Can We Safely Reopen Buildings? If So, How?

We're looking at the possibility of opening our building in September. Will that happen? Your guess is as good as mine, but mine is we will not. Nonetheless, everyone's got to plan otherwise. I imagine a lot of schools would go end to end. That is, half the students enter in the AM, and half in the PM. Teacher schedules in high schools would overlap the sessions. I suppose elementary teachers could prep while other classes are going on, but I don't know much about what they do, so I could be wrong.

Now this will suck for a whole lot of reasons. One is the schedules could easily run 6 AM to noon, and then noon to 6 PM. I don't imagine many people will be happy about either. Another is this will only reduce student population by half, and that may not be enough. In my school, already at 210-220% capacity, it will certainly not suffice.

How do you achieve adequate social distancing to make a school building safe. Well, on top of your end to end programming, you could have students come in every other day, or every other week. You could then have classes stream via video, and the other half of the students could submit work via Google Classroom or something of that nature.

In the case of a building like mine, perhaps students could come in live every third or fourth week. This really underlines the lack of vision of those who run the DOE. As though it weren't bad enough that they had such disregard for us and our students that they forced us to convert classrooms into two, and convert closets into classrooms, the health issue makes it that much worse. And you can't argue that students who get so little face time with teachers are being treated equally. This makes the state's decision to defy the C4E decision, the one that specified lower class sizes, all the more egregious.

As for those who speak of schools being babysitting services, those days are over. Parents will have to make other arrangements for child care, and the city and state will have to find ways to provide it, much as they've been using abandoned school buildings to provide it during this crisis. How will they do that? I have no idea, but fortunately I'm not governor or mayor.

It would be folly for government to open schools under unsafe conditions. Of course the President of the United States wants to do it anyway, because for him, the only important thing is his reelection. In fact, as we approach 100,000 deaths, he met with the Senate to discuss how he manages to get reelected rather than how we best deal with the ongoing crisis. That we allow a self-centered, self-important, self-serving juvenile to lead us suggests we deserve just what we're getting. We need to change that in November or things will get markedly worse.

There is, of course, the possibility that there is not a safe way to open schools in November, and there's a lot of evidence to suggest that. For example, how could we safely manage hall passing? Could we stagger it, so only half the students in the building pass at a time? That would mean two concurrent bell systems, which would be confusing. Could we leave students in one classroom and have only teachers do passing?

And if we were to achieve that, what can you say about this?

Aerosolized coronavirus can remain in the air for up to three hours. A mask can help prevent that spread.

That's from Harvard, but it could be contradicted somewhere else. I can't even watch the news anymore, because it's just numbers about how bad it is, how it's getting a little worse, or a little better, and almost invariably about how someone disagrees with the information. Now I'm not talking about the idiots who demonstrate we should open now, who are out of their minds. Let's say it is safe, though, somehow.

Imagine wearing a mask to meet your students, all of whom are wearing masks. Imagine trying to learn their names. Most of my students have Chinese names, so it's always an uphill battle for me. And if we absolutely cannot pull this off, imagine meeting your new classes online, and perhaps never seeing their faces.

Whatever we do, things are going to be quite different. I can't say I'm looking forward to it with a whole lot of joy or anticipation.

Blogger's Day Off...

...but you can find my remembrance of teacher/ blogger/ advocate Eric "Chaz" Chasanoff in the NY Post. Just scroll down to about the fifth story.

Death to "Legal"

Susan Edelman in the Post writes about how Carranza's claim that nothing can be cut in the DOE budget is a lie. We are talking, of course, about things outside the classroom. I, for one, consider myself lucky when I even have a classroom, as opposed to a trailer, a closet, or a half room.

The city's plan looks bleak indeed:

The city has proposed $827 million in DOE cuts, including slashing school budgets by $285 million. This would reduce arts programs, counselors and social workers in needy districts, and college-prep for high schoolers. The DOE would also put off new classes for 3-year-olds, installation of air conditioners, and rat extermination.

