LATEST DA GIVES EVEN MORE PROOF UFT IS PART OF DE BLASIO-FARINA ADMINISTRATION

There were three clues at last Wednesday's Delegate Assembly that just added to the mountain of proof that the UFT no longer exists as an independent trade union but is merely an arm of Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration. President Michael Mulgrew's answer to a question on abusive principals and two resolutions in support of absurd de Blasio education proposals just added to what has already occurred since de Blasio became mayor and the UFT ceased battling city hall.

We really didn't need any further proof of the UFT-de Blasio marriage after the  2014 contract with its paltry raises of 10% over 7 years and UFT members having to wait until 2020 to receive money (4%+4%) that most other city workers received from 2008-2010.  Throw in healthcare savings that have mostly not yet been implemented for city workers but will in the near future (after Mulgrew's reelection?), lack of improvement in working conditions, weaker due process rights for Absent Teacher Reserves and we have a union that jumped fully into bed with management. When the city's huge budget surpluses the last few years are taken into account, the city hall-UFT marriage leaves UFT members scratching their heads. Last week's DA showed once again how our union continues to be a shill for management.

During the question period Michael Mulgrew was asked about abusive principals.  He responded by changing his usual answer from the last two years when he repeatedly answered this question by saying that it is going to take a while for Chancellor Carmen Farina to change the culture in the schools from the Mike Bloomberg years but just give her some time.  The new response is that we have always had abusive principals so this is nothing new. That was a fairly clear admission that the conditions we teach in haven't changed under Farina.

Mulgrew's statement while true is very misleading. I can recall back in the 1990's, when Joe Fernandez was Chancellor, principals were told to settle their problems in house unless they were completely egregious. That policy continued to some extent under Chancellors Ramon Cortines and Rudy Crew. Back in those days a letter to the Chancellor from a UFT Chapter meant there would be a full scale investigation from upper level management and that principal could be in trouble quickly.

In addition, there were real attempts to resolve individual grievances in most cases before they went to arbitration.  A principal was considered to be weak if he/she could not settle most problems within a building. Another red flag against a principal was if too many teachers were seeking to transfer from a school.  In the 1990s, when the UFT was still somewhat of a real union, the Union was a check on abusive principals and it functioned for the betterment of the school system.  Toxic learning environments don't help kids excel.

It was only when Harold O Levy, the first non educator took over as Chancellor in 2000, that the pendulum from upper management started to move toward knee-jerk support for principals and against teachers. That pendulum moved further away from teachers and the UFT at lightening speed under Joel Klein, Kathy Black and Dennis Walcott while Bloomberg was mayor. After the infamous 2005 "Givebacks' R Us" contract, teacher professionalism was more or less gone and as Mulgrew admitted in his answer on abusive principals, without admitting it directly, the pendulum hasn't moved back the other way toward respecting teachers and UFT Chapters under de Blasio-Farina.

Honestly, do you think most UFT Chapters would feel any confidence reporting an abusive administration to the Chancellor?

There was more evidence at the November DA that the UFT is just the education wing of the de Blasio administration in the form of two fairly innocuous looking resolutions that overwhelmingly carried at the end of the meeting. Both of these resolutions gave unqualified UFT support for de Blasio education initiatives.

The first one endorsed the hiring of reading specialists so that all children would be literate by the end of second grade. Universal literacy by grade two is a wonderful goal that is basically impossible to achieve in a city like New York which has a huge non-English speaking population and many pupils with extensive special needs.  Saying they are all going to read by grade two is setting us up for failure in the same way that the unions supporting No Child Left Behind in 2002 was a huge mistake because that law said every child would be reading and doing math on grade level by 2014. That was an impossible goal.  The UFT should not support pipe dreams that can boomerang on us. All it does is give our enemies fuel when they want to attack us.  I can see the groups coming out against us when we say we were going to have all children literate by second grade and all of them are not.  They will say it's the teacher's fault.

The last resolution might have been worse.  The de Blasio administration has an initiative where all pupils will have a computer class by 2025.  2025?  Are they kidding?  Every child should have had a computer course by 1995 or at least by now.  This mayor has had two years in control of the system and he can't wire every school.

I raised my card to speak against at the DA but in the Unity style of democracy, a member of the Unity Caucus spoke for the resolution and that was followed by another Unity representative moving to end debate and the rest of them followed in lock step.  Mulgrew occasionally asks for speakers against motions but often times he just ignores the rules and continues his unfair way of chairing meetings. I didn't have a chance to make my points.

After I voted no on the computer resolution, it was interesting to look up and watch Mulgrew note my one vote in opposition.

Some people say Delegate Assembly meetings are a waste of time.  They aren't.  If a union member wants to know the thinking of the union's leadership, one should attend.  I discovered more evidence that we are in many ways a kind of government example of a wholly owned subsidiary. The UFT is a part of the de Blasio administration for better or worse.

ICE-UFT BLOG 100% WITH BETH DIMINO

I arrived at this party a little late today but I still feel compelled to jump on the blog bandwagon to defend the indomitable, inspirational and courageous leader of the Port Jefferson Station Teachers Association and Stronger Together Caucus, Beth Dimino.  Dimino was the subject of a completely unjustified attack by statewide Unity Caucus, the political party that controls the United Federation of Teachers, New York State United Teachers and pretty much the American Federation of Teachers too.

Here is part of PJSTA Vice President Brian St Pierre's defense of  Beth:

Ms. Dimino's track record as an advocate is fairly well known.  She has been a vocal and visible proponent of the opt-out movement.  She is a conscientious objector, refusing to administer New York State tests.  This video of her lambasting former NYSED Commissioner John King has made her well known in public education circles.  She has spoken all over the state as an advocate for teachers, students, parents and communities.  I am sure Long Island Opt-Out founder Jeannette Deutermann or her friends at NYSAPE would vouch for Ms. Dimino as somebody who works tirelessly for teachers, students, and public education in general.  If you don't believe me you are welcome to ask them.  

Let's now contrast Ms. Dimino's record with that of the Unity Caucus.  Unity Caucus, for nearly the entire existence of NYSUT, has benefited from being the only party in a one party-system.  The caucus has always chosen the presidents and each of the other officers.  When they decided you were out, then you were out, as they have always been able to use the 800 UFT-Unity delegates as a voting block to elect who ever they have wanted to or to enact any changes within NYSUT that have decided to.  You may be wondering why 800 UFT-Unity delegates always have to vote the same way?  Well that would be because the 800 Unity-UFT delegates have signed an oath pledging to vote as they are told to.

