to do so, for our health, for the health and welfare of our students and families, to support the recovery of our economy, to protect our profession against the re-imagined future that will buggy-whip millions of educators, reduce wages and benefits, and make nearly intolerable work conditions worse.
But we can't do it yet. This is obvious to everyone involved. Anyone who takes a position against our so-called union, Tweed, the Mayor, is only doing what is rational, logical, conservative. Doing so does not make the teachers heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers ....
The CSA is not militant. It is not, has not, and will not engage in a job action or strike. Writing letters, closing a school here or there, going to court for a few, marching to the mayor's or chancellor's home, this is not militancy. While I support these action in the short term, a militant action is less likely if these small and local actions continue. And the mayor, who is, after all, a student of resistance to autocratic and anti-democratic governments, knows this. Yes, Bill De Blasio is not a complete idiot. He knows that the only thing that will defeat him is resistance to civil government, such as a strike, and he knows how to prevent one. Unless there is an incident, a death or deaths, or some other stop the clocks, big headline incident, he will persevere, prevent a strike and go about the business of implementing his plan. Back in March and April we were close, but we have lost the crisis momentum and have been defeated. Here, the desperation that would call the CSA militant is a sign of just how far we have fallen into the plan of the mayor.
We have only one weapon and we won't deploy it now because the so-called union is a partner in the mayor's plan.
The teachers may get to the full remote position they are grinding towards, but it will cost us dearly. Each slow step, each agreement reached, each memorandum signed, each addendum, every SBO will weaken us further and strengthen the mayor's hand as he weakens and eventually disarms the teachers.
Under these conditions we are well advised by Henry David Thoreau, who refused to pay his dues, arguing that while he could not stop the government's plan, he could stop supporting it with his money. While the multitude grinds into factions and while positions are shredded into fragments, we can only hold onto our own dignity. Though we be called enemies of all sides, we can not submit to plan to make us of us machines and clay:
The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. They are the standing army, and the militia, jailers, constables, posse comitatus, etc. In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgement or of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones; and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well. Such command no more respect than men of straw or a lump of dirt. They have the same sort of worth only as horses and dogs. Yet such as these even are commonly esteemed good citizens. Others—-as most legislators, politicians, lawyers, ministers, and office-holders—-serve the state chiefly with their heads; and, as they rarely make any moral distinctions, they are as likely to serve the devil, without intending it, as God. A very few—-as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and men—-serve the state with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part; and they are commonly treated as enemies by it. A wise man will only be useful as a man, and will not submit to be "clay," and "stop a hole to keep the wind away . . . .
HDT
Anyone with half a brain knew that this blended learning was going to be mass chaos. And the fact that you have to have a mascon the entire time even though everybody will be socially distance is absolutely ridiculous. And you can’t touch anything or share equipment or share papers with the kids. More BS. With these ridiculous stringent rules they should definitely go all remote
ReplyDeleteHeaven help us all.
ReplyDeleteThis is great news for the 3 percent of teachers that qualify for the full remote positions available throughout the city. Hahaha what a joke.
ReplyDeleteAre they still furloughing non dues payers as they are closing schools becuase there isnt enough staff? Stay safe to those of you who are stupid enough to go in this week.
ReplyDeleteIf this is truly about safety why are we partially going? Either open fully or go completely remote. I don’t mind going in but this is just ridiculous and would spread covid! It’s like opening the door slightly and not expecting anything to come in!
ReplyDeleteThe agenda is simple. Covid cases are spiking. 100% remote for all. This is not forever. For the sake of humanity and survival we all need to stay put. Of course , the process has it's good moments and bad moments i.e. glitches with internet service, expectations of student consistency to be on live and log in every day. However, it will prolong life. It will allow teachers that are excellent educators to continue doing what they love. At the end of the day, their will be a significant number of teachers and paraprofessionals who are ready to retire. Keep the teachers and the students safe. Reflect a positive solution to our young teachers who our kids will desperately need.
ReplyDeleteLOL to the suckers. Keep paying dues for nothing. I made my own intervention without union help. I have no accommodation and I have not been going to the building. Take a stand like I did.
ReplyDeleteWhat magical intervention allows you to stay home without an accommodation?
