UFT President Michael Mulgrew-State budget still not done. Every day we heard they needed to finish it. We think all we need is there. Could be best budget in some time. We hope to finish tonight, but we've been saying that since last Sunday.
Mayor wants to come to an agreement on changing policy. We need approval from Albany. Positivity rate overall has dropped, but in schools it has not. It's about safety first, and we also have a responsibility to keep kids safe. Now more than two thirds of cases are children. Variant from England causing that.
City--Trying to plan robust summer school. Lots of money for it this year. Goal to have 800 buildings open. 683 will run, but we don't know about remote actions. We are discussing it,
We don't want to move forward with programming until we know what we're going to do next year.
Final mayoral forum Wednesday afternoon. Zoom will allow up to 10K. Forum will be with small number at UFT HQ. Candidates will be there. We know how many candidates are. We want specific info from them. They all have canned answers so we want to make it interesting.
Don't believe APPR waiver will happen in Albany. We already have an agreement so it won't affect us as much as other places.
Students can only take tests in person. There are no stakes and it is time limited. SED is only doing it because feds forcing their hand.Majority of folks not opting in.
Few parents are opting into live school. 26K gain is about 2%. We think opt ins will follow pattern of schools who already have high %.
We have a super aggressive vaccination program. Some states have really screwed this up, so it's impressive we have so many fully vaccinated. Curious how many UFT members have been vaccinated. Wouldn't want names attached. We know over 46K have been vaccinated, but number is much higher. We know vaccines work. They are more effective than anticipated.
Q--Mayoral candidates--How did we arrive at Yang, who seems anti-union. Eric Adams also pro charter.
A-To not have Yang would be crazy because he's frontrunner in every poll. Would be irresponsible not to have him answer. Not just about policy, but viability.
Q--Testing--If NYSESLAT not given, ss can't get out?
A--We have a resolution, but the idea that ss can't get out of L classes is something that must be addressed
Q--Students who don't appear?
A--Attendance teachers are now doing home visits. Teachers should report to admin.
We are back. We have to continue to go forward. Sorry about budget, but there are a lot of things going on. Quite sure we will be happy when all is said and done. Mayor seems to need a press conference every day. Maybe that's the only way people will watch him. Let's work together to get to the end of this school year.
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