UFT Town Hall Analysis, Summary, and Informal Minutes, 12/19/2023

Summary/Analysis: For those of us who go to lots of meetings, the notes from tonight look very similar to the most recent executive board meeting and the Delegate Assembly before it, though the details on budget cuts were a bit more specific. Unfortunately, while there is more detail about our school system’s impending demise through austerity, there’s very little detail here on what we’re doing to stop the cuts that are putting our students and teachers at risk. We also heard a bit about upcoming virtual programs, though honestly the news there sounds pretty lackluster. The new virtual programs appear to just be parts of existing PROSE plans, not parts of the new contract. This, of course, is much better news than an overly expanded virtual program with teachers teaching large class sizes or mixed schedules against their will – so maybe this isn’t such a bad thing. In terms of recurrences, we saw the reinstitution of vague platitudes about fighting to save our healthcare, though of course we know the reality is the opposite – under Mulgrew’s leadership, we are about to reduce spending on our healthcare by 10% to avoid fighting the City to preserve our benefits. And we won’t get a vote on that either. I recommend reading my commentary on Mulgrew’s longer speech last week for more info on this. Link here. We learned about the fight for Tier 6, but still are hearing more campaign promises than any meat of organizing. Kate Connors seemed to suggest Mulgrew was now willing to talk about NYHA, but in my reading, Mulgrew quickly seemed to imply he wasn’t really serious about that conversation – an inference supported by his lack of discussion of NYHA in his healthcare conversation. Indeed, In general, the question period was the strongest part of today’s town hall. Most meetings see a truncated question period, but town halls see an expanded one. Procedurally, it would be a big improvement to make longer question periods a reality for other types of meetings – executive board meetings and DAs, for instance, as New Action has argued in the past.

Thanks to two other NAC members for helping to compile these minutes today. The meeting started so early that I only caught the tail end. I edited three sets of notes together before publishing, so any clunky juxtapositions are on me. You can see the full set of notes here:

Mulgrew begins

Three days to go until New Year.  Almost there.  Haven’t done this in a while. 

New contract.  New goal is to make the contract real.  Push back because of new provisions. DOE says they didn’t agree to this. Elementary schedules have been a challenge. Virtual school and virtual time has been a challenge. These are real provisions. 

Virtual time “It’s my judgment.” Well it’s your judgment but you have to show why. Real issues about what the policy is. Cleaning up myths about special ed rules. We have gotten itn DOE’s head we are not backing down. Everyone gets this. 

Proud of what we’ve gotten.  Definitely achieving our goals. Key is the information flow. 

Special ed committees showing there are issues.  We saw this as a way to eliminate myths of SE laws. In DOE’s head.  Everyone is getting these things.

DOE literacy survey.  Gave it back to DOE.  Literacy roll outs in which teachers or teacher centers rolled it out successful.  Teachers good. Consultants bad.  Consultants rolling out, not effective.

Consultants trying to get others to buy things.  

DOE seem to be stuck because of impending cuts.  Hearing from entities and principals that schools seeing cuts have issues with roll out

Schools doing consultation minutes.  Have school cls to upload minutes.  That way it can go to consultation in District level and his own consultation minutes.  75% are uploading their minutes

Consultant thing not working. Consultants from company are trying to sell things. That’s a big no-no, but DOE isn’t doing anything. Anything DOE does is stuck because of budget cut from mayor. Major problem for morale. Cutting schools when you don’t have to. Principals and entities are getting the bigger cuts, we are not sitting idly by. Two big issues contract and literacy program. Every school does a consultation every month with Principal. We want every school to submit them and then go over with district and up to Michael. 75% of schools (1,700) are uploading monthly consultation notes. We have real information, for instance a major thing over last month… bulletin boards. Every time we win a bulletin board fight, we think it’s going away. Chancellor is confused. Says he didn’t tell them to do anything. DOE legal said can’t use students names. OLR fielding questions, all these crazy interpretation. Just good kids. That’s shaming kids not on there. So much wasted time over Principals quality review. Seen across the City, leadership has no idea. We are gathering more information, big tool for us to use. Superintendents don’t like the UFT. That’s their game. 

