Remote Parent Teacher Conferences

In COVID times, so much is new, and so much is odd. It's not actually a bad idea to do parent conferences remotely. There's nothing I can tell parents face to face that I can't tell them on a Zoom conference. For me at least, as I come in ridiculously early, it saves me the trouble of driving home much later than I'd like. It was  a plus that we were off on Veteran's Day after a night of conferences.

I teach the same group of students in various different classes this year, so I had very few actual conferences. When you teach newcomers, parents are reluctant to come in. If my students have issues with English, their parents almost certainly have even more. The older you are, the longer it takes to learn a language, and the more difficult it is. We're programmed to learn language as children, and the older we get, the more that program deteriorates.

Last year, I was utterly demoralized by teaching remotely. I'm not saying it was a bad idea. Safety and health trump absolutely everything. Without the vaccine, the risk of coming into school was absolutely unacceptable. Before the vaccine, no one at all should have come in. 

But you have to get used to online instruction. The thing I never got used to was seeing the cat icons in lieu of my students. That's because, for many of them, I'd call their names and get no response, ever. It's not hard to imagine a teenager turning on a computer to simulate attendance, then turning the sound down and going back to sleep, or playing a video game, or going to the park or doing any number of things.

One advantage you have when you're in person is you can say, hey, wake up. Or hey, you can't sit and text during class. Taking it a step further, you can actually view student work and make specific suggestions to improve it. I always figure that's what they pay me for. 

So when you're online, it's frustrating. You're relegated to be the teacher who sits at the desk, reads the paper, or muses about the vagaries of existence. All you can do is sit there. I did do a few other things. My faithful dog sat with me every moment I taught, and I petted him a lot. Sometimes I picked him up, especially when he was barking. That sometimes stimulated conversation, always good in a language class.

Anyway, I was pretty shocked to have a parent come for a conference and not turn on the camera. I spoke to some colleagues who saw the same thing. I find that extremely rude. It's one thing for a kid who just woke up to not want to show herself, but quite another for an adult to sit behind an icon. I found it bizarre, as did others. 

A colleague told me when that happened to her, she said, "I can't see you," and the parents instantly turned on their cameras. I wish I had thought of that. Of course, the parents who came to see me were likely timid because of their lack of English ability, and that may have hindered their willingness to participate.

In the case of people who can handle English, IMHO, it's outright rude not to show your face. I couldn't imagine not showing mine. Were that the case, we could simply conduct conferences via email. A lot of my colleagues who were slammed would be happy with that. You wouldn't have to worry about the parents who insist on staying longer than their allotted time.

I thought students, except in extreme cases, should have been required to show themselves on camera last year. I think parents, if they expect you to speak with them, should at least reciprocate in showing their faces. It's common courtesy, alas, the least common of all.

UFT Delegate Assembly November 17, 2021--Class Size Resolution Passed, and Amended to Include Contract Negotiations.

UFT President Michael Mulgrew--Welcomes us. We're through 25% of school year. Will try to keep report short to get through resolutions. Applauds SRPs. Schools fall apart without you. Thanks those who brought in coats for kids. 

Class size--6 weeks left of admin, including city council, which will be key now or in next year. We need to change health code. Have been trying to reduce class size for 30 years. Last time we did, people took them in lieu of raise. We don't think people should pay out of pockets. We've been stopped when we dd ballot initiatives, but because of pandemic we need to amend health code. Argument about classroom occupancy.

Will not cost city 30 billion in new construction, as city claims. We literally have room by room analysis of every school in the city. Blue book does not match our information about instructional space. 84% of schools can already meet the new standard. New 38,000 seats. Tough fight. Thanks everyone who helped with this. Big lift for us. We have a team working on this. Will send out something today. Please sign petition. This is a different but valid approach, Number of kids made it tough for us to open. 

Why don't city students have same class sizes as rest of state? When we get back from break we want day of action, Dec. 1 or 2. Then says you choose, but let us know. We want photos for social media. Next week is Thanksgiving break--will send reminder on Sunday night.

National--Infrastructure passed, NYC getting a lot of money. Gives economy uptick. Good thing for unions in need of contracts. If other bill passes, feds pay for 3K and pre-K, will free up 1.5 billion.

State--Gov. Phil Murphy thanks RTC for his win. Heading into our state budget cycle. Second year we are fully funded for CFE. Cathy Hochul will give first state of the state, interested in her vision. Have spoken to her. Governor huge fan of CTE, thinks that's the way of the future. State Democratic Party Convention in February. Primary was supposed to be in June, but they have to finish redistricting, and then local boards need to set up systems. May be pushed back. July may have less participation.

Digital classrooms--Everyone should have gotten a check. If you have an issue, let us know. Only 9 with extenuating circumstances haven't gotten paid. All of the screenings social emotional, etc., are messed up. Shouldn't have happened in weeks, never multiple screenings at same time. Mayor control sunsets this session. Someone wanted it done quickly for bragging rights. There is time or compensation tied to this. If this is a problem, make it a paperwork complaint. Big concern with special ed. recovery, and many will ask for unnecessary things.

Paraprofessionals--All paras now automatically enrolled in pension system.  We always have issues with paras retiring, or passing away, and suddenly finding they were not enrolled. We have 1800-3000 current unenrolled paras. They will be enrolled, and pension dept. will reach out to help them buy back time. We had a huge shortage, 1800 coming in, and lost 900 to mandate. We finally got list of people who wanted job, and hired 4000 paras. 

Next month we have to start--We have a new contract, new mayor, and I want a bigger negotiating committee, members from each chapter negotiating provisions. We have to form a team early, train and educate people. Last time I saw DOE didn't know what to do. Couldn't argue with people who knew what really went on at worksites. That's why we got so many changes for so many chapters.

Health care for all city workers--done through MLC, gives us a lot of leverage. Except for feds, we are the only union with premium free health care. Retiree chapter has committee, and they will have all they had but add more. We now have to look at all in-service city workers. As we continue down this road, we need to educate ourselves and members. Otherwise this won't make sense to them. When papers say we have free health care, not true. We pay a lot for it, but get better deal than probably anyone else. I now see bills and know which hospitals rip us off. Important people understand this.

We can't have the same people on both committees. 

Stands to wish LeRoy Barr happy birthday. Sings. 

Barr--Class size campaign. Share petition in school. Need everyone we can to sign. Will be informational picketing. Once in a generation opportunity. Thanks middle school coat drive and Thanksgiving meal Nov. 20. Virtual World AIDS day dec. 1 4-6. Elementary toy drive, bring unwrapped for newborn to 16 to UFT office. Happy Thanksgiving to all. Next DA Dec. 15.

Questions--

Q--SEL--should be priority--Where are the counselors and people mayor promised would help?

A--Was supposed to be rolled out over six months. This is why mayoral control is failing. We know things aren't being done properly.  They threaten to outsource work if we don't provide service so we go to impact bargaining. Union's job is to protect our work. Not good how it's happened. If we had done first literacy, then numeracy and then SEL, and then screening, it would have been more manageable. Shortage of social workers but money is there.

Q--Literacy, numberacy, SEL--if it's done at same time, can I use operational?

A--Mayor announced deadline for SEL, but moved it two weeks. Use operational if necessary.

Q--Can you, rather than do paperwork complaint, do a survey?

A--We already know. Screening is horrendous. Do operational complaint We have some places where principals stick to original schedules and don't care if they get in trouble. 

Q--Non-negotiables with lesson plan--Can principal say standards and objectives must be in plan?

A--No. Move it to DR. Bring it to consultation at district level.

Q--Occupational Therapist chapter--Can't visit chapter leader at UFT. What is visitation policy?

A--It can be done by appointment. I will take care of it.

Q--D75 students are not keeping faces covered. Every day we hear about more COVID. School cleaner last year than this. Ticking up in SI. What can we do?

A--Let me or LeRoy Barr know. Cleanliness issues will be taken care of. D75 has many challenges. We will work with admin to get people to wear masks. Many had to wear gowns, masks, shields. Some D75 students cannot wear masks. We had to fight last week to close 2 Queens schools. NYC, for first time in months, had slight uptick. We work with city to try and get children vaccinated. Adams said there should be mandate. Says we already mandate 7. 

Q--Health care--Doesn't work in US, doctors paid by what services they provide. Market broken. There is New York Health Act that will reduce costs. Last month someone said UFT passed resolution to support it. Are we going to let this bargaining process happen in small meetings or collective decision?

A--We bargain all health care with MLC. That is why we're forming a committee. I want people to understand this. NYHA needs to be passed at federal level. Would cost state 4.5 billion annually. Where is pot of money at state level? Education. No willingness to tax rich, so ed. money will be reduced. Personally, I believe our health care should have been designed nationally for all. We have to protect member interests now. People have their own agendas, but if there is negative consequence for our livelihood everyone needs to know. I understand what you're saying, and I'm very frustrated. We need to tell insurance companies and hospitals we will only take so much or go elsewhere. Knee replacement in one facility cost 76K and another 36K. Cheaper one rated best. 

