Speaker Sarah Shapiro has not yet arrived.
Minutes—approved
President’s Report—Mulgrew is not here 6:03
Staff Director’s Report—LeRoy Barr—2/15 CTE awards, CL training pt 3. 3/3 and 4, Para lunch 3/10, counselor conference 3/10—next EB 2/12
Questions
Mike Schirtzer—MORE—Wadleigh Secondary School, supported by community, CEC, against closing. CEC wrote Fariña. What are we doing to support school?
Dwayne Clark—Proposal is to eliminate Middle School for low register. UFT trying to fight back and not have it closed. Was meeting. Spoke of strategies. Will go to PEP. Elected officials involved. Goal is to get staff as well as parents, CEC active and aggressive, don’t like targeting. Didn’t like middle schools having only ones and twos, stacked deck. Tried adding 3 and 4s recently. Lots of underlying activism, targeting superintendent. Lack of support provided, will look at renewal plan. Was no continuity. We have other things in mind.
Greg Lundahl—long history, very vocal in community, Anthony Klug helped. Battle has been successful in past when we’ve gotten community toggle
Arthur Goldstein—MORE—Some people here know that my school and others are now giving midterms during this week, which is Regents week. Some schools are holding classes while they’re doing that, and while all English teachers are out of the building grading. It seems like Queens principals are having contests over how many things they can make their teachers juggle at one time.
Not too long ago, we graded our own Regents papers and the city didn’t need to pull our teachers out of the building or pay for who knows how many hours of per session. Then Merryl Tisch decided we must all be a bunch of crooks and forbade us from grading our own students on standardized tests.
I can understand why they might suspect dishonesty. The state lowers standards and declares Michael Bloomberg a genius, then raises them and says all the teachers must be incompetent.
A bright light, for me, was when Janella proposed we move grading back into our own schools. An even better move would be to remove the ban on us grading our own students. I’d argue that if we were not fit to grade our own students then none of us should ever been hired.
So my questions are whether we’ve made any progress toward placing grading in home schools, and also whether we might move to make the geniuses in Albany reconsider a regulation that stereotypes us as a bunch of crooks. Just because they are, it doesn’t follow that we are.
Janella Hinds—Should not have both education and assessment moving. Conversations in process. Believe it would be more economically sound to keep teachers in school. Will talk with state to see about this.
Jonathan Halabi—New Action—What role are we taking in chancellor’s search? Are we engaging? Are they listening?
Schoor—President has been involved. Will ask when he comes.
6:15—Mulgrew arrives
Having conversations—slim pickings for chancellor—not offering names, but telling them where to look and what we want. Need someone who wants meaningful collaboration. Middle management is problematic. no quality insurance. We want a teacher. Mayor agrees.
Lists are amusing. Post and Times almost identical. Half list fired by current admin. Most names pushed grads of Broad Academy. We are not fans.
Mayor has clear plan and policies. Based on research so they don’t write about that. They have to follow mayor’s benchmarks. Mayor puts ten year plans forth. Does not seem to be time line. Could take months. If we get right person, fine, but middle management out of control. Probably not looking internally.
Thanks everyone who participated in Women’s March.
Shows Know Your Benefits poster, Know Your Rights poster.
New doorknocking class. Believes they will knock on everyone’s door by end of school year. We only need to get facts to members. Welfare fund alone over 1700 in pocket. In Wisconsin, teachers had to pay 10K each in one year to keep pension and benefits. Posters part of it, believe we will have membership team in every workplace. Targeting places with little union presence.
Board of Regents—addressing hours v. report days. We need a revenue package—changing tax structure in NY State very important. We donate 48 billion a year. What feds did requires 14 billion more from NY State, to give corporations and millionaires tax breaks. We are largest donor state. Members need to understand.
770 million dollar increases in education—need GOP Senate to vote for revenue package. Need to ask Wall St. to give back to NY.
6:25 Mulgrew leaves.
Reports from districts
Janella Hinds—Extends gratitude to all who came to Women’s March, amazing experience, hundreds of thousands. Thanks those who set up for UFT. Had folks all over city standing together, advocating for voices of women. People in office will know we stand together. Proud to walk with you.
Rosemarie Thompson—Jan. 26, Pride committee hosting workshop. Please spread word.
Schoor—Can we ask Regents be scored at home schools?
Paul Egan—We can. We have Mark Treyger, we can ask him about that issue.
Chelsea won 4-0. Eagles flying high, no idea what else he is talking about, but Eagles will win Super Bowl.