So it's okay that our kids lack guidance or support as they sit around in sweltering, rat-infested hellholes. The important thing, evidently, is to maintain the bureaucrats in Tweed. After all, who but they can perform important services like sending teachers back for three days of training in Covid infested buildings? Who else will insist we need intensive training in remote learning by administrators who have never done such a thing in their entire lives?

Before Mayor de Blasio made the cruel, discriminatory  and boneheaded decision to keep schools open after closing Broadway, his worst educational failure was failing to clean out the colossal cesspool that Bloomberg left intact at Tweed. It was really heartbreaking that this supposedly progressive mayor would leave in place a bunch of bureaucrats whose sole purpose in life was to push the ideological fanaticism of anti-public education Michael Bloomberg.

The Bloomberg agency that bothers chapter leaders the most is "legal." When principals violate contracts, rules, chancellor's regulations, or common decency, it's the job of legal to tell them that's fine, don't worry about it. After all, the only recourse chapter leaders and member have is often the grievance process, which is cumbersome, time-consuming, and potentially ineffective. (We thankfully have some new processes that sidestep this one.) The first step, of course, is to go the principal, the person who made the bad decision. At this step, the principal calls legal, who invariably says the principal is right.

So the principal doesn't need to read the contract, and in many cases legal hasn't either. For example, a principal has 90 days to place a letter in file. Once, I brought a grievance for a member about an untimely letter. At step two, the DOE said, "the event was not an occurrence." I had occasion to show the chancellor this decision and he had no comment on it. An arbitrator later affirmed that the incident was not an occurrence, so the member lost.

It's funny that you can become a school leader, pretend you don't understand clear contractual language, and have an entire department dedicated to supporting such nonsense. But there you have it. Their job is to lie, obfuscate, rationalize, and deprive UFT members of their agreed-upon rights. While Mike Bloomberg felt that keeping teachers fearful and helpless was the best way to run a school system, I'm here to tell you that teachers who are fearful are less likely to advocate for their students, themselves, or indeed anyone.

If you're capable enough to rise to principal, it behooves you to read and understand the contract you're bound by. If you're not capable enough to read the UFT contract, you ought to go back to high school and take English classes. If you need an entire department to rationalize either your willful ignorance or lack of literacy, something is wrong.

There is absolutely no good reason to have an entire department like legal. The lawyers in that office ought to all be fired, or reassigned to jobs that contribute to society. If they hadn't proven themselves so utterly inept by repeated misinterpretation of a clear contract, I'd suggest they become teachers.

Meanwhile, why is the city paying an entire department to hamper those of us who are actually out here doing the work?

UFT Executive Board May 18, 2020--No Direction from DOE

Roll Call 5:50

Secretary LeRoy Barr welcomes us 6:00.

Minutes--Passed via email

Reports from districts--

Tanisha Franks--SI UFT office coordinated with food pantry for drop and go food drive. Collected and delivered for local food pantry. Had workshop for over 60 members, will do again.

Donna Coppola--Had a session for essential and excluded workers all over SI. Worked with other unions and community orgs to try and protect all workers, make sure they're safe. Organized with Zoom and Facebook live.

Melody Anastasio--AFT digital leaders had a showcase. Had 75 people and 11 presentations.

Servia Silva--Secretary honorees got certificates and gift cards.

Debbie Poulos--Finalizing online voting for SBOs. Chapter leaders will receive email explaining. Every borough has staff to support CLs. There will be voter lists making sure all are on the list. Will need private email or cell phone number. People will vote via link or text message. Voting will be one day from 6 AM to 9 PM. We only need to vet lists.

UFT President Michael Mulgrew--6:10--Fewer members passing, total of four this week. Reads names.

Moment of silence.

We can use same SBO system for comp-time. Will be official record of both votes and comp-time positions. Supposed to happen on a yearly basis. CLs have to have conversations about this. Budget cuts, and they have a lot to do with federal bailout, can affect schools a lot. Schools may or may not choose to keep comp times. Should be part of consultation. Budgets will be bad news and school year will be challenging enough. Make sure you're having conversations about budget priorities, what gets cut and in what order.

