UFT Executive Board Minutes, 10/21/2024

Summary/Analysis

• The longest and perhaps most novel part of last night’s agenda was the special order of business around election guidelines. Most of that was discussed in a closed room before the executive board meeting, with Beth Norton going over a 20ish page document of legalese. The guidelines, most of which were apparently the same as in previous years, and some of which were new and modified, will apparently be put online shortly (hopefully sooner than the financial report – promised last April and still not live on the UFT website last I checked).
• Mulgrew mainly discussed special education and curriculum problems. There may be some piecemeal actions going on, but it’s clear that there’s no larger approach to fight curriculum mandates period.
• Edward Calamia of NAC put forward an idea to work more with PSC, not just for their contract negotiations, which are apparently not going well, but by coordinating education more generally, as many of our students later go to CUNY schools.
• With the national election coming up, we heard more about different efforts the UFT and our members are putting forth toward the election of Harris.

For more updates and more specifics, see the unofficial minutes follow.

Minutes approved (see appendix).

President’s report:

Mulgrew: Thanks Servia Silva and all they do on Strides. CL meeting, thanks those who put together. Great energy at both events. Every couple of years we change CL trainings, changed – more about how to organize the chapter. Negotiated tools, consultation, to district, to city-wide consultation. Listening intently on anything to do with special education. Process of meeting with State Ed Department. Told chancellor I’d ask to bring here to meet exec board, closed meeting. No objections raised.

Curriculum: groups of teachers math/literacy, math more problematic, literacy affects more people. Clear in consultation today, don’t know why using one of the curriculums and then using a whole bunch of other ones on top of the first. Pick one, why are you picking three. Need to get policies to schools to stop wasting time. DSL – department of supervision of learning. Wanted us to supply with schools, we said no – prevalent. Only thing need from consultants is to modify to SPED/ELL, not that they can do it. One thing good about chancellor, meeting directly with the teachers.

We’re gonna start going after the COLA; that work is starting.

Next Friday, Diwali; Halloween day before. You know in high schools, always a problematic issue – a lot of gang activity, jumping in. Not a good combination.

Ibeth Mejia: Want something on the consultation agenda. IM, concern is know teachers should modify; could you bring up, because it’s so restrictive, the concern is how is that impact teachers when they get observed…or if admin wants to write a letter up.

Mulgrew: Process is gonna go to move forward – if someone is saying do everything the way it’s written, make sure reflect that, but there will be no time for accommodations because you’ll be stuck with pacing calendar which ensures the kids who won’t learn.

Ibeth Mejia: Some administrations are using it to target…

Mulgrew: One thing you should know; very good at going after abusive administrations. Haven’t gotten that from any of the high school people yet; have had issues with statistical lessons at beginning, holes/regent scores.

Reports from Officers

Mary Vacarro: 2 things to first report; wanna explain what are doing; brought group of students to the Nasdaq. Spoke to head of the Nasdaq. Partnering with Kendra Scott, not because of money, but because supplying 50 libraries to NYC schools.

Training – wanna remind that the PD committee, getting a lot of calls that schools want support from Teacher Center. Let us know – yesterday – if you want that. Election day offering child abuse pd for teacher center schools only; after that, entire city. Trying to get NYS ED Dept to agree to break up the PD in two one hour increments.

If you have spreadsheets or binders that you’re hearing about, people having drop down menus for HMH, let us know so we can follow up.

Leo Gordon: Adobe software no longer covered(now 20 for teachers; 5 for students (per month); another number for labs); other major software: go guardian, pear deck – contracts resolved, so those also. Will get you guys the numbers.

Janella Hinds: Good evening. Janella Hinds, academic high schools; On Saturday at Bronx UFT: Mujeres Unidas Caminando Unitas, remind that women of color have a higher risk of developing and dying from breast cancer. Friday, Nov 15., future and focus at Lehman College at the Bronx. Available to host 2,000 students throughout the day. 

Book called pushout, an examination  of how black/latino students who are disciplined more in their schools. Applications – called Seen (Dr. Monique Couvson).

Karen Alford: coordinated subs, sold 200 tickets, members love Broadway; was a talk back, she runs she leads. Had divine 9 event – fraternities and sororities; wonderful to have some divine 9 people here. United Community Schools received grant for community food insecurity.

Ed Calamia: We have another union that we work next to, PSC at CUNY, some of us are dual members; many of our students go to CUNY; way that PSC is being treated over contract, not being done in good faith; they want a fair negotiation. Coming with the Bloomberg rhetoric, cut the budget, empower exec – can we have a conference, bring them in to not only help them in plotting negotiations, but working together in planning  education for the city. Thank you.

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Alex Jallot: Dental/paras. RFP in terms of dental; details? Paras: any updates from DOE on hiring?

Joe Usatch: UFT has received preliminary draft of RFP proposal; reviewing with benefit specialists/general consul. Excited to participate – think it will be special for our members.

Mik sill: So in terms of update from UFT, para consultation / chancellors consultation; asked for number of vacancies for number of paras that exist in the system; numbers are wholly unrealistic. People close vacancies to open per diem vacancies…Challenge is to get accurate numbers; think DOE is purposely set up this way.  Chancellor meeting was told we’d get numbers, but requests have spiked. Think that’s true, but think they know we’re on to them.Not gonna get 100% in a survey, but bet our survey numbers will be higher than that 1,000 or 1300 even though we know we won’t get 100% participation. Some sub paras could be hired but don’t want to travel across the city; way to fix that is to allow people from community to work in the school; make that as hard as possible. Negotiating PERB, charge that came out of D7, hiring agency paras (not UFT) – said that’s an improper practice. DOE has agreed that that’s an improper practice…What we need is for UFT members to participate in survey; better reflection of reality.