We need to protect our rights and livelihood. There are ramifications to these decisions and they can be very severe. 

Motions--

?--Moves reso, for this month, in recognition of SRPs. play integral role, have worked harder than ever, most vulnerable students depend on them, SRP recognition day this week. 

94% yes online. 100 in building.

Nick Bacon--next month--Health care plan changes--Because UFT has high weighted vote in MLC, would like more democracy in decision making. Before decisions about retirees and new members, would like debate in DA, and rank and file vote before reps on MLC make votes. 

Janella Hinds--Opposes--Creation for health care committee will allow us to do in depth discussion and debate. Will allow us to engage in convo so we can do work with informed membership. We have never had votes on this, have never engaged in that kind of debate in past, asks for no vote. 

Point of information--Anything proposed that would stop committee being formed?

Mulgrew--No.

49% yes. more than that, motion goes down.

Point of order--Asks for numbers. Mulgrew asks for cards raised. Will produce in minutes.  

Hands off health care chant begins.

Resolutions--

Karen Alford--Supports reso to strengthen commitment to lower class size and hold DOE responsible. Can't wait. Thinks about days in overcrowded schools and classrooms, and how impossible it was to teach. We need to recognize public health challenge and look through this lens. We will make children safer. 84% could do this now. We know there are infrastructure and covid relief dollars. We don't want to trade pay for class size and we must seize this opportunity. 

Second.

Ryan Bockenthal--Very much in favor, Moves to amend. Adds resolved--We wll follow up with actions, support related state legislation, prioritize in collective bargaining, go to court if necessary. We have power and showed it by mobilizing toward strike. 

Loretta Tamborello--Rises in opposition. As we said, negotiation for contract not right place. Trying to make difference using health code. We are forming committee. Will drive us. Class size action now as we're doing. Should not be contract negotiaton.

Farah Alexander--Teachers overworked, overextended, at capacity. We want this now, before contract, don't want it mandatory item. 

Ali ?--In favor of amendment. Empowers CLs to enforce this. Can make it school issue. Policies meaningless until enforced. 

Shane McAndrew--Opposes. We have health crisis, must lower class sizes, social-emotional crisis too. Smaller class sizes will help teachers support students better. Legislative process removes pressure at bargaining table. We have our voice if it's immortalized in law. Pols will have to raise them.

Matt Driscoll--In favor of amendment. Not in conflict with reso. Just adds to it. 

Jennifer Brown--Important to fight for reduction at all levels, contractually and beforehand.

Bill Woodruff--Calls question.

Point of order--Important issue. Is delegate that just asked that on union payroll?

Mulgrew--He is elected delegate.  

Woodruff?--Audibly angry, argues you'd deny members their right to be represented.

Mulgrew--We are teacher union in largest district with greatest challenges. Please bear that in mind and be respectful toward one another. Question called. Seconded.

Vote to end debate. 

82% yes online. Debate closed.

Amendment--

61% yes online. Amendment passes, but.... 

Mulgrew calls people to stand who are for amendment. They are counted. Audible debate as sections are measured. Has no votes stand, section by section.  Mulgrew says we try to avoid this because we get through fewer resolutions. 

Amendment passes.

Point of information--You are looking at raw votes, Rashid %. Can we have that each time.

Mulgrew--When it is required. If clear and unambiguous, we move agenda. Online holds more weight. We report number of participants, Room always below 300.

We now vote on amended resolution. 

82% yes. Passes as amended.

...Daniel Alicea--Mayoral control not a single issue, affects all we do, and controls our schools. Some say we need to approach it as single issue. We've learned last 20 years not just another sickening dish, but rather segregated and undemocratic restaurant. Lists bad effects, including racism. Always mayor saying this will be different. Overwhelming majority wants this undemocratic system be limited or abolished. We aren't just speaking about one or two elected officials, but system that has stripped engagement from stakeholders, system telling residents they can't be trusted. 

Mulgrew stops, says someone is broadcasting DA. This must stop or DA will stop. People who hate this union will do anything to divide and weaken us. Must confirm this is stopped. People who found feed will do so. 

We have one of the best health care programs in the city. Many people want to figure how we got it. Goal is workers, benefits. 

Feed has stopped, Mulgrew asks for continued monitoring. 

Alicea--During primary were told Yang and Adams existential threats to union. We kind of play ball and comply. Not grappling with mayoral control brings sense of dire emergency. Many in this room believe resolution is moot because it places condition of endorsement in 2021 mayoral race. Asks we get together and start pushing against mayoral control.  Asks we withdraw resolution to do so. 

Resolution withdrawn. 

Alexandra ?--Amendment to resolution. (I don't know what resolution she's discussing.) Resolved, UFT urges not transfer authority, something about SSAs, hiring more teachers, holistic recovery from criminal practices, support arts...

Rich Mantel--Confused--Entire bill speaks to removing SSAs from NYPD, changing duties, if you do that incident reporting will go down, but incidents will not. Opposes. 

Travis Malacor--In favor of amendment.  We shouldn't be part of money discussions for SSAs.

Margaret Joyce--Moves to extend.

Mulgrew--Will not be popular, and must finish debate on this first.

Rory Rosewood--Point of information. What language did amendment change?

Mulgrew--We vote no to transferring agents to DOE authority, hire more teachers, counselors librarians and other titles. Thinks this was already voted on. In that case it will come back next month. We are against SSAs being under DOE. When they had control, there were no incidents.

Janet Zissburg--Opposes. Education policies belong to DOE. Police are experts on safety, should be in charge of safety agents. Principals have more than enough control.  

Alona ?--Speaks in favor of amendment. DOE should not be overlooking school safety. Amendment says we still need reform. Role of SSA needs to be reformed. 

Shashana Brown-- Speaking in favor of amendment. As social worker, understand what many students have to deal with during random scanning. An SSA tackled one of my students for doing nothing. SSAs aren't well-trained or experts. We need to pass this. Mental health on the line. 

Motion to extend debate--

45% yes. 55% no. Debate closed. Question called. 

83% yes. 

Amendment:

68% yes. Passes after extended canvassing by Mulgrew.

Resolution:

75% yes. Passes.

Mulgrew wishes everyone a great Thanksgiving. Through first 25%, God bless you all. 6:16

UFT Executive Board October 15, 2021--Class Size Resolution Passes

UFT Secretary LeRoy Barr--Welcomes us. 

Minutes--approved.

Reports from Districts--Rashad Brown--Works with student loan forgiveness program. New info for limited waiver and AFT lawsuit against DOE. Tomorrow will be webinar on this, over 721 registered. Pride committee hosts World AIDS Day event Dec. 1 4:15--virtual--speaker from Northwell will speak. 

Karen Alford--Nov. 30 4:30-6 Elementary Town Hall. Please come.

Shelvi Abrams--Reaching out to sub paras 23rd webinar. Please join us. 

Rich Mantel--Saturday Thanksgiving event for students who live in temporary housing. Will provide Thanksgiving meal. Will give them winter coat, gloves and scarf. Remaining coats will go to shelter. Delivered over 1K last year. 

Servia Silva--Invites people to children and vaccine awareness Town Hall Distict 4r Mon. Nov 22 through Zoom. Students who had vaccine will encourage others. 

Tom Murphy--RTC had last general membership meeting, 2900 stayed on, devoted to health care. 

Seung Lee--Asian American Heritage committee 6:30 tomorrow. 

Mary Vaccarro--20 new teacher center sites as of Dec. 23. Will continue to meet with ELL focus group monthly. Meeting regularly with librarians. Partnership with Monroe College special ed. and bilingual special ed. licenses will offer reduced tuition. 30 above programs available. CTLE workshops running. Apple workshops continuing shortly.

UFT President Michael Mulgrew-- Thanks political action dept. and RTC, says Gov Murphy thanks them and wouldn't have won without them. Working on city council legislation about class size. Has been amended to be about occupancy, not class size. Unrelated to class size limits in contract, which will remain. Had forum with 600 activists, Mark Treyger explained. Always people in City Hall against this. Bloomberg preferred 50 in a classroom. 

When city decided three feet was 18 inches, measured nose to nose, opened up argument about health code. This led to this. Our school system unsafe because too many people in classroom. When DOE revised capacity to 50 people, that opened this up. Not contractual negotiation, but city council legislation. Many stakeholders. We've now amended legislation, would drop to classroom occupancy. K could be 21. Admin could place people in larger spaces, but can't do oversized classes because of contract.

Won't be easy. Bill is aging tonight. D75 is important. We need task force to deal with that. Must do that in responsible way. We have enforcement mechanism. Could go to court. Probably up for vote next Tuesday. If it passes, then rollout and implementation is 5-year process. Will be reports and hard targets. Right now 86% of schools have footage. Will require more staff, but not dramatic amount. 

