UFT Delegate Assembly March 23, 2022--Debate Gets Us Nowhere

Delays as more people enter hall. 

President Michael Mulgrew--Welcomes us. Albany last 8 days of budget. Some good, but some things left out. Bail reform becoming an issue. Were feeling positive, but want education things in place. Ukraine, Jackson hearings followed closely by AFT. Thanks Karen Alford for supporting Ukranian refugees with partner group. Poland welcoming them. We support that however we can and through AFT. 

State--Official budget due next Thursday. Was on track, but things went awry. Bail reform makes it complicated. Cuomo has 22 million, running commercials, pushing bail reform. Our mayor hired on platform of cleaning up streets, and being tied to bail reform. We want to ensure CFE funding. Mayor saying schools lost 120K kids. Not just due to pandemic. Was happening during last administration. We need CFE funding. 

City--Community schools big piece of this, parents like them. Colleagues in other locales, small cities, want to emulate them. Want 100 million investment, only to be used for community school work. Teacher centers growing again because people want teacher-directed PDs. Few like when people come in and tell you how to fix schools. More and more schools want PD based on needs of staff and students. Pushing for increase. Had been 40 million, now only 14. Teachers centers help get schools printers and equiptment, promote positive learning. 

We had fights with previous admin over school discipline. Being unable to suspend no matter what, we don't support. With emotional trauma we are seeing more and more incidents. Tough issue. Superintendents were told to make suspension very difficult. We're not for zero tolerance but common sense middle of road. We want positive learning collaborative. Another mayor simply didn't report incidents. Not a political game. Doesn't work for anyone like that. We need positive learning collaborative, results good in over 50 schools that use them. Discipline needs to be in best interest of school system. 

Mayoral Control--Mayor pushed very hard to make it part of budget. Has not happened. Don't believe it will be part of budget. We have complete evidence that mayors have all made mistakes, bad policy decisions, decisions based on politics. Don't want to go back to school boards, but there have to be checks and balances on mayor. PEP panel doesn't have to be in complete control of mayor, only done this way here. 

Mayor announced PEP choices, half were charter advocates. One was stopped for not respecting others' beliefs. Parents of NYC are not 33% charter advocates. Now, they vote as mayor says or are removed. Suggested different options. Did anyone think giving all kindergarten students G and T tests was a good idea? No, but was passed in this system.

Ten years ago, every public sector employee in NYS was put under Tier 6. At that moment, we knew that this was a small but influential group of people who did it with Cuomo. We are at a point where we can start reforming this Tier. Most people start teaching at 21. Tier 6 says you work until 62. That's 42 years of teaching. We have had members who've done it, but we want it an option, not the burden put upon them. We had to fix tiers in the past, but this is not just UFT. We have to work with all public sector employees, or people will use tactics to split us. Doing work through AFL-CIO, has taken us 5-10 years to reform in past. How can this city recruit teachers when they have to work until 62, pay 6% of salary, wait ten years to be vested.

First step is to get a reform, and that's where we're headed right now. We need different entities to give fiscal notes, identify costs. First editorial in Post about how workers want to fleece city. Thank you. There was no fiscal reason to do this, especially in NYC. Comptroller in NYC said this was straight up politics. We can now lobby and push this piece. Will do more work on these issues.

COVID--hopefully will be reduced, but is slow. Masks optional preK April 4 by mayor, Will still be access to PPE and rapid tests. We have to constantly monitor and take appropriate actions. We've been told by doctors there will be increase because 25% now BA2. Now from 1.1 to 1.5. First increase, but we want 0.0. Testing continuing. 

Heads up--When we get to spring break, UFT access shut down outside of country due to cyber wars. Doctors have said because BA2 more contagious than Omicron we should know severity before spring break. I see more and more people comfortable unmasked. Strongly recommend you continue to get rapid tests.

DOE restructuring--Superintendents getting nervous. They always say they'll make them reapply, but this time they are being thoroughly vetted. Sometimes this changes behavior for better or worse. We will see both. Speaking with chancellor and team, they say they want evidence people can support and help schools. Not what they were asked to do before. Some schools seeing many observations. Please discuss with principals. We're trying to get through school year. Had to do screenings last year for no reason. Speak to principals and keep us informed.

BCOs ready to end. Borough citywide office. Was good sounding idea, but didn't work. Upset because a lot of members work there. Will work to make sure they don't lose livelihood. May go back to pre-Bloomberg, when superintendents had lot of staff. 

On positive side, trying to enshrine pre-K and 3K. 

On bad side, how can we fix special ed, when DOE believes its job is to rationalize why not to provide service. It's inhumane and we must fix it. We need to remove paperwork so we can do our jobs. We're at end of March. Planning for next school year already behind. DOE not ready to move, but we want to. If people lose complete faith in system it's existential threat. We'll help, but we have to move. 

Point of order--Chair has no right to interrupt speaker with question about minutes. Says cutting off speaker act of anti-woman (something).

Mulgrew--We know it's election season. Our job is to do work of union. Many people online.

(Chant in background, unintelligible to me.)

Mulgrew--I get emails saying we need to do work. Please keep electioneering out of agenda. This part was set by AdCom and Executive Board. That's how work happens. 

Testing--Was on phone, was in DC, explaining why this is major issue. Last time standardized tests given, less than 42% took them. Feds now saying they want tests for 95% of students and want to label schools based on those results. We think results will not be that good. We don't want anyone judging schools based on these test results. Shouldn't be happening. People who hate us always write how it's all teachers' fault. This has to stop. We're pushing, and we won't stop pushing. We won't let it go. We need a waiver. Nothing else helps. With lists for every state, this will severely damage public education. Please explain to members. My school visits this week was about this.

Other locales say NYC has it great. We've been epicenter of pandemic, but in those places they don't have teachers. One district gives students half live instruction, half virtual. When kids come in, classes start at 50 per class. Going on all over the place. Recruitment, retention early. 

Waiting for calendar from DOE. Very early. Again, too many holidays. We can get 180. We can't extend school year before Labor Day or after June 28. Very happy with holidays. When calendar comes out, more than 500 of you will do SBO to combine parent teacher night and day into one. We've shown DOE 500 or 800 did this in elementary. Hoping to make this standard and SBO for other option. Will utilize chapter leader hub. 

Medicare Advantage Plus--Judge said city could go ahead, asked mayor not to. Many things unsettled. Our job is continued fight to make sure we have premium free health care for all members. Nobody asks what hospital charges are, but we're presented with all charges. We have hospitals charging 300 percent above Medicaid. Doctors were 62% of medical costs, a decade later hospitals 63%. 

We're now in a study looking at longterm effects of COVID. That data might give us leeway and flexibility with retirement and pensions. 

Over 400 people on negotiating committee, meeting next Wednesday. No one negotiating with city, our contract still in effect, 80% of unions already out. Will do training at UFT. Have expanded space. Want to make sure all members have access to a survey. Will use company to make sure it's objective. Key here is every chapter talk in general and for own chapters.

CL hub live next Friday. Had started before pandemic. We have many new CLs trying to get info and access. Have focus group on what you need to make job easier.Will modify as needed.

Speaker--Had focus group working on project to create dream site. Existing login will work. Will give grievance status, COPE, member report. Info on current campaigns. Will migrate from current CL section to here. Can contact reps and guests. Resources include CL handbook and training resources. Sample SBOs available. Forms available. Calendar will show upcoming events. Search engine same as that used by call center. Will help give answers to members. CL update available. 

Maggie--Was CL on panel. Shared complaints about site. Wanted all on same page. December we met and things were changed. Tired of huge CL binders that take up a lot of space. Now digitized. 

Mulgrew--As we move forward, we will build on it. You can talk members through APPR, special ed. complaints. We believe this tool will help. Thanks all who worked on it. 

Inquiry--When we're here to deliberate, according to Robert's Rules we need to alternate. What is guiding principal?

Point of Information--Are there rules higher than Robert's here?

Mulgrew--Yes there are. We are allowed to set rules through parliamentary process that supercede Roberts. That's why we end at 6.  Goal for me is to do business at union. If people want to do special considerations, two-thirds vote and up to body, not point of order. If people speak only for something, we ask if people want to speak against. About ability to have respectful conversation.

LeRoy Barr--Ballots going out April 8th, get out the vote, want great turnout. CL training Saturday and Sunday. Special ed. town hall Mar. 29. HS Awards April 8. MS conference April 9. March 13 great turnout for CTE awards. 19 early childhood. We are coming back. March 16 was anniversary of UFT. Happy 62nd anniversary. Union still strong, largest local in country.

Questions--

Q-- Helpdesk needs help. You call, you have to wait. We have resources here, but sometimes you have to reset password. Frustrating when they don't know what's going on.

