New Action – UFT

Editor’s Note: Most of the information about who will qualify for the differential pay is towards the bottom in the Q&A section. Educators will receive differential pay if their class(es) are not in compliance and school does not have an exemption. The amount of differential pay one receives will be based on time spent teaching oversized classes. If your entire schedule is oversized, you will receive the entire differential. If you teach two classes that are oversized, the differential will be prorated. Differential pay will be split into two payments – in March and August.

You can read the full minutes below…

Mulgrew: Agreement between UFT and the City.

Class Size law passed in 2022. This is the 67th year our union has worked on the class size issue of NYC. We have the law. We need to protect this law and ensure educators are treated fairly while this law is being implemented. When we finish implementing the initial phase of the law – which is full compliance – this law lives forever.

Three entities: DOE NYC, UFT, CSA. Each has a legal right in regards to decision making inside the law. We didn’t want class size plans coming from the DOE. Schools need to make the decisions.

We’re in year 4 of the class size law. We’ve achieved 60%. UFT and CSA said schools have to do the plans, not the DOE. DOE always screws up. Schools thought they weren’t going to get the money. Schools were skittish about submitting anything. More than 700 schools submitted plans and the majority of them were approved. Money sent to those schools to hire teachers. Money will come every year now. Will not disappear.

Mayor and previous administration did not want the class size law.

When the law was passed originally, the City was already almost at 40%. Some schools prefer smaller class sizes.

Our class size committee, working with DOE and CSA, looked at everything. We have no capital plan in place. Not enough space to get to 80%. Also no recruitment in place, so can’t get to 80%. Had to figure out how to protect the law. Will not allow anyone to say the law is impossible. We now know we don’t need as much construction as what the City originally claimed. Need less than half of what the City originally claimed.

Two major things – construction projects and recruitment – were not planned out by the DOE. School Construction Authority (SCA) does big projects (annexes, new schools, etc.) and School Facilities (smaller projects). DOE did not follow through on getting big projects done that we need to comply with class size law.

DOE did not do anything to help with recruitment.

DOE messed this up, so now we need to detour. Need a capital or building plan. Need an aggressive strategy on how to recruit people into our school system.

City wants to do a lot of exemptions to hit the class size law. We pumped the brakes and said it needs to be done correctly. We need to get this right. Need to protect our school system.

Three types of exemptions: 1) hard to staff (schools have funding but can’t hire); 2) lack of space (approved projects or space limitations being addressed – needs to already be approved, whether in design phase or construction phase); 3) over-enrolled schools.

No such thing as a permanent exemption in the law. They tried to list specialized schools, schools with traditionally high enrollment as exemptions. We said no.

This week we agreed to extend the class size law. Will let it go to 70%, then 80%, 90%, 100% instead of 80% to 100%. The teachers shouldn’t pay the price for the DOE’s failure to not put in a construction plan or because they chose not to have a plan in place to recruit. Many parents and I kept asking about the capital plan over the years. City sat silently, never answered.

NY Post trying to act like we did a shakedown. No. Teachers/classrooms that qualify for an exemption – that means the DOE has the responsibility to fix the situation that allowed the exemption to happen. Flipped it on the DOE. DOE needs to work with us – the capital plan, building and construction, and recruitment.

This differential is just a tool, a tactic to use to make sure the law gets to completion. The big picture – this is about us. We have a responsibility to get this law done. DOE rolls out curriculums with no differentiation. Really aggravates us. DOE central makes a decision and just dumps it on the schools. This is their incompetence. They’re responsible. Now they’re going to pay because they have to get their work done. That’s why the whole differential piece is in place.

Retirees and older teachers sacrificed a lot for this. Money, etc.

A school may only qualify for space exemptions if:

– A real space plan exists

– Design or construction work is already underway

– Schools must still lower class size whenever possible

Schools have a “Blue Book” that shows the space available in their school. UFT went around. All of them were wrong. Not going by that.

Just because school is granted an exemption doesn’t mean they don’t have to get as many classes as possible to meet the class size benchmark.

A school may only qualify for hard to staff exemptions if:

– the school has received funding to lower class size

– the school has actively recruited and attempted to fill the position

– class sizes still remain out of compliance

Every school in the City submitted a plan.

June – principals will receive notice of class size funding. Planning and staffing decisions begin.

Summer – schools review staffing and space needs. DOE recruiting & planning continues

September & October – schools hire additional teachers depending on hiring, funding, and space.

November – DOE issues compliance report. DOE, CSA, & UFT produce a list of exempt classes. This will determine differentials for space and hard-to-staff exemptions. Compliance Report Day is a big day now. Probably comes out around November 15.

March – Eligible teachers will receive the first portion of the differential. The second payment will come in August.

This is a two year agreement. Will monitor implementation and protect the law. Put pressure on DOE to move.