Started with literacy program. Surveyed elementary school and gave to DOE. Where literacy was rolled out, through teachers center, they have much greater success vs consultants. Teachers good consultants bad. Appreciate chancellor using teachers and teacher centers. Consultant thing not working. Consultants from company are trying to sell things. That’s a big no-no, but DOE isn’t doing anything. Anything DOE does is stuck because of budget cut from mayor. Major problem for morale. Cutting schools when you don’t have to. Principals and entities are getting the bigger cuts, we are not sitting idly by. Two big issues contract and literacy program. Every school does a consultation every month with Principal. We want every school to submit them and then go over with district and up to Michael. 75% of schools (1,700) are uploading monthly consultation notes. We have real information, for instance a major thing over last month… bulletin boards. Every time we win a bulletin board fight, we think it’s going away. Chancellor is confused. Says he didn’t tell them to do anything. DOE legal said can’t use students names. OLR fielding questions, all these crazy interpretation. Just good kids. That’s shaming kids not on there. So much wasted time over Principals quality review. Seen across the City, leadership has no idea. We are gathering more information, big tool for us to use. Superintendents don’t like the UFT. That’s their game. 

Consultation notes are a big tool. Provides data. 

Asylum seekers.  Thank you for all we do. The work with these kids.  Not going to work with DOE with this.  Working with non profit groups.  We do everything to protect a child.  Should not be left up to schools to deal with the challenges only. Frustrating.

Right to shelter.  We’re not getting into debate.  We’re the educators.  Our position is no child goes out to the street is what we told mayor and press.  Some may file for waiver but many have to change to a new school.  Going to continue work with families.  Teachers are arranging things for children. Mayor not spending money helping.

Healthcare- Negotiated acquisition in process RFP for out Healthcare. Everything we currently have or more, or we are not going to sign a deal with anyone. We are at war with a healthcare system. We’re not going to sit here and watch our healthcare crumble like all the other workers in this country. The industry is out of control. Entire MLC has made the decision that this is what we’re goin to do. If we don’t get what we want we don’t have to do anything. We’ll be in a fight with the mayor, but we already are. We want to see the doctors we already see, prescriptions we already get. We’re not going to let these people talk in a room without us. There is no transparent\cy. We are not going to play by your rules. Losing proposition to keep playing like we have. Every worker is losing across the country. 

Politics.  National elections.   Special election. Santos seat.  Queens and Nassau area.  Endorsements done by us in districts with groups of members in that area. Criteria for endorsement: Best interest of teachers, unionized workers and public education. Yes, we have endorsed candidates I don’t like but we use this criteria. I know I’m moving quickly. Want to get to questions.

Legislative agenda in Albany.  Tier 6.  Mayoral control. Class size law.  Mayor trying to sabotage.  Need to strengthen it.  All of this tied to budget cuts. A month ago … telling others we need to do something.  Asylum seekers an issue but its not all of it.  Over 8 billion dollar in reserve.  In this year, 3.6 billion city has surplus. We are confident that city doesn’t have to do these cuts.  We thought Mayor was looking to cause panic to get state and fed gov finally giving $ but he’s actually doing the cuts.  Mayor Adams’ projection of a $7 billion deficit for NYC. That deficit was just made up. We’re angry. Affecting our schools. Taking that fight to Albany. Can’t have precedent of letting mayor with reserves and surplus and not have him questioned  Bloomberg also tried this.   Compared to last administration, De Blasio spent 51% of budget on schools. This administration spending about 40% on education. Cutting pre-K.  Is City Council going to do something about this? Albany giving 1.1 billion and 1.3 billion in Foundation Aid.  Mayor taking city money out of education.  Supplanting funds.  Why give him control of schools again if he will be supplanting.

Mayor and city gutted the capital plan also.  The $ we need to implement class size law is there.  Seems part of mayor’s plan to sabotage. Asking Albany to tie this mayoral control. Sent $ for class size.  Mayor taking that money out of city funds.

Tier 6- If you haven’t hear me talk about his before , it takes a little bit. No significant changes until 18 years. Ahead of that, year 12. Affect all Public workers across the state. Working to 63 is insane. If you want to godbless. But you shouldn’t have to, with all these penalties.  When you change a tier at night (10 O’clock).  Rich people make decisions. We are having a hard time recruiting. Try to convince a 21 year old you will work until 63 to get your pension. Michael started in bad tier four, but tier one folks and everyone worked to make tier 4 better. Now tier four must work to do this for tier 6. We have to get to 55, some say 57, I say 55. Contributions. We have to go after this. 

Everyone got bonus checks. If anyone says why did you get them. Kick them. You deserve it, it’s in your contract. 

The City across the country who have Mayor control don’t have our version, we are the only one with complete control. We move forward we work together.  All of this happens because consultation committees do all this work. 