This polls highly with both parents and members. Will place supporting council members on our website as heroes. People will try and kill this bill. Will say it's UFT trying to increase membership. We tried to put it on ballot, but mayor killed it. Wanted to charge us for it in contract. Looking at health codes to combat certain situations, we came upon this. Still a lot of work to do. 

When people say they won't support this, we will ask why. We don't understand why this would happen after what we've all been through. This is about safety. This could be the one good thing to come out of pandemic. Thanks everyone who worked on this. Wishes everyone great Thanksgiving.

Barr--Resolution to support this bill is placed on screen. Gives history of UFT work on class size. Was first point in pandemic five-point plan. Asks for motion.

Moved, seconded. 

George Altomari--This issue older than UFT. Teacher's Guild looked at this. We had no contract, did best we could. Class size was 55, 60. People sat on things. We had no collective bargaining or numbers. Charlie Cogen did everything possible. He analyzed laws on books, found you needed so much space for fire hazard, wasn't successful, but we had a terrific run. Won through collective bargaining. 

Anthony Harmon--Time is right, this is our opportunity, thanks union.  

?--Read article in medical journal, said up to 5% of students have non-verbal learning disabilities. Could be millions of undiagnosed students. Smaller class sizes will help teachers identify these children. Rises in strong support. 

Passes unanimously.

Paid medical leave--Michael Sill--no conversations now. Will be considered in contractual negotiations. 

We are adjourned 6:37

COVID Testing in City Schools Is a Sham

In our school, people come in once a week to test for COVID. That's a good idea. Of course, for students, it's completely optional. If they don't feel like being tested, well, they aren't. This in itself precludes stats from being reliable, and it doesn't take the Oracle of Delphi to know that this is the intent of Mayor Bill de Blasio. He never wanted to close schools, he still doesn't, and what he doesn't find out will close as few schools as possible. 

So what we know, actually, is only the percentage of volunteers who have contracted the virus. If your parents don't grant permission for testing, if you don't want to find out, or even if you're too lazy to walk to the testing center, you will simply never know. Given the fact that a whole lot of COVID cases are wholly asymptomatic, this places the school population at large at wholly unnecessary risk. 

In our school, there is an announcement made when testing is available. It's always at the same time, in the morning. Our school, to ease overcrowding and make social distancing possible, at least sometimes, is on a 14 period day. This means that our testing pool includes only those who come in the morning. A full half of our students are not tested, ever, So on top of the issues that already make stats unreliable, our stats, in the largest school in Queens, the most overcrowded in the city, are only half as reliable as those of other schools. 

In my brief deaning career, I could get away from my post and get tested, and I did so at every available opportunity. If I contract COVID, I ought not to come to work. That's not just about my health, but also about the health of my students, many unvaccinated, and their families. My AP offered me a deal to get out of deaning, but it entailed my teaching consecutively periods 1-4. I was fine with that, actually. I'm happy to do most of my work in the beginning of the day.

The problem, though, is that this means I, like half the students and teachers in our building, will simply never be tested. Of course I take every precaution. At work, I wear KF94 masks from Korea, which are supposed to be more reliable than their Chinese counterparts, often counterfeited. So I'm hopeful my risk factor is low. But who really knows? Every week there's some new story, some new development. 

I went to an administrative AP and asked if they could have testing at different times during the day. She told me that admin was aware of the problem and asked them to do so. This notwithstanding, the people who do the testing show up when they show up, always at the same time. 

So the issue is somewhere higher than the people who do the actual testing. Is this a deliberate act to try and minimize positive results? Maybe. More likely it's just administrative indifference. It's somehow convenient to do it now, so screw common sense, which is largely overrated, and probably the least common of all the senses anyway. 

This is another de Blasio failure, whether deliberate or not. The stats we get are borderline meaningless. We really have no idea what's going on, and it's in the mayor's interest to keep things that way. After all, he's unlikely to get anywhere in his quest to become governor, but if people know what's really going on his chances go from zero to less than zero.

It kind of makes you wonder why New York City is so absolutely determined to never, ever have a good mayor.

If Adams Wants to End Mask Mandates, He Must First Mandate Vaccines for Students

Every time Eric Adams opens his mouth, I'm more persuaded what this city needs most is, well, not Eric Adams. The other day he said he wanted to get rid of the mask mandate, but would "follow the science." I'm not sure which science he's talking about, or where it will lead him, but there happens to be a very effective vaccine available for anyone 5 years or older.

The very first step I'd take as mayor would be to mandate vaccines for absolutely everyone attending public schools. We've already done that for staff. I think, though, that both the current mayor and Adams are fraidy-scared to say students need to get vaccinated. After all, there's a big kerfuffle on the internet about Big Bird, who tweeted that he was vaccinated.

Immediately Texas Troglodyte Ted Cruz got very vocal about how Big Bird was a socialist, or antifa, or CRT, or whatever it is Ted is calling people who don't support him this week. There is a big anti-vax movement out there, stoked largely by people like Tucker Carlson, who's surely vaccinated himself. After all he's surely vaccinated. To work at Fox, you have to either be vaccinated or get tested daily. 

But honestly, there are a whole lot of people angry about vaccinations. Now that is remarkable. We can argue about taxes. We can argue about which candidates are better. We can argue about whether programs are beneficial, and over whom is worthy of benefit. In the United States today, though, we're arguing about health. And make no mistake, while you'll hear arguments about personal freedom, one more outlandish than the next, what we're actually debating is health. One side is for it, and the other is against.

A Muppet is braver and has more sense than tens of millions of Americans. https://t.co/9qLqziG2Gp

— Kevin Necessary (@knecessary) November 6, 2021

The state of politics in the United States is beyond abysmal. You might think, living in New York City, that we're somehow above it all. But we aren't. If you don't believe it, consider this: We elected Rudolph Giuliani mayor twice, Michael Bloomberg three times (although, in fairness, he bought the third one), and now we've elected Eric Adams once.

Adams was a police captain, but he's afraid to take on the anti-science, anti-health crowd that will rise up against him if he demands children be vaccinated. Instead, he's making noise about how he wants to unmask students. Honestly, if he takes that step before mandating vaccinations, he's a fool. 

That's not to say masking is perfect. Every day I see students walking around my building with masks pulled down below their noses and mouths. There are no consequences for these students. I know, because I wrote a few up, and days and weeks later I still see them walking around unmasked like they own the world. This notwithstanding, most of our students follow the mandate, and we're all safer for it.  

Does former police captain Eric Adams have the intestinal fortitude to do what's needed to back up his words? I very much doubt it. 

But I'll be more than happy if he proves me wrong.

UFT Executive Board November 8, 2021--Legislative Victory for Paraprofessionals, Class Size Possibilities

UFT Secretary LeRoy Barr--Welcomes us. 

Minutes approved.

UFT President Michael Mulgrew--Thanks everyone for Teacher Union Day. Good to recognize work through pandemic. Finally have a piece of legislation--paras will now be automatically enrolled in pension system. Will no longer have retirees who have not enrolled. Went into effect in October. We will be in contact with all paras newly enrolled. 

We run a student debt program. Many of our teachers were part of lawsuit against Betsy DeVos. Our program will reach out to all members who qualify for relief. Some members have had debt completely wiped out.

Monitoring school board elections. People who hate us put a lot of money into this. Privatizers will do nationwide campaign. 

Working very closely with City Council. Want to work on class size. Courts ruled against us in past. What we have, and what council can do, is change health code. We had a hearing a few weeks ago. DOE said it was impossible at hearing, though they admitted it could be done in 50-60% of schools. Mark Trayger put in bill. It is time to push very hard for this. Real possibility this could be done by November 23. For the amount of money spent in NYC, I'd rather have lower class sizes than DOE bureaucracy. Why can't we even get close to class sizes of surrounding school districts? Not a priority for city. They understand this will cause less money for bureaucracy. Biggest reopening challenge was number of students. Other systems had lower class sizes. Ventilation was issue because we have bad bureaucracy and more students than anyone else. If it takes a pandemic to do this, that's fine. Let's see who comes out publicly against lowering class sizes. If city needs to do this, they can get it done. We will do it based on student need, not political desire. 

Meeting a lot with mayor-elect. Haven't discussed contract, but in service health contract is up. We do not have free health care. We pay for it. We need to use same strategies we use. Need to have members understand. We want our people to have what they need, but we do not want to be taken advantage of. 

?--Thanks Mulgrew for the para bill. Paras have respect. They are equal with their colleagues. For the first time, I feel that we have done what we've always wanted to do. Our lobbying has paid off. Thank you all. 

