No commentary. Just the minutes…
President’s Report
Michael Mulgrew welcomes everyone to the first DA of the school year. It’s going to be an interesting year.
Moment of silence for UFT Rep Ilyana Frias. Tells an inspiring story about Ilyana and how she fought for us and our students.
Welcomes new delegates and chapter leaders. MM thanks everyone for their unionism.
Federal
The upcoming elections are everything. It’s going to get nastier. We have folks working and coordinating with different groups in NYC, NYC, and nationally regarding election interference. Better to be safe than sorry. We want people to have the ability to vote without being harassed, go to voting stations without issue. Coordinating nationally through the AFT. Phone banks up and running. When we’re doing our political work, we have committees who vet candidates. Vetting done by volunteers. Simple – how do you feel about our profession? Do you support it or not? How do you feel about unions? Collective bargaining? In the end, we give a recommendation. If you don’t want to support it, don’t support it. But if your priority is your profession, the union, and collective bargaining, you may want to listen to our recommendations. If not, vote how you want. Politics are so toxic at this point. If people ask why we’re supporting a specific candidate, it’s to keep our livelihood safe.
National voucher program – It is NOT a scholarship program. We had a big disagreement with our governor. We’ve made our position very clear. I believe the governor believes she can do something no other state can do – I don’t believe she can do it. The regulations came out. They’re clear. The IRS gets to set the rules, not the DOE. Once they set the rules, there is no appeal. State cannot change those rules. We’ve been approached by a lot of different people who want to make sure the money gets to public education. The governor said our state is opting in. It is what it is. Goes back to politics. That is not protecting public education. I want to thank colleagues from Texas. They’ve given us lots of information and data about how it’s hurt public education in Texas.
State
Class Size – Putting together legislative agenda for January. Last October, the main thrust was Tier 6 for legislative agenda. 80 buses to Albany, petitions, and the rest of it. Not done with Tier 6, especially the contribution part and the different numbers they’re using to decide pension. We have a COLA bill for retirees. Ran into serious opposition from actuaries. COLA is not right. It’s at such a low level. Even our friends in Albany, elected officials said we can’t do this cost in our budget. We don’t have the right to argue with actuary, but doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be argued with. Big challenge on COLA and that we want the 8.25% back for the TDA. Comes down to “What does it cost?” I’m fed up with the actuaries coming to affect us. Used to have actuaries there for a very long time. Whether you’re in City, State, hospitals, everyone needs actuaries. This new crop of actuaries are very aggressive and overestimating costs. Those are the challenges we’re going to face in Albany. Currently facing them with NYC actuaries. Paid family leaves was a massive victory. Took 6 weeks extra to fight with them for charging us way too much. Had to keep going in and proving them wrong.
Class Size – If 10 years ago, I said 70% of classes adhered to class sizes the rest of the state has, we’d think it impossible. For close to 40 years, we tried to figure out how to get class sizes similar to the rest of the state. I met someone in charge of the petitions in the Bronx. Loophole that the mayor has the right to remove one resolution. Tried to pass this before but the mayor at the time removed it. The mayor and lots of elected officials didn’t want it. Charter school industry was apoplectic about us getting this law. Two reasons they didn’t want us getting the Class Size law – 1) It cost too much. We got Albany to finally fully fund foundation aid. That was the funding we needed to pay for Class Size. 2) “It’s impossible to do.” They came up with crazy estimates. We told them to give us a law and we’ll make sure it gets done. In the law, it says we have the same authority as the Board of Ed and principal’s union. If we’re not in compliance with the law in any particular year, we lose money. UFT would not come to agreement with DOE about what’s in evaluation law by trying to make us at-will employees. We gave up money to save that from happening. Want to make it clear. We don’t want to do that.
