5:50 Roll Call—
6:00 UFT Secretary LeRoy Barr—Thanks
us for calling in. Minutes have passed via email. Reminds us to get
out and vote tomorrow, that it’s important to have our voices heard.
UFT President Michael Mulgrew—Sadly, we have lost three members this week, two retirees and one in service.
Moment of silence.
Last
full week of school. Thanks all CLs who’ve been reporting on
walkthroughs. DOE at first thought it would program all schools from
central, then they thought 70-80% of students would show. Failed to
account for number of teachers, but are moving toward reality.
Childcare issue is a challenge for city, must come up with solution for parents, including teachers.
DOE
is not moving on this issue or others. Blue book square footage fails
to account for desks, walls, various and sundry. CLs saying numbers are
not correct. We have to take control.
There are some good
people at DOE but they’re stuck in political agendas. We need to break
schools into cohorts and programs. Not often CSA and UFT are in
agreement.
Had school safety meeting today with Jeff
Povalitus, Janella Hinds and CLs. Every person on phone said square
footage was wrong. We need to figure how to program with social
distancing. Data from walkthroughs important.
Trying to
start process for medical accommodations, but we must maintain
confidentiality. This is a very straight process, not open to
interpretation. We will follow CDC guidelines, hope for a process to
send out to membership. Principal cannot ask people about medical
status. If schools have to adjust, they have to adjust. We won’t get
info on time and can’t wait until October.
Virus exploding all
over SW US. Hospitals starting to gear up for Aug-Sept. second wave.
Will spread quite a big and likely bounce back to NY. Some people still
think masks are political. Virus knows no politics. Hoping it doesn’t
happen but we have to prepare for worst case scenario.
Tomorrow is election day. If you haven’t voted you need to vote.
HEROES Act—Met
with city council. They need to understand we can’t open without it,
and they now seem to. Members now understand it more than elected
officials.
Budget—City not transparent with city council. School
safety in the middle of all of this. Problematic. We have no issues
having a conversation, but moving safety from NYPD to DOE is not
defunding police. We don’t believe DOE can manage safety. PBA doesn’t
even want it, and would be happy to not be responsible.
We will support different actors. We need to be thoughtful. Peace and justice needs to be real and not rhetoric.
Anthony Harmon—Many
people have signed up to campaign to get Senators to take HEROES Act
seriously. McConnell has been uncooperative. We are in touch with union
leaders around country. AFT thinks we need 115 billion to safely open.
Urges we call US Senators. We ask people do high five, contact five
people in states that need some pushing. We have this on website. There
are twenty identified states that need pushing. We will have call
tomorrow with retirees around the country. Everyone needs to get
involved.
Senate going on vacation without taking this up.
We need to shame them. Some states are facing furlough, out of money due
to Covid 19. Schumer and Gillebrand championing issue, but we need to
apply pressure in south.
Mulgrew—This is our number one summer priority. Everything contingent upon it.
Janella Hinds—We
had a meeting with people recommended. First focus was move of NYPD out
of school via school safety. Also discussed partitions, class size,
repurposing rooms. Will get together again in a month or so. Will have
two meetings over summer and reconnect in September.
Questions
D75 summer school?
Mike Sill—Yes. 683 happening remotely.
Will union do remote training? Yes.
You
can’t know if staff member is positive. Supervisors may come into
online classrooms. If they’re doing it constantly may be harassment.
How
do we hold DOE accountable for not closing in time? There will be legal
action, especially since so many have died. We were able to procure
death benefit, but there will be a lot of litigation. Will fill you in
when it happens.
If 500 people can’t gather, how can we go in? Remains to be answered.
School
admin mandating check in and rigid schedule—Late question. Should’ve
been taken care of under operational complaints. Has been solved in many
places, but you have to bring it forward.
We will explicitly talk about responsibilities of paras and counselors. This will be part of our summer work.
Discussions
with DOE on 180 mandated days—SED has recognized all days are worked,
we still have to file for reimbursement for seven additional days.
Possible next year we open and then go back to remote. Minute system
doesn’t work.
Barr—Last official meeting today.
Mulgrew—We
should continue to meet. Will discuss next Monday. We cannot go silent.
We will speak quite a bit during the summer. We somehow made it to end
of year. Focus on HEROES act, so we can fight for what buildings need.
If that doesn’t work we will go out on streets fighting. Very sorry. Was
hoping for no more members passing, but that was too hopeful.
Report all issues to DRs and district reps. Thank you all.
Second roll call
We are adjourned 6:37
Line of Sight
6 hours ago