Rob Pearl is a Principal in Dimino's district who was formerly a PJSTA VP.  Here is what he said about Beth on the NYC Educator blog in the quote section:

There is no person alive that breathes solidarity more than my closest friend Beth Dimino! An attack on Dimino means they (Unity Caucus) fear her! I fully support and defend Beth Dimino! NYSUT and Mulgrew are afraid of truth!

Norm Scott chimed in over at Education Notes:

So imagine if ST (Stronger Together-Statewide opposition to Unity Caucus) threatens to capture NYSUT or win enough statewide delegates - especially from the other big cities - to challenge NYC Unity control over NYSUT - and then allies with the other national caucuses to create a threat to Randi in the AFT. 

Then there is this from Buffalo's Sean Crowley commenting at Ed Notes:

Couldn't be any happier.  Unity and Co. and their fake union stooge movement lashing out with this errant punch at a real unionist like Beth and a real Caucus like ST can only boomerang on them.  And from what I'm reading the Unity slugs are catching it square in the teeth.

The aforementioned Jeannette Deutermann said this on Twitter:

 Jeanette Deutermann Retweeted

D Brand ‏@debrand10  9h9 hours ago

@beth_dimino is a hero & the voice of our children. Parents know who's fighting for our kids&who isn't. @UFTUnity @STCaucus #StopCommonCore

I am not at all surprised by the quality people who are coming forward to defend Beth.  I first met Beth in early 2014 and subsequently worked diligently to convince both ICE and the Movement of Rank and File Educators (MORE) to support Stronger Together both in the 2014 NYSUT election and afterwards in large part because of her involvement.

When Beth asked me to be an observer of the UFT voting room at the NYSUT election, I said I would do it even though I knew it would be about as pleasant as root canal without an anesthetic.  It lived down to expectations as the UFT leadership kicked me out of the room so they could vote without anybody watching in violation of the election rules. I will not soon forget UFT's Ellie Engler screaming out loud for me to leave while Leroy Barr stopped the voting process because I was watching them.  I had to go to NYSUT officials to get back in the room.

Beth persuaded me to file a lengthy formal protest on the NYSUT election and while we did not get the election overturned, the UFT clearly broke the rules and recommendations were made to improve the process in the future.  Beth also invited me to a Stronger Together meeting and I was not disappointed. They are a committed group of sensational trade unionists. I gladly joined and convinced many of my ICE colleagues to do the same.  I urge readers of this blog to spend $10 to join ST.

She has a vision for what the public schools and a powerful teachers' union should be like and she goes about achieving her aims in a way that gets you on board even when she doesn't have a patronage mill of jobs at her disposal.  Beth is the union leader that Unity fears because she is that good at what she does.

LIVE BLOGGING FROM NOVEMBER DA (Sorry for any errors-Updated and cleaned up a little)

A slow train ride so I am a little late.

President's Report

I got here when Mulgrew was talking a bit about the Friedrichs US Supreme Court case and our opposition to the Court overturning the agency fee shop.

Buffalo
Stated Ed Commissioner Elia has abrogated collective bargaining agreement in five receivership schools. What happened to Taylor Law saying contract stays in effect until new one is negotiated? Imagine if 2015 receivership law was in effect when Bloomberg was mayor.

Albany
Problem over ESL services.

Eva Moskowitz
Caught suspending students. Much evidence that her "got to go" list is in all of her schools and not just one. Eva now saying her schools give a safe alternative learning environment compared to public schools.

Oversize Kindergarten Classes
Any class with 26, teacher gets an extra prep.
For 27 in a K class, teacher gets a sub, ATR or Para for half a day.
For 28, teacher gets full time help.

Teacher Union Day
Awards for "schools in action" who did great political action.

Leroy Barr Staff Director's Report
100% attendance at DA have a celebration after the meeting.

Memorial service for Alice Holloway, a District Rep who recently passed away, will be held soon.

Question Period
Q What are we doing about abusive principals.
A Try to resolve it and then put principal into the needs improvement category. UFT Chapter advocacy is working as we are building strong chapters. There will always be abusive principals. Important to have consultation committee. We put pressure from inside and outside.

Q What is the difference between PROSE school and UFT school
A 126 Prose schools is kind of like a five year SBO and there are other possibilities schools can do that go beyond contract. 3 schools have four day work week. Longer teaching day in those schools. 65% UFT have to vote to go into PROSE.

Q What is going on with Campbell Brown anti-tenure lawsuit.
A We are going to NY State Court of Appeal on our motion to dismiss.

Q Common Core survey too complex.
A SED review of common core. Working on it with NYSUT.

Q Are metal detectors coming out of schools? Multiple knives and guns found recently in school.
A Process to bring in or remove metal detectors is being worked on.  Need a thoughtful process.

Q What are we doing for ATRS?
A Some schools don't welcome ATRS. Treat them as members of school in every way while they are there. ATR pool shrinking.

Q MOSL is subjective for grading teachers.
A Tests have overturned ratings when principal gave 0 points for observations. Tests can't be sole criteria in teacher ratings. We have 700 ineffective ratings. We had 2,000 unsatisfactory ratings under Bloomberg. Change definition of what student learning is. It cannot be just a test.
Some ratings being reevaluated.

Motion Period
Unity and MORE both had separate resolutions supporting Buffalo teachers who could be terminated without any due process because of new state receivership law. Mulgrew suggested we work together to try and reconcile the two motions.  As they were lengthy, MORE suggested we withdraw our motion now so we can work together with Unity to try to come up with a bipartisan resolution we could all support. Unity people agreed.

Resolution saying we want a moratorium on Eva Moskowitz opening up new schools until the Success Academy discipline and retention policies are investigated was added to the agenda and later the meeting was extended a few minutes so it could pass enthusiastically and unanimously.

Special Orders of Business
Resolution opposing Friedrichs carried with an amendment I am sorry I didn't catch because I was working on the Buffalo motion with Mindy Rosier from MORE and two others from Unity.

Resolution to celebrate 1960 strike. It carried unanimously.

Resolution on climate change and TRS so we can mitigate risk posed by climate change in our investment portfolio. A consultant would be hired for this.  This carried.

Resolution supporting Chicago Dyett High School coalition having a voice in the future of their neighborhood's last open enrollment high school carried unanimously.

Resolution on supporting New York City's initiative to ensure all students achieve literacy in the primary grades carried with an amendment supporting experienced reading teachers.