Nobody is taking Foundation Aid out of our school system. We go to court and we win. Mayor is huge supporter of the law. One of the first things he said when he got elected is that “we’re going to get this done.” Chancellor also on board. I know the DOE doesn’t support this law. A lot of work on their behalf. They don’t want to do it.

Over the next two years, we’re going to lock down that capital space plan.

Increase of student-teacher programs in every borough. The schools knew to make a plan to make deal with colleges to recruit. The DOE doesn’t come up with any plan except the Fellows program where we have teachers coming from Iowa, who we love. But can do something with CUNY or SUNY.

This union went on strike in 1967. Big part of that strike was class size. Took us until 2022 to get to a place where we got a law passed. We tried to do it multiple times. Tried through a referendum. Then-mayor pulled it off the ballot because he knew it would pass. Parents want this. We’ll read speculation in media about class size and how we shook down the City for money. It’s silliness. You don’t fight all these years and allow something to get destroyed at the very end. We need a rock solid foundation. Won’t let DOE abuse the exemption process and make a mockery of this law.

Q&A

1. How will the amount of money per person be decided?

MM: Amount of time in class that has qualified and amount of teaching they’ve done in front of it. If you’re in a classroom all day that is not compliant but not exempt, you’ll get full amount. If you’re in that room 2-3 periods per day, you’ll get pro-rated. Same if your class(es) is switched in the middle of the year.

2. What about schools who completed plans for funding but haven’t received it?

MM: I would want someone from the union to contact you to figure out why you did not receive the funding. See if there’s something we can do to amend the application your school put in.

3. Does it matter how over the class is in terms of receiving the full differential?

MM: No, but remember, once it’s over, it’s over. But this will probably happen. Class with exemption but will not be in compliance with the contractual limit for class sizes, which is still locked in. Different than state law. Have had success with getting class sizes under the contractual language. We’ve seen a massive drop in oversized classes.

4. Would both teachers in an ICT classroom get the differential if eligible?

MM: Yes. Simple.

5. For ICT, is 60/40 still going to be the standard?

MM: 60/40 is still the standard. Part of federal and state regulations. Irrelevant of what the number of students is. Must have 60/40. Already have thousands of ICT classes in compliance.

6. Is the differential pensionable?

MM: Yes

7. Will teachers receive pro-rated differentials if class size changes during the year?

MM: Yes, especially the reorganization schools. Lots of high schools reorganize in late January-early February. Also, right before state tests, elementary schools get an influx of children.

8. Is there a limit to how many classes per school can get a differential?

MM: No

9. If there are classrooms who get a differential, will cluster teachers receive it also?

MM: When they’re in a room that is not exempt, they will get part of the differential.

10. This will impact Regents and MOSL scores. How do we compare to schools complying with class size law?

MM: We do pretty well with MOSLs. But it is much easier to teach 22 per class than 32.

11. Why are kindergarten classes not being capped in my school? 25 kids in Kindergarten, 20 in other classes.

MM: Calls on Carl Cambria. The school is doing that to not comply with the law. Doing this to hedge their bets for upper grades. Playing games. Will follow up.

12. Will some teachers in the same school receive the differential while others do not? How will union help prevent admin from picking favorites to receive differential?

MM: Dealing with admin who have ill intent or power trips is something we deal with all the time. People don’t use power correctly and are unfair. I’m not saying the differential or class size law will stop that behavior, but we love to fight with those folks. The process is 70, 80, 90, and then 100%. Everyone will eventually receive the benefit.

13. We were told Gifted & Talented classrooms are exempt from law.

MM: They’re not exempt from the law. Gifted & Talented has been a political hot tamale for 10 years. There is no way anyone gets a permanent exemption. If that means creating more G&T classrooms, then create them. Law does not allow it. You might have the superintendent saying it. Political for them. But for us it’s about compliance with the law. What’s so hard? Stop with the DOE talking about why they can’t do something. The DOE has stopped advancement more than politicians, parents, etc. DOE has fought against class size for 60 years.

14. Are dual language classes following the same class size law and are they eligible for differential?

MM: Absolutely.

15. Will this differential be something I have to apply for in November or come from a compliance report and automatically done for me?

MM: Calls on Cambria. We’ll have agreed upon exemptions in November. That will be list we work off of to see who receives differentials. Schools will receive notice of the classes being exempted and those will be sent to State.

MM: When that notice goes out, CLs should request that from the principal.

CC: We’ll reach out to all schools that are part of the exemption process.

MM: We can revisit this agreement in two years. Class size is a big deal. We know it makes a difference. Not going to rush. Make sure it’ll be done the right way. It will serve the city for decades. Children deserve it. We deserve it. We work in the most challenging school district in the world. This time next year, we’ll be talking about 80%. Next school year we’ll be 70% in compliance.