A--DOE helpdesk--People call us when they give up on them. Then we have to call them. Parents have to call too. Doesn't build confidence in school system. It's a shame system is so bad. They spent a lot of money on it. FAQ for us is optical, because we increased benefit. We use our call center to drive info members want. DOE desk is embarrassment.

Q--Former CL asked when school quality surveys would carry weight. We have issues at PS 211, many of us left. We were in DN next Sunday. Principal still there. We need support. Thanks DR. 

A--We want retention at school level to count. Churn big issue, and usually fault of leadership. Should be number one indicator. When you have 30-40% leaving every year, you have big problem. Surveys are meaningless. Part of CBA with principals' union. Now that we are hopefully through pandemic, we have to focus on bad leadership that makes school improvement impossible. People hear a lot about these places where parents are unhappy. We need to deliver people ready to be school leaders.

Q--Heard Banks speak. Said kids don't need four years of HS. Why not incentivize early graduation? Why make them come 5 days a week, why not virtual? Opinion?

A--2.5 years problematic. Not his decision, but NYSED's. Five day a week schooling seems to work okay. If someone has creative idea we will listen, but need to understand what they will do. Some schools have four-day instruction and innovate day five. Some schools do six weeks on two off. More virtual? We learned a lot about it. A small percentage of kids did well. What are we going to do with two years of students who didn't graduate and now are working? Maybe we can create virtual school for D79 and try something, Must maintain class sizes. Must be tech infrastructure. We are not tech experts. 

Q--Last year did SBO votes virtually. Can we continue?

A--Yes. CLs like Election Buddy. 

Q--I was very sick, had negative CAR. Didn't get vacation days. Update?

A--Had to go back into arbitration. Few thousand people in that position. Arbitrator has jurisdiction. DOE "interpreted" that it meant if you had negative CAR days were not entitled to additional days. DOE asked how it would look if they had vacation days but owed days? We said deal with it at retirement. They didn't want to do any work. Ruling said vacation day not equivalent to CAR day. We say this violates ruling. Waiting for decision. 

Q--Paraprofessionals--This week we had PCMs in classroom. Will that continue? Will we have path to teacher?

A--Big question. Have negotiated where paras who qualify as subs can take charge of classrooms. We will have to go into negotiations. Many paras qualify to be teachers. Some don't want to do teacher paperwork. 

Q---OTs want to know what's going on with money we're not being paid, or being paid incorrectly.

A--We need to know, but will file union-initiated. DOE moving to get people paid, but it shouldn't happen. We proved they didn't pay. Shouldn't have to do this. Was no one in Tweed. We got movement. They are rushing it, and we have to keep process moving. Sometimes when we file grievance they stop paying. Should have never been in this position. Please send in all info so we can get payment done. 

Motions--

Thomas Conavoy--This month--Resolved-- UFT will advocate DOE be respectful of Diwali, promote multiculturalism. 

 Passes.

Meredith Soladis--Next month--Resolution on UFT expectations for new admin and chancellor. Resolved loss will not be remedied by spending more on bureaucracy, want fed money in public schools, student expectations reflect what students will know, smaller class sizes, Banks and Adams listen to teachers. 

Peter Lamphere--Moves to extend motion period ten minutes.  

Mulgrew--Out of order. We have elected delegates who have a meeting at 6 PM here. Will rep. UFT at NYSUT. Will make sure our agenda is protected. They have to do same work at national convention. We are debating motion on floor.

Point of Order--Nick Bacon--Invite says 6:30. 

Mulgrew--Was informed to clear room at 6.

Lamphere--Appeals chair's ruling.

Point of order--Can we debate motion on floor?

Mulgrew--We have to debate his point, that he feels he can make a motion while someone else's is on floor. ?

Point of order--Can we just get on with our business?

 Lamphere--Debatable motion.

Mulgrew--We have automatic adjournment in minute and a half. People tried to use Robert's Rules to hijack the work of the union. 

Chant of "UFT."

Mulgrew--You heard my report. You heard all the issues we are trying to deal with, We all have many real challenges with union as whole. Please try to be respectful of each other. Vote on challenge to chair.We have automatic adjournment. Room has to be cleared and set up for next meeting. Thank you all for coming today. Sorry we didn't get to do the work we came to do.

Off Today...

 ...but watch Francis Lewis HS Chapter Leader Samia Wattoo and me talking COVID-related teacher burnout on Channel 5 News.

Don't Forget to Vote for Unity

I'm running for reelection to the HS Executive Board. I'm running with and supporting the Unity Caucus. Every significant accomplishment I've been able to achieve for my colleagues at Francis Lewis High School and elsewhere has been via working with Unity.

We've just been through the most traumatic chapter of my teaching career, and likely everyone's. I don't know how long you've been doing this, but I've been at it since 1984. There were a lot of things that could've been done better, particularly when the apocalypse commenced, but the fact is we caught up quickly, and we soon went remote. I personally hated remote, but like a whole lot of people, I'd have hated dying of COVID even more. We got out too late for some, and that was awful.

Meanwhile, a whole lot of our colleagues in nearby districts didn't get out at all, ever. Accommodations? Forget it. You came to work, wore a mask if you could get one, and taught whatever of your students actually showed up. Those who didn't were watching your classes via the cameras in your classroom. I got an email from a teacher a bit upstate from us whose vulnerable wife got an accommodation that entailed a classroom with some extra windows.

The following year, we demanded safer working conditions and threatened a strike if we didn't get them. Accommodations were freely available to virtually all who needed them. I was among those who took advantage, and I was able to help others get them too. A lot of of things could've been done better, but the fact is we navigated this crisis better than a whole lot of Americans, and better than a whole lot of our colleagues in neighboring districts and states.

Being on the Executive Board has enabled me to work directly with leadership, particularly during the last round of contract negotiations. I was close to former VP Evelyn de Jesus, and pushed her to reduce observations from four to two. Evelyn was persuaded this was the right thing to do, and made it a priority. Shortly thereafter, I was bounced from the observation committee to the class size committee, and replaced by Michael Mulgrew, who sat in front of the DOE bigshots and demanded two observations rather than four. We won that. Observations still suck, but now only half as much as before.

My colleague Mike Schirtzer pushed for parental leave. He brought thoughtful and eloquent Emily James to Executive Board. Emily had written a petition and remarkably, collected almost 90,000 signatures in support. We were able to bring this to leadership, and Mulgrew was able to negotiate a parental leave agreement for the first time in our history. I've read people saying it should be longer, it should be this, and it should be that. They're right, of course, but this is a whole lot better than the nothing (!) it replaced.  When I adopted a 2-year-old girl from Colombia, I had to travel twice to South America and deplete most of my CAR days.

I'd argue the fight needs to be making this a national mandate as it is in so many other countries. Until that happens, working UFT members won't need to halt their families after one child simply because they're afraid of losing CAR days. I know multiple women who've had to do that. Some opposition members argued against this because it didn't meet their exacting standards. All I can say is I wish I'd have had six paid weeks off when I needed it. My sister-in-law in Canada got one year, with pay and full health coverage, for each of her two sons. If you want to know why that's not happening here, read this book and we'll talk.

The class size battle lingers, but there have been improvements. The recent agreement with the DOE means, while class sizes have yet to be reduced, at least current class sizes are enforced. There is far less ridiculous nonsense like one day a week off of your C6 assignment for teaching a class of 50, and there are far fewer oversized classes. My last year of chapter leader was the first year I didn't have to go to class size grievance hearings. It turns out principals do not want to explain to their superintendents why they can't manage to do their jobs. UFT's position is we ought not to fund class sizes by taking less money. If the city gave a golly gosh darn about quality education it would abandon nonsensical slogans like, "Children First, Always," and do what has to be done to actually help children. 

As a longtime chapter leader, I appreciate the new operational complaints. I was able to resolve several tough situations in our building with these. They are far quicker than traditional grievances. You don't have to waste time going to Step Two decisions where loyal DOE reps rule in favor of principals no matter what outrages they may have perpetrated. You also circumvent the very real danger of being at the whim of overpaid arbitrators either unwilling or unable to comprehend basic English.

I stepped down as chapter leader last year, anticipating retirement. I thought there would be an incentive. When there wasn't, I decided screw them all, I'll go back to work. That will teach them. I'm really glad I did. I'm pretty happy teaching five classes. After having been CL of a school with 4500 students and 300 members for 12 years, being a teacher again is a new life for me. I'm still writing op-eds about education, and TV stations call me to comment on stories. I'm really happy to represent when I can.