Town Hall Thursday, package went through Congress, McConnell said it doesn't matter and there's no rush. We have a plan of action working with other local and national organizations. We need to start saying it's time to protect schools, children and communities as opposed to playing politics. We will roll this out on Thursday.

DOE may have answer on summer school, hopefully tomorrow. Assuming it will be remote, traditional six weeks, may be another cohort. 683 will be fine. We will share info as soon as we have it.

State--Westchester on down hasn't started to open. NYC hit a number, hoping in next few weeks will slowly reopen. Will determine what will happen in September. Either there's a cure, we're open, we're staying in remote, or we're doing a hybrid. We don't think it would be smart to go one or two days and then switch classes. Longer time, though will mean longer time children aren't in school.

We need to determine what we do if people get sick in school, or have sick family. No matter what framework we develop it's extremely complicated. Some teachers may be remote teachers to help students when they aren't in classroom. Big challenge especially in lower grades, and they probably need parents with them.

Elementary focus group today. Was a lot of thought. How do we help the greatest number of children, and then how do we help smaller groups like those who need special services. Supervisors who have never done this work are problematic.

Right after Memorial Day we hope urgency kicks in at City Hall and DOE. We still haven't had any specific training on anything we've been doing. We still have school switching week to week on what they're doing.

By and large, we've done a great job, but there's a lot of frustration with lack of constructive work from DOE. In the end it will be us who figure it out.

Questions--

Many SBOs have to do with things that may vary. Why vote to change days if they may be different? Can be done later in year if you like. Some schools like to do things and we want to make sure they can.

PE teachers--If we return how do we social distance? You will not have 100 children in classes. Social distancing includes gyms.

Superintendents visiting classes--Should teachers be notified? They have always had ability to walk in, but it's professional courtesy to notify. Bring it to consultation.

Members with pre-existing contditions--can they work remotely? On the table.

What are the most current proposals being floated for September in the joint DOE, CSA, UFT meetings?We program in cohorts--will it be one week a one b, three days a and two b?

Health and safety--CL and consultation committee will be a major piece. CL on safety committee. There will be regulations. Schools will have to adapt individually.

Greatest challenge in negotiation is that City Hall and DOE can't seem to make timely decisions, don't understand that we, not they, make decisions.

Mulgrew--Will likely be run on WF fund for dental and eyeglasses. Had over 11,000 issues to deal with. Lots of people on spouse's health care, but spouse lost job. We have to support them.

Will break from this meeting next week, as it's a holiday.

Mulgrew thanks us, wishes us a great three day weekend.

Final roll call 6:32

We are adjourned. 6:34

Can We Pull Something Positive from the Crisis?

 Maybe there's a silver lining in the Covid crises somewhere. The question is whether or not we'll be able to sufficiently organize ourselves to exploit it. Of course, we have to find a way to do that before Bill Gates gets his slimy little hands on us and our children. I'll come back to that a little later. (But remember, if you're touched by Bill Gates, go home and wash your whole body with Brillo pad.)

There's a reason why someone like me, after having spent years teaching in miserable hot-in-the-summer, cold-in-the-winter trailers, keeps requesting them. That reason is I've frequently gottenstuck teaching in substandard classrooms. My least favorite are the ones in which students end up almost in one another's laps. You give a test and you hope no one's looking at someone else's paper, but you can't imagine how they could not be looking at someone else's paper.

Then the administrators come and scream at you because the kids are sitting on the windowsill. They scream at you when you move the teacher desk into some far corner to create space when you sit on the windowsill. And they know you only do that so as to create space.

Still, the worst classroom I've ever had is the one in my dining room, where I teach now. Sure, it's good that our dining room finally serves a purpose more than once or twice a year, but this notwithstanding, it would be much better to have dinner parties Of course we can't do that either, or I wouldn't be teaching from the dining room.