(I didn't like this one because saying all children will be literate by second grade is kind of next to impossible to achieve and sets us up for failure when it doesn't happen.)

Resolution on all students in NYC having a computer science class by 2025 was the last one on the agenda and this also overwhelmingly was endorsed with an amendment to include adult learners and not just K-12 students.

(I thought the computer science resolution was total nonsense as waiting ten years to get every NYC school kid a computer science class is way too long.  They should all have a course in computers by now.  Giving the Department of Education a decade to accomplish this is ridiculous.  I tried to speak against but President Mulgrew went back to his old ways of letting a couple of Unity operatives make motions to call for the end of debate before anyone could speak against the resolutions.  I guess I have lost a step while being away from the DA for a year as I didn't call any points of order on this.)

SCORE ONE FOR RANDI'S HILLARY ENDORSEMENT BUT I AM STILL NOT CONVINCED

Hillary Clinton recently made a factual remark  about charter schools that is causing some controversy.  This is from Politico:

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sounded less like a decades-long supporter of charter schools over the weekend and more like a teachers union president when she argued that most of these schools "don't take the hardest-to-teach kids, or, if they do, they don't keep them."

The right wing press is all over the comment with the Wall Street Journal and New York Post blasting Clinton. The American Federation of Teachers backed Clinton for president early on. AFT President Randi Weingarten is now defending Hillary's statement. Here is what Randi said:

"Hillary Clinton looks at the evidence. That's what she did here, " Weingarten told POLITICO.  She called out that many charters don't take the hardest-to-teach kids or don't keep those with academic or behavioral issues."

Later, the Politico piece quotes the President of the National Education Association who is also supporting Hillary.

It all sounds good, right?

Well, maybe not as the Politico article goes on by outlining Hillary's long time advocacy for charter schools. Her campaign is then quoted as saying that Hillary has "been a strong supporter of both public charter schools and an unflinching advocate for traditional public schools."

Can you have it both ways?  Deciphering Hillary's real education positions, and Randi's sometimes for that matter, looks like a difficult task.

Some of you think it's all about what the donors want and this is just a bone thrown to the Democratic Party public school base. I get that cynicism but perhaps there's something more here.

CAN OPT-OUT REALLY DOUBLE WITHOUT NYC SUPPORT?

I have as much respect and enthusiasm as a human being could possibly have for the opt-out from standardized testing movement that has spread throughout the state. However, if the movement is to truly succeed, it would be quite helpful if the New York City union, the United Federation of Teachers, would get behind opt-out. The UFT is the largest teacher local in the country as well as the state.

Opt-out supporters will not have an easy time meeting a goal I saw online of doubling this past spring's total of 220,000 students who refused to take exams. UFT support would certainly be welcomed. Opt-out is weaker in so called progressive NYC compared to much of the rest of the state.

New York City has now become in many ways the standard bearer for almost a kind of status-quo unionism. The UFT leadership is enabling the people who are trying to destroy us by still trying to play the appeasement game. Our leadership continues to call only for modifications of the test and punish policies that are killing public education.

State testing policy needs a complete ovehaul. Student exam results should not count for any part of a teacher's rating and should only be used for diagnostic purposes for students. Strong opt-out numbers give parents, students and teachers leverage in the battle to save the public schools as we know them.

The UFT membership needs to pressure the leadership to change their thinking. If the UFT was on board, I believe opt-out would have a much better chance of success.

ARE NYC TEACHER WORKING CONDITIONS RETURNING TO 1959?

It is hard to believe that it was 55 years ago today on November 7, 1960 that the newly formed United Federation of Teachers launched an illegal and generally successful strike. We salute the brave teachers who pulled off that job action.  A few are still active in the union today.  If they are honest, they should be appalled by what is occurring in the schools.

As I was reading the NY Teacher earlier today, I noticed a letter from retired teacher Irene Bernstein-Pechmeze, who was working in NYC before the UFT came together in 1960.  Here is what she said about the working conditions before there was a single union for New York City Teachers.

Many principals, whose pre-UFT powers were basically unchecked, ran their schools as if they were plantation owners.

Their "pets" were placed in virtually lifetime comp time jobs with no rotation of service required and vacancies were not obliged to be posted so other staff members might have an opportunity to fill the spot.  There was no rotation of assignment in classes either.

In 1959, prep periods were not required.  There was no rotation of building assignments.

How many teachers currently work in schools where they are too afraid to dare question the principal so that many of the aforementioned working conditions have returned even though we have a union?

I agree with the retired teacher that we can thank the union for better salaries and a Tax Deferred Annuity program.  However when it comes to working conditions, we are going backwards rapidly.

PER SESSION RETRO GOES BACK TO 2009

UFT members are again receiving bonus payments from the last round of collective bargaining covering 2009-2011. This time it is for per session (overtime) work done since November 2009 where we were paid at a lower rate.

This money that other city workers were paid back in those years we are getting in bits and pieces between now and 2020.  The per session arrears was issued on November 2, 2015. That date is over a month after the contractual pay date of October 1, 2015 but the UFT doesn't hold the Department of Education/city to much these days.  Payments should go back to November 2009 for any per session a UFT member may have done since that time.

Since I did very little per session over the last six years, I wasn't expecting much and was not disappointed.  I checked the pay stub on Monday online and it looked accurate.

Yesterday, the checks came in the mail for my wife and me (We do so little per session so we never bothered with per session direct deposit). The pay stub looked much more accurate and straightforward compared to the regular stub from October 15 where the numbers were all over the place and I still can't quite figure it out.

Have people had similar experiences with their per session arrears?

LATEST POLL NUMBERS HAVE MAYOR UNDERWATER

Mayor Bill de Blasio is in negative territory in recent polls.  The latest Wall Street Journal-NBC-Marist poll has him at 38% approval versus 58% disapproval.  The perceived spike in crime is his biggest problem.

On public schools, the mayor isn't doing very well either.  Last week's Quinnipiac poll had him at 35% positive and 49% negative on handling the public schools.  Chancellor Carmen Farina is at 34% approval with 34% disapproving.  Other city officials had positive overall ratings.  The mayor even gets negative grades on the city budget.

For the UFT, the strategy of celebrating the schools does not seem to be working.  Happy talk when the reality seems to be that not much has improved under this mayor or chancellor does not seem to be a smart way forward.  The union might want to consider pressuring the mayor to actually improve the teaching and learning conditions instead of letting Farina do "Bloomberg lite".