We knew they couldn’t get to 80% this school year because they didn’t have a construction plan in place. We were ready for this. We agreed to help extend this law, only if we get the whole construction plan and how much time it’s going to take for each school. Every plan is not final, but in motion. We will get to 70% this year. The last 30% will be difficult. A lot of it has to do with programming. A lot of it is about the need for new space. Each school should be having a conversation about their class size plan. We don’t want the DOE telling you what your class size plan should be. They don’t know your building. We found out during COVID they don’t even know the size of every school. Class Size law is not about your school, but about the total number of classes. Teachers asking if they’re getting paid for oversized classes. You all need to be on the same page. For this year, the DOE is allowed to have 30% of their classes not in compliance. Last year, a bunch of people looked at their school lists at the end of November. There were questions at December DA asking why classes are exempt on their class size plan. That class was officially used by the DOE to get credit for a plan in place that that class would come into compliance in the next 1-2 years. That can be used for being in compliance for that school year. We said any chance you use towards an exemption for credit to the state means you were irresponsible. As always, you get to put that burden on the teacher, but now you’re going to pay that teacher. It’s only the classes that they’re using as exemptions. We get that list in November. Compliance doesn’t necessarily mean they hit 70%, but that they have a plan to hit it. Percentage from last year doesn’t stay the same. Teachers retired, how many were hired? Wanted 6,000-7,000. Don’t have that yet. Have to wait to see about hiring. Next phase is next year. Supposed to be at 80%. Should be more exemptions next year. If you’re being used as a waiver, you will get paid extra for oversized classes. This goes on forever. We’re going to get this done. We can do this in NYC. The amount of space required isn’t near what was estimated. We still have our contractual limits. The number of classes that even 10 years ago would’ve been about 40%. But now we will be at 70% for this year. We have a lot of people working on this. Every year, it will require maintenance. Every year the DOE will come to us and ask for exemptions. If we find it’s legit, that’s fine, but then those teachers should get a check. Have your meetings with your principals about Class Size. If you need to speak about space, speak about space. We’ll come in and help. Programming changes need to be looked at. After we finish this year, we’re focusing on the remaining 30%. I hear you, specialized high schools. You are not exempt from the Class Size law. We’ll figure out how to create more space.
City
Paraprofessional Bill – Passed. Got a new judge. Parties have an agreement that we are now an active part of the lawsuit. Parties agreed. Will respond with what our arguments should be. Not announcing them here. Want them to be surprised. Trying to make this permanent. Leadership of the para chapter understands everything going back and forth. Frustrating. The DOE lost the argument. Their argument is that it doesn’t matter that we need at least 9,000 substitutes a day. If we have people in the position, then it’s not a vacancy. It’s called a substitute for a reason. It’s a substitute because you need a permanent. You need a substitute every day to make sure it’s taken care of for one day. The DOE was saying we don’t have a problem. We have all the paras we need. 70-80% of DA raises hands when asked if their schools are short on paras. More stress for us and our members. Para bill is in place. Trying to make it permanent.
IRMAA Audits – IRMAA is a process that every piece of software or digital platform that every DOE tech goes through to make through its safe. I’m the employer, you’re using this software with children, I have to make sure it’s safe. Makes sense. But, according to DOE, they made sure every piece of software went through IRMAA audit. Only ones we approved, not the ones in school. That’s why we don’t have access to certain platforms. Magic Classroom is now safe. They knew this. Why would you wait until the second week of school to turn off IRMAA software that did not qualify? Should’ve been checked in July. That’s the frustration. The IRMAA audit continues. Still a couple platforms being utilized. Someone corrects Mulgrew about the name of the program – Magic School.
MTSS – If someone said they wanted to set up a literacy program for schools to help identify if students are on grade level, what their deficiencies are, what we need to do to get them to grade level, we would say fine. But that’s not what we got. We got a mess. In 2021, a regulation about academic intervention was changed. State said you’re not doing what you’re supposed to do. Supposed to tell us about what you’re doing about academic intervention for those that need it. Never mentioned MTSS. DOE studies situation for two years and birthed MTSS. They said we’re going to mess up the entire school system. There’s supposed to be a screener. Fine. We usually do that anyway. First week of school.