Of course we could have better working conditions, and despite what you may read in brain-dead newspaper editorials, even in the so called liberal papers, helping us helps students as well. We live in a city that's ready to roll out the red carpet for Jeff Bezos, build him a heliport or whatever he needs to get his gold-plated ass to Long Island City, but won't create adequate space for our kids to learn. That said, I worked with Unity members to negotiate a long-needed extension for our school. It's slated to open next year. No more trailers for us. I hope we have a big old barbecue and sit in lawn chairs watching the day they're finally demolished. 

Here's a thing I did when I was elected to Executive Board--I started posting notes of everything that happened there, available for all to read. Thousands of members read these reports. For reasons that elude me, no one had ever done that before. I'll continue to do that.

There's still a lot of work to do and I want to do it. I tried working with opposition for years and it's a dead end.  This year they're making nice, but next year they'll devolve into the same incomprehensible ideological battles on which they thrive. It's a longstanding pattern. Unity is not perfect, but Unity is what will move us into the future. 

I'm ready to make real progress and move forward. I'm voting for the entire Unity slate and I urge you to do the same.

Another Day Off...

..but you can hear me on this podcast talking about our upcoming contract. My segment begins about about 23:10 on the audio.

UFT Executive Board March 14, 2022--We resolve to defend LGBT + against discrimination, and declare solidarity with Ukraine and Minneapolis striking teachers

Secretary LeRoy Barr--Introduces minutes.

Approved.

Barr--Functional CL weekend went well. Early childhood conference Saturday. Please come out and support--hybrid meeting.  March 26 CL weekend 4. 

Reports from Districts--

Mary Vacarro--Had Golde Hawn come for training. Partnering with foundation. Will give training and one year subscriptions to anyone who participates.

Tom Murphy--4500 at general meeting for RTC. Mulgrew explained that new Medicare Adv. has been suspended. No need to opt out. 

Akeel Williams--March 10 Marina Del Rey Bronx, had retirement party for 36 year teacher. Thanks to all who attended. 

Special order of business--Resolution to support Ukraine--Reads resolution very fast--UFT stands with teachers, students, families in Ukraine and Ukranians in NYC schools, and will direct relief funds to them. 

Passes.

Resolution to defend LGBT plus against attacks--Mike Sill--We have to continue to fight for gains. People want to marginalize students we teach because of their identity. We have to be vigilant in defense of our students and profession. Cannot weaponize schools. We serve students in all their diversity. Must defend out colleagues and students no matter where they are.

Rashad Brown--Stands in favor. Representation matters. Students need to see representation in literature in their classrooms. Must choose own identity, in schools they're in. As for Florida, we want to make sure teachers are not disciplined for those conversations. Some students attempt suicide. We want to make sure these students are not overlooked 

Pat Crispino- I have outed myself many times over the years. I didn't know what gay was when I was young, but I knew I was different. Many things have changed  over the years that have helped keep kids alive.  People like Ellen coming out and many other famous people. That has helped kids not feel different and be ok who they are.  Please support this resolution any anything else you can do. We have to stop this maniac in Florida.

Michael Freedman--Another example of right wing people attacking "the other." We've been fighting this for centuries and must continue.

Passes unanimously.

President Michael Mulgrew-- Thanks everyone part of last weekend's training. People are starting to really like being out there. Tomorrow biggest event in two years at UFT with CTE. Will see how that goes. 

Week of lobbying--Budget process. Governor puts out proposal. Senate and Assembly put out proposals. We fight to get what we want on the table. Lobbied whole week. We were able to make significant progress. Both assembly and Senate put in 100 million for public schools. Teacher centers did very well. 26-28 million. Will probably have best funding in 20 years. Funded aid for 9th grade CTE students. Child care providers--get 69% of market rate--Assembly said make it 90%. Trying to get these things in. 3 billion for child care funding. Mayoral control not in either house bill. 

Chair of education committee says if mayoral control is redone will be changed. Week of lobbying really paid off. Never had these in one house budgets before. Will see where it goes. Will finish in 17 days. Then will be city budget. Mayor says city is broke. All mayors say that, but our advice at all times is use federal funding on infrastructure. DOE needs new computer system, is 45 years old. These are big ticket items we need now.

Judge ruled Medicare Advantage could go forward, but both plans would be premium free. We need to stop process, we told mayor. He agreed. City is appealing. Will see what happens when things are settled.

April 14 is when we will meet about Regents. Our members will be on stage speaking to politicians. Tired of answering same questions. 

This weekend early childhood conference. 

Questions--

Q--PS 211 in Bronx was in Daily News yesterday. Are these kind of cases you can bring to chancellor so we can encourage better relationships with principals?

A--Relationship on those issues has never been good. DOE always rationalizes this, like special ed. shortcomings. I will ask if this is what they believe they want in their schools. Do they want their employees treated that way? Supervisor union always blames us. When schools have constant churn that's significant evidence there is a real problem. Easily demonstrated. Carmen Farina agreed, but those with biggest churn rate were her friends and she turned away. Often these people are removed but hired by DOE. We hope to work things out better. I was CL in a school like this, dreading walking into the school. Will say that DOE superintendents applying seems to be serious process. They seem to be looking at everything, wanting people who can get things done. Clear that Superintendents will get more staff and BCOs will be downsized. Reason you're reading these stories is because of our work.

Q--At RTC meeting LeRoy gave shoutout to birthday of union.

A--Wednesday. 

Thanks us. Halfway through March. Will have break April 14.

Resolution in Solidarity with striking Minneapolis teachers--Janella Hinds--Speaks in favor. We work hard to protect class size here. Part of contract. Many places don't have those protections, or competitive pay. Retention and recruitment difficult. Standing in solidarity for them, who seek the protections we already have. We need teachers treated with respect and dignity they deserve. 

Carries. 

Barr--March 16, 1960 was birth of union. If it were five or ten years ago, you'd see many founders sitting here. 62 years ago a bunch of groups combined to form the UFT. George, before pandemic, was always in halls, with a bit of history. I always listened. We need to respect and build upon our foundation. Please reflect upon and teach someone else the importance of union.

George Altamari--Thanks everyone here. We have a long history and a short history. Why wasn't there a union earlier, or collective bargaining, or negotiations? Why did we have to grovel at supervisors? We were not in unity, together in solidarity. HS teachers used to say they wanted more money than elementary. Elementary said they did more work. There were about 50,000 teachers, many of whom in Teacher's Guild. We cut through and merged into a union to earn collective bargaining. 

Certain moments will never be redone. March 16, we voted to join together for sole purpose of solidarity. They were the founders. I'm the last remaining of founders. January 10 officers of UFT were allowed into 110 Livington St. Bosses had big conference table. We had never been in there. After winning collective bargaining election we had first negotiating meeting. I was there as HS VP and strike chairman. 

We walked in, saw long oak table, previously reserved for bosses only, and proclaimed we wanted collective bargaining. Power was not given to us. We took it because of Unity and Solidarity. Sings Solidarity Forever. 

Adjourned 6:46

Touchy Subjects

I have a couple in my class, or at least that's how it appeared to me. I was alerted to this when I saw a boy put his arms around a girl about a month ago. 

I was not particularly happy about this. I took the boy out into the hall and told him the next time he touched the girl in my classroom would be the last time he sat with her. 

I ignored him one day when he did it before the class actually began. Evidently he was testing me, because the next day I saw him hugging the girl again. I assigned him a new seat, and he asked why. I said I told him why a long time ago. 

I was going to give the guy another chance, but my supervisor told me not to. This actually made a lot of sense to me. I always tell teachers to keep their promises and go ahead with whatever it is they say they're going to do. Otherwise your word isn't worth that much. I pulled the girl out of her class and explained why I moved her friend. I told her it wasn't my  business what she does on her own time, but I can't have that in my classroom. She didn't look like she cared at all.

Today we had a test, and the girl actually took a seat in front of the class, which surprised me. She's usually in the back. As far as I can tell, she's not  even a little upset. Maybe she's relieved. She's doing great work in my class. The boy didn't show up. Perhaps he's teaching me a lesson. 

My actual lesson today, in the next class, didn't go precisely as well as I'd hoped. We were discussing the difference between "like" and "would like" in conversation. One of the cues I gave the kids was "I don't like." A boy said, "I don't like to wake up."

I said, "You don't like to wake up? Do you know what it means if you don't wake up?"

"You are dead," answered one of my astute beginners.

The class was very amused by my poor student being dead. However, he defended himself.

"I don't like to wake up early," he said.

I played a video of Hawaii. It showed beaches and palm trees, not to mention much nicer weather than the muck we're getting today.

"I'd like to go to Hawaii," I said. "Would you like to go to Hawaii?"

"No."

"No, I wouldn't," I corrected. But the students were just as irritated by my correction as you'd be.