Teachers I talk to think conditions are as bad, worse or only marginally improved under de Blasio-Farina.  Schools aren't closed now but receivership is just as punishing in many ways. What do you think?

The good news for de Blasio is that no potential challenger exists right now who could beat him according to the Quinnipiac poll.

SPEAKER RYAN AGREES WITH UNITY CAUCUS BY SAYING NO TO PAID LEAVES FOR PARENTS

New House Speaker Paul Ryan would fit in nicely at the UFT/DOE as he told Fox yesterday that he is against paid leaves for new parents just like our city and UFT leaders in NYC

MORE-UFT feels differently as the city has plenty of money.  The city owes us money that most other city employees received back from 2008-2010 that active and newly retired UFT members will have to wait until 2020 to receive in full.

At last month's Delegate Assembly, you may recall that MORE UFT presidential candidate Jia Lee introduced a resolution for the city or the union to make available zero interest secured loans to our members who are out on unpaid leaves so they could have some money now.  The security would be the money they are owed in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020.  The UFT leadership from the majority Unity Caucus shot the resolution down.

It is interesting to note that the UFT's thinking on paid maternity leave (and paid leaves for members on sick leave who are out of sick bank days), when they had to show their hand, is pretty much in line with Republican Speaker Ryan.

SOME CAUSE FOR HOPE FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION IN THIS PAST WEEK'S NEWS

As I'm trying to catch up on the news for the week in the midst of a fairly busy schedule, I noticed something a little odd: some of the headlines in New York and nationally provide some reasons to be optimistic.

Carrol Burris has an excellent interpretation on what she calls the "flop" in national test scores that were released this week. She wrote on Tuesday in the Valerie Strauss Answer Sheet Blog in the Washington Post:

Today's National Assessment of Educational Progress score flop should come as no surprise.  You cannot implement terrible education policies and expect that achievement will increase.

NAEP is a truth teller.  There is no NAEP test prep industry, or high-stakes consequence that promotes teaching to the test.  NAEP is what it was intended to be--a national report card by which we can gauge our national progress in educating our youth.

During the 1970s and '80s, at the height of school desegregation efforts, the gap in scores between our nation's white and black students dramatically narrowed.  You could see the effects of good, national policy reflected in NAEP gains.

The gaps have remained, however, and this year, the ever so slight narrowing of gaps between white and black students is due to drops in the scores of white students--hardly a civil rights victory.

It is difficult to see any real growth across the board since 2011, with math scores backsliding to 2009 levels, eighth-grade reading flat for four years, and a small uptick in fourth-grade reading that is not a significant increase from 2013, which in turn was not significantly different from 2011.

Considering that the rationale for the Common Core State Standards initiative was low NAEP proficiency rates, it would appear that the solution of tough standards and tough tests is not the great path forward after all.  For those who say it is too early to use NAEP to judge Common Core, I would remind them that in 2013, Education Secretary Arne Duncan used NAEP increases to do a victory dance about the states that already implemented the Core at that time-- and I never heard any reformer complain.

Burris goes on to conclude:

The very folks who gleefully hold public schools accountable based on scores, evade using them to evaluate their own pet policies.  For those of us who had first row seats to the disruption and chaos they have caused, we have one simple message--no excuses.

Speaking of anti-public school reformers, it wasn't such a good week for Success Academy charter school Queen Eva Moskowitz either with the media no longer giving her glowing coverage. The NY Times exposed a "Got to Go" list for students who needed to be counseled out of one of Eva's schools.  It looks like some of the information against Eva is coming from the inside.  Will her deep pocketed friends save her? At least some in the press aren't buying her so called education miracle any longer.

As for our anti-public school Governor Andrew Cuomo, his political fortunes on education and many other issues just keep falling. A recent poll covered at Perdido Street School has Cuomo's approval rating on education at 68% negative to 27% positive.  Overall he is 18 points on the negative side. The UFT and NYSUT should be moving to go after this very unpopular governor now.

We at ICE are not just here to gloat about the misery of people who have done so much harm to public education.  The folks we think of as the good guys are speaking up on behalf of public education.

Rock group R.E.M. manager- public education advocate Bertis Downs wrote a piece for Valerie Strauss the other day on how a high needs district in Georgia is moving ahead.  Bertis stated:

I mean, really, if this over-testing, high-stakes culture is really such a great idea, wouldn't reformers want this environment for their own children?  Wouldn't they push the elite private schools their children attend to adopt those "innovative reforms" too?  The fact that they don't is telling.  these are not educationally sound ideas, and reformers know it, even as they call these policies "innovative" as they push them to the public.  Do they think we don't know better?  Of course the schools exempt from the public mandates don't nurture this absurd over-testing culture, especially the ones labeled "innovative" by those passing the laws. Balderdsh, by any other name....

Our family lives in Athens, Georgia, a community that - like most communities - values public education, and our kids go to our local public schools.  Our school district has been innovating, really innovating in some pretty creative ways, some of which might even sound old-fashioned or simple.  I actually prefer the word "intuitive."  Especially for the past six years, we are grateful for the leadership of Phil Lanoue, who was named 2015 National Superintendent of the Year.

Lanoue's prescription is not a panacea for education's ills but this is what Lanoue said concerning standardized testing:

You can't solve social inequities on a test," he said, speaking about the standardized test-based reform efforts that have taken root around the country.  It's ludicrous.

That sounds positive to me.

He also tries to feed kids both in and out of school.

Who else is against the test based madness that has taken over our schools?  Why that would be Jia Lee, the teacher/activist chosen by the Movement of Rank and File Educators (MORE) to challenge Michael Mulgrew for UFT President.  As President, Mulgrew gave us test based evaluations to cover 40% of our annual teacher evaluation. Jia has fought high stakes testing by opting herself and her son out of the state tests.  Her candidacy was announced at the MORE State of the Union-State of the Schools conference last Saturday.  She has my support for sure.

Endorsements have come in from NYC Educator, Ed Notes, DOE Nuts and others.

All in all, not the usual bad news, worse news and worst news in education this week.