Legislative Report--Angel Vasquez-- Two UFT members who ran for City Council won general election November 2. Important to have UFT voices in council, especially with others term limited. There were 43 UFT-endorsed candidates who won. 60% will be women. This is historic, with women making majority. Last month we pushed for speaker to be woman. At SOMOS conference we put together an event with many female council members. 3 UFT citywide, and 3 boroughwide won, and two of our endorsed DAs won. Two special elections endorsed via NYSUT won. 

Motion to adjourn--6:21

CRT Is Only the Most Recent Boogeyman

I just read a book called The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee. I highly recommend it. I took out the audiobook using the Libby App, and listened to it while coming back and forth to work. It answered all the questions What's the Matter With Kansas did not. 

For years I've wondered why, as McGhee asks, we can't have nice things. Why can every other non-third world country provide health care for its citizens? Why do only Americans go broke via catastrophic medical emergency? Why is the deck so heavily stacked against union in this country? Why is no one able to afford end-of-life care?

It boils down to exclusion. McGhee, as one example, writes extensively about public pools, which pretty much represent why we can't have nice things. What's better than a pool on a hot day? Of course, for many Americans, a pool is good for us, but not them. What happens when civil rights appear, and all of a sudden you have to share your beautiful pool with people of color?

In some cases, communities privatized the pools so that membership could be whoever they chose. That's still going on today. In my home county, Nassau, I once took my kid and her cousins to a pool in Wantagh. They told me I'd have to buy a "Leisure Pass," and only then would I have the privilege to pay for all of us to go in. Evidently, the thousands I pay in taxes is not enough. It would be another 36 bucks, which hardly seemed worth it for one day in a pool. You'd better believe I'm not the only riffraff it effectively keeps out. (We went to our community pool in Freeport, which has no extra fee.)

Of course, a privatized pool means even if you want to pay the 36 bucks you can't get in. Some municipalities didn't bother with that. They just drained all the pools. Here's a particularly egregious example showing that everyone, regardless of color, suffers from racism.

When Donald Trump comes down an escalator blabbering about how Mexicans are rapists and murderers, he's sending a not-at-all subtle message that he won't tolerate all those foreigners, the ones who are preventing you from getting your dream low-wage gig washing dishes or cutting lawns, the one with no vacation, no sick days, no health insurance and all the other great benefits freedom bestows. In fact, the freedom to pay a sub-living wage is one of the few freedoms GOP will fight for. Of course, while we're busy scapegoating Mexicans, or African-Americans, or whoever we're hating on, we tend not to focus on that.

It's all misdirection, sleight-of-hand. Look at this. Not at that. Sure, we're cutting women's rights, but we're also making sure Willie Horton doesn't come to your neighborhood. Willie Horton was one of the most egregious uses of racism to elect a Republican in my living memory. If you don't vote for George Bush this scary Black man will come to your house and kill you and stuff.  Lee Atwater, on his death bed, apologized for that, but by then George had already started to pack the Supreme Court that, along with his other son Jeb's state, would make his ridiculous son W. President. 

Along with preventing or disallowing votes wherever possible (not to mention calling any votes that aren't for GOP fake), CRT is the new Willie Horton. If you don't make Youngkin governor of Virginia, they're gonna teach your kids CRT. The fact that no K-12 school actually teaches CRT is neither here nor there. CRT is the boogeyman of the hour, fast supplanting Black Lives Matter as the thing you can hate on while pretending not to be a racist. It worked for Youngkin, although having a bumbling opponent certainly helped too.

McGhee says we need policies that work for the sum of us, not just some of us. That's why I am so very upset that UFT has declined to support the New York Health Act. It's really awkward for unionists to stand around and say, "We have these benefits and if everyone gets health insurance, we will lose money, or have fewer benefits, or whatever the rationale is.

Instead of demanding fair benefits for everyone, we're privatizing the pool. As if that's not enough, we have an incoming mayor (one we endorsed for reasons that elude me utterly), and, while the city is awash in federal money,  Eric Adams wants to cut city worker salary by 3-5%. Of course that won't happen, because no one will agree to such a contract. Adams will, instead, scapegoat the greedy city workers who don't want to help out. You see, Adams is not concerned with the sum of us either. That's why he took six million from the charters, yet another way education, one of our few remaining public goods, is debased.

It won't take a whole lot for Adams to publicly bemoan the benefits we have, the ones he enjoyed as a cop and likely still has. Demagogues don't really have to worry about how hypocritical they are as long as they can rile up a crowd. 

It's on us to spread union, spread health care, and spread economic wellness to our community and beyond. Right now I'm very sad to rate us ineffective. We cannot, must not, endorse the very same zero-sum game that has long prevented our country from becoming what it could be.

Meaningless Tests, Suicide Prevention, and Election Day

Last year I wasn't absent much, but I called in sick for two all-day meeting Zoomfests, at least one of which devolved into gratuitous name-calling. Tuesday we have yet another, and I have really mixed feelings.

On a positive note, I recently stepped down as dean. Admin, having decided not to replace a few dean positions this year,  unilaterally declared we'd work more periods than called for in the postings we answered. Though we were able to fix it (and thank God we are union) I was disgusted on multiple levels. Since then, I've been teaching five classes and pretty happy about it. 

This notwithstanding, Tuesday will be a useless, wasteful slog discussing meaningless test scores, which we're evidently scheduled to do for three hours (!). For us, it will entail analyzing the results of the MAP test my hapless students were compelled to take a few weeks ago. There are many reasons why this will be a waste of time, the most obvious being the tests themselves were a waste of time.

My beginning-English students took them on laptops during class periods, which ensured multiple interruptions such as passing out, collecting, and sometimes trying to fix machines and dodgy software. That would not be so bad if it were not for all the time more directly lost by taking the test in the first place. I looked over the shoulders of a few kids to see tedious bits of text accompanied by multiple choice questions. There was no way this was a remotely productive use of my students' time. 

So Tuesday we will spend three days hours looking at the results of these tests. I was not clear on whether or not we'd have access to the original test questions, so I assume we will just take the company's word that these questions represent inference, while others represent comprehension, and others whatever. I did not hear anything about capacity for abuse, which I can only suppose is measured by how long the students tortured themselves grappling with language well beyond their capacity. To give one example of how ridiculous this test was, right now I have kids who will not respond to, "What's your name?"

Then, of course, there's the fact that, over the last two months, my classes that took this test have turned over completely. I have probably lost half the students I started with and gained as many. Not only that, but some of my students have interrupted formal education, and may have trouble reading or writing their first languages. A strong indicator of how well students will absorb a second written language is how well they do so in their first.

On Election Day, after we spend three hours going over these MAP results, we get one hour of suicide prevention. I think that reflects a lack of forethought on part of the administration. If they wanted to do this effectively, they'd offer suicide prevention before we spent hours slogging over a useless, tedious test. If it were me, I'd have devoted more time to suicide prevention than going over a meaningless test. After all, what's more important--your life and those of others, or a test that means less than nothing?

Maybe I will be sick by Tuesday AM. I can feel something coming on. Though really, I should push myself to be stronger. Even though my kids and I wasted three class days taking this cruel miserable test, it's far from over. We have to do this twice more this year to determine exactly how much progress my students have made in the process of sitting through meaningless idiotic tests. 

I wonder how much the geniuses who write this crap got paid. Surely we all chose the wrong business, but at least we provide a service.

UFT Must Support Single Payer and New York Health Act

There's something profoundly disturbing about our opposition to the New York Health Act. We are, in effect, opposing single payer health insurance for the entire state of New York. It's not just that we're hindering something much needed, a veritable moral imperative. It's not just that we are slowing down potential progress toward ending the national disgrace that is our health system. In fact, we are doing both those things. These things alone could qualify as profoundly disturbing, but we've gone beyond that. Here's why:

The reason we haven't got national health insurance, unlike every non-third-world country, is there are wholly artificial barriers that separate us. We can have that, but you can't. You won't know how to handle it.

Watch Fox News someday, if you can stomach it, and you'll see how we are artificially separated by Rupert Murdoch's propaganda machine. There's a caravan of immigrants coming in to ruin our country. There are people marching, shouting Black Lives Matter, and that must mean yours does not. The Biden administration, evil bastards that they are, are trying to vaccinate everyone, and in New York City, that awful place with all those immigrants, they want to vaccinate the police. (Who cares if COVID 19 has become the number one cause of death among police?)

You, of course, are supposed to be angry, and express it by voting for Donald Trump, or whatever GOP hack is protecting you from things like national health insurance, or union, or vaccinations, or women's right to choose, or whatever other atrocity the evil left and Antifa is trying to foist upon you. Those things, as you know, are communism, socialism, or even fascism, which are bad, unless it's Donald Trump acting as fascist, because alternative facts.

The important thing is to have a scapegoat. Look at those lazy people who don't want to work for $7.25 an hour. Worthless bastards bitching because they have no health insurance, no pension, will never own a home, cannot afford higher education, and essentially have no future. It's because of them that you have no health insurance, no pension, will never own a home, cannot afford higher education, and essentially have no future. So you'd better vote for the GOP, or even the corporate Democrats, because only they will make sure that Jeff Bezos pays no taxes and can afford to send William Shatner into space.