"What would you like to do?" I asked.

"I'd like to sleep," said one, then another, and just about every voice in the room.

You know what? I'd like to sleep too. It's a perfect day to stay home and sleep. Who wants to trudge through the rain and snow to go to the airport?

I'll go to Hawaii some other time.

Medicare and Unintended Consequences

What this country really needs is Medicare for All. Given the state of our government and country, I don't see that on the immediate horizon. Meanwhile, we city workers have our own issues, and the latest one centers around Medicare coverage.

First, I have to applaud Retiree Advocate for taking action to halt fees for standard Medicare. I understand the apprehensions of retired teachers looking at changes to health coverage, and it's far from something to be taken lightly. 

The rollout was awful. The new city program was presented as a fait accompli, a thing of wonder and beauty, and no one in MLC had bothered to anticipate the completely predictable outcry. In fact, they hadn't even bothered to recruit doctors for the program. I knew people who said their doctors wouldn't take it.

We've all seen the Joe Namath commercials and their ilk. At first blush, I took the program as one and the same. It was a natural reaction. After hearing about it at many, many meetings, I started to warm up to it a bit. The fact was it would compensate doctors at the same rate as standard Medicare. It was hard to understand what objection doctors would have toward it, particularly with such a large group of us potentially using it.

I didn't envy proponents. It was very hard to argue this plan would be an improvement, particularly since it did not yet even exist. It was hard to credibly argue it would be terrible for the very same reason. I ultimately didn't believe this would've been a Joe Namath stunt, which is one reason I'd have been willing to try it.  

Unlike others, I was not much troubled by having to get pre-approval for procedures. I had cancer about 15 years ago, and with GHI had to do the same. The company that runs GHI was in charge of this new plan. I can tell you a lot of terrible things about that year, but pre-approval wasn't one of them. Being able to take a restoration of health sabbatical was a great gift that most Americans would not have access to.

I have a friend who works as a school supervisor on Long Island. Right now he's contemplating retirement. He's also contemplating taking a job driving a school bus to cover the 1100 bucks a month it will cost him for health care. I don't much understand my friend, as I'd much prefer teaching five classes to driving a bus, but hey, we're all different. I'm very glad not to be looking at this kind of expense when I retire. I'm very glad we've managed to avoid the premiums many of our brothers and sisters around the state pay.

That said, I'm looking at the judge's decision, and it's not reassuring me that all is good for UFT retirees, or even in-service members. One of the selling points of this plan, according to Mulgrew, was that it would've halted potential premiums for five years. As this program is no longer in effect, neither is that guarantee. 

The judge wrote the following:

First, the respondent and nominal respondent have taken many strides to improve the information available regarding the Plan, and thus, while the steps they have taken may not make things perfect, the Court finds that at this point the implementation of the Medicare Advantage Plan is no longer what thus Court would consider irrational.

The plan is no longer unacceptable to the court, and thus may be implemented. Again, we don't know how good, or how bad the plan would be. Only time would tell that. Now I don't speak for Michael Mulgrew, but if I were him I'd have made damn sure this plan worked well, because if it didn't, the fallout would've made hellfire look like a walk in the park. We may never know. Or we may, but I'll get to that.

 

Here are some more excerpts from the ruling:

The respondent was well within its right to work with the Municipal Labor Council to change how retirees get their health insurance... as the petitioners freely acknowledge, the New York State Constitution does not guarantee specific health insurance for retirees. 

However, based on this Court’s reading of New York City Administrative Code Section 12-126, so long as the respondent is giving retirees the option of staying in their current program, they may not do so by charging them the $191 the respondent intends to charge. This section states unequivocally that “[t]he City will pay the entire cost of health insurance coverage for city employees, city retirees and their dependents, not to exceed one hundred percent of the full cost of H.I.P.-H.M.O. on a category basis.2” 

So the city may change how retirees get insurance, but may not charge $191 monthly under the current code. Of course, the code could be changed. Or perhaps the city could place all retirees in the Advantage program the unions devised, or indeed some Joe Namath program if it saw fit. I don't anticipate the latter, but I'm not certain about the former. Mayor Swagger went from objecting to this plan to endorsing it, likely because it saved the city money. (Since he's taken office, the only thing I've found consistent about him is how wonderful he believes himself to be.)

There is another issue, of course. That is that this plan was designed to save money somehow. If that money isn't saved here, will it be saved some other way? Will the city swallow the cost? If not, will NYC employees rise up en masse in protest? I know some of my former friends in MORE were borderline orgasmic over the prospect of strike. Most teachers I know, while willing to walk for safety last year, do not share that enthusiasm. Some wouldn't even have done that.

I recall that one I was friendly with said flat out to me, "I will be a scab." This person was shocked at my reaction, evidently expecting me to laugh it off or something. A big flaw in our union is that a lot of people do not understand very well what union even is. And while opposition will jump all over that, blaming Unity, I don't believe the fanaticism some of them hold is very appealing to most. (And no, I'm not knocking anyone for being socialist. I'm a huge fan of Bernie Sanders. There's something else there, and everyone in opposition who's worked with this faction knows it.) It certainly didn't appeal to me when they falsely wrote I was a "right-winger," for reasons that continue to elude me.

Furthermore, we have very real right-wingers in our union. The ones I know were happy to have me as chapter leader, but would not have supported me for, say, US Senator. That was fine with me. I was happy to enforce the contract for everyone regardless of political persuasion. I was not happy with the one willing to cross our picket line, though, and he represents a not inconsiderable portion of our union.

Of course we need to educate our brothers and sisters. Trump supporters benefit from union as much as anyone. Spreading the word will be a big job. This is the fault of not only ourselves, but also our school system. I don't like to brag, but I'm a high school graduate, and aside from hearing a Woody Guthrie song here and there, I didn't learn much about union until I joined one. I learned even more when I became an activist, and a whole lot more when I became a chapter leader. 

I frankly don't expect this to go away for good. Opposition can promise the sun and the stars. We will get back all the givebacks from 2005, we'll beat the pattern, and we'll get 10% raises every year, unless we want more. Okay, great. That said, I've had opposition members scheme behind my back, outraged that I'd introduce a class size resolution without their explicit approval. I read the opposition blogs sometimes, and have very recently seen myself blatantly misrepresented in more than one of them. Now I know myself fairly well, better, in fact, than any other blogger.. A few weeks ago, I spoke to one blogger about a correction, and was told no, that wasn't gonna happen. Okay, fine. Keep making promises.

But no matter how loud opposition screams, even if I get up and scream with them, this can come back to bite us. It doesn't matter whether or not we're retired. I absolutely hope I'm wrong. I absolutely hope we continue to receive premium-free health care. 

That's not gonna be a walk in the park, whatever anyone else may tell you.

All Americans Should Have Jobs Like Ours

First, I want to apologize for not running the Executive Board minutes last night. Our gas burner dropped dead on Sunday, and I spent yesterday scrambling for someone to fix it. It was complicated, but we got it fixed, only to have it stop working last night. So that saga continues, as does our continued story as educators.

Honestly, there are a lot of things to complain about in this job. I've been complaining about all of them in this space since 2005, so I'm pretty well-qualified to go into that. I also served as chapter leader of the most overcrowded school in the city for 12 years. I'm as familiar with administrative abuse and insanity as many or most. Of course, bad leadership is not unique to our profession. You'll hear from your relatives and civilian friends about how rough they have it compared to us. 

On one level, they're absolutely wrong. Our job demands constant attention to detail, fast thinking, and a willingness and ability to deal with multiple crises both simultaneously and concurrently. I can think of a lot of jobs that don't require that sustained attention and care. We don't have the luxury of taking breaks or even visiting that bathroom whenever it suits us. Almost everyone seems to underestimate what our jobs entail. Newspapers malign us semi-religiously. Politicians want to police us so we don't tell the truth about the massive bigotry that infects us. When COVID hit, we were heroes for a minute, and then we were depriving Americans of their God-given right to go unmasked, no matter who was put at risk.

Here's a brighter side. We have regular hours. We don't get called in to work Saturdays and Sundays, like those poor people in Office Space. We don't generally get phone calls when we're upstate with our families asking us about non-weekend stuff. We don't go home with school-provided cell phones to answer questions on off-hours, like some charter teachers do (and we'll have to work not only to keep things that way, but also to improve things for charter teachers, ideally via union).

We have a whole lot of holidays. Generally, when our kids are off from school, we are too. Most Americans don't have this. We just had an entire President's week, while a whole lot of Americans didn't even have a President's Day. Unlike a whole lot of people in our state, we didn't have to scramble to find day care for our kids. We didn't have to take days off either.