Now we have woefully ignorant wealthy doofuses like Andrew Cuomo licking his lips over getting rid of school buildings altogether and making us teach from home permanently. Of course he's enlisted the help of uber-wealthy doofus Bill Gates. Gates, as you well know, has extensive experience imposing his stupid ideas upon American education. Every working teacher in the country feels his influence, and absolutely none of it is positive.

This is Shock Doctrine 101. When Katrina flooded and ruined NOLA, a whole bunch of geniuses got together and decided this was a great time to privatize the education system. After all, it was a crisis, and as Chancellor Carranza recently said, "Never let a good crisis go to waste." Now I can't speculate what the chancellor was envisioning, but in New Orleans, it pretty much meant the end of union and the end of public school.

This was much praised by reformies nationwide, up to and including the then-Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who famously declared that Hurricane Katrina was the best thing ever to happen to  education in New Orleans. And why not? His BFFs were making money hand over fist establishing charter schools. There was no more of that nasty union and teachers weren't able to organize. And yet, it turned out not to be the magic bullet they'd promised.

By empowering people like Bill Gates, we've set ourselves up to be yet another site for one of his spectacular failures. I mean, sure Common Core didn't work, but we're still stuck with English instruction designed to make students hate reading and writing. And sure, the junk science observation process hasn't fired enough teachers for Andrew Cuomo's druthers, but it's still the bane of every teacher's existence. No matter how many times we're told this intrusive system is there to help us, we all remember what it was designed for--to make it easier to fire us.

I wonder, though, why is it that only anti-teacher, anti-union demagogues like Gates and Duncan are able to not let a good crisis go to waste? Could this crisis possibly work to our advantage?

Can we push Cuomo to lower class sizes, now that we know large ones are not only detrimental to education, but also to public health? Can shock doctrine work in favor of real people? Is there an opportunity here to make sometime good happen?

I'm not sure, but I'd love to see it.

States Need a Bailout from Mitch McConnell and His Morally Bankrupt GOP

If we want to continue to get care when we’re sick, give our children education, and have police and firefighters to protect us, we’re going to need a federal bailout that devotes real money to real people, as opposed to corporations. It seems like common sense, but common sense seems to be the least common of all the senses.

In NYC, where I work, it took decades to recover from the teacher shortage that followed 1975 layoffs. Students sat in classes of 50 or more. We now know that class size is not merely an educational priority, but also a health priority. Can you imagine trying to social distance 50 students in a classroom?

Not everyone considers that worth worrying about. According to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, we may or may not get federal aid for actual working people in states and communities. Evidently, before we consider such frivolities, we need to protect businesses that compel people to work during a pandemic. Perish forbid, says McConnell, they should be held responsible when their employees get sick or die. This notwithstanding, Americans who worked their whole lives in expectation of a pension are not a priority for McConnell. This is a curious value.

I’m not at all sure why business takes priority over people. We’ve bailed out big airlines and big hotels. Evidently McConnell and his BFFs need to travel and stay somewhere, and roadside inns just won’t do. Even as tens of millions of Americans find themselves newly without jobs or health insurance, we’ve made sure Wall St. didn’t feel too much pain.

McConnell himself need not worry. Aside from whatever money he’s accrued during his Senate career, he’ll be getting a fixed pension of $139,200 a year, courtesy of US taxpayers. .I’ve yet to hear him say that Congressional pensions ought to be cut or rescinded, despite massive red ink in the federal budget. So why, then, is he so hard on states having trouble meeting their obligations? 

The answer, of course, is that these states are blue states. The GOP Senate appears to believe states that didn’t vote for them don’t deserve to be helped. Therefore it’s okay for them to go bankrupt. Then they won’t have to bother with unimportant things like paying pensions or providing health service for unimportant people who don’t add value to Wall St. We’re talking about, teachers, cops, firefighters, nurses, among others who seem to matter not at all to McConnell.