ATRS SHOULD TELL DEPARTMENT OF LABOR ABOUT NOT BEING ALLOWED TO VOTE IN UFT CHAPTER ELECTIONS

This message went out to Absent Teacher Reserves on email and was sent to the ATR Alliance on Facebook. Everyone who could not vote or run in chapter elections should come forward and tell the Department of Labor. If you have any questions or concerns, contact us at ICEUFT@gmail.com

Hi all-

Last week I met with Mr. Robert Rennard, an investigator from the federal Department of Labor, about our UFT Absent Teacher Reserve 2015 Chapter Election Complaint. Papers were filed officially on Thursday, October 22, 2015. The DOL is now conducting an investigation of the UFT chapter election procedures and needs actual ATRs to tell them about being disenfranchised in the UFT chapter elections.

If you sent us the name of the school you were assigned to on May 4, 201...5 along with your name because you were not allowed to vote in the chapter election or were not informed about the election or you were not allowed to run for chapter office, now is the time to provide the evidence to the investigators!

Mr. Rennard and his partner on the case, Ms. Jaclyn Nunez, can be reached at (646) 264-3190. They will ask you a bunch of questions about the school you were in on May 4 and how the chapter election was run. All you need to do is tell them the truth about how ATRs are treated as second class citizens who are denied representatives of our own choosing by our union. This really has very little, if anything, directly to do with the Department of Education.

If you didn't get your name and school to me before the complaint was filed, you can still call the Department of Labor to add your name and the school you were in on May 4 to the list if you were not allowed to vote in the chapter election, didn't know about the chapter election and/or could not run for chapter office.

I have done all that I can do to get this moving and now it's up to the ATRs to support the four of us who started this protest in April with the UFT, went then to the AFT and now have appealed to the federal government.

Regards,

James Eterno

UFT EXPLAINS COST OF ATRS; ATR DEPARTMENT OF LABOR CHAPTER ELECTION COMPLAINT MOVES FORWARD

The email below was sent from UFT personnel specialist Amy Arundell to an ATR. As some of us have said in the past, the reason ATR's are not hired for permanent placement, particularly in smaller schools, has much to do with most of us having seniority so we would have bumping rights over junior teachers in an excess situation.  Our high salaries are not added to school budgets as Amy illustrates. An ATR who is hired at a school still costs more than a new teacher, who would lower the school's average salary, however the difference is not great.  In the end, many veteran ATRs are not getting regular positions because we have institutional memory.  To put it another way, many of us won't say how high when asked to jump by administrators.

The ATR agreement in the current contract expires after the 2015-16 school year ends and must be renegotiated to continue.  I would argue that the UFT should let it expire to get rid of the provision that says that an ATR who misses two mandated interviews has automatically resigned.  Tenure is irrelevant and interviews can be missed for legitimate reasons.  I heard of someone who was sick for one recently.  If that person misses a second interview, is that teacher out?  This provision has to go. Also, the weakened tenure hearings for certain ATR's also needs to end.

The UFT could just sit and allow the 2014 provisions to sunset by doing nothing. We would revert to the previous contract. I predict they will continue the 2014 agreement and keep treating ATRs like third class UFT members. I hope I'm wrong.  I would like for the union's leaders to at least ask the ATRs how they feel about their contract.

Meanwhile, I spoke at length to Department of Labor Investigator Robert Rennard last week about our ATR election complaint.  It is now up to the ATRs to tell the DOL their stories about how they could not vote in Chapter elections in the spring.  Please email me at ICEUFT@gmail.com for more information on moving ahead with this.

Amy's Email

As I explained in the meeting:...
If a school hires an ATR permanently, the MOA states that any school that selects an ATR for a permanent placement will not have that ATR’s salary included for the purpose of average teacher salary calculation.

If a school utilizes a person from the ATR pool to 1) fill a vacancy as a provisional hire; or 2) cover a long term leave or absence for someone who is not on payroll, the school must staff the person, which means the person costs the school the average salary for the school for that fiscal year.

If a school has a long term leave/absence and the person who is being covered is using his/her days, the DOE allows a person from the ATR pool to remain at a school and cover that leave without the person from the ATR pool having to be staffed at the school (without going on the school’s Table of Organization.)

Everything you have listed below are the typical types of misinformation and “urban myths” out there around school budgets. What I have provided here is the policy of the DOE (in alignment with our MOA). Anyone who is told something other than what I have detailed are welcome to report this to my office and we will follow up and clarify with the school.

Amy

Amy Arundell
Director of Personnel and Special Projects
United Federation of Teachers

MORE-NEW ACTION ANNOUNCE JIA LEE AS 2016 UFT CANDIDATE FOR UFT PRESIDENT

The MORE-NEW ACTION electoral coalition announced today in Brooklyn that Jia Lee will be its candidate for UFT President in 2016. The announcement was made as part of MORE's State of the Union-State of the schools conference.

Jia teaches special education at the Earth School where she also serves as the school's UFT Chapter Leader. In addition to her teaching and union activism, Jia is a parent and leader in the opt out from testing movement.  She will be challenging Unity's Michael Mulgrew who has been UFT President since 2009. The UFT election will take place in the spring of 2016.

For anyone who wants an introduction to Jia, take a look at this video where she testifies before the US Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on the re-authorization of No Child Left Behind.

The next generation of UFT activists at the MORE conference

4 UFT MEMBERS APPEAL TO DEPARTMENT OF LABOR ON BEHALF OF ATRs

Four of us have filed a complaint with the Federal Department of Labor claiming that the UFT Chapter election process is unfair to Absent Teacher Reserves.  The UFT made a ridiculous rule this past spring that compelled ATRs to vote in important Chapter elections in the school they happened to be rotated into on May 4, 2015 and probably knew nothing about.  ATRs also could only run for Chapter office in the school they happened to be in on May 4.

We thought the process was completely unfair and effectively disenfranchised the ATRs so we contacted the Department of Labor. The DOL Office of Labor and Management Standards has jurisdiction over union elections. They informed us that we must exhaust all internal remedies before filing an official complaint with them so on April 12th we filed a pre-election protest with the UFT to try to have the rules amended so ATRs could have full democratic rights within the union.

It was no surprise that our protest was turned down by the Executive Board that is dominated by Unity Caucus, the group that makes its members sign an oath that they will support the positions of the caucus in public and union forums.  Unity is led by Michael Mulgrew and Leroy Barr.  Barr wrote the answer to our complaint and presented it to the Executive Board on May 4th.  No Unity member would dare go against Barr. We lost the vote.

We next appealed on May 12 to the American Federation of Teachers where again we didn't have much hope for success with former UFT President Randi Weingarten at the helm but we had to exhaust our internal remedies.  The AFT didn't help the ATRs either but they did issue a report on September 29th.  That gave us a month from that date to appeal to the Department of Labor.

