No guest speakers tonight.
Minutes—approved.
Barr—Abe Levine memorial Wed. Sept. 25 open at 4. Ceremony at 5. Oct. 20 Making Strides Walk, various locations. Teacher Union Day at 11 AM, same day. November 21, LGBTQ youth empowerment dinner for Danny Drumm Scholarship. DA Oct. 16, EB Oct. 7.
Arthur Goldstein—Someone recently sent me a survey done by UFT in 2013-14 to gauge member interests. It was billed as the first annual survey, and specifically said it was to fill in gaps in the DOE survey. I'm sure there are still gaps. I’m told there was another done in 2015 as well but I’ve been unable to locate it.
My question is this—if we’ve continued with these surveys, where are the results? And if we haven’t, why haven’t we?
Barr—We do many surveys, polls. We’ve done them around contract. We’ve done them about many issues. Was one at CL meeting. Went to CLs to make sure we were clear on APPR and safety. In terms of filling in the gap, we can look at what was sent out and what was the intent. However, we do this constantly. Our work here is due to info we receive back. In general we do
Goldstein--My friend Mike Schirtzer expected to be here but has a relative in the hospital. He would like to know what we can do to preclude future situations like the one that just occurred at Maspeth High School, perhaps before they hit the NY Post.
Barr—Story came out and Mulgrew spoke to it. Response same now. We want people to let us know where these situations are taking place. When we hear about them, we follow through. We encourage members to let us know more about these things so they can follow through.
Reports from Districts—
Pat Delamina—Baci tournament for Italian American UFT, collected over 800 dollars for disaster relief.
Janella Hinds—Friday group attended climate strike. Amazing to see thousands of young people out there. President was there. Went to Battery Park, met students and educators. Yesterday was Alzheimer’s Walk. Was beautiful at Coney Island to support Caring Kind.
Michael Mulgrew—President’s Report—Was great Friday to see Broadway—could not see end for two hours.
Report on last year’s consultations—1400 schools filed at least one, 230 over five. Wants at least 7 from all this year. Will keep pressure on chancellor and superintendents that principals follow contract. This will empower school worksites. Not finished with CL survey from last week. Everything trending positive right now, so it’s an improvement. Nothing completely in the red. Seems work is having some effect, but still a lot of work to do.
Class size—new process. We are clearing up more than we ever have before. Difference in process. Some CLs liked it. DRs have reported superintendents are pressuring principals and don’t want to deal with it. DRs can now agree with superintendents about exceptions. Will make very clear what exceptions entail. We know some schools will be out of compliance, and they have been scheduled for arbitration. We want these things done faster, no more waiting until April.
CL survey available by next Exec. Board. DOE had a press conference. Want 60 teachers to review curriculum, that it’s aligned to standard and culturally appropriate. Chancellor says curriculum is important and we want schools to give support to every member.
Barr—Contribution button for those affected by Dorian up and running on UFT website. Wants to support those affected. Please share link with members.
Wendy Walker Wilson—Spoke to minister of education in Bahamas, said they were working with NEMA, so we decided to collect, put up link, and see money’s distributed where needed to help families. Special link that says Dorian relief. Please contribute. Ask family and friends. NYSUT also has link up and will collaborate.
Barr—Also working with border locals in Texas to raise money to help children.
Serbia Silva—Stride walk Oct. 20—all five boroughs, LI and NJ. Oct. 16 is wear pink day. Please send photos. Encourage members to wear pink. Need UFT picture release form if you include students in photos.
Special order of business—UAW Resolution—Mike Sill—We helped auto industry in 2008. Members of UAW contributed. We were sold a bill of goods. We thought there would be no loss of jobs, that an important industry would provide a living wage. When GM got back on their feet started outsourcing, doing all the things our money should’ve prevented. Imagine courage it took for them to flip Michigan. Only natural for those of us who benefited from their sacrifices to support them.
George Altomare—We are honoring Abe Levine—when we pushed for right for collective bargaining, when we won some battles, we needed money to fight those against us. We looked at industrial part of labor movement, got loans and contributions. With help of auto workers, we won. Ever since, we’ve always said we could never fully repay them. Took loans which allowed us to tell our story and win. Happy to be able to begin to pay back auto workers who helped us.
Resolution passes unanimously.
We are adjourned 6:28
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