This is not racism, of course. You don't hate these people because they're black or brown (even though you may as well and likely as not you do), but rather because of their work ethic, or lack thereof. Yeah, that's the ticket. If only they'd stop marching around claiming their lives matter, perhaps yours would matter more. The fact is, though, that as long as those people are kept down, so are you. And your hatred for them, for whatever reason, actually means you are stuck in the same place they are. Of course, Tucker Carlson will give you a million reasons why that's not true, and he's on for an hour every night, so if you don't want to believe this, just watch him instead.

Here's the thing, though--our lives are entwined, whatever color our skin may be, whatever religion we may follow, and wherever we come from. If we separate working people, we are not stronger. Now I do not believe UFT leadership is racist. I do not believe they have bad intentions. What I do believe, though, is that by pitting us against working New Yorkers, we are unintentionally perpetuating the awful system that kills our brothers and sisters when they are afraid to visit a doctor or ER because of the cost. 

We are union, and the bigger our union, the more power we have. By cutting ourselves off from most New Yorkers, we ultimately make ourselves weaker. I honestly don't know exactly what benefits we have that we would not if there were to be a single payer system. Whatever they are, though, we should work to incorporate them into the state system. Short of that, we could work to keep them for ourselves and later add them to the state system. 

Opposing health care for all is not only morally indefensible, but also fundamentally anti-union. We owe it not only to ourselves, but also to our brothers and sisters around the state to find a way to support this. We need New Yorkers and Americans to know that union is a force for the good of all, not just us, and we need to inspire them to form unions of their own. That's the only way we're going to create a system that rejects racist, xenophobic, misogynistic anti-union demagogues like Trump, Tucker, and all the other lunatics who hate us and everything we stand for. 

There's one thing that Fox, and the GOP and the corporate Dems want us all to forget, and that is this--we are ALL in this together. As unionists, it behooves us to remember that, always.

UFT Executive Board October 18, 2021---Health Care Concerns and More

UFT Secretary LeRoy Barr--Welcomes us. Minutes approved. Nominations to replace Sterling Roberson, who has retired as CTA VP.

Mike Sill--Nominates Leo Gordon, who worked in a CTA school. Taught how to be effective organizer and how students learned in CTA setting. Gordon can extend Sterling's embrace of technology. Was helpful teaching how to do remote teaching. No one better qualified. 

No other nominees. Leo Gordon is unopposed. 

Gordon--Thanks committee, is honored, CTE is my life. Believes in it and will help usher in new generation of professionals.

UFT President Michael Mulgrew--Congratulates Gordon. Thanks coordinators for Strides. Happy 3D mammograms are up and running. 

Last week, D 75 took huge hit on paras. Many unvaccinated paras were D75. UFT called schools, asked how many had been nominated and not processed. There were hundreds. DOE took no responsibility, saying there were things missing in system. UFT reached out to those people to fill in whatever was missing, and got 500 paras processed today. Still working on it. All about communication.

Biggest challenges are student communities not being supported properly. Former Rikers school was locking members in rooms and not letting them out. Again DOE took no responsibility. We pressured them and city hall complained to state. Constantly dealing with these challenges. 

Critical of mayor. Over two months of decisions based on what will help him run for next office. Have had many phone conversations with Eric Adams to try and help with transition. 

DN says Eric Adams is rolling back program for retirees. Adams said he never said that. We have to communicate more than ever. Over Election Day, for example. We had asynchronous agreement. Said yes Thursday, no Sunday, then that they had until 15th to inform or it was remote. No way to run school system. 

Through this year and next we will look at health care for both retirees and in service. Retiree plan will be good. Many spreading misinformation. We will make sure retirees are happy. We still have to deal with in service health care. DC lobbyists spending billions lobbying NOT to cap drug costs. Pharma companies very much against it. Bot Republicans and Dems said they want to stop it. We were able to push legislation on surprise billing. We want you to use ER when it's an emergency. Nothing about health care is free. We bargain for it all the time and pay for it. When people start pushing single payer they dont understand we will lose what we have now and going forward.

We've already paid for health care. value gone if it passes. Billions in budget. If health care needs 4.5 billion increase it's coming from education. We will push this out in communications. 

Going from mayor to governor race will make things interesting. Bloomberg wants to be relevant again. We will follow, and do more impact bargaining. Changes require it. We will help people understand issues. 

Close to vaccine for 5-11 year olds. LA already mandated vaccines for eligible students. Adams will look toward doing that, he says. People will come to us for our opinion. Thanks to Strides and D75 again. 

Impact bargaining is operational.

?--Had agreement with DOE, Paras could be sent to schools, DOE violated. Have to be placed in proper borough, reverse seniority order. Ended in one week. Another redeployment agreement also violated almost immediately. Filed operational complaint, resolved as of Friday. Those placed interborough get $67 per day. 

Special Ed. Recovers Services--Case managers had to meet with teachers, contact parent, make plan. Two per session hours for every student on caseload for every student, to be done after schools. Issue with people allowed to work from home, should be resolved this week.

?--Digital classroom, should be done by Oct. 1. One day worth of lessons in it. Will be $225 supplemental this month. Instructional lunch--Children having lunch while teacher is teaching--teachers get coverage every time that happens. 

Report from Districts-

?--As of 4 today, UFT raised 95,000 dollars. Michael Freedman team raised 5K.

?--Please encourage seniors to fill out Al Shanker scholarship forms. Will be student portal this year to upload transcripts. Next year they can apply online. 

6:36 We are adjourned. 

?--Sub incentive.50 day for certain time.

Debbie Poulos--operational process--Last year we had expedited process. Now we have new agreement--Five school days at school and district level, and we meet once a week as needed. We have one escalated case on instructional lunch from a high school. 

Questions--

Digital classrooms--Is it four hours for every person?

A--225 each for everyone. 

Note: I seem to have lost the last few minutes of the meeting here. Not sure why. Ended at 6:26.

Pro-Charter Adams Pays Lip Service to Saving Medicare for NYC Retirees

In one of the most cynical ploys I've seen, in the last few days at least, Democratic mayoral shoo-in Eric Adams is trying to bolster his pro-union cred. He's publicly criticizing the de Blasio-MLC deal to place NYC retirees on a Medicare Advantage plan by default. He calls it a "bait and switch." In many respects, that's true. Retirees had every expectation of joining Medicare for no added cost and are now being told, come January, that will cost you an extra 200 bucks or so per month, per person. 

This has been the battle cry of those who oppose this move, and perhaps some of them will read this story and come to support Adams, as has UFT. It doesn't really matter whether they do or not. Adams is going to be the next mayor. His main opposition is Curtis Sliwa, a cartoonish figure, a publicity-seeking serial liar with xenophobic and sexist tendencies. If you like the Proud Boys, Sliwa's your guy. I don't think that will fly with New Yorkers. 

Let's take a closer look at Adams ostensibly standing up for union member rights. If you go to the very end of the DN article, it says this:

But he admitted that, if he’s elected, he’s unsure how much power he’ll have to undo de Blasio’s proposal.

What does that tell you? It tells me he's going to do absolutely nothing to block this proposal. Adams is not going to step into office just to be vilified by the press for ostensibly costing the city a bunch of money to support union members. The papers hate unions. I mean all of them, up to and including the faux-liberal NY Times, which has an education reporter who fairly regularly trashes UFT as though its something everyone should take for granted. 

More importantly, and you wouldn't know this from the other nights Delegate Assembly, Adams has taken six-million dollars from a pro-charter PAC that has close ties to Michelle Rhee and Eva Moskowitz. The fact is this PAC does not support union, and the fact is the overwhelming majority of charters are non-union. When Adams is mayor, he will undoubtedly move to expand them, whether or not he takes the time to make nice with UFT. That PAC didn't hand him suitcases of cash just for fun.

If you are a union supporter, you do not enable and encourage non-union work. While it's nice that Adams gets up and calls this anti-union before all but admitting he'll do nothing to stop it, it would be a lot nicer if he disavowed his own blatantly anti-union ties. And that's not gonna happen, because the ties he wears are paid for by Students First, a name that misleads you because what it really means is Teachers Last.

I've had student teachers who couldn't find jobs in public schools who got stuck working for charters. It's a living, but not a career. You jump through all sorts of hoops and they fire you anyway. That in itself is not bad, because there's always another willing to hire you. This notwithstanding, we don't want our kids growing up jumping from gig to gig, especially in a country and state that doesn't guarantee health insurance. 

Adams himself worked himself up to captain in NYPD and retired with a nice fixed pension and health care for life. It's unconscionable that he supports enterprises that will provide much less for NYC's children. Adams, evidently, is a firm believer in, "I've got mine, and now screw the rest of you."