DeleteIs mulgrew spending the day with us in infected buildings? Per @NYGovCuomo, the latest positive testing rate for #coronavirus in New York City was 1.2%. This number has been ticking upward. There were 866 new cases, 382 of which were here in the City. 6 people lost their lives to the virus in the last 24 hours in New York State.
ReplyDeleteGuys, this is a no win situation. We are stuck between our jobs or our life. Do anyone knows how much it cost the government to run just one school building? You have the cost of teachers, the schools get a stipend for each and ever child, the gas, the electricity, copy machines, fax machines, and much more. All the government is worried about is their FIGURES. They are waiting for US to hang ourselves.They are not supporting our schools. Once WE all go REMOTE, that's it! Bye, bye school buildings ( which would save them a Ton of money). And Remember there's way more school buildings then there are police stations and hospitals. Which means bye, bye to OUR jobs and pensions, because going all remote would mean not as much staff is needed. School aids, Paraprofessional, family workers, Parent coordinators, etc.Then we have on the other hand if we all decide to go blended learning we are not 100 percent supported with this Covid causing stress for Principles and other staff to leave. WE the community (parents and the individual schools) are going to have to support EACH other. Like asking the parents to bring in good cleaning supplies and we as teachers might have to spend some of our own money in the schools just to KEEP our jobs, support our kids and each other. If we as People and Adults can run our OWN household we can ALL come together to run our community schools.
ReplyDeleteIf you are 22-35 years old, think if you want to spend your life like this. They are sending you to die. I won't even bother with contracts, raises and discipline code now. And here is the unified front...LOL.
ReplyDeleteSchools are supposed to open this week.
Principals are scrambling to adjust staffing, again, after the city reached a new agreement with teachers re: working from home.
Principals union has blasted the city over this last-minute change and will hold a presser this afternoon.
Hard to imagine Mulgrew, Cannizzaro and Carranza around a dais behind a unified plan like they were earlier this month at this point. There’s been tension between the two unions for weeks, but they’re becoming more obvious now.
EDUCATORS PUSH BACK: Principals in “open revolt” of top-down DOE decisions as highschools announce full-remote schedules - meanwhile teachers take to streets questioning DOE plan for ventilation, testing, cleaning, staffing + indoor eating https://nypost.com/2020/09/26/nyc-principals-blast-carranza-over-last-minute-deal-with-teachers/
ReplyDelete@SusanBEdelman
HAHA. The principals union’s Executive Board took a unanimous vote of “No Confidence” for Mayor de Blasio and Chancellor Carranza “due to their failure to lead New York City through the safe and successful reopening of schools,” per the union.
ReplyDeleteAnd this no confidence vote will change anything how? Di blassio will just keep saying everything is going fine and we'll be ready to open on Tuesday. I think the best thing now is to just let the chips fall where they may and let the whole thing implode.
ReplyDeleteGame Over.
ReplyDeleteCommissioner Betty Rosa has stated that she doesn’t think we are ready to reopen. Could this mean
Wow and you think they are going to listen to Betty? Betty is just another voice is a deaf system.
ReplyDeleteBetty Rubble could have said it and it would be just as effective.
ReplyDeleteWe need to remove the mayor as controll of schools. Give it back a BOARD OF "EDUCATORS". Folks who will THINK about employees (not just teachers) and the children.
ReplyDeletemy neighbor worked in Tower 2 on 911. God told her to leave as the workers watched the first tower fall..the men "in charge" made an announcement that anyone who tried to leave would lose their jobs. Many coworkers who professed to being 'Christians' were told by my neighbor to listen to the Holy Spirit and leave right now! She lives; they chose to lose their lives rather than their jobs.The company she worked for discovered her escape and punished her, citing she disobeyed the announcement to stay in the building. This situation with the city seems very similar. Go die or go on unemployment.Her colleagues were warned and chose death over poverty? All these events seem demonic in nature and as with most things 'controlled' by man; doomed to destruction. Not theirs, (so they think)but of the masses of laborers who are replaceable by the (ignorant-innocent) youth aka Hitlers kids.just saying
ReplyDeleteThis is the first time I ever heard of people being told not to leave the towers on 9-11. I hope this is made up.
ReplyDelete