Of course, red states need a bailout too, up to and including McConnell’s home state, Kentucky. One might conclude it’s more important for McConnell to trash blue states than help his constituents. Ironically, his own state is largely propped up by blue state cash, and that doesn’t matter either. The important things are to help those who least need help, and stoke up hatred against the most vulnerable among us. The President, for example, is sick and tired of sanctuary cities like NYC, and wants us to buy into his anti-immigrant agenda before granting us aid.

Democratic governors are calling for one trillion dollars of “direct and flexible relief.” Yet the GOP, which voted a 1.5 trillion tax break for those who least needed it, says we ought not to bail out blue states. This is ironic, since blue states regularly support red states as a matter of course. For McConnell and Trump, though, people who live and work in blue states are of no consequence. They aren’t worried, because if we go bankrupt, their good buds will determine how we spend our money. 

We can’t allow that to happen. 

We urgently need aid for states, red or blue, that are suffering under this pandemic. It’s unconscionable that we decide whether or not to help Americans based on how they voted in the last election, or any election. Of course I’m focused on NY, my state, which is at the epicenter of this crisis, but we need to help everyone. 

While governors may want flexible relief, we’re also going to need money specifically earmarked for education, health care, law enforcement and firefighting, among other things. We can’t have fanatical ideologues picking off this and that for their pet projects, e.g. walls, or cages for young humans. 

I hope my brothers and sisters in red states join us in imploring our legislators to take action. It’s time for all of us, red, blue, purple or whatever, to demand that our government serve our immediate needs, as opposed to the caprices of highest corporate bidders. It used to be, in times of national crisis, that we put aside partisan bickering and came to the aid of those who most needed it. 

If ever there’s a time to return to that tradition, it’s right now.

UFT Delegate Assembly May 13, 2020--Voting by Phone

UFT President Michael Mulgrew--4:18---Thanks us for coming. Asks for moment of silence for 107 members who've passed from Covid.

Says there will be extension of health benefits and welfare fund benefits for families of members who've passed from Covid.

At last DA, all we could do was report and question period. Trying to approach normal DA via technology. Don't have everything at our disposal. Motion in front of you about rules for today. We will vote. Rashid will speak to how we do votes. Parliamentarian said we need a motion and two thirds vote. If not, will just be report and questions. Hoping we can go further and get all our tools back.

Technology limits us. Amendments, points of order and privilege won't be possible at this DA, but we can look at motion period. Ten minutes for motions and 15 for questions. Motions have to be submitted in advance. Automatically deemed seconded. Maker will speak to present. For this month person can just present, two thirds vote. For next month person can present, support, people can speak against. 15-20K people on phone so couldn't do live interaction. Resolutions also submitted in advance. No ability to amend. Hoping to move to place where we can do them.

For now, reso presented, will open phone line, you can raise hand and operators will answer. Only ten in speaker queue. Asking if you'd like to speak for or against. Not required but customary if we get speakers on one side to elicit points against. Five speakers per resolution.

Question period--Lots of people have questions. If you don't ask question during DA, we will make sure you get an answer and we'll get back to you. If you don't get through you can email us. Anything missing?

LeRoy Barr--First motion not debatable, but will accept comments.

Mulgrew--Question before you.

Rashid--We will conduct votes. For each vote you will press one for yea and three for nay. I will remind you and let you know when voting closes.

Mulgrew--Motion is before you to adopt these rules. Need a two thirds vote to do it. If yes we will move forward, if no, will be a report and question period. Yes to adopt rules, no to not adopt these rules.

Rashid--We will now vote on motion.

Motion passes 92% yea 8% nay 1280 people on line. Over a quorum.

Mulgrew--That is more than two thirds. First time we have done a remote vote on a motion.

President's report--Last DA spoke about challenges of remote learning. Still a lot of press on this. We need to have a transparent plan in place with safeguards now. We were able to close schools, but grievance process not working, moved toward operational process. Issues being rectified. Have met with focus groups, with remote learning we're a little more comfortable. Still challenges, but not as crazy as when we started off. Amazing what we've been able to do. NYC has 85% daily attendance. Others below 20. This is our work, not DOE, not mayor, but us. We also discussed two focuses--safety and protection of livelihood and profession.