That's hardly the sort of example to set for NYC's children. It's pathetic that we have only these two viable candidates in what's perhaps the bluest city in the United States. To say we could do better would be the understatement of the year, if not the decade.

On Persuasion, Lack Thereof, and UFT Endorsing a Bought-and-paid-for Charter Shill

 Last night's DA was remarkable on multiple levels. There was talk about NYCH, a bill that would provide health care for all New Yorkers. We heard that we would lose money if it were enabled, but no particulars were offered. If that were to be the case, it would behoove us to modify the bill so that it ceased to be the case. Then, we should support it. Health care for all, however we go about it, is a moral imperative.

Mostly, though, was the 180-degree turnaround on Eric Adams. Just weeks ago, Michael Mulgrew was speaking as disparagingly about Adams as I would. Last night, though, judging from what was said of the resolution, you'd think he was savior of the universe, a Marvel super hero, or a national treasure of some sort.

The fact is that Adams took six million dollars from charter interests, and not just any charter interests. He took it from a PAC affiliated with Students First.  Students First was founded by Michelle Rhee, who blathered on about the perfidy of teachers, had a miracle cure to improve schools, failed by every measure, and now peddles fertilizer of a more literal sort. You can see Jenny Sedelis if you click the link, who once worked for Eva Moskowitz, and pretty much still does. I'd always see her quoted back in the Bloomberg days, and if you thought they were fun, get ready for Eric Adams.

Some of the arguments I heard last night, likely all of them, were preposterous beyond belief. One person got up on his hind legs and said that we needed to fight Sliwa because of his involvement with charters. It's certainly true that Sliwa supports charters, but just as true that Adams does. In fact, the charter interests have put their money behind Adams, quite literally, and most certainly expect a return on their investment. Not one pro-Adams speaker even mentioned Adams' support of charters, and if you didn't know better, you'd think that we were battling charter interests. We are absolutely not doing that.

Another speaker got up and spoke of how we needed to support our members, you know, the ones we've been misleading about Adams and his positions on charter schools. Were that to be a valid point, we'd need to give them a vote, or at the very least survey them. Of course, we've done neither. I'm not averse to representative democracy, but I have a real problem misrepresenting this endorsement as the will of rank and file. Any rank and file familiar with the work of Diane Ravitch would have serious issues with this endorsement, as do I.

Another speaker got up and spoke to what Adams has done. He did this. He did that. He's our great supporter. Yet weeks ago the president was telling us he was in the pocket of charter interests, to absolutely not select him, and that the charters really wanted to be a force with which to be reckoned. Whoever this speaker was had no issue ignoring that utterly, and reading a litany of incredibly wonderful things that Adams did, all the while ignoring the six million dollars he accepted from people who hate us and everything we stand for.

There was also an argument that the selection committees did a lot of work. This notwithstanding, during primary season they determined to oppose Adams. 

Now there is an argument to be made for supporting Adams, though I heard no such thing last night. That argument was made to me privately by someone in a position to understand why UFT leadership may be doing this. That is the possibility that, if we support Adams, we can counter the anti-public-education forces who have pretty much bought him. Now that may be valid, though I don't really believe it us.

I remember our good friend Hillary Clinton, who we supported before we supported Obama, telling us there were things we could learn from "public charter schools." Just by calling them that, she granted them validity I don't believe they merit. Charters are, in fact, where anti-public-school folks went when they failed to sell vouchers to the public.

And I remember our good friend Barack Obama, who we supported when Hillary lost that nomination. I also remember Arne Duncan, whom he appointed as Secretary of Education. Duncan was the one who pushed the ironically named "Race to the Top," which left us with the awful, counter-productive evaluation system we now face. It also contributed to the mountain of testing our poor students face, sometimes used to rate teachers. 

The fact is Obama was a Democrat, supposedly our supporter, but very much under the sway of Bill Gates and his merry band of reformies. Education Secretary Duncan saw Hurrican Katrina as an opportunity, He privatized the entire NOLA school system and declared that Katrina was the best thing to happen to education in NOLA. That, of course, was because hiw wealthy BFFs were finally profiting from it. Also, there was no more messy union to stand in their way. You gotta love a Democrat who kills union and calls it progress. I did not vote for Barack Obama in his second term.

I don't anticipate good things from an Adams administration. Mulgrew said Bloomberg was talking to him, and I could very easily anticipate Bloomberg mach two. Personally, I very much hope I'm wrong, and that Adams turns out to be a reasonable guy, despite the suitcases of cash he happily took from people who hate us and everything we stand for. 

However, aside from educational visionary Diane Ravitch, who isn't even a politician, I've never seen a single reformy see the light. 

All they seem to see is the cash.

UFT Delegate Assembly October 13, 2021--UFT Endorses Pro-Charter Adams as Friday the 13th Occurs on Wednesday

UFT President Michael Mulgrew--Introduces CL Jennifer Brown.

Brown--Speaks of Carl Plummer, who took her place as CL. Fought for all students and co-workers. Will miss him dearly.

Moment of silence.

Mulgrew--Welcomes newcomers to DA. Will be easy year, says sarcastically. Opening was very hectic. Thanks all who opened their arms to students. Has been much turmoil since. Thanks those who do the work that will get union through challenge. Says it's not easy. 

Wants to recognize all District Reps. Asks them to stand. 

Reflects on last year, and says we were constantly trying to change and adjust. Key to school is stability and we don't have it now. Probably won't have it this year either. Speaks of agreements made through operational complaints last year. 2200 made last year, over 2K resolved. Normally we use grievance process, but many things we're asked to do now aren't covered in CBA. Teaching in a pandemic is new thing. Negotiating often yelling back and forth with DOE. They think it's only about them in central. 

We have to keep focus on work being done at school and instructional process. All of these agreements had compensation tied to them when DOE broke them. We're working under new conditions, and if they break agreements, we need to be compensated. All change, though it's right thing now, is not good for us or children of NYC. It's stress on top of stress.

But we are stuck in a pandemic. We'll have to work this way until we get out of it. We have to continue negotiating because their management is very flimsy. This is uber-stress on everyone right now. Members want to know how to take care of things, but answers constantly change. Not good for instructional practices.

We're beyond flexible. No matter how much we plan, we know things won't work out as we expect. We don't need craziness from outside our schools intruding. We need to recognize we've had a lot of stress and there will be more. Hope things will go back to normal without constant disruption. Not happening this month. 

Our focus for this year is to figure how to relieve as much stress as possible, even though it will be stressful year. I'm waiting for January. We're at end of an administration, never a good time. New admin will have its own challenges. Pre-K through entire city is positive. Haven't solved challenge of DOE knowing it has to help schools rather than hold them accountable. 

How we help each other reduce stress will be this year's challenge. We shouldn't be changing rules and debating how to measure three feet.  All of a sudden, because we had no observations, people don't have two Es in a row, so DOE says they need formal observation.

We need to move membership in better place. That is the job, and that's why you were elected. CLs need to support one another. That's a major piece. We have to help people do their jobs, and make them easier when we can. All of you have gone above and beyond. We need everyone who will take that challenge on. I believe this school year will end it, but I believed that last year too.

We have agreement on partial closings,with compensation attached. We believe it will be tough to close elementary entirely, and we are reinterpreting partial closures for them. When you or members are told to supply instructional support remotely, partial closure agreement goes into effect. 

COVID protocols--City couldn't deny what was put forth in last week's council hearing. DOH can change protocols, and did so around NYC schools. Said principal or school responsible for determining close contact. Some principals say whole class. They may be getting calls saying this is frowned upon. Shouldn't be that way.

Can only close school if you determine COVID happened because people brought it in, but DOH not doing investigations, therefore no evidence available and no closure. Three feet is no longer three feet, now measured from center of desk to center of desk. Last year we had strictest protocols in US. This was probably done via polls that didn't ask whether they wanted to be with others who tested positive. Probably by pols looking to advance.

Numbers have dropped dramatically in last few weeks. Very low percentage. We know everyone is vaccinated, but still, teachers take great pride in keeping students safe. Instinctual to us. Our critics don't understand this. If you put our children and ourselves at risk, you will have to deal with us and hear from us.

DOE is Lord of the Flies. Who's next? Who will keep job? 

We did emergency agreement because of vaccine mandate. We wanted schools to have enough flexibility to stay safe. We can't have multiple classes in auditoriums. Ed. officials stayed at DOE and redeployed everyone who wasn't. They did it wrong, we have to fix, constant challenge. They don't think about schools first.

National--looking at big package, infrastructure. We want our schools to have money to go completely green and new ones built with zero consumption. Met last night w Sen. Schumer. Ventilation was big problem. We fixed, put in air purifiers. Why did it take a pandemic? We filed safety complaints for 15 years but schools not covered by OSHA. Within three months, we fixed. NYC needs major investment in school facilities. We need big infusion of cash. 

