Thursday, January 13, 2022

CHANCELLOR BANKS SAYS HE WANTS A REMOTE OPTION BUT HE NEEDS UFT DEAL

I couldn't believe my ears when I heard Chancellor David Banks responding to parents about why there is no remote option.

This is from Twitter:

Watch the video for yourself. This does not sound much like what Michael Mulgrew stated at the town hall yesterday. I didn't hear anything about the Chancellor trying to give a remote option and UFT negotiations holding it up. 

The UFT responded to Banks with a statement:

"Clearly the Chancellor has been misinformed about the UFT’s position. We have long called for an instructionally sound remote option and have been speaking directly to the Mayor about creating one, a program that will work for students,” said UFT President Michael Mulgrew in a written statement Thursday.

46 comments:

Anonymous said...

I recall a big push through the summer that we needed to make parents want to send back kids to school. I think part of their justification was that reduced enrollment or remote options might threaten teacher livelihood depending on how it was done. I disagree with that sentiment, since we could negotiate said remote option. But yes, there was definitely a push to get the schools completely opened (and thus get rid of the remote option) by UFT before this school year started. I think that's why summer school was also completely in person.

R Gold said...

So is he asking for us to teach in person and remote kids simultaneously?

Anonymous said...

They want you to work in school a full day and do many hours if extra work on remote instruction without being paid cash.

Maybe they will throw in one vacation day for 5 days of extra work on remote instruction. Mulgrew will likely agree since he is working on behalf of the DOE.

Anonymous said...

He wants us to do hybrid where we would not only teach all day but also hold remote classes as well. That is why the union is blocking his current plan.

Anonymous said...

Regarding the arbitration agreement, the arbitrator was more concerned about not asking NY city to pay teachers cash, than about fair compensation teachers. He was not at all concerned with the disgusting conduct of the DOE forcing teachers to work during their vacation without any consideration of payment. The DOE had to be brought to arbitration.

The arbitrator Martin Scheinman revealed his strong bias favoring NY city's finances and bias against teachers' finances when he said that he did not want NY city to pay cash. The egregious act of forcing teachers to work on their vacation, in itself should have resulted in a fair decision. Instead, teachers were given a bad deal by Scheinman.

The UFT should fire Martin Scheinman, meaning the should demand a different arbitrator for
future negotiations.

Anonymous said...

Also, Martin Scheinman was a de Blasio fundraiser.

This alone should have been enough for the UFT to fire him.

Pure 100% incompetence by the UFT all along or perhaps pure 100% collusion against the rank and file membership by Mulgrew.

https://nypost.com/2013/12/25/labor-arbitration-head-is-a-de-blasio-fundraiser/

Anonymous said...

He wants live streaming in the classrooms for all the kids who want remote. No way uft going to agree to that. So now he trying to make it look like uft no agreeing. Standard pr bullshit. No way do I want to go back to that hybrid shit or live streaming. If they want remote they need a central based system.

Anonymous said...

NYCMayor
said a temporary remote option is under consideration for the public schools. “We want to provide the safest place for our children and we want to have our children in school.”

So teachers would have to make the long trip and studnets would stay home and not even log in...and then pass. Cool.

Anonymous said...

I am 100% excited for a remote option. However, it will either work well or will be a total disaster. If we do what we did with dedicated staff to only teach remote kids the plan will work fine. If the city wants teachers in the building livestreaming lessons with both kids in the classroom and at home it will be a disaster. Bottom line is that ball is actually in Mulgrew's court and he will either make or break this deal. Let's hope he does not mess it up.

Anonymous said...

More work for teachers. Will need to live stream our live lessons. No pay bump. Have fun with the next contract. Extended school day. Saturday session mandatory. Extended School year. Raise that doesn't jibe with inflation. Yay?

Anonymous said...

How do you live stream kids working in groups? Remember they want very little of the teacher actually giving instruction.

Anonymous said...

@6:01 pm
Mulgrew always messes up. When has Mulgrew not messed us up?
Stop hoping and accept the fact that Mulgrew must go.

Anonymous said...