**NOTE: I MISSED A LOT FROM HERE UNTIL THE END OF MM’S REPORT. APOLOGIES IF IT’S CLUNKY and INCOMPLETE.**
Don’t know why this turned into Frankenstein’s monster. We do screeners in the beginning of the year, figure out students’ strengths and weaknesses. Doesn’t mean every child goes to level 2.
We can do one academic program in a classroom. DOE thinks we can do 4 or 5. Hurts and confuses children. Teachers need appropriate training and materials. And now they have limits on screen time. Good luck doing this. Parents opting children out of academic support programs. If you had the WIN program before your kids got to school, your admin doesn’t know what the hell they’re doing. Nobody’s been appropriately trained. Schools saying every child needs to be in this thing. Ridiculous.
CEP – nobody’s looking at these. Legal documents. Section 6 covers this. Supplying DRs with that section highlighted. You need to know if a child should be in Tier 2 or Tier 3. We need to start using CEPs to appropriately judge if a child is in Tier 2 or Tier 3. Doesn’t need to be scheduled. Can be done in all different ways, but damage has been done. One intervention program per teacher once they’re appropriately trained and have the materials.
Last week, the DOE sent out guidance for teachers to monitor screen time. Do we let kids turn screens on for Election Day? We’re going to go by COVID protocols. I have no idea what’s going on up there. They’ll say it doesn’t count. We have guidelines for this stuff. Virtual learning during Covid was treated like regular classrooms.
We were trending up. Protecting our school system. They want communities to lose confidence in schools, get frustrated.
Contract campaign is our focus this year. Teach-in the Thursday before Halloween. MM holds vote to see if people want additional contract campaign training for their schools.
634-223 vote for additional campaign training.
MM: Teach-in leads to survey. Very important. Never use DOE email. Only personal emails. Emails must be updated to receive surveys. Need lots of people responding. More people = more power.
Point of order – will substitute members also get the survey?
MM – Yes.
Staff Director’s Report (Mike Sill)
– CL meeting tomorrow
– Anti-bullying at 9am tomorrow.
– 10/18: Making Strides Walk for Brooklyn, Queens, LI
– 10/20: Toilet learning workshops for Pre-K, 3K, Paras
– 10/25: Making Strides Walk
– 10/28: Third meeting of 750 member negotiating team. 4pm at 52 Broadway.
– 11/12: School secretary chapter meeting on tenure.
– 11/17: HS Huddle
– Toy and coat drives already underway.
– Raffle at the end of DA. Proceeds to Disaster Relief Fund.
MM: Our union is one of the best fundraisers in this country for Strides. We do this with get pride. It’s amazing to see all the schools show up. Thanks to Welfare Fund for the UFT Golf Outing. Money goes to Disaster Relief Fund.
Question Period
1. Today is day 23 of the school year. I’ve had up to 7 mandatory trainings. What is the union doing about that? There’s a lot that needs to be done and we don’t have the time.
MM: Anyone on negotiating committee needs to hear what he just said. The number of mandatory meetings is out of control. Not possible. The employer will say they’re not mandating all of it. City Council and State also mandate training. As long as they make sure training is within our work hours, it’s fine. Don’t tell us to watch mandated Webinar on our own time. Take us out of our classes to let us watch them. I understand the Safety training, especially with our climate. Of course, fire drills are important. But bloodborne pathogens – we get it. We don’t have the time to do it. Either you pick and choose or you pony up the bucks.
2. Class Size law – Keep hearing about the Capital Plan. Will there be another round for schools to apply for funding for additional staff?
MM: Yes. There is a line in your budget that is specifically for Class Size funding. Your school is going to need it. There will be another round this year. Only way we can get it done. Schools need more funding for additional staff.