Ruled against us on everything in NLRB for past four years. Hope future is better.

State--June is primary for governor. State party will choose candidate in February at state Democratic convention. Have met with Hochul. Good on our issues. But there will be many other candidates. We'll see where we go.

City council--Next hearing about forcing DOE to lower class size. This is our legislation. Over 400 schools could lower class size right now, but up to schools. Won't happen without plan in place, Real estate development, and seats. City has housing crisis. Where housing is built will have relation to school seats. 240 school seats built for Hudson Yards with 6K units of housing. 

General elections NYC--Series of endorsements today. One will be up for debate. AS CL I had three principals. Greeted with open arms when they came it. 'Worked with two, failed with one. Happy we have good plans. Want to move ahead. We need a partner to help us with Tweed. If we want to have a partner, we have to ask if you want one. This delegation will make that decision. We can say we don't want a partner but I don't recommend it.

Medicare Advantage Plus--This year in service plan comes up. We have a health care crisis in this union. Fight is to keep what we have and try to expand. Nothing is free. Will be a struggle for entire MLC. 

I know the name Medicare Advantage is bad thing. Most are horrendous. Not recommending Joe Namath plan, which is terrible. We knew, within three years, we'd be looking at major retiree premiums. We don't like premiums. We don't want to pay for things we've earned, and it's used against us in contract negotiations. 

We tried to work with them, but hospitals ripping us off. We got surprise billing legislation in NYS. I have to argue with people who charge 500$ to take temperature. We found out that a group can form its own Advantage plan. Not like anyone else's in country. Three years from now, will be seen as nothing but a success. People yelling at us about it will take credit for it. 

Keep pushing if you have complaints.

SBO deadline October 15. Many of you used it way past. Do you want it extended again? Surveys room, most wish to extend it. SBOs in our contract, not principals' If you don't like it, don't use it.

Never be afraid of observations. As leaders, push that culture. Have been in schools where observation cycle was used well, have also seen it used badly. We oppose formal/ informal, are in negotiations now, will get info out tomorrow or Friday. 

New teachers--5000 new UFT members. Sending out lists to DRs. Have been many problems with lists, corrupted files. 

Instructional lunch means child is eating lunch in classroom. HS students who grab lunch, eat in class, is instructional lunch. Many codes have not been created for payroll secretaries. Payroll secretaries haven't gotten clear instructions. You as school need to keep track because you've done work for many coverages. Be in close contact with payroll secretary. 

Election Day--Postings going up for people to upload asynchronous work for students. Consultation with DOE--asked for official position whether people were at home remotely--Said now maybe not. Still discussing. Principal must inform you by October 15th. If not, working remotely.

Record for lowest number of oversized classes this year. Only 41 schools, usually 4-600. Not asking as remedy to place more people in classroom, of course.

Screenings--Academic, social-emotional---Screenings should be coordinated with principal and chapter. Academic screenings done next Friday, 22nd. All of that screening will produce a lot of info school needs to act on. There are compensation packages tied to it. If CL not part of discussions, could be problematic. 

Social emotional screening was supposed to be November, now December. 

We supported and helped DOE put forth proposal to US DOE to help students with IEPs. We received a grant. Negotiating with city. All work to be done by UFT members. Academic recovery has compensation attached. You can have up to thirty students, two hours per student.

Started UFT debt clinic two years ago. Student loans big issue. We had people retiring and still paying. National scandal. Hired law firm. Thousands of members went through program. Egregious behavior by loan companies, mostly Naviance. We filed lawsuit against Betsy de Vos and US DOE. Lawsuit settled today. Any teacher whose name was on lawsuit has student debt completely erased. Anyone denied access to programs will have ability to have entire case reevaluated. Many members tried to do right thing and were screwed by loan companies. 

Thanks all who wore pink. Very big issue to us. For years we knew rate of breast cancer among our membership was higher than national average. We now are big supporters of Strides. Servia and team have raised over ten million dollars. We want this eradicated. We will help members in health crisis. Decisions based on protecting and making better, and holding those responsible who don't treat us well. 

We made agreement with MSK so members and families had access. They are best, but nowhere near most expensive. Price doesn't dictate quality. 3D imaging  for mammograms is what we need. Emblem Health has partnered with Lenox Hill and expanded it. They can detect problems three years before other technology, and may prevent cancer. This week we are announcing we have deal in place. Our members can get right into 3D mammograms.

Half our membership, 50 and above, didn't have baseline mammogram. Want number at 100%. Thanks all who are doing Strides.

LeRoy Barr--Making Strides walk this weekend for NYC, Brooklyn was last week. CL training Oct 17 postponed. Now CLs can participate in Stride walk. Tuesday Oct 26 virtual town hall. Election Day--lot of politicial resolutions, but day is November 2nd. Don't forget to vote. Teacher union day, Nov. 7. Usually first Sunday in Nov. to commemorate first strike, this is exact anniversary. UFT Veterans committee Nov 11 parade, 10 AM, next DA Nov. 17.

Mulgrew--CL training may be hybrid. 15 minute question period

Questions:

Q--MOSL deadline 10/22--DOE put out guidance--Will there be UFT guidance?

A--Will send out Friday.

Q--Global two year scope, last year were waivers.

A--Are conversations at SED. Nice to have commissioner like Betty Rosa, who knows what we do, makes decisions in best interests of children. 

Q--What happened to subs mayor said he had lined up?

A--I don't want to say he's lying, but there weren't 11K--there were 6500. Best thing was court intervened. Would've been bad if we'd gone that Tuesday. Redeployments helped. We now have enough subs. We have about 2K out for being unvaccinated. Subs may not have correct certificates.Hopefully long term solution by next week.

Q--Last year there was position for lead paras...

A--Still available this year. Paras have been phenomenal throughout this. 

Q--NY health act--Delegate Assembly supported it, but UFT ran ad against it. Why are we paying COPE dollars against things we supported.

A--We will not support NYHA. Will take thousands of dollars out of UFT pockets. If we can get our health care at no cost, we would do it. Not what NYHA will do. I know facts on social media are what people go on. But our lawyers say otherwise. 

Q--New teachers in our school haven't been able to get paid. DOE says they mailed checks, and when they used direct deposit that didn't work either.

A. Give us name and Mike Sill will get back to you. We will handle this. Check in mail not appropriate.

Q--Heard your testimony city council hoping to get 20% back for weekly testing. Any update?

A--Things are falling apart at city hall. Not where we were last year. Was model for country. This year it isn't. We will continue to push. We have daily meeting on this issue. At least numbers have gone down in last three weeks. Prepared for all levels of action if things go awry.

Q--School nurses being pulled to other schools, split in uncovered schools, running ads to pay more money than working nurses--What can we do as coalition to get permanent nurses in every building? Don't want to wait for death of a student.

A--School nurses have to have a lot of knowledge about all students and conditions. Thought we passed this hurdle last year. City should've understood they needed a plan in place. We need a nurse in every building. We need a compensation package that will attract working nurses. Eric Adams worked side by side with us to get this. DOE says they can't do it, because nurses are under different contracts. Pay disparity between DC37 and UFT nurses--They have no motivation to make nurse in every building a reality. Now we have many more children but not one in every building. Sometimes we have one for thousands of kids. City admin is crumbling, not dealing with issues. This year we were short 1500 safety agents because of mandate. We will continue to push. 

Motions--

Carmen Romero--for this month--add resolution in third spot. Wants city council to select a woman for council speaker. We know presence of women's voices is paramount, and women will have majority on council. UFT should seek to empower women seeking city council speaker position, and advocate for women to serve. 

Online 87% yes. Internally passes by more, says Mulgrew, and reso passes.

Point of order--Peter Lamphere--Roberts rules say chair should be impartial, Called two members of UFT caucus--

Mulgrew rules out of order--Says not about caucuses. Says he called on him too.

Rafael Tompkin--for next month--On observing moment of silence for 9/11--Fell on Saturday this year, Sunday next. If it falls on Saturday Sunday or holiday, not covered. Wants it to be observed following Monday in all school divisions, and to use appropriate curriculum for all levels. 

Online 85% yes, Mulgrew says over that in person, placed on agenda.

Resolutions--

Peter Lamphere--Asks for extension to motion period, says hundreds of members rallied today.

Mulgrew--Says people have volunteered time, out of order, in resolution period. 

Chants about saving health care heard in background.

Liz Perez-- UFT endorsements of city council officers. Many interviews. Just wants to ask everyone to endorse 48 candidates. 

?--Rises in favor. Proud of SI screening committee. Knows committees throughout city spend many hours doing work. Did professional dedicated job. SI has former UFT member running, supports lowering class size. Looking to help unionize charters, though not a fan. 

Chen Volpi--Speaks in favor. As member of political action committee, says much work was put into this. Spent hours on Zoom with team. If pol chosen by team, is candidate we can rely on.