When we do take days off, though, we are generally paid for them. This is not an option for a whole lot of Americans who are paid hourly or daily. Sick? Too bad for you. Sick too much? You're fired. I once had a job at an appliance store. I remember clearing a night where I had a job playing music somewhere with my manager. However, he subsequently arranged a hot date for himself that night and told me I'd have to work. I told him forget it and was fired. I was fortunate, at that young age, that losing a job was not really something that would much change the direction of my life. For many Americans, that's not the case.

And hey, if you want to be a musician, an artist, or pursue whatever passion strikes your fancy, with this job you may have time to pursue it. I have a lot of teacher friends who are working musicians. Often, they're better off than full-time professional musicians I know, even great ones. For one thing, they have health insurance. I can't count the times I've seen benefit concerts held for great musicians who got sick. I've given money to musicians to help pay hospital bills. All Americans should have health insurance. If so many other countries can pull it off, so can we. 

That's not to mention, of course, that a whole lot of artists simply made no money during the height of the pandemic. Unlike other countries, our government gave us a check here and there. They evidently hoped those without work pulled themselves up by their bootstraps. (Personally, I've never even seen a bootstrap, but perhaps they're handy on snowy days.) I hated teaching online, but it beat the hell out of having no income.

You know, you may sit around the Thanksgiving table and listen to your relatives tell you how easy you have it, even though you're working your ass off. That, of course, is because you have summers off. They act like you're getting away with murder. However, if you were in Europe, or Canada, working a non-teaching job, or even in Taco Bell, you'd have vacation time, and not just a week a year.

We've also finally gotten parental leave. I've read blogs trashing our version of parental leave, though none of them gave any reasons I found compelling. It's a whole lot better than the nothing it replaced. I was involved in a foreign adoption, and lost 40 CAR days pursuing it. I know women who stopped at one kid because they were worried about the days. Hey, if you don't like the program, don't use it. Of course it can be improved, and I hope it will, but a whole lot of Americans lack this, unlike, oh, Europe. In Canada my sister-in-law got a year off with pay.

We also have a fixed retirement, something of a rarity in America today. There's not much of a substitute for that. Beats the hell out of a 401K, hoping for the best, or expecting to get by on Social Security.

Of course little or none of this could have been accomplished without union. It's because I'm union that I can write this and be published elsewhere. If someone tried to fire me for speaking out, I'd speak out more, and as publicly as possible. I'd make it very inconvenient for anyone going after me for no reason. Of course, if I were in a non-unionized Starbucks, I might not be able to speak out at all.

All Americans should have what we have. No one should be working three dead-end, no-benefit jobs just to make ends meet. No one should be declaring bankruptcy due to catastrophic medical emergency. No one should have to divest themselves of all they own just to qualify for half-decent end-of-life care.

We need not only to appreciate what we've got, but also to fight for our communities, all of whom need exactly what we have, and more.

With Religious Charters, Privatizers Have Their Cake and Eat It Too

There's a lot of talk about whether charters are public or private schools. Most people I respect suggest they are the latter, in that they take public money but don't really have to follow public rules. 

For example, Eva Moskowitz can allow students to do test prep until they pee their pants, and there's no chancellor's regulation suggesting then need to do otherwise. Were I to make students pee their pants, at the very least, I'd be looking at a letter to file. Were I to do it repeatedly, I'd be looking at 3020a charges, and quite possibly the loss of my job. 

In public schools, school leaders can't hire their own children, college kids with no certification, as teachers, but Eva did it and that was just fine. When Bill de Blasio had requirements for a pre-K program, Eva canceled hers rather than comply. 

And when de Blasio came into office wanting to cut down on charters, the suitcases full of cash her BFFs directed to Andrew Cuomo somehow resulted in NYC having to pay rent for charters if it failed to provide space. This has cost the city hundreds of millions, so those campaign contributions have paid off spectacularly.

Now, there's a new thing with charters. Perhaps they can be religious, if Judge Biff and his BFFs on SCOTUS say so. Can this be done?

Garnett, the Notre Dame law professor, has one potential answer.

It’s well established that the government cannot run a religious school, but a private entity can, she said in a recent report for the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank. Despite being defined as “public” in state laws, Garnett continues, charter schools are not run by the government; they are run by private, unelected boards, typically organized as nonprofits. 

So charters, if you believe this professor, are NOT public schools. Therefore it's okay that they be religious. This has, however, ruffled the feathers of some who have been maintaining that charters are public. 

Charter school groups have argued that the schools are indeed public for legal purposes and that the recent Supreme Court cases don’t apply to charter schools.

“All charter schools are public schools,” said Rees of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. “Charter schools have never been able to, and cannot now, endorse a specific religion.” 

For the record, I'm not a charter supporter.  Like Diane Ravitch, I believe we should devote our resources toward improving public schools. I'm a union supporter. I believe working people should have union, and I'm certain one reason charters exist is to avoid it. I don't apologize for any benefits, protections or privileges provided or negotiated by my union. I don't want to deprive others of such benefits either. I think we need to be a model, not a clique. 

The Chalkbeat writer makes a strong point here:

Religious charter schools would also open up other legal issues. Could such schools admit students based on religious affiliation? Could they bar students or teachers based on sexual orientation and gender identity?

I don't want my tax dollars devoted toward discrimination against students for any of the above. In an environment where discriminatory laws are all the rage, where book banning is the new black, and in which teachers may have to walk on eggshells rather than freely teach our nation's history, that would be even more outrageous than charters are already.

Public schools ought to be for everyone. Charter schools already fail to suit that definition, and again let's look at Moskowitz and her "got to go" lists. There are plenty of charters that manage to select their students one way or another. Just require a whole lot of parental hours, or set rules that make it impossible for undesirable students to stay. My friend Gary Rubinstein has a whole lot of stories about charters that shed the majority of students before claiming to be successful in sending impossibly high percentages to college.

Meanwhile, people like you and I teach the ones Eva can't be bothered with. If they don't do well, we're maligned in the papers for not doing our jobs. Education ought not to be privatized. It's a public good. I don't believe charters are public schools now, and it's the height of hypocrisy to agree with me simply to use public money to support parochial schools. 

This is a terrible idea, which makes it likely SCOTUS will adore it.

Don't Unmask Just Yet

If we've learned anything about COVID at all, it's that we cannot predict what it will do next. That's why the mask mandate in places other than schools has come, gone, and come again. We're looking at several blue states dropping mandates in schools, including New Jersey and Delaware. Very likely, New York will follow, though Kathy Hochul has not made a public decision just yet.

Hochul made a good decision, sending test kits home with students and staff going on break. With a little luck, that will avoid us a revisit of the disaster that was January 2022. In fact, even though there was a mask mandate, I see students walking around each and every day with masks hanging under their noses or around their necks. They know there are no consequences for this, so why not? Who cares if over 17% of students in our school tested positive for COVID when returning from Christmas break?

Now here's the thing--as predicted, Omicron came, peaked, and then dissipated just as it had in Israel, or wherever it was we saw this model. We're all happy to see it go. That said, last summer I was pretty freely going to restaurants and traveling to see friends and do odd jobs around the state. I wasn't nervous at all going into places I knew well without a mask. I don't know about you, but Omicron changed that for me. 

I'd be more than happy to be there again, but there is, in fact, another variant coming, and it could very well do just what Omicron did. Perhaps it won't, and I'm just as hopeful as anyone that it doesn't. Of course, even if it fizzles out into nothing, that doesn't mean there won't be another variant that brings us to a standstill. 

How can we prevent that? Let me think. Well, we know that if I'm wearing a surgical mask, you're unlikely to be infected by me. We know that if I'm wearing an N95 or something close to it, I'm further unlikely to be infected by you. Doesn't if follow, then, that if we all wear masks of that sort, no one is likely to be infected by anyone? 

Personally, I don't understand why it's even a discussion. I understand political arguments about taxes. We shouldn't pay so much in taxes. Or we should pay for this rather than that. Or we should get a better return for what we pay. I understand arguments about politicians. I like this one, not that one. This one did that, and ought to have done this.

I am beyond baffled that we're arguing over health. Health ought not to be a left or right issue. We ought to all be in favor of health, and we ought to do all we can to protect the health of our communities. I'd say the heart of our communities is our children. What would we not do to protect our children? 

These days, there are an awful lot of Americans who won't wear a frigging mask to protect our children. Perish forbid, of course, that they should get vaccinated. It doesn't matter that every week one of my students gets called down to the medical office to learn if she doesn't get vaccinated, she can't return. Why, exactly, in matters of health, should we have any more rights than children? Because we are bigger humans than they are? I'm not seeing it. Perhaps many share the beliefs of whoever painted that car above. 