3. When Chancellor Samuels introduced himself to principals, he doubled down on NYC Reads. Three curricula offered. It’s not developmentally appropriate. Expect us to teach 90 minutes to kindergarteners. What are we doing to defend our students?
MM: 90 straight minutes to a kindergartener. We won’t even let them sit in front of a screen for 90 minutes because we know it doesn’t help. That’s why I say they’re out of their minds with MTSS. If you don’t understand that kids need to play, you should leave the school system. DOE out of control with outside contracts. Very few companies pushing play. Of course we want children fluent on how to use the screen, but don’t want them being damaged by putting them in front of them. Screenings, diagnostics, progress monitoring. Nothing about play for kindergarteners who now hate school. Hate their teachers for doing this to them. What is your school doing? Make sure it’s in your Consultation notes. Consultation notes give us direct evidence.
4. What ia Tier 1, 2, and 3? For Middle Schools: district pushing for stations in middle schools for small group intervention during ELA, but looks like they’re modeling it after elementary, but with a new name.
MM: You don’t need to have WIN periods. Not mandated. Tier 1 = on level. Tier 2 = some intervention. Tier 3 = severe intervention. Hands over to Vaccaro.
MV: Don’t need a Win period. Calling centers “stations” now. Writing stations instead of centers. Pushing hard for Tier 3 to be pull out. Not there yet, but almost there. MM met with DOE last week.
5. Class exemption: Do principals and district personnel have say in exemption checks? Example: 7th grade teachers get money, but 6th grade teachers don’t.
MM: We have this conversation internally. Money can make colleagues angry at each other. We’re getting there. We’re going to get there. We fought for this law. They’re not happy about this law. Tried to get the law stalled. We’re the UFT, you’re the City. Changing mayors doesn’t mean you get a do-over. As a union, we’re responsible for our actions. You’re the City of New York. New mayor supported Class Size. No do-overs because his people at the DOE say it’s tough.
Motions directed to the agenda
1: Motion to add a resolution to this month’s agenda. RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF INTRO 1008.
MM interrupts to clarify: This needs a two-thirds vote. Person can present motion, not motivate it. If you wanted it for next month, then you only need for majority.
Speaker #1 continued: Time limit, I’m proposing this to protect retiree health benefits. Retiree health benefits and collective bargaining go hand in hand. Able to protect wages, healthcare, future retirement benefits. When we think about this legislation, this addresses healthcare for Medicare eligible. For union to negotiate future benefits for future members. We do not have to choose between protecting benefits for retired and those who can negotiate later on. Legislation should establish a floor of protection, not a ceiling on collective bargaining.
Vote – Yes: 653 No: 127 (online) Yes: 259 No: 31 (in person) 85%. Placed on this month’s agenda.
2. Janella Hinds moves to reorder agenda so agenda item #5 (reso to support NYS legislation to prohibit use of victim intoxication as a defense in sex crime cases) is moved to the top.
Vote – Yes: 518 No: 242 (online) Yes: 224 No: 56 (in person) 81%. Moved to number 1.
Resolutions
AGENDA ITEM #5 (moved up to #1) – RESOLUTION SUPPORTING NEW YORK STATE LEGISLATION TO PROHIBIT THE USE OF VICTIM INTOXICATION AS A DEFENSE IN SEX CRIME CASES
Resolved, that the UFT will promote member conversations to destigmatize sexual violence; and be it further
Resolved, that the UFT will lobby in conjunction with NYSUT to pass New York State Senate Bill S.54-A.
Speaker objects to voting. Cites Amy Arundell incident in with an image of her face was placed in a urinal with the caption “Piss on my face” at 52 Broadway during last year’s DA under Mulgrew’s administration.
Second speaker says this isn’t about Amy, but about young men and women who are victims.
Vote – Yes: 703 No: 51 (online) Yes: 250 No: 17 (in person). 93%. PASSES
Ends with raffle.