Private nurses are under attack. We have to support them. 

We will be politically active on certain fronts, which is why we’re in this together. 

Questions

Susan: About the 5 percent cuts, what I want to know is the cuts are coming solely from schools and nothing from central?

Mulgrew: DOE saying there’s cuts there but nothing left to cut – so rest coming from schools. They screwed up the transition for prek, clearly cutting. DOE did not continue the practice of moving things around. 3k team left, didn’t want to work from these folks, were nationally acclaimed. Prek and 3k program – want our city to be a better place. Adults are working, not babysitting, but it is applied childcare for families. Parents are up in arms – we’re organizing with parents. Great meeting last Monday. We’re going to continue that fight. 

Justine: Confirming what’s supposed to be on bulletin boards.

Mulgrew: Depends which lawyer you ask at the DOE. Trying to get this one. It’s a mess. DOE says they have a policy, but it’s probably buried under other policies. Asked them to put out something very simple. They’ll get back to me by the end of the week. Clear from consultation notes that there is a complete circus on bulletin boards. Maybe lawyers should put up the bulletin boards. Here you are in the school – can you just tell me to do with our bulletin board?

Jennifer: Are you thinking of a way to replace mayoral control? What would be the position of the UFT – what is the alternative?

Mulgrew: Committee of 300 members who thought about it – all thought out and written down. Right now the mayor has the majority of the votes, he appoints them and is removed if they don’t vote the way he wants. 

Jennifer: But I thought that was amended – can’t just be removed?

Mulgrew: Yeah but they left. We want others on, including parents. CEC needs more authority, but we don’t want the school boards – have proven to be a horror. But CEC should have more input. Right now, all CEC has is advisory – not real power. So, those are the two big changes, as well as multiple candidates. There would also be a vetting process, candidates presented, for chancellor. 

Jennifer: Can you explain how NYS can enact the class size reduction law and the mayor can subvert it? Why does the UFT have to go to Albany to express that the law won’t be followed? What is happening?

Mulgrew: One, the mayor never supported the law. That law only gives us the same average class size of the rest of the state. Specific provision in law, when it was moving, when Adams said there was no money – City ‘bankrupt’ by the law. Provision that there has to be a financial review, and I know that they’re targeting that financial review. Some people who are working with parents who have been lied to, people inside schools, being told their schools will be capped and their kids will be bussed to other schools. Law makes sure that overcrowded schools make more seats – complicated, but ways like annexes. I know they’ve been telling parents horror stories, but it’s just not true So there’s the political aspect, with parents being told lies, and cutting the education budget, which is why it’s so important in Albany that we’re up there lobbying. Mayor has plan to supplant money, we have to stop him.

Jennifer: You’re saying mayor is looking for a way out of law, know there is a 5 year implementation, but know that if it’s enacted, the state can withhold money. So how will they get around that aspect?

Mulgrew: I think if they get to that place they’re dead politically – don’t think they’d be so ignorant to get that point. We have a plan to make sure their plan does not work. 

Mary: Wanna find out about congestion pricing.

Mulgrew: We already have done something for teachers. We don’t have an official reso, so I can speak from my own judgment, to reduce congestion it sounds nice and the money that comes out will fix the MTA. Yes, the entire MLC is getting into the process that no city worker should have to pay any of this – it’s a requirement of the City that they have to go there to work. They’re saying well we can take public transportation, but there’s probably a good reason they aren’t taking it if they’re not. Hospital workers also. Judgment, everyone will end up paying the toll, they aren’t doing anything. Next piece, we started looking at all the environmental reports, pollution just going to be moved to outer boroughs. MTA doesn’t even have a plan if everyone starts taking public transit, mess right outside zone. At this point, we’re working with others who are quite upset about the economic and environmental impact. You’ll be hearing more from us and others at beginning of next year. Legal timelines don’t allow certain things to happen at certain times. Don’t think anyone believes this is going to fix the MTA. For a teacher depending on how you get there, it’s a 3 to 6 thousand impact directly out of pocket after taxes – so we’ll have more to say at the beginning of next year. 

Jessica F. Question related to migrant reso, great that addressing socio-emotional issues, but I’m a trilingual speech teacher, and I’m wondering what incentives there are to attract bilingual teachers to address academic needs. No financial incentive because no change to pay, so any plans?

Mulgrew: We have a plan in place to allow teachers who are multilanguage speakers to move into a bilingual certificate. For years we tried to get the state education department to stop the req. To do an additional year of probation. For this year only, we got the ed dep to wave that req. So first we got that req. Waved, tenure to tenure. DOE and us have finished agreement, and it’s a 5k incentive for anyone who wants to do that. Mike Sill has been point on this. 