Two fed packages have been lifelines. We needed first one which helped us. State budget came in flat as opposed to billion dollar hole for education. Inside of this budget it says if economy goes down they can make cuts. Has happened in past, but usually in November or later. State now is so desperate economy so bad, that they may put out cuts this month.

Lifeline number two for smalll businesses went through. For now and next couple of years, stimulus package upcoming will be a major thing. Governor of NY State says he needs 60 billion over two years. Governor talking about 20% cut to hospitals and schools. Every day we go further into the red. School personnel has seen 490,000 layoffs across country. Stimulus package tied to both safety and our profession.

Hoping to get through congress by next week. Asks members to reach out on social media and say we cannot let our children and schools be harmed. 82% of people approve this must happen, red and blue. McConnell said he wouldn't do stimulus for blue states, but red just as needy. We have to push so stopping package becomes politically untenable. We need money earmarked for education.

How can we do all they ask? How can we help children in social and emotional distress? You can't ask us to do more while slashing education. More requires money. This is a big fight. Hoping it happens in Congress by next week and goes right to the Senate. Will be an ugly fight. Will complain people shouldn't have pensions. NY State pays more to fed and gets the least back. Teachers of NYC are paying for roads in Mitch Mc Connell's district. This is a huge fight. We need this. If we don't get it, I don't know what will happen in terms of safety livelihood, and profession.

Town Hall next Thursday. Hoping this will be done and we can form coalitions.

State budgets are problem. We are pushing safety. Doing media and interviews about how we can open schools. Elected officials upset we're talking about it. They don't know what it takes. Usually we'd have been planning in April. Nothing has happened yet. If we open in Sept. we'll have to do social distancing unless there's a miracle cure. Elected officials don't want to deal with it now.

Governor's panel had no K-12, now consulting Gates and Bloomberg. None have been successful in education. Finally, they started saying unions would plan, but we'd already started planning. We've been in discussions with principals, custodians, and DC37. We have been making sure there's awareness about school openings. We don't trust the city to handle this because of what they've done previously.

Chancellor Rosa put together a group of all K-12 issues to work this through. Safety is one focus. How can we enter a school building, how much cleaning, hand washing, etc. If we use schools for two sessions, there are complications. Between groups you have to clean. What equipment? Inventory of broken sinks and faucets. Social distancing--what's the number of square feet? Elementary classroom only 800 feet. Maybe three groups. One way hallways? Students stay in classrooms? Distribution of food? Use auditoriums and cafeterias as classrooms? Busing?

How will we check people coming in? Thermometers? Handheld or walk in?

Instruction biggest challenge. State tries to make it seem that all we're doing is online classes, or we set up a camera, and all kids just sit there nicely and everything gets done. Some say one third will show and other two thirds will watch from home. We are great at live instruction. We have years of positive progress. We are the experts. Google and Microsoft had no idea how to make this work.

If we have time, we can do training. We have many teachers who can discuss what they've learned. Which platforms should we use? We've found that schools with internal support structures moved faster than others. When you hear Bill Gates will re-imagine education, and governor giving 600 students to teacher, you see they don't know. We have to look at hybrid models. Can't just say a teacher will be in building, plus be responsible for others watching later.

How do you program a school building if you're doing every other day? Parents say their kids have to all go on same day. We can come up with guidelines, but since every school is different with different number of students, programming will be difficult. When you layer on that all the related services, with students in building at different times. complications are immense. Elected officials beginning to understand. They have to see, because of social distancing, that we are not babysitting service.

End of year--We can't do our own schedules well without understanding. Hoping DOE will put out a calendar, even if it's subject to change. They can't foresee future, as we don't know whether buildings will open. Even if we continue remotely we have to work things out.