I personally had to think deeply about appealing as I respect the union and would rather settle matters internally but if there is no way to get any justice within the UFT, what choice did the four of us have other than to go to the DOL?

Yesterday, I met with an investigator from the DOL and filed a complaint.  This will not be an easy case to win as unions are given wide latitude by the federal government as to how they set up elections but there are rules and the UFT is covered under federal labor law so we have a chance.

Thankfully, our calls the last few days for ATRs to come forward if they were not permitted to vote or run in Chapter Elections or they were never informed about the May Chapter Elections produced a fairly healthy response.  As of now, over twenty ATRs have come forward to add their names.

If anyone else has knowledge of ATRs who could not vote last spring, get the information to ICEUFT@gmail.com. We'll see where it goes.

WE NEED INFORMATION FROM ATRS WHO COULDN'T VOTE IN CHAPTER ELECTIONS

Four UFT members who all signed onto a protest to the UFT and AFT on behalf of Absent Teacher Reserves have agreed to go to the federal Department of Labor to try to get justice for ATRs in UFT Chapter Elections.

We need ATRs to now step forward and just give us their name, the name of the school they were in on May 4, 2015 and confirmation on one or both of these points:

1-You were not informed about your Chapter's Election last spring.
2-You did not get a chance to vote in the Chapter Election or run for office.

The more people who give us their name and school from last May, the more possible leverage we could have.

You are complaining against the UFT and not the DOE here. We're asking people to step forward now.

We need this information by Thursday (tomorrow), if possible, as we want to get as much as we can to the Department of Labor as soon as we can.

Just email at ICEUFT@gmail.com

Thanks.

IS DEVELOPING THE NEW UNSATISFACTORY?

Many of us warned the UFT leadership that we were going into uncharted territory with the new teacher evaluation system.  Before the UFT agreed to allow former State Education Commissioner John King to arbitrate the matter, we tried to tell the union's leadership to fight as nothing would go forward without union negotiations.  Now that we have finished two years under the new evaluation system and are again negotiating an even newer one that will probably not be an improvement, the Department of Education is setting dangerous precedents under the evaluation system that is euphemistically called Advance. I was surprised to find out recently, when a teacher called me to protest, that there are teachers being charged under State Education Law with incompetence after receiving two ratings of developing. I recall the UFT telling us that developing was equal to satisfactory.

Developing is not the lowest of the four possible ratings teachers can receive in Advance.  The four ratings are highly effective, effective, developing and ineffective.  Only an ineffective rating can be appealed.  Developing couldn't be challenged because according to the union the only difference between a developing and an effective rating was that the developing teacher had to have a Teacher Improvement Plan.

A tenured teacher with two ineffective ratings in a row is presumed to be incompetent under the new system.  The burden of proof is on that tenured teacher to prove they are not incompetent in order keep their job in a state dismissal hearing. To put it bluntly, that burden is next to impossible for teachers to meet, particularly if a Peer Validator agrees with the principal's judgement.

According to President Michael Mulgrew, speaking at last week's Delegate Assembly meeting, 30% of the teachers rated ineffective in 2013-2014 (year one) had Peer Validators say they were not ineffective when they observed them in 2014-2015 (year two). These lucky few will hold onto the rights they always had as tenured teachers, meaning the burden of proof will stay with the DOE in disciplinary hearings.  The unlucky 70%, hundreds of tenured teachers, will now be presumed to be incompetent.  Most will probably soon be terminated unless the new evaluation system doesn't hold up in court.

But what about teachers rated developing the last two years?  The high school teacher who called me told me that the New York State United Teachers' attorney said that the DOE was violating the spirit of the State Education Law by charging someone with incompetence who never received an ineffective rating. The DOE is saying there is nothing in the law that says they can't charge a teacher rated developing with incompetence.  Yes, the burden of proof stays with the DOE but they do not appear to be interested in justice as much as backing up principals no matter what and instilling fear in teachers.

It would seem to me the DOE is continuing the Bloomberg-Klein era policy of just throwing tons of charges at teachers to see what will stick.  Since hearing officers are aware they will be thrown off the panel at the end of the year if they don't please the DOE, very few teachers are not found guilty of something. Usually teachers end up fined and/or suspended.  Basically, the process, as some have relayed to me, is a legalized form of extortion.  In addition, teachers found guilty of something, even something very minor, are usually removed from their school assignment and become Absent Teacher Reserves.  Administrators can get rid of a teacher with two developing ratings if this disciplinary process is upheld.

Has anyone else heard of developing teachers ending up in disciplinary hearings charged with incompetence?

IS YOUR NOTICE OF SALARY ADJUSTMENT ACCURATE?

Has anyone yet figured out if their salary adjustment is correct?

Below is page 4 of my Salary Adjustment Notice from 2014 for the mini arrears for the 2013 and 2014 1% raises.  Notice how in 2014 there is a a number for what was received and then a figure for the actual entitlement and then the difference. The numbers work.

Then look below that at the October 15, 2015 Salary Adjustment Notice from Payroll Portal.  Notice the figures under Total Amount for Actual Paid and Entitlement don't add up.  Nothing is right. Can any of us know if we were paid the right amount? This looks like a bookkeeping error but they had over a year to figure this out. I am not accusing anyone of malicious intent. I just want to see correct numbers like we saw in the past.

Is the UFT too busy doing happy talk with the DOE to notice the mistakes?  I have confirmed the error with other members. 

For anyone who is looking to view their Salary Adjustment, just go to DOE Payroll Portal.  Then, put in your DOE email and password.  Then go to the left side on the Payroll Portal main page and log into Employee Self Service by putting in DOE email and password again along with your Employee ID Number.  This number is not your File Number.  It is found on pay stubs. Ask your Payroll Secretary if not sure.

When you are finally logged in, click on Payroll Register.  The next screen should say Employee Information.  Click on Pedagogue Payroll and then there should be a few options at the bottom. Click on Salary Adjustment to see your arrears. Mine as you can see is a mess.

I have gone to the UFT website to fill out an inquiry form. I suggest everyone with any kind of issue do the same.  We will have an update when we hear their response.

2014 Notice of Salary Adjustment

2015 Salary Adjustment Notice

MULGREW'S UNITY MAJORITY TELLS PARENTS AND SICK MEMBERS ON UNPAID LEAVES TO FEND FOR THEMSELVES

The Unity Caucus is Michael Mulgrew's faction of the UFT.  They are the majority political party in the union.  At the first Delegate Assembly of the 2015-16 school year Unity proved beyond the shadow of any doubt that making cheap political points is more important to them than helping UFT members in need when they voted down a resolution that would have provided loans for members on unpaid leave up to the amount of retroactive money someone is owed in 2015.