Nonetheless, I'm a role model. I will continue to wear a mask until I'm sure our school environment is safe enough not to. With the possibility of new variants hanging over our heads, it seems a very bad idea to abandon them. Lawmakers could not predict Omicron, and they cannot predict what will happen with BA2, let alone whatever variants follow.

There is absolutely nothing more important than the health of our children, not the Pythagorean Theorem, not the novels we teach, be they banned or not, and not even teaching newcomers English. It behooves us to do all we can to protect their health, and our own as well. I'm not confident NY State will go the right way. 

We, as individuals, as teachers, ought to set a better example than politicians.

Racism--American as Apple Pie

It's Black History Month, and even the talking heads on Fox are quoting MLK, albeit in a very limited fashion. Were he not assassinated (while standing up for organized labor), were he around today, he'd have plenty to say about these talking heads.

It's an odd time to be American. Fox is a propaganda network that's hypnotized a good portion of the country into not moving forward. It's normalized racism to the point where we can't accomplish anything for all of us. Were we to do that, it would benefit all those other people we revel in stereotyping.

The current source of outrage is all those people out there who want to teach our children Critical Race Theory. The fact that it's a college level course that we'd never heard of before all this brouhaha is neither here nor there. John Oliver just discussed it on Last Week Tonight, and played a clip of Tucker Carlson first saying despite talking about CRT for a year, he didn't know what it was. Tucker followed that admission, of course, by bitterly criticizing it.

Now we have a movement, in the red states for now, to restrict what we can teach. You can't teach anything that might make students feel bad. You can't discuss white privilege, for example, even though much of our country was literally built by people of color enslaved by wealthy white people. Our White House was largely built by slaves. Now A Tennessee law is looking to ban books, and of course it's being replicated elsewhere. 

Bigotry is the coin of the realm in these United States, and of course there are people fighting to keep it that way. A whole lot of them, like Tucker, are featured prominently on Fox, and they have millions of viewers parroting their talking points. I hear them from UFT members more than I'd like to admit We like to think we're smarter than everybody else, but we're just as susceptible to propaganda as anyone. 

Of course, as long as you think that people of color, or immigrants, or people of this or that religion, or gender, or sexual orientation are out to steal your way of life, you'll fight tooth and nail against it. They're here for your jobs. For goodness sake, it's us against them. Of course we have to act.

So when arguments come up about, oh, canceling crippling student debt, you say no, they'd better not do that. If you allow them to cancel that crippling student debt they'll be able to quit one of their three minimum wage jobs and work toward something better. Then you'll lose your job, to them, and you'll have to settle for a lower quality of life somehow. 

And when they talk about universal health care you need to say oh no, I don't want all those other people to have free health care. It will be expensive. How will we pay for all that book banning we need to do? Who's gonna pay Tucker Carlson's salary?

And when they talk about voting rights, sorely curtailed by the Supreme court, repeatedly, you say oh no, let those people wait on long lines in the heat if they want to vote, and arrest anyone who gives them water as they stand there. Screw them. People fought and died for this right, and it's the least you can do to stand out in line for hours with no water. 

Parental leave? Forget it. That's just sheer laziness. Why should we support people having babies? It's their choice to have all those babies and we don't want to pay for that. Why, stuff like that is socialism, and socialism is bad. I know because I learned it in school, and every goshdarn commentator on Fox says so. 

The problem Fox fails to point out, of course, is that a whole lot of white people, their viewers, also end up ruined by student debt, debt they wouldn't have if they lived almost anywhere but here. A whole lot of white people don't have health insurance. Some die because they're afraid to visit an emergency room and incur thousands of dollars of debt. I know, or knew, someone that happened to. And it's hard for white people to vote when they live in those targeted districts. And guess what? When people of color don't get parental leave, white people don't get it either.

We live in a country that has normalized huge socialist-style benefits for people who least need it, while spitting in the face of most Americans in dire need. We have a huge network based around telling people this system is somehow good for them. We accept racism because we buy into this insane and counter-productive mythology. 

In the end, we're hurting ourselves, and all Americans who aren't gazillionaires. We're making laws so that we, the teachers, participate in keeping our brothers and sisters uninformed and compliant. Racism and bigotry are as American as apple pie. But when we deny rights and benefits to some, we deny them to all.

We're not nearly as smart as we think we are. I once again recommend The Sum of Us, by Heather McGhee, which examines this in great detail.

UFT Delegate Assembly February 16, 2021--Much Ado

UFT President Michael Mulgrew-- Welcomes us, asks for moment of silence for Lowell Wayne, Michael Levine, and Edwin Hines, father of Janella.

Federal--Midterm elections prime interest. Looking at smaller version of Build Back Better. Want to pass Climate Change measures.

State--All district lines finished, will be court challenges, but legislature will move quickly. Need to move up lobbying efforts. Expect on time budget with most issues resolved by end of March. We will have a Lobby Week beginning March 7th. This was traditionally Lobby Day. They need to see us, but capital closed to all but staff and elected officials. We will  meet with officials beginning the 7th. Want UFT presence in capital entire week, albeit virtually. Foundation aid fully funded. Mayoral control is up. We don't want current version. One of mayor's appointments is head of SUNY charter panel. Needs to be checks and balances. 

Every mayor has used mayoral control for politicial, not educational purposes. Made bad errors with testing, COVID. They say if we change it, it isn't mayoral control, but no other cities use this version. All others have checks and balances. We will have UFT presence Monday to Friday. 

Also, endorsement season coming, state and federal level. People asking why NYSUT endorsed Hochul. There was a process and recommendation at state level. Any local president can put forth a resolution for endorsement. Once AG said she wasn't running, NYSUT Executive Board endorsed.

(Disconnected for several minutes)

NYC has record reserve of over 6 billion, exceeded revenue projection by over two billion. Wall St. had great year and no millionaires left. 

But budget raises are scheduled as zero for two years. Says all raises based on efficiencies and work productivity. Every mayor says that. At least they are not saying city is broke. Now it starts. 

Negotiating committee will meet at mid March, in person only. Hopefully when we are negotiating we'll be post-COVID. Key in NYC is the pattern. Arbitrator will work with that. We have a union in arbitration now that hasn't received last contract. We have to know whether pattern is set before we negotiate. Unions place pressure on one another. Important we start process. 

Individual chapters need to come up with own demands. Mulgrew shows 1962 contract, says it's very small. Top salary for teachers after 15 years was $10,400. People have used larger contract as a negative. But there's a story about every item in this contract, work rules, voice, support, mentoring. Once they got it done the first time, we built off of it. World is changing, and every chapter needs own demands. 

We are finalizing committee now, between 4-500. 

Vacation Days--Had to go back to arbitrator. 4000 had negative CAR balance. Award did not speak to it, but DOE decided it didn't have to turn four CAR days into vacation days. We know arbitrator will agree with us. Award says clearly it's to make sure all who work receive full value of what they put in. CAR day not equivalent to vacation day. Many folks with negative balance either decided to have a family. Some had medical crises. That's the majority. We want all made whole, and will share decision when we get it.

Many people got notices of termination. We fight for what's in contract. Doesn't matter what you believe in vaccinations. Some say we're giving up rights and others say we're giving up union time. None to both. Cannot say a teacher can be terminated for refusing vaccination. Untenured have article 78 protections. We can't let people be terminated at any time with no due process. We can't give them a foot hold there. We will do our work to make sure our rights are protected. We're all adults and make our own decisions.

We have a group of members who have provided evidence of first shot and not second. As soon as city sets deadline we will be doing outreach to all those members. We want them to remain employed. We need to know if there are errors, and give people way to provide evidence.

We want support, and smaller class sizes from city. We also want to know what city wants. Mayor focused in dyslexia. Mayor and chancellor talking about career tracks. We would support these things. They say they want system to serve schools.

When it comes to negotiations, a few weeks ago we resolved one for Visiting Nurses. We're in an ugly negotiation at NYU. Hospitals ran commercials about their brave hero nurses, and now treats them poorly. They are short staffed all the time. Lost 330 nurses. Hired only 200. Want fewer nurses on floor. They don't bill us less. Not for profit hospital industry is really for profit. Not even discussing money yet. Filed 2,000 grievances at NYU for lack of support. They thought we'd take unenforceable work rules and some money. We won't. Will keep you updated.

In two days, you get vacation. We come back on the 28th. No days off in March. And then we head into standardized tests, calendar, preference sheets. We have a chapter leader hub. Have a focus group. We want to give CLs all paperwork, preference sheets, SBOs, grievances and everything organized there. Over 2,000 SBOs a year. Some schools reinterpret them in September. We need a clear record.  We want it ready April 1st, and hope you utilize tool. Trainings, handbooks, searchable contracts available. 