Vote to call question---Passes. 86% online. Mulgrew says more in person.

Resolution---Passes. 86% online.  

Point of information--Motion to extend in time or agenda?

Mulgrew--Can be either way. 

Rashad Brown--Asks to extend to 2 and new 3. 

Passes--Online 62% Passes in house.

Liz Perez--Endorsement for mayor, city and borough offices. Asks for endorsement of Eric Adams, Brad Lander, Jumaane Williams, Mark Murphy, (someone else I didn't catch).

Seung Lee---Rises to support. Long lengthy process. People who've been CLs know how lengthy process was. Selected people who are eminently qualified and will support schools. Adams not favorite. If only charters endorse him, it would concern me. To rep school, please follow with all members and people you rep and vote for this reso.

Elan-- Opposes. With all due respect, we did not endorse Adams. Has harmful policies. Have received mailers from UFT protesting his policies. There is a better alternative, someone who supports us.

Marvin Rieskin--RTC, Was CL, DR, director of political action. Rises to support Adams. Has worked to support nurses, to support ed. by providing funding. Is a union person. Took civil service exam, was transit cop and captain in NYPD. Was in State Senate, supported all measures NYSUT and UFT asked to support. After Marty Markowitz term limited, he ran. Worked with us in Brooklyn. Has supported public ed. Respects teachers, not DOE.

Ken Achiron--RTC, former CL. Supports Adams. Says opponent too involved in charters.

Question called. 75% yes online. 

Resolution passes 76% online. 

Carmen Romero--Historic moment for women, majority in city council, but not enough. Woman must be placed at helm on city council. We need to lean into leadership, empower women on city council to seek position. We will be better for it.

Mulgrew on floor speaks in favor. Important issue. Disturbed our major leadership positions are held by men. Worked hard to support female candidates. They are majority. This may not be easy lift. ...

Robert Belinski--Wants to know why we are spending so much time when it's limited, addressing political special interests...

Barr rules out of order. 

?--Agrees with maker of resolution. Women huge voting block, community leaders across city, large majority of UFT. Important women have seat at table. Urges support.

Rashad Brown--Calls question.

Passes.

Resolution passes--87% online. 

We are adjourned 6:26

Adventures in Deaning

I'm a dean this year. You can see me walking the halls with my little radio before 7 AM. I get to meet people I've never met before. Unlike my students, they speak English, so it's a pretty notable difference.

Today I met a young woman who was already cynical at 15. She was in the large hallway near the cafeteria and the gyms, which we call the strip. She was standing with two of her friends, and I always ask non-moving students where they are going. They showed me a bunch of fliers they were going to hang up for the SO, or something. 

"Have fun," I said.

"I'm not having fun," she replied.

"Well, have fun later then," I told her.

"I won't," she said.

I was a little upset by this. After all, I figure I've earned the right to have a bad outlook if I want to, but by my reckoning, she hasn't. A few minutes later, I saw her laughing with her friends while they were hanging up Whatever It Was they were hanging up.

"You lied to me. You're definitely having fun," I told her.

She nodded.

My next adventure wasn't so great. I was walking down the hallway in the second floor when I saw a young woman rushing down the hall. Where are you going, I asked. To the bathroom, she said. I asked why she didn't have a pass and she started lecturing me about how I always hassle her when she's just trying to do her thing, and then became rapidly less complimentary. I asked for ID and she made a great show of refusing. I followed her, but she ducked into the bathroom. I actually waited for her. I decided to be very clever and tricky.

So when she came out, I decided to follow her to class. She must've been going there, because she kept telling me she was, and why didn't I leave her alone, and a lot of things I won't write here. She then walked downstairs, and then out the building. I saw her approaching my beloved trailers and thought I had her. I went to the last one, but she wasn't there. I then noticed the trailers were no longer fenced in, and the young woman had run into the field to places unknown. I gave up.

Later I met a young man who was standing on the strip, doing nothing, not even looking at his phone. I asked him where he was going.

"No English," he said.

This was very surprising to me. Anyone who really had no English should've been in my classes. The young man was very surprised when I asked him the same question in Spanish. In Spanish, he told me he was finished with school and going home. I was a little jealous, but I asked him who his English teacher was. 

"Ms. C." he said.

I happened to know that Ms. C. teaches the higher level kids. I told him that, and then I told him that if he really didn't know English, he'd be in my class. Then I said, in English, "You speak English, brother."

By then he'd had enough of me and my nonsense. He left the building and went home. Soon thereafter, the bell rang and I did the same.

On Cozying Up to Reformies and Endorsing Our Enemies

I was pretty shocked the other day when leadership moved to endorse Eric Adams for mayor. I shouldn't have been because it was reported elsewhere, but that's on me. 

Now there's a saying to keep your friends close and your enemies closer. I see Randi in the photo there with Bloomberg and I don't blame her for trying to work things out with him. However, I vividly recall that he he ended up being our worst adversary in my career, at least, and making nice with him paid off not at all. (Don't get me started on trying to be buddies with Bill Gates, who walked out of being keynote at an AFT convention and immediately started attacking teacher pensions.) 

One person at our meeting suggested we ought not to let the perfect be the enemy of the good, and that we ought to be more optimistic. I'd suggest that reforminess is not only not perfect, not good, but that it is the single most important factor in diminishing our union and profession over the last two decades. Every teacher in America is still feeling Race to the Top, initiated by the administration of a President we endorsed. As for being more optimistic, I'd suggest it's far more important to learn from experience. Doubtless you've heard the expression that those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.

On Monday night, Michael Mulgrew announced that Eric Adams was meeting with Bloomberg, which didn't surprise me in the least. After all, Adams took six million dollars from a pro-charter group. Mulgrew himself told us that anti-union groups like so-called Students First were trying to take City Hall back. And yet now we are poised to endorse Adams. Are we indirectly endorsing Students First?

Make no mistake, this group is anti-union. Most charter employees are not unionized and work on temporary contracts. Charter school employees I know jump from school to school every few years and take it in stride. Making teaching into a gig rather than a career helps neither students nor teachers, and we should oppose it absolutely. 

Reformies, on the other hand, can suggest nonsense like teachers don't improve after the first two years, and splash that in tabloids where people may buy it. The fact is working teachers learn constantly, and those who don't can't hack a demanding job like this. While Moskowitz can hand prefab lesson plans to her disposable teachers, or hire her unqualified son to teach whatever, those of us who plan our own lessons give a piece of ourselves to our students. We are all different, and teacher voice can and should be more influential and helpful to kids than endless test prep.

I heard various rationales for supporting Adams. One was that he only supported charters because he supported parental choice. That was unpersuasive. Charters, in fact, are the privatization of education for profit, and no, it does not matter whether or not charters call themselves non-profit. Eva Moskowitz, for example, doesn't do this for fun, and pays herself around 800K a year.

We know how privatization works. I have known people who've died for lack of health care, or for fear of going broke for an ER visit. For years, I've seen musicians I admire hold fundraising events to pay their medical bills, something unheard of in most countries. Privatized prisons have bought off judges who sent kids there. The city is now offering so-called Medicare Advantage to retirees. Even if it ends up offering coverage equivalent to government-run Medicare, there's something unethical about our supporting privatization. We should work to make health care a public good.

So personally, I don't care why Adams supports charters, although the six million dollar contribution is a large clue to me. I'm pro-union, and most charters are anti-union. Many charter teachers lack the options and freedom they need to develop teacher voice, and I don't believe children benefit from being marched around like toy soldiers and peeing themselves because they're too frightened to take bathroom breaks. Students First will want a return on their six million dollar investment, and I'm sure improving conditions in public schools will not be one of them. They'd just as soon close us all down and make more money off the backs of all city kids.

While charters may have been conceived as a way to offer more academic freedom, they've been hijacked by people who aim to profit off of education, cripple union, and reduce teachers to script-readers. Our children don't  need terrified wage slaves as role models, and deserve to grow up with opportunities better than becoming charter school teachers or Walmart "associates." (And it's no coincidence that the Walmart family gives heavily to charters. When they found people wouldn't support vouchers in open elections, that was the next go-to.)

You can rationalize Adams' support of charters by saying he only wants parental choice. I can rationalize Thanos clicking his fingers and destroying half of all life by saying it's good for the environment. But these are pathetically weak arguments. 

And yes, I know that Adams' opponent is a lowlife who means us no good. That said, Adams is no bargain either, and a veritable shoo-in. It seems we get everything wrong at every step in every mayoral race. We've looked foolish many, many times, and once Adams starts sticking it to us, we'll look foolish (at best) again. 

We should be neutral in this race. 

If you really want to vote for a candidate, I suggest you write in my dog Toby. He stayed with me every day when I taught remotely, and was a fabulous co-teacher, inspiring both me and my students. He is head, tail, and shoulders preferable to either of the major candidates.

Forget Adams. Forget Sliwa. The people's choice is Toby in 2021.