"Make yourself available" Mulgrew will have us make ourselves available more. He already says its ok to work through your lunch, prep, for crap, watch he will have us live streaming or have us go home and call it a victory for us to work from home afterschool to teach the remote kids after work, on Saturdays. I have no confidence in his ability as his track record speaks volumes.

I wish we had the leadership like L.A. Chicago. I value that the members in Chicago all voted and decided together what to do. Our opinion does not count in NYC with Mulgrew.

Anonymous said...

Mulgrew saved UFTers 8 days pay by not leading them out on a losing strike.
Chicago teachers are losing pay for their intemperate action. They gained nothing.
Wisdom is far superior to emotions

Anonymous said...

Sounds like you believe Banks over our own Union President. Your bitterness runs deep.

Anonymous said...

livestream? My AP tried to suggest the same crap. Have they gone mad. Do they even know the types of kids we're dealing with in some of our school. Do they know what the kids will do with the videos of their teachers. Do they even care?

Anonymous said...

If the schools would have been closed and kids home on remote for just one week, the first week back, a lot of this could have been avoided. Test results would have come back, an extra week for kids to be vaccinated. Parents demanded their kids be in school the first day. I wonder what they think of their kids getting infected, and bringing Covid home to the rest of the family, including parents. Now they will have one big sick family. Now what will the parents do? Ask Fox news that question. Better yet show them this post.

Anonymous said...

This is all politics. Banks and adams are politicians. They are looking to keep those few voters in their back pockets who want remote. ‘Hey, we tried…but the UFT…well, what can we do?’

Here’s the truth: we can barely cover all in person classes. How can extra staff for remote work? It can’t! But that does not make a good narrative.

Blaming the UFT. Well, that’s a great political narrative.

Anonymous said...

Adams is totally underestimating how many parents will take the the remote option. My guess is that it will hover near 30% just like when we had the remote option last year. Oh yeah, if the remote option is going to be done "Centrally", who in the heck is gonna teach all those live classes? There is not enough suits at Tweed to do that job. What the city needs to do is give parents a one week opt in window. Any family that picks the remote option will have to stay with it for the rest of the year. Individual schools will then figure out how many of their kids want remote. Then, via seniority, teachers would be assigned to either teach the kids in the building or the kids who are on remote.

Anonymous said...

"The numbers will stabilize after the surge" is code for the issue we created is so huge there is nothing we could do to rectify it.

TeachNY said...

Remote will have to become a permanent separate entity. Set up a central area in all boroughs where remote teachers will teach from. Or have them stay home at a reduced salary. Give priory to those that are unvaccinated so we can keep them on payroll followed by teachers with medical issues then followed by seniority. But it will def have to become an entirely separate part of the DOE for it to work.

Anonymous said...

Dumb question...

How does one get 75-95 in classes...then get 35-45 on all the regents exams? All this with sub 50% attendance...

Anonymous said...

408 “ Test results would have come back, an extra week for kids to be vaccinated. ”

How old that make any meaningful difference? It doesn’t stop the spread or prevent infection.

JR said...

The new DOE motto...

Soft bigotry of low expectations.

Pass the undeserving in the name of racial equity.

Anonymous said...

@Teach NY

Working at home saves the DOE money. The DOE could avoid the extra operating costs of “a central area in all boroughs”. Why should remote teachers be punished with a reduced salary?

The rest of what you said makes perfect sense though. Let’s see if the UFT leadership can make it happen.

Jeff said...

928,

Well, grade fraud. Student is clearly incapable, yet everyone passes. You all should be ashamed of yourselves.

Anonymous said...

9:28 The answer is simple. Grade inflation. Some teachers think it makes them look good to have high passing rates with higher grades. This is exactly why the Jan Regents exam was cancelled. It will show the inflation. That is why I have only 45% of my students in all classes that are passing. I refuse to inflate grades.

Anonymous said...

Hey TeachNY. I disagree with you. Seniority should be the first method of determining who would work with remote kids. If we have another remote option there will be a ton of teachers who will want it. Only fair way is by seniority.

Anonymous said...