SED asked for APPR to be null and void, but Cuomo has not yet granted waiver. If we don't get it we'll have to move quickly to figure out rating via remote. Hoping that won't happen.

SBOs--Without calendar, over 700 schools have expressed desire for SBOs. Close to necessary technology. Hoping it's done by Friday.

Excessing--Will be a lot of it. Hoping for joint document and understanding with DOE. Excessing is not layoff. We do this every reorg period, but not to this scale. Fellows program canceled, and only hiring in shortage area. We need everyone to play by same rules.

We also need process for people to enter building to close down classroom. Custodians have massive cleaning to do now.

Will continue to put out targeted info for specific members.

Thanks DOE nurses for all the work they've done. Federation nurses were being overrun. DOE nurses were redeployed into support centers and into hospital facilities. We believe we have answers for your issues. Will get to you with today's results.

Elections--Two resolutions today are about endorsements. We have to help people vote and involve them in political process. Everyone needs to participate.

Cassie Pruett--Governor directed that all eligible voters get postage paid envelope for June primary. If you're in NYC, go to NYCabsentee.com, and fill out application. Everyone else elections.ny.gov and you can download, fill out and send to board of elections, or you can call. We have communicated on that, and there will be others. On presidential primary, state board decided to cancel, US court decided cancellation was unconstitutional. Now being appealed. Arguments heard on Friday. We will keep you posted.

Mulgrew--We have a lot of endorsements. These are recommendations. We ask how they feel about education, to support education and union, and are they electable. You of course make your own decision.

Tomorrow teachers will start getting their pay increase. Many snarky articles about it. They will say what they say, NY Post thinks we should be frozen. Oddly, they don't say freeze corporate bonuses. With 30 million Americans out of work, many two paycheck households now one paycheck. Will see raise May 29th.

We need to focus on federal stimulus. We need you to engage. On Thursday we hope there is a plan in Congress. We need to focus on both that and safety.

What do we do with both children and staff who shouldn't be going to school? Parents want to know children aren't bringing virus back to homes. With children getting sick, parents don't want children out in public.

We need calendar done, year-end business done, and we need to take control of our profession. We're the experts on face to face, on remote learning, and we will be experts on hybrid. We don't want Google, Gates, and DOE telling us what to do. They don't know. They've never taught remotely, and think they're experts. We have to take control. Thanks those spending time planning. We're not afraid of what we learn, or finding things that don't work. Not everything will.

Finally thank you again for being here, for all you've done, for making people understand that our schools are open and in session each and every day. Thanks to your leadership and to the members who voted you in.

Staff Director--LeRoy Barr--We resumed CL update this week. You should've received it. Will continue. On petition, we want to make sure there are plans and funding. Not too late to sign, to share on social media for the maximum possible signatures. Don't forget to fill in census so we can get state and federal funding we've been missing. Last week was Teacher and Nurse appreciation week and we thank you for your work. June 17 next DA.

Mulgrew--Aplogize for callers who've had difficulty. We are learning as we are going. Scheduling big meeting on census. All money is driven through census. NYC performing better than last time, but still worse than other cities. We need a long game and we have to be above national average. Will have meting with stakeholders.

Questions

Rasihd--press zero to get in queue.

Q--Have there been conversations about how social distancing will change student experience, groupwork can't happen, shared supplies, equipment passed around, shared laptops--and how do we evaluate teachers?

A--We've been discussing that. doing research, speaking to countries that have answered. Young kids like to hug. HS kids pass things, teachers use groupwork. That's why we're now discussing it and taking social distancing into account.

Q--Last Friday heard mayor, asked directly if teachers would be compensated for giving up spring break. Praised teachers and said we were already compensated with CAR days.

A--He doesn't read the agreement his agency signed which specifically says the opposite. We have in writing that we can ask for full compensation. DC37 and CSA have it too. Hopefully he gets better info. Will go to arbitration if necessary.

Q--Staggered session--What happens with my own children who don't have the same session? Who will be home with them?