The main rival political group in the union is called MORE which stands for the Movement of Rank and File Educators (full disclosure: ICE supports MORE and I am a ICE-MORE member). MORE will run together in a coalition with another established opposition group called New Action Caucus to challenge Mulgrew-Unity in the 2016 general UFT election.

When MORE leader Jia Lee rose last night at the Delegate Assembly (the highest policy making body in the UFT) to raise a motion for the UFT to find a way to provide interest free loans to members in need who are on unpaid restoration of health, maternity or child care leaves, Unity decided they would rather score extremely cheap political points and voted against helping their own members in need.

There is a loophole in the 2014 contract that says someone has to be "continuously employed" to receive the retroactive money from 2009-2011 that other city workers received in those years that UFT members will receive piecemeal between now and 2020.  Our employer, the Department of Educations-City of New York, interprets continuously employed to mean on payroll.

Our friend John Elfrank, longtime Chapter Leader of Murry Bergtraum High School, is recovering from surgery and on unpaid leave.  He came to MORE and told us that it is unconscionable that because someone is on an unpaid leave that they should be told they have to wait for at least two years for the next payout date in 2017 to get retroactive money they worked for from 2009-11.  John is taking this up with the Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission after being denied money from the Department of Education and denied support from the UFT.  He asked MORE's leadership if we would write something for the union to loan people on unpaid leave their retro.

MORE's Steering Committee said yes and asked me to write something up. I had help and inspiration from MORE's Mike Schirtzer, Julie Cavanagh, and Jia Lee along with Elfrank and we wrote the following resolution for the DA.

DA Resolution on Immediate Retroactive Money for UFT Members on Unpaid Leave for Maternity, Child Care and/or Restoration of Health

October 14, 2015

WHEREAS, the United Federation of Teachers has a long history of supporting members in need, and

WHEREAS, the 2014 contract did not cover members on unpaid leave for lump sum payments stemming from the 2009-2011 round (arrears) until they are back on payroll or retire, and

WHEREAS, the City of New York ended the 2015 fiscal year with a $5.9 billion surplus, and

WHEREAS, the first 12.5% of the arrears is scheduled to be paid on October 15, 2015, and

WHEREAS, many of our sisters and brothers on unpaid leaves who will not be receiving the arrears for at least two years are having financial hardships as they are not on payroll, be it therefore

RESOLVED, that the union will immediately petition the city to make no interest loans available to UFT members on unpaid leaves who are not receiving their arrears, and be it further

RESOLVED, that if the city refuses to make these loans available, that the UFT will provide immediate, interest free loans to any member on unpaid leave who applies for one up to the amount of arrears the member on unpaid leave is owed as of October 1, 2015, and be it further

RESOLVED, that if the city refuses to make these loans available and the union does not have the means to provide the loans, the Union will arrange with Amalgamated Bank or another labor friendly institution to make low interest loans available to UFT members on unpaid leave who are not receiving their arrears and the UFT, not the borrowers, will pay the interest.

People in MORE made some edits and we thought this would be something that would be passed as a humanitarian gesture for mothers or fathers on childcare leaves and members who are on restoration of health leaves. MORE leader Jia Lee, a mother herself, who is Chapter Leader from the Earth School, agreed to raise the resolution at the October DA.

At the DA meeting, President Michael Mulgrew filibustered for about an hour and a half talking about how wonderful our schools are and how great the union is to have gotten us the retro money (see previous post). He talked so much there was not time for much else. The DA did vote to extend the meeting for ten minutes to have a new motion period.

Jia rose to present the MORE motion for next month's agenda.  DA rules require that a majority approve for it to go on next month's agenda.  Delegate Mary Ahern raised an objection saying this rule violates Robert's Rules of Order.  That is a discussion for another post.

Then a member of the majority Unity Caucus rose to make a point of information asking if MORE was violating Robert's Rules because the resolution was printed on a MORE handout and advertised for MORE on the back of the paper. It also didn't have anything noting that it came from a union printer. The union's parliamentarian said these issues were not covered in Robert's Rules of Order so Jia was able to continue.

She talked about John Elfrank's illness and mothers in her school who could all use the money that they already worked for.  She noted the city's $5.9 billion surplus and how the resolution was crafted in a way so these would be loans. (The loans would be secured as the member's future retro could be collateral.)  She cited Mulgrew who previously said that medical distress should not mean financial distress.

This resolution is a no-brainer if ever there was one.  If the city says no, then the union would loan the money to members on unpaid leave who need it.  If the UFT doesn't have the funds, they would secure them from a labor friendly bank and pay the interest.

Unfortunately, the Unity majority would have none of this.  The Queens UFT maternity liaison rose to speak against the resolution.  She gave a cold-hearted speech that was booed once saying she tells mothers who are going on childcare leave they must consider their situation when taking such a leave.  They are making a choice but they will be made whole on retroactive money from a magical chest that will open again in two years.  (She didn't bother to talk about those on medical leave.)  She concluded by saying she didn't want the union to be involved in making loans.

For political reasons, the Unity majority, who all sign an oath saying they will support caucus positions in public and union forums, voted down the resolution easily.  There is sufficient patronage in all expense paid trips to conventions, after-school and full time union jobs that virtually all go to Unity members to keep them in line. They weren't going to go against their in house maternity expert.

There were many new Delegates who attended yesterday's meeting who will probably never return. Some came to Jia afterwards and told her they couldn't believe the union would turn down loaning money to members in need.  I wasn't at all surprised because caucus loyalty trumps good policy in the UFT all the time.  The union could not let an opposition leader get credit for sponsoring something this important.

Those Delegates probably will never come back but they should.

DELEGATE ASSEMBLY REPORT (unabridged live blogging)

Mulgrew's President's Report

National
Debate about issues among Democrats last night. Good to see it is a national issue to put big pharmacy companies in check.

State
UFT in Albany testifying that receivership for schools is a bad policy. Janella Hinds (VP HS) was our person there. It goes back to Bloomberg closing schools.  Teachers in high needs schools are not bad yrachrrs if all kids don't pass tests.