U can't have multiple people teaching remotely in one room.people would be yelling all over each other.

Anonymous said...

It's not even about being incapable. It's the apathy. I'll pass any student that does his/her work but still can't achieve a passing score on assignments. This is why we allow students to revise. Of course they are scared to give the Regents. This is why they want to cancel the Regents. The Regents like the SAT shows when grades are inflated.

TeachNY said...

You really don’t think the unvaccinated teachers should have priority? They’re still UFT and are being punished with no pay! If they’re remote, nobody DOE related would be in danger!

Anonymous said...

Unvaccinated employees won't be able to work in district offices that get set up. There will most likely be no teaching from home. Adams will make sure remote is as tough as possible on remote teachers. Lastly, are unvaccinated teachers even paying UFT dues? They are not getting a paycheck so they are probably not having UFT dues deducted from their paychecks. Any remote gigs should go in seniority order.

Anonymous said...

Moises Morales....the feds are coming to town...

Anonymous said...

Yes, bring back Seniority rights! We've earned them.

Anonymous said...

Just lift the foolish mandate and everyone can come back to work.your vaccines aren't helping.you all wanted the unvaxxed our for fear we would infect you.you got tour wish and you are all dropping like flies.get real! To be fair, we should just have the learning bridges temporarily.we did it before.fuckin mayor is too lazy and impotent to do anything.i bet this is his pattern across all issues.at least diblasio did the bridges, the tech, and the meals.you all got what u voted for.he was clear about his stance.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 448...

You a F'n ass

Anonymous said...

Seniority needs to count for something. Yes, remote should go by seniority. It was a choice to get vaccinated. It should be a choice to work remotely.

Seniority based remote work. Put the years in. We have.

Anonymous said...

It's so asinine to suggest that unvaccinated employees should be given first priority for the remote jobs. GTFOOH. That would be a surefire way to ensure that they don't ever get vaccinated so for that alone, that is not going to happen. Not to mention, it is the vaccinated that is holding down the fort, opening up the schools, making ourselves available to the students academic, social and emotional needs. If anybody needs a break that might come with working remotely it is the teachers who have been present. Hell no, the unvaccinated should NOT have priority. They're lucky to still be getting benefits. Some of them took a few weeks off, and then sauntered in after we were stuck covering their classes. Fuck 'em.

unknown said...

You guys are dreaming with this remote option stuff. Not gonna happen. We don't need it.

Anonymous said...

What the f*** are you talking about like do you work for the city or something? Are you a doe negotiator why you making all these concessions it's like you're not even on our side who are you,?

Anonymous said...

What you said has got to be the dumbest thing I've heard in a long time to disparage the efforts of our colleagues to show such a lack of solidarity you ought to be ashamed of yourself putting down the Chicago teachers why do you think our mayor and Chancellor are even willing to discuss this matter with us are you blind or are you stupid

Anonymous said...

Supreme court shooting down crazy mandates because facts are not on their side, narrative gone.

20 days to make up work when fail after MP. Nearly impossible to fail this uneducated whiny, sensitive generation who most have the work ethic of a gold digger.

Anonymous said...

Over 2,000,000 absences in less than 2 wks. NOT A TYPO 2 MILLION in 9 school days

Unknown said...

A teacher at my school admitted to me that he got his doctor to complete medical accommodation paperwork last year because he wanted to save money on childcare for his 2 preschool-aged kids. He lives in NJ. Between not paying for NJ Transit, subway passes, and daycare for 2 kids in suburban NJ, he probably saved at least 25K throughout the school year. I will be furious if remote teachers get to stay home and save so much money and get paid the same as I do.

Prehistoric pedagogue said...

4:26 PM: Unvaccinated teachers should definitely not get any sort of priority. They put themselves in this position by their own volition and selfishness

Anonymous said...

4:00 - I agree. Said the same thing days ago but it didn't post. It would also just make it easier for people to NOT vaccinate, which whether one agrees with it or not, is counter to what the Mayor and other elected officials are trying to do. It doesn't even make sense. Like hell they should get priority, or be on a seniority list at all.