VP Sterling Roberson--Friday was CTE virtual awards, educators and others honored. Thanks all who presented and supported.
Rashad Brown--Black History film 4:30-6:30. History of BLM
George Altomari--Irish American committee met last week.
Tom Murphy--Retirees doing benefit meetings, general membership March 23, working on election committee. Will have info on petitioning process.
Cassie Prugh--Good evening all! Happy Monday! Reminder to sign up for our 3rd Mayoral Town Hall on Tuesday, March 9 @ 5:30pm here.
UFT President Michael Mulgrew--Chancellor--Appreciate what he'd done for three years. DOE still DOE and we have to get through this year. We will do our best to make September better.
We don't know what programming will look like next year, but are looking at SBOs.
Town Hall Thursday. Will discuss CL election process. Hoping for better relationship with labor relations board.
We are in conversations about HS openings. We have a formula and know how many people we need. We want time before we do this. HS has less in person instruction because of low number of opt ins. Nothing changes on safety. All of it still kicks in. Was good to see in middle schools. Met distancing guidelines. We've just started these conversations.
APPR is out. City has finished with principals. Need to make sure it matches context we are working under. If you had earlier walkthrough that was effective or higher that is your observation. If not, you will have another. Same for tenured and untenured. Want to keep it simple for this year. Can only observe what is seen, Cannot ask for other domains. We will get you MOSLs and insure it is all fair. We have a complaint process that should work if there are shenanigans.
Between now and next break we have a lot of work to do. Have to set up for end of school year, and we cannot wait until July to do programming for next year. Hopefully city has learned.
Anyone working in person should have access to the vaccine. In person HS people should have access if schools open.
We have to deal with emotional, academic and graduation issues. Ninth graders haven't attended HS yet, and this is important in determining how they will do in HS. Are seniors getting prep for college they need? We have concerns with graduating class. College enrollment is down. Imagine this being your last two years of school. I have called City Hall. We are only district in state with no PSAL sports. Heard that group of parents meeting with City Hall are being told UFT won't allow it, but they have never spoken to us. We have testing and can make a plan.
Thankfully our HS division has been trying very hard to work things out.
Question--
No comment on allegations against governor. They speak for themselves.
Have spoken to new chancellor numerous times. Still have issues with DOE in leadership and education, and they hurt chances of successful chancellor.
Standardized testing is a mess. If we have to report, the only test we can give is standardized. We can't do a formative assessment, though we should. I doubt many parents will have kids sit for those tests. Parents can opt out and that's a position I support. It's important we do some sort of formative assessment so we have a baseline. Sitting for a standardized test that does none of that makes no sense.
Random testing--Done by DOE, if not done properly you have to let us know. Last week was best week for testing. Changes we've made have helped. Going to city labs and coming back quicker, but we still have problems.
Q--Vaccine test was moved. How will they open up HS if they are vaccination centers?
A--We told them if they wanted to open, they had to move out vaccination centers. If they can isolate part of building, we can look at it. About a dozen sites had to be moved so MS could open.
Q--How can they keep comprehensive campuses open for vaccines and open small schools for students?
They can't.
Q--Principal says with everyone double vaccinated, can people rethink accommodations?
A--No. Accommodations are covered under federal law, at least medical. Others may become tricky, Number of kids coming in is quite low.
Q--Kids who opted for blended will come back. Can principals invite others?
A--Principal has no authority to do that. City can do that. Now looking at maximizing in person days. We can look at reprogramming students who show up. MS have students at five days a week. We had large rooms for them. They did good job with students with IEPs.
Q--We got MOU quickly for eval. before principals.
A--Communications people did good job. We wanted to get it out in way that we wouldn't have to deal with DOE sabotage.
Q--Principals got very short notice on graduation last year. Can DOE give more than two days notice?
A--That's on my list. Commencement is a big deal, so let's try to do better this year.
We are adjourned 6:32
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