Pandemic--At lowest number .43, staff at .05. Some optimism we could be near end, but must be vigilant. NJ made announcement. We have not changed our policy. We all want to take masks off, but in a prudent manner. Members all over the place on this, but no one wants to be sick or die. Maybe we can remove them for outdoor activities, but place them back on before entering. We will see and keep everyone informed. 

Everyone will get test kit Friday. Every teacher and student should go home with a test kit, and test before you come back. That info will drive policy. Breaks cause rise in rate.

Attendance--Students can be marked present with a code when learning asynchronously ONLY for COVID. 

Salary Dept. at DOE--Problems with sub teacher work and per session work. Asking they be moved immediately to arbitration. Many issues with new situations. DOE claims they didn't know there was a problem. There are also attendance issues with COVID.

March will be CL training. Moving toward going away overnight. We have a number of different hotels but will limit people who can come. If you request and we cannot fulfill you for first weekend, we will accommodate you on the second. We will do same thing with Spring Conference. We will have to limit it to about a thousand people. In 1962, MLK received Dewey Award. We want to celebrate 60th anniversary of this. 

Effective March 1, increasing optical benefit from 125 to 175. Hearing benefit from 1,000 to 1,500. Retiree optional rider from 780 to 840. This is using negotiating power at Welfare Fund.

LeRoy Barr--Tomorrow, conclusion of Black History film series, on Marcus Garvey. Discussion afterward has been great too. Women's History Month--March 3rd Criminalization of Girls in Public Schools, March 4 Herstory, virtual, March 17 domestic violence film. HS town hall March, cte awards, elementary coference, counselor conf..March 17, election petitions due Friday.

Mulgrew--Christine Tewksbury kept school together for two year harassment case and kicked principal's butt.  It was straight up, unequivocal union animus. We will see what happens, but keeping staff together through that is great work. 

Questions--

Point of order--Camille Eterno--Robert's Rules says officers make no reports. 

Mulgrew--Out of order. This is an agenda approved by this body. 

Eterno--appeals ruling. 

Point of info--(I don't really understand it.)

Mulgrew--UFT has made this our agenda. Chair does not have authority to change what UFT declares to be its agenda. Roberts Rules adapted by different organizations.

Barr--Wants to speak against. This body based on tradition. We've been doing it this way since beginning of school year. This happens to coincide with other union activities History of union not based only on this year. Goes back 20, 30 years or longer. Can change it if body decides. To say, in 2022, that President cannot make a report is against what we do. You have an obligation to vote against this appeal. 

Mulgrew--We want to make this as orderly as possible. We are here to get information. We will bring appeal to a vote. 

Eterno--Page 19 of Robert's Rules, union 80% women, man saying I can't be heard.

Mulgrew rules her out of order.  Chants of "let her speak."

Mulgrew says there are people on line. If you want to make speeches, do it outside. This body is to do the work. If you don't wish to do it, there are others who will. There are over 2K online.

Cross shouting between Eterno, who refuses to surrender mike, and Mulgrew, again calling her out of order. Mike is turned off, I think,

Michael Sill--not just tradition, but voted on. If someone just showed up today, not surprised they don't care about tradition. 

?--Exec. Board--Member of union, 30th year. Active unionist for last 25. Embarrased by this forum. We are here to do work. Purpose of DA is to work and vote democratically. everything here out of order.

Someone else from EB, saying we have job to do, we are all adults, move agenda forward. Lots of cross talk from other mikes. 

Mulgrew--Debate on challenge to chair, question called. 

(I am disconnected again. I don't get to vote.)

Mulgrew explaining clickers to hall. 

 total 786 yes 279 no

Sorry if anyone had question. Send them to me. We are way past time. 

Vote on challenge to chair. 

total 887-184 Chair upheld.

Motions--

Point of information--How are agendas set?  10 minutes for motion not enough.

Mulgrew--You can extend it by...(Conversations are inudible)

Resolution--To commemorate Women's History Month--contributions immeasurable, UFT, majority of women honors creativity, impact of women...for this month.

 total 937 yes 218 no

Question--What are rules for making sure people heard both for and against? Only one side heard...

Mulgrew--You are out of order. 

Motion to move quorum from number 6 to 3. 

total 63%--does not move.

Motion to suspend rules---

Mulgrew--Out of order. Majority says they want to get work done,

Resolution 1--Tom Brown, supports Deborah Penny to retirement board. Respected and trusted, advocate for pensions. Currently chair of TRS, oversees investment and board meetings, has presented on panels. Impressed by knowledge, diligence and compassion. Pensions stronger and safer with her as trustee. Asks DA to pass resolution nominating her for re-election. 

David Kazansky--Supports resolution and Deborah Penny. When many members were ill at onset of covid she contacted every member, worked for state covid benefits they would not otherwise have received. 

Peter Lamphere--Motion to suspend rules.

Mulgrew--Out of order. I know you think you understand what you're doing. You do not. I went back and checked. Yelling out to suspend the rules can be out of order so chair can continue business. Recognized you because I thought you would continue debate. You chose not to speak for or against. 

Lamphere--Appeals ruling of chair.

Anthony Harmon--Everything here should be on resolution at hand. All else out of order.

?--calls question.

894 yes 71 no. 

Resolution--

922 yes, 40 no

Janella Hines-- Rises to motivate resolution on healthy relationship education, eradicate domestic violence. 2019 we resolved against domestic violence. Heard many stories of abuse. We are tired of this. We still accept family primary school for love--but that often eludes us. We can create space to talk about healthy positive relationships in schools. 

?--Survivor of domestic violence rises to support. Victims often feel silenced, are not believed. Imperative that we support this. Time for us to break silence and give every survivor a voice. Tell abusers we will take no more.

Marie Baker--Rises in support. 49% of males report using violence, gives other stats. Need to reach out to youth coalitions. 

Question called.

Mulgrew--Says please be safe during time off, and find time to relax. Thanks us.

860 yes, 38 no

Resolution--

895 yes  18 no

We are adjourned. Wishes us safe and peaceful week off. 

Why I'm NOT Voting for UFC

I was pretty stoked about being in opposition for a pretty long time. A few things turned me around. The big one was when MORE, with which I was affiliated, and to which I'd contributed, started acting very strangely and doing odd power plays. 

At the last MORE meeting I attended, I was criticized for putting forth a resolution without running it by "steering." Steering is a committee I'd had no contact with before. I wasn't even sure what it was.

It was odd because I'd already put forth a number of resolutions without contacting "steering." I couldn't attend the next MORE meeting. I was at a UFT event for ELLs. Evidently they voted, without me there, that we needed to run things by them before introducing them at Executive Board. This directly contradicted an agreement I'd made before running--that we'd be able to make our own decisions. 

Then there was some other resolution I don't remember, about how awful we were or something, that kind of surprised me. Soon thereafter, the steering committee was term-limited and replaced. Somehow, MORE managed to dump all or most of the new members. Rules were important when they were making them up as they went along, but didn't matter much when a small clique was no longer in control. I then saw an email by a MORE leader labeling me, the deposed committee, and other people I know as "right-wingers."

The people behind these moves were part of some socialist faction or other that's since disbanded. I don't know what the agenda was of these particular socialists, but whatever it was, my priorities were not theirs. I'm not sure exactly what made me a "right-winger." My first choice for President of the United States was Bernie Sanders. If that makes me a right-winger, so be it. 

Whatever it was they were doing, it entailed trying to sell me socialist newspapers for a dollar, and going to meetings at a diner where one faction of socialists would argue vehemently with another. Some were not UFT teachers anymore, and I had no idea why they were even there, let alone why we needed to listen to them. I sat through these long discussions, didn't favor one side or another, and, for the most part, didn't even understand what they were arguing about. 

There was some sort of agenda in all these resolutions. The leaders of MORE, evidently, shared this agenda. I have no idea what it was. It certainly did not entail winning more union elections. After all, we'd really tried to push them in that direction. We had a newsletter that they took over and promptly ran into the ground. Then, of course, they made it a priority to boot out the only people who ever won elections for them. They ran again, and were pretty well-trounced, on all levels.Now, perhaps, they want to be relevant again. Why? I haven't got a clue.

Alas, I don't trust them at all, I don't support them, and I won't be voting for them. There are some people in opposition I have great respect for. There are, however, a good number of them who I wouldn't count on to spit on me if I were on fire. Some of them, who I'd naively considered friends, sorely disappointed me.

I've been going twice a month to Executive Board meetings for years. I've also been taking notes and sharing them publicly, which no one from opposition ever bothered to do before.