A--That's a major issue. While we're developing this we'll have to figure out a program for childcare for teachers and other parents. We need facilities with protocols. like ones we have now. We need to work this out. We understood need for support centers, for children to be safe. If buildings open, we'll need the same thing.

Q--Is UFT aware that teachers are being tasked with coming up with policies to determine NX grades for school?

A--First I've heard. This should indicate child is not ready to move on yet. People think they're responsible for students for next school year. Not true. Child may do summer school, or academic intervention. Send this to your DR.

Q--What does 683 look like for summer?

A--They're going to have to run it. Whether or not it's virtual will be the question. Problem is city has to make final decisions and it's just not happening. Mayor thinks we have months, and that's just not true. Were hoping for summer school answer by now. Will discuss it tomorrow. It will run one way or another. Probably virtual with condition of NYC.

Q--Clerical day, Memorial Day, will we be with children?

A--Memorial Day is federal holiday. If I get an inkling there's an issue, I'll let you know. Clerical and PD days could be used for planning for September but we don't have enough policy decisions right now. Chancellor thought it was right idea but we will need decisions.

Q--100 hour requirement--Will that be pushed back?

A--Things have been extended. Will check on that. Most things have been extended. Regents looking at it now. Certification and licensing issues pushed back because of Covid.

Motion Period

Mavis Young--for next month. Res. for solidarity with postal workers. Ask we support union brothers and sisters in postal system. Postal system in danger from 45 agenda and personal vendetta about Washington Post, making Amazon pay more. Mail in voting important, president opposes, postal workers risking lives, go where FedEx won't, bailed out industries and Wall St. but don't want to bail out postal system. Play vital role as essential workers. Please support and back them.

No speaker against.

Yes 96% no 4% Passes

Jeff Andrussa--this month--Temporarily suspend DA and SBO voting until thorough explanation of process is done.

Yes 25% no 71% Fails

Leon Wilson--this month--UFT take stance to advocate more for tuition reimbursement for students in private schools.

Yes 49% No 50% Fails

Resolutions

Rashad Brown--Resolution to endorse Eric Bottcher--Corey Johnson chief of staff, supported anti-bullying, gay rights, tenant rights, fought for public school funding, for City Council.

Seung Lee--supports educators, teachers choice, dial a teacher, community schools, connects and listens to us and our students, understands our issues, qualified politician.

Antonetta Fuccio---need allies at this point, was born and raised in Brooklyn, knows our system.

Donna Coppola--UFT candidate interview process intensive, interviewed by members, confident they did due diligence.

Yes 92% No 7 % Passes

Elizabeth Perez--Committee interviewed Darma Diaz. Democrats in East Bushwick already selected her. Only person on ballot. Familiar with area, great experience, ally for working people and community.

Camille Eady--Strongly supports. Supported homeless centers, delivered food and PPE to community. Need action oriented person. Proven woman of word, puts community first. Advocates health wellness.

Jospeph Supree--Supports. We need individuals that sympathize and empathize with community, and support education. She is right person, asks you vote yes.

Jonathan Halabi--In this district was a very progressive candidate, Sandy Nurse. In this era Brooklyn machine up to old tricks, only one left in ballot, pushed off others. Host of community organizations want to support Sandy next time. Shouldn't cooperate with voter suppression. Opposes resolution.

Ryan Brookenthal--Unfortunate dirty political tricks that got Sandy Nurse off ballot. Should not endorse Darma, and rush into supporting someone who isn't number one fighter. Recommends no vote.

Marvin Reesin--Supports Darma Diaz--Was present during meeting with Darma and Sandy Nurse. Darma did exceptional job of presenting herself and issues of community and family. public school grad, understands community, has lived there whole life. Sandy Nurse was removed not by committee, but my Board of Elections, approved by appellate division. Want to make sure we have representation. Diaz extraordinary person.

Yes 74% No 26% Passes

We are concluded. Mulgrew thanks us, asks us to safely enjoy nice weather 6:11