Two Common Core commissions in Albany. A teacher is on governor's commission and UFT on State Ed Department commission. Some parts of Common Core are not developmentally appropriate. UFT wants commitment from state on developmentally appropriate testing for English language learners and kids with IEP'S (special ed). We need professional comments online when State Ed Department site for comments goes live.

SED must write regulations on new law. SED has approved emergency regulations. Board of Regents agrees there need to be changes. Teacher privacy regulation back. Teacher growth scores will always have outliers at the top and bottom.  Can't measure growth at top and bottom. State agreed. New Ed Commissioner agreed to put something in. We are working well with her. UFT still advocating for certain changes. 100 teachers being contacted as outliers in NYC.

UFT needs to negotiate with DOE to agree on a new evaluation system by Nov 15 or ask for a waiver from the state.  We are following law and negotiating.

City
War not over. These are just battles. 4000% increase in legal bills for UFT under Bloomberg. Small group trying to make us at will employees. Bloomberg was angry and signed contracts to make sure city had no surplus. Bloomberg said teachers would not get retroactive pay. Bloomberg helped us make friends in the community.

New mayor took over and realized money was tied up. Agreed to get it sorted out.

We got a large financial package. Never thought we could get this done. First installment of retro pay is tomorrow. No entitlement to retroactivity. UFT made sure people would be made whole. Mulgrew tells Delegates not to answer individual questions on their retro calculations. Everyone's package is different. UFT has specialists.

City said those on leave were not continously employed. We fought that and people will be made whole after they are back on payroll. We lowered rate on UFT dues for retro check. TDA: If you are contributing 10% into TDA, more money will go into TDA from retro. Everyone wants to know about their own calculation. It is a compound growth formula. 8% more each day.  Next check the money will be growing. Per session gets 8% on it also.

It will keep going up until 2018 when the full 8% is in our pay. Members need to talk to trained UFT specialists.  Tell members to fill in inquiry form.

Oversize class grievances down dramatically.  Huge financial boost in school aid from Albany. Close to 6000 new UFT members working in schools. Need to get Contracts for Excellence money from state from Campaign for Fiscal Equity case.  Settlement said funding should be based on need. State owes us over $3 billion. Class sizes lowered citywide but individual schools still have Oversize classes.

Same amount of reorganization grievances as in past. Half have been settled already.  Superintendents told to fix situations. This will free up grievance time for other matters.

UFT wants to retain 80% of new teachers.  Some new teachers have already quit. New teacher meetings in every borough. UFT met with over 1,000 of them. We should have committees to help them.

Building chapters is another initiative for this year and we need to celebrate schools.

Labor Education Institute. Designed curriculum. Delegates can take classes.

New battle. NEA, AFT, SEIU and AFSCME together to fight Friedrichs Supreme Court case. Many of our enemies now taking on Chicago and Los Angeles.  Cuomo approval down in 20's on education. Funding is where we will battle. We can take on Eva Moscowitz too.

Reforms failed. People understand that reforms don't work. Destabilizing unions a main goal of reformers. Reformers in big battle want to get rid of unions.

Friedrichs is scary hail Mary pass from reformers. Ten teachers in Cal. don't want to pay agency fee. Small group trying to destroy middle class. Organized labor is standing up to the few who want to destroy us.

Lawyers used legal maneuver to get Friedrichs on Supreme Court agenda. Teachers do not have to join UFT. Agency fee paid by non members for union services. Goal of Friedrichs is to bankrupt unions. 4-4 right now. Scalia on fence. Original decision called Abood was 9-0 back in 70s in favor of the agency fee shop.

Must educate our members and then educate public. A loss would turn country into right to work nation as unions could do nothing but organize if unions lose the cas. In spite of this, we must celebrate our schools.

Leroy Bar did Staff Director's Report. Gave some dates for upcoming events.

Next DA is Thursday, Nov 12.

Questions
Q Is mandating online grading ok?
Mulgrew answer: No

Q Can retired teachers help in chapter building?
A Yes

Q Dental going up. Why?
A Dental and drugs going up. We are covering everything and don't turn people down.


Q Will District 75 be on Common Core panel?
A Federal law says testing must happen for all students. We are trying to change testing mandate in DC. D75 concerns are taken into account.

Q How can members express disguist with John King appointment as secretary of education?
A: Common Core in NY a debacle so he gets promoted to federal secretary of education.

Q Sean Ahern asked about Rikers teachers being outliers. Two incarcerated kids passed Regents last year so teachers were highly effective. Kids gone now.
A We have to change what learning means.  Acknowledged work Sean does at Rikers.

Q Teachers make sure services are provided. We need to be acknowledged.
A We need to celebrate what we do.


New motions. Had to extend for ten minutes.

Jia Lee earth school made a motion for the UFT to help secure loans for people on unpaid leave who are not getting retro.

Point of order on procedure. Turned down

Jia presented reso on people on leave getting retro loans interest free. Medical distress should not
mean financial distress. She mentioned mothers at her school on childcare leave who could use money now and our friend John self rank who is recovering from illness and is on unpaid restoration of health leave.

Union's maternity person for Queens said people who take a child care leave made a choice and are on their own. She added that the union shouldn't get involved in securing loans for members.

Unity voted it down by a wide margin.

Mulgrew said they would look at maternity issues in the next negotition.

Time ran out. I briefly edited tonight. Commentary is next.

CIVIL SERVICE NEWSPAPER COVERS UPCOMING UFT ELECTION

For those of you who are interested in changing the UFT, all of us will have our opportunity in 2016 as it is a UFT election year.  All of the citywide offices including President will be voted on in the spring.

The Chief Leader civil service weekly newspaper put in a full piece on the 2016 UFT election in the October 9 issue.  I was interviewed for the MORE-New Action joint slate which will challenge Michael Mulgrew and his Unity Caucus. Unity is the political party that has controlled the UFT since the 1960s.  Unity requires its members to be completely loyal to the leadership on every major issue or risk expulsion from the caucus and exile from the union gravy train that includes union paid trips to AFT/NYSUT conventions, after school union jobs and for the lucky few full time union positions.

If you want to change our union back into an organization that truly advocates for its members and public schools, now is the time to step forward and get involved to spread the word that there is a viable alternative to Michael Mulgrew and Unity.

I am personally looking forward to the upcoming election as the torch continues to be passed to a new generation of younger union activists. Veterans like me still have a valuable role to play but I will not be the candidate for President. An announcement on who will be the MORE-New Action challenger to Mulgrew will be coming this month. I will hopefully be nominated to run for some position and will keep working to transform the UFT back into a real trade union.