Minutes—approved
Staff Director's Report--LeRoy Barr—Puerto Rican Day Parade—thanks Evelyn de Jesus. NYC Pride March June 24. Labor Day Parade 9/8—UFT will march first. Saturday, Poor People’s Campaign in DC.—Met with Forest Hills HS teachers, CSA superintendent, will keep posted.
President's Report--Michael Mulgrew—No Janus today. Still 20 outstanding cases. Will be a release on Thursday. Event in Brooklyn, UFT has 1,000 cards signed already. Will continue.
Negotiating committee met. Waiting for new date. Will negotiate during summer. New chancellor wants contract finished. We have a lot of demands. Still working behind scenes on paid parental leave. Hoping members can use it soon.
We are number one at Labor Day Parade. Went from last to first
Proud of colleagues around state who have held line against Senate. All about screwing NYC. Our colleagues have refused to do so for APPR. Thanks us for serving this year. Wishes us a great summer.
Schoor—demands based on member surveys.
Questions
Arthur Goldstein—Right now, if you read the papers, it looks like it's ATR season. Evidently a self-appointed a bunch of budgetary geniuses are upset that ATR members receive salaries. It appears they’ve studied the situation in detail and determined the city could save money by not doing so.
It doesn’t occur to them to simply put the ATR to work as full time teachers. It also doesn’t occur to them that this could reduce exploding class sizes that are already the largest in the state. The reformy education blog Chalkbeat calls that idea controversial, saying that principals will simply hide vacancies. Evidently principal insubordination is not controversial at all. Chalkbeat also makes baseless assertions about teachers getting bonuses--I've been teaching since 1984 and I've never gotten one--and seems to believe teachers being brought up on of charges is the same as being convicted.
Meanwhile, back on planet earth we have this thing called fair student funding. This makes schools responsible for paying teacher salaries, and can certainly discourage principals from hiring experienced members in the ATR and out. It’s also my understanding that a lot of schools just get a percentage of it. How on earth is it fair if your school only get 88% of what the city’s literally calling “fair?”
What can we do to enable principals to hire the best teachers and school based personnel, in or out of the ATR, regardless of salary, and how can we make sure our schools are adequately funded?
Schoor—You were at negotiating meeting. When we sit down with them, we will talk about the things you mention. Attorneys say we can’t negotiate about how we fund schools, but there is a direct effect on our members. Leon Goldstein HS is a great school, runs out of funds, doesn’t have per session. If school were funded differently would be better. We will see what city is thinking.
Speaker—Nancy Simon—Adult ed.—Egregious abuse of evaluation under Rosemarie Mills. After teacher 30 years retired last September. Mills distinguished herself with hostile, toxic work environment. Multiple grievances, letters calls. Contacted mayor and government. In news, most recently two weeks ago. Lawsuits settled and pending. eval. process abused, huge rise in U ratings.
Has been successful. Number of U ratings will be as bad or worse this year as last, which was highest on record. Had to use FOIA to get figures. K-12 has 1% or less ineffective last four years. Adult ed. 13-14 7%. 14-15 9%, 15-6 7% 16-17 15%. Expecting same this year. Numbers are red flag, along with all other evidence of wrongdoing.
Please take steps to make this info known, to prevent reoccurrence, to move botched leadership out.
Schoor—Adult ed. is part of bargaining demands. Ellen Procida will report.
Procida—Union and individual grievances, trying to resolve as package. Have resolved for 22 who will get money for unpaid hours. Coverages will be paid at higher rate. Teachers will be placed in license and seniority. You will get sufficient hours to complete programs. Will be time for adult ed. teachers to prepare and do paperwork. Adult ed. teachers will be able to cover for colleagues. Ind. grievance will be emailed.
Debbie Poulos—paperwork—166 paperwork reports this year, 100 fewer than last. 76% resolved as we speak. Other 25% being resolved, two going to arbitration. Resolution sheet we gave out had an impact. When CLs used it, principals resolved issues. Continue to work on QR and PPO related paperwork. Let me know if that’s happening. Being resolved immediately. Finding out after QR and PPO, unfortunately. Have new process for that. Will have joint agreement, we hope.
Schoor—Two best things are agreement for OPW and also one about lesson plans and collection, duplication. Debbie has worked hard on this.
Mike Sill—Personnel—On ATRs, was article in News, this is DOE created problem from school closings and false charges. FSF definitely issue. 800 people in ATR now. Numbers only take into account plusses in ledger, but ATR saves money by not hiring as many subs. ATR saves schools money, articles don’t reflect. We have put out numbers, are waiting for corporate media to publish, not holding breath.
Open Market not working for ATRs with seniority. Not enough to just sign up. Principals don’t know how to manage number of resumes. Suggest they contact schools directly, or visit if possible. Things get lost on Open Market. Resumes printed out look distorted. Many transfers but not working for many.
Jonathan Halabi—Do we have an idea of how many probation extensions?
Sill—Will have them later.
Reports from districts—
Rashad Brown—Pride parade Sunday 15th St. between 7 and 8th Ave.
We are adjourned. 6:34
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