Mike Sill: Anyone who has a monolingual license and agrees to switch over bilingual license, no additional tenure period, if not yet tenured, credit goes to it, continue to get 5k incentive until no reason for it or until move back to monolingual license. 

Mulgrew: Differentials tough because titles who get it like it, titles who don’t don’t, but important we look at it, especially for people who want to transfer certificates. 50 years ago, unions were arguing for this. At that point in time, teachers were very sensitive to idea that those who can’t teach, so wanted to show they were professionals. We really need to start doing these things, used the tough challenge of asylum seekers (to justify this) and want to expand this. 

Questioner: Takes time though so what about shortfall?

Mulgrew: Whole lot of people who have already done it or are being contacted about being switching over. Huge source of frustration because all these people with certificates who aren’t using it because not listening to us. So if you have friends with the certificate, let us know. 

Questioner: So will there be an increase of programs?

Mulgrew: Not sure, we have more programs than we can staff now. Gotta look at this whole thing, 200+ languages in one school district, unheard of. We have school districts with 50 or 60 languages. Reality is a lot more people need these certificates, because these are the students we have. We train more teachers than anyone else in the UFT teacher center, a lot more classes in bilingual instruction. We don’t want to do something that could be used against us, like if someone wants to get rid of teachers without the certificates.

Kate Connors: Thank you. Really happy you are willing to sit down with me and the senator to set up meeting to discuss NYHA.

Mulgrew: Trying, was supposed to be today, but then town hall, but know we will figure something out. 

Kate Connors: How are the preparations going for virtual learning? Private companies?

Mulgrew: Not happy with the prep. Frustrated with DOE. PROSE schools, the 217 schools in NYC who have taken votes to change portions of the contract and regs to meet needs of their students and customize education, those schools have taken the lead with virtual learning. Out of their 217, that’s the majority of schools doing. DOE is waiting for the schools to figure it out. Will probably announce more schools in Feb, but have to do better. Outside entity – no. Tied up in contractual language, all locked up. Our work, we do it. Wasn’t hard – just presented what happened in florida. 10th anniversary of PROSE schools and had a bunch of new ideas, so more about us forming our own committee of how to spread this ourselves. This is what they asked for, as long as we had the safeguards, and all of a sudden they want to take 2 years to plans? No. Until you start it, you’re not going to figure it out. And PROSE didn’t even do it under contracts but under their PROSE programs…Depending on legislative session, we’ll organize in March. In a few weeks, a list of high school kids will come out without the right number of credits, after which schools should meet to discuss Saturday classes to make sure kids can get their credits and graduate. Graduation rates will go up, students we serve will graduate.

Abby M. My school has a new principal, new issue in chapter, excessive paperwork. Haven’t really gotten a straight answer when asked at high school level – is there an official agreed upon definition of excessive paperwork? Can it be blasted out so I can walk into consultation with it?

Mulgrew: We’ve expanded the list, one of our most successful programs. Don’t do it through grievance process, but through paperwork reduction process. Grievance – nothing get solved, but thousands of paperwork complaints are fixed on a yearly basis. Always interesting when you have to train a new principal.

Mike Sill: go to UFT . org and search paperwork standards, there are a number of standards, like you can’t just do paperwork because principal has a PPO, can’t have data system that track your activity and then you have to duplicate it, download it and bring it to consultation.

Mulgrew: When you get that, principal will say they have to check with legal, who will side with principal, get in touch with Debra Poulous. Brian will set that up with you right after this. 

Francesca: Question about ICT teaching models. Of the 6, can the district force only one model at all times?

Mulgrew: as a supervisor, they have the right to say which model you should be using. That doesn’t mean we can’t question their judgment. That’s where the new SPED committee comes in – if we say we don’t think it’s the appropriate model for our kids. Sometimes one model works, sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes choosing your model that you want doesn’t work either. Biggest piece for me is that you have the time to plan what to do with your coteacher – that’s what we’re pushing for. Will get SPED people to get in touch. Good school leaders will let you try your model if you say it doesn’t work. 

With all craziness going on, just take this time for your ourselves. Newer teachers, don’t just sit down and get stuff done for your class, you’ll get that time, you need to recharge your batteries, demanding job. Public starting to understand. Give a thank you to the consultation people doing work on your behalf. We are the protecting our children.