At first, several people from MORE assured me they'd be there supporting us. Their presence, in fact, turned out to be a very rare and fleeting thing. That wasn't so bad, particularly after they made it clear they didn't really support us anyway. What was important, for some of them at least, was control. For the life of me, I have no idea why they wanted it. We did bring their suggestions to meetings. That, though, wasn't enough.

My primary union involvement, for 12 years, was as chapter leader of Francis Lewis High School. It's a huge school, with 4500 students and 300 UFT members. The job was immense. The most I ever got support or assistance from MORE was never. I didn't know anyone there who was particularly expert in the Contract, or in resolving the frequent conflicts that occur in a building this large. Given the frenetic and tense nature of the meetings I attended, I didn't think conflict resolution was their strong suit.

I tried to help one of the opposition leaders get a job in my building. I got a teacher from the department in question to advise this person how to ace the interview. The person was set to get the job. Concurrently, my principal had just appointed a person dean who'd just been dean. This was a violation of rotation rules. There were several candidates ahead of this person, and they planned to grieve this appointment. 

When I brought this to the principal's attention, he withdrew the posting, deposited the would-be dean back into the department, and there was no opening for the opposition member. This person was strident and abusive to me. Evidently I should have said to hell with the rotation, screwed the members I represented, and made sure this person got the job. I see this person as unfit to lead.   

MORE is the big dog in UFC. I love dogs, but this one is not getting my vote, ever. When I needed support, for twelve years, I got it almost exclusively from Unity members. When people contact me asking for help, I refer them to Unity members. When I want things done, I ask Unity members to help me. And they do, always.

I will have chapter and verse on that in a future blog.

Weathering the Apocalypse--There Is a Bright Side Somewhere

Everything sucks, kind of. Last summer, I was comfortable getting together with friends, unmasked. I went to a weekly gathering upstate with friends and didn't worry at all. It seemed like COVID was subsiding. Of course, when Omicron hit, I thought again. I became much more careful at work and elsewhere. I've got enough KF94 masks to get me through the year, or almost. 

Now there's a new one, Son of Omicron or something, and we could easily have another surge. I hope we don't, but COVID has proven to be nothing if not unpredictable. I'm prepared for whatever. There are some bright points to consider, though. 

First, consider that we now have a vaccine, and don't have to have nervous breakdowns every time we go to the supermarket. While none of us want to get COVID, the fact is our risk of death or prolonged hospitalization is very much diminished. We also know that surgical masks tend to protect others from us, and are a courtesy, while N95 masks and their near-clones go a step beyond and offer us some protection as well. 

Of course those who say schools are the safest places are delusional  Still, they're not precisely death traps either, not even with those crap humidifiers de Blasio went out and bought. (If Adams really had swagger, he'd buy HEPA machines for all of us and trash the other ones.) Most of my colleagues who were infected have theories as to why, and most of them involve outside contacts. Of course, that's far from a scientific survey, but I'm happy to say all those I know of are back and doing very well

Another thing that's important to note is that we, NYC teachers, did not do all that badly through this crisis. Sure, every moment of it has been stressful. Sure, every twist and turn is excruciating. But no one I know of is the Oracle of Delphi with some simple answer for how things are, or how things will be. 

And the fact is, while we were at highest risk, we were able to get accommodations that kept us out of buildings. That was a mixed bag for me. While I was happy not to be out risking my life, I absolutely hated teaching online. Looking at 7 kids and 24 cat pictures, knowing that a good portion of those kids were asleep, playing video games, or committing unnatural acts somewhere made me nuts. I am all over my classroom. I like to know what's going on. This made me a teacher tied to a desk with no idea whatsoever what my kids were doing. 

It bummed me out to no end. We were looking at an incentive, and I thought, the hell with it, I'll retire. Then they pulled the incentive, and I thought. "I'll stay and show those assholes. I'll make them pay." However, I'd already stepped down as chapter leader. I made sure there was someone to take my place, and she's doing a great job so far. 

I have a lot of friends who are musicians. When the apocalypse hit, they had no work at all. They had nothing to fall back on. (This is distinctly different from countries in Europe, or Canada, where governments decided, you know, people should not starve.  If you want to understand why we in the US can't have nice things like that, read The Sum of Us, just out in paperback.) Unlike many Americans, we continued to receive full pay throughout this crisis. With all my complaining about everything that goes on, I deem us relatively very lucky. 

I'll tell you another thing that surprised me. I've been teaching five classes for months and I've been very happy doing it. With many of my colleagues fleeing, I've decided not to retire. I've been lucky to find a job that I love, a job that I'm good at, and I've been lucky to have such great kids through the years. I can't speak for anyone but myself, but I'm hanging in. I hope you can find something, some way to find this too. 

Remember, when admin tells you it's serious but not impossible, think, "It's impossible but not serious."

UFT Executive Board February 7, 2022--We Resolve to Stop Distributive Scoring, Move Regents Back to Home Schools

UFT Secretary LeRoy Barr--introduces minutes

Minutes--passed 

UFT President Michael Mulgrew--Asks for moment of silence for Lowell Wayne, Michael Levine, and Edward Hines, all of whom did work for union. 

State budget--Multiple meetings about mask mandates. NYC has a mandate issued by DOH, not governor. Court case that issued stay had to do with governor's mandate, not NYC mandate. Things are moving toward options on masks. Governor says it's premature to speak of dropping mandates on schools. Positivity is going down. There is a movement, though, among people who see Omicron nearing its end in our area. We still have concerns about vax percentage for 5-11 year olds, and all students. 

For us, the conversation has to be with NYC DOH. We are talking to doctors. People are pushing for masks optional. Members have diverse views. We will work with doctors.

Legislators want to move quickly so as to focus on primaries and elections. We fought for CFE and advocated for federal money.   Legislative reception in Albany tonight--endorsed Kathy Hochul. We have a lot of people running for Congress and this will go through NYSUT and AFT. This is early, but we are moving forward.

Hoping we can move forward with understanding DOE priorities. Educational agenda has focused on early childhood. Need to preserve that. People who put this system together were not really part of DOE. They knew bureaucracy would hamper them. We need to keep it in place and keep quality up. Next focus will be graduation levels in other branches. Schools are working a lot on their own, without DOE support. Frustrating that people are so used to having to work on their own. This will be big challenge with this administration. 

Questions--

NYSUT governor endorsement--Is there a reason we didn't make it more participatory for UFT?

Is NYSUT endorsement. We follow their lead. Over 700 NYSUT local presidents. They have their process. We haven't endorsed governor in long time, but respect their process. Many felt strongly about it.

Can you speak to retirees about mayor's support for new health plan?

I will bring it up. When his admin dug in and saw the plan, it made sense. I don't know of anyone else who designed their own program, put it out for bid, and is now making sure it works. 

Reports from Districts--

Rashad Brown--Black History film series. Finishing up second film this week. Had good turnout and feedback. Next one Thursday.  

Wendy Walker Wilson--Thanks everyone that supported awards ceremony and scholarship fundraiser.

Anthony Harmon--Saturday CL training part 2.. Working on part 3 March 5 and 6.

Karen Alford--March 19 elementary early childhood conference, in person or virtually. March 22 elementary town hall.

Shelby--Fireside chat with Mulgrew for paras upcoming.

Rashad Brown--Injectable HIV treatment now. Working on details for how it relates to members. 

Resolution for President of US to pardon Marcus Garvey--Rashad Brown--Asks for pressure on President Biden to exonerate Marcus Garvey, accused of mail fraud, was political. J. Edgar Hoover targeted him. Crime came down to an enpty envelope. Our students don't know who he is. He did a lot for us, as a people, as a nation. created pan-African movement, is seen as prophet. Waiting 82 years for pardon. 

Barr--If you learn about this stuff, about Hoover's counter-intelligence, it began with Marcus Garvey. Take opportunity to study it. 

Passes unanimously.

Acknowledgement of contribution of Haitian Revolution--DeShana Barker--Important we honor and acknowledge contributions of Haitian Revolution. Often our students are not acknowledged, nor are their ancestors. Haiti expanded limits of freedom and US reaped benefits, influenced Louisiana Purchase, end of slavery, modeled strength and perseverance. This supports our students. Asks for support. 

Passes unanimously. 

Move to eliminate distributive scoring.

Mike Schirtzer--We expect Regents will happen in June. Teachers have been sent out to scoring sites. Seems more cumbersome than usual this year. Should be in home schools. Private and charter schools do it. We think we can work out issues to make this adhere to state regs. Will be more cost efficient. Asks for support. 

Passes unanimously. 

Janella Hinds--Very happy about this. Thank you all for your support. You should know HS scoring is different from elementary and middle school scoring. Thank all of you for your support. March 4 will be our Herstory event, virtually, to celebrate contributions of women to UFT. 4:30.

6:33  We are adjourned.