Politics—March—Albany for Black and Puerto Rican Caucus, Lobby Day, all pols will be in town because it’s Monday. Need people signed up. Can get on bus anywhere. Paid for by COPE. COPE contributors get first preference.
Schoor—Eagles have never won.
Egan—Lost to Patriots 2005. Revenge will be sweet. More people hate Patriots than Eagles.
LeRoy Barr—March 19 and 26 we have meetings. Lobby Day 19th. Need to move it, but 5th is Committee of 100, 12th open school district 75. Will be March 12.
NYC Teacher Retirement Board re-election. David Kazansky up.
Tom Brown—Rises in support of resolution to renominate David Kazansky. His insight and knowledge have allowed him to be excellent teacher trustee. Deborah Penny and Brown give him whole hearted support.
Passes unanimously.
Jonathan Halabi—New Action—Can somebody speak as to the work they do?
Brown—We need to make sure our TRS funds earn the most amount of money at the least risk possible to pay benefits people truly deserve.
Schoor—Taking money out of smoking stocks?
Brown—Not sure—looking at carbon footprint, examining steps going forward. Mayor and Controller recommend we divest from fossil fuels. We need to protect funds to pay most benefits possible. If investment meets that criteria, not reason not to comply. Our main interest is to the fund. People always ask us to divest from things. We make sure fund is adequate to pay benefits. We want to make sure same benefits will be there for us. Easy to speak into bullhorn and say let’s divest. We will first hire companies and consulting firms to see impact. Negative impact unacceptable.
NYSUT RA Resolution
LeRoy Barr—Brings resolutions for consideration.
Oppose property tax cap—affects locals throughout state, limits money for districts. Eliminate supermajority. Need funds to run systems.
Support US immigrants, DACA, etc.
Support aid to hurricane and wildfire victims—
Resolution on Janus—
Health care for all—
Register eligible HS students to vote—
Safety with automatic refills—some errors created for people
Worker’s Comp Rate Review—
Moves all.
Mike Schirtzer—MORE—Moves to separate immigration res. to amend.
Schoor asks for debate on individuals, pulls number two, res. in question.
Nancy Miller—In 2014 leg. passed for safe patient handling, got lower rate for Worker’s Comp., asking NYSUT to publish rates.
Vote on 7—
Passes unanimously.
Schirtzer—On May 13, 2017, ICE tried to enter school to arrest fourth grader. Safety officers did not let them in.
Proposes
Whereas—On May 13, 2017, ICE attempted to enter a NYC public school,
and
Resolved—NYSUT strongly opposes the practice of ICE entering any public school and/ or removing any students.
Schirtzer—Obama had policy of not entering public buildings. This is direct affront to us.
No one speaks against.
Passes unanimously.
Passes as amended.
Janella Hinds—Supports I AM 2018—Was about striking sanitation workers, Memphis Tennessee—Commemorates MLK, humanity and dignity of working people. We will not let it die, will fight and march together.
Asks for support.
Passes unanimously.
Resolution to support Global Tech and remove superintendent
Mike Schirtzer—MORE—Was brought to us by fellow HS members, brothers and sisters from CPE1 in house tonight. Supt. has moved forward with merger, violated rights of E. Harlem community, did not consult, led to multiple violations of student rights. Teachers and admin has said they are being terrorized. Came to PEP. Trying to rally by not approving principal in C30 process. History of abuse. Here at home, we need to do something, and take care of principals, APs, and supes. Chance for union to take direct action and call for removal of supe who doesn’t play by rules, harms students.
Serbia Silva—DR—moves to table—
Schoor—tabling takes majority, not debatable, might want to talk about issues.
Silva—Went to school about joint programming—120 students, 7 vacancies, students suffering with no special ed. teachers. We decided, looked at joint programming. Multiple meetings. November 28, met with entire building and DOE. Had excess list. Not one staff member in that meeting objected, said if this is good for students, we’re good with this. No one raised a concern. Met staff again in December. People who spoke were not current members. I will attend PEP. Moves to table. Will go back to school.
Schoor—consolidating school with 120 students. We are in favor. CSA opposes because they will lose members. We are in favor because of what it does to budgets. Supe does not have power to make decision, is from DOE. We can look into problems with supe. Thinks there is better way to do it. May or may not be true. We can oppose, not this way.
Schirtzer—Tabling means until next EB, at which point it won’t matter. Would like large UFT presence at PEP. Current teachers may not wish to speak against supe.
Schoor—We will be there, as per resolved. We will bring up with chancellor. Can vote if you wish.
Schirtzer—Let’s pull back and try to work out something.
Schoor—We will look at this district.
We are adjourned. 7:09
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