Faiza Khalid: SBOs – today told deadline is today. One of new SBOs was for PTCs to be a nonattendance day. Parents required to vote?

Debbie Poulos: popular SBO – to do in person conference in September in exchange for 5 remote opw periods, had 400+ schools sign up for that. Calendar change; what ended up happening is we had a number of schools who it didn’t go through – we want to make sure it’s implemented. Part of that calendar proposal requires parent outreach. Does require parents to be notified, should happen PRIOR to sbo vote; what principal has to do when fills out calendar request. Probably just write that they did a vote, some afraid to speak to parents; that’s being worked on. My understanding is it’s just a notification.

Reports from Districts:

Pat Christino – president of Pride committee, first Pride phone banking. Tell all pride friends to join us.

Servia Silva: tenure celebration; 60 received, they just love it; thank everyone for sea of pink we saw at DA, joyous; walk was phenomenal, weather great; fingers crossed next week also good weather. Think numbers will be even better.

Ariel Arroyo: Shout out D. 20, ribbon counting at new middle school, great event.

Nancy Armando: Oct. 8, 150+ Brooklyn CLs come on to a roles and responsibilities training. Thank those who came out to tenure workshop. Licensing and certification specialists.

Debbie Poulos: Last day to do SBOs was the 18^th. Opened up SBOs a little earlier. 1,150 schools. Most popular were session time changes. 634 schools combine Monday/Tuesday; next most popular non-instructional halfday (PTCs); and next (388) exchange of in person conference for 5 remote opw . Not as many schools did comp times  (200 something). Missed some others.

Seung Lee: missed.

Tammy Miller: Press conference on steps of city hall for highbridge network providers; impacted by closing, owed over 500,000  dollars in back pay. Grateful to those in UFT who were with us on the steps; movement afterwards, moving forward (attorney general) with deciding on civil or criminal charges.

Legislative Report:

Vanecia Wilson: Early voting Oct. 26- Nov. 3. Phone banks. Website has days that are left. 2 buses leaving this Saturday – 1 in Brooklyn (7 am); RTC – 2 buses leaving from 52 broadway at 7 am. Day of action on the 26^th. Second on Nov, last push in election; local labor walk, Freeport, Long Island for Laura Gillen. If you are not going to walk, you can still make calls. There is a women’s march in DC. Have a bus leaving from here, 52 Broadway. Full.

Special order of business:

Election guide, due to complaints, recommendation that we adopt some rules/responses. See what’s in front of you, marked as a draft. Widely distributed.

Appendix

Executive Board Minutes

October 7, 2024

Present:      Adika, Aklu, Alford, Alexander, Arroyo, Artis, Arundell, Atkinson, Ayrovainen, Bacon, Barker, Barr, Bello, Bennett, Bongiovanni,  R. Brown, Calamia, Cambria, Conaboy, Coppola, Crinigan, Crispino, Destin, Diakite, Eaddy, Espert, Friedman, Garcia, Geist, Ginese, Hill, Jallot, Khalid, S. Lee, Mantell, Mejia, Mulgrew, C. Murphy, Pender, Perez, Polite, Poulos, Rock, D. Rodriguez, L. Rodriguez, Rosier-Rayburn, Rotkowitz, Ruiz, Santos, Sarabia, Shapiro, Sill, Silva, Thompson, Usatch, Vaccaro, Waltzer, Webb-Geddes, Williams, Williams-Crawford, Yon.

Excused:     S. Abrams, Almonte, Anastasiou, Aromando, Bart, T. Brown, Castro, Colvin, DiBenedetto, Franks, Gaglione, Goldman, Gordon, Harmon, Highland, Hinds, Hughes, Josaphat, Kazansky, Kuzar, V. Lee, Lozupone, Miller, T. Murphy, Nanay, Negron, Nobles, Peña, Ramos, Reed, Robbins, Rogers, Romero-Lee, Rzonca, Sandau, Schirtzer, Sorkin, Surpris, Tindal, Weinerman, Wilks-Duplan.

Secretary Barr called the meeting to order. 

A moment of silence was held in observance for all who have perished and the continued battle that started a year ago in the Middle East.

The following minutes were approved:  Executive Board minutes of September 23, 2024 and AdCom minutes of September 27, 2024 and October 2, 2024.

President Mulgrew’s report:

Many people have left the city’s administration.  We are in constant contact with the governor and everyone else to discuss all the things that need to be taken care of.  We have to continue to focus on the DOE.  Members of the OT and PT chapter have documented every child that’s been referred for outside contracting.  These are children that are not getting the services they need.  It’s frustrating because we have a contractual provision where they can voluntarily use a night period to do this work.  Last year the DOE said they would get it done but never did.  Now they’re telling us they could do it as a semi-pilot in a district or two because they’re not sure they can pay people.  Unfortunately, with the changing of chancellor’s at the DOE, there’s a lot of drama taking place. 

We could never have enough phone banking volunteers.   There are congressional races in New York.  Two or three of these races look good for us.  Two others are in a complete dead lock.  We have to make use of more resources.  Phone banking matters.

Many of the new chapter leaders want to attend the training that takes place at this time each year.  We are struggling to find extra rooms.  We will do what whatever we have to do to accommodate as many chapter leaders as possible.

The second MOSUL meeting is this Wednesday.  MOSUL is a very important decision that school communities make annually.  As you know, there are a couple of schools that make decisions that are not helpful to their schools.  We in turn try to fix these.  There are different options now available at the state level.  Certain decisions are good for certain schools and not for others.  We are going to try to change the law on the use of standardized tests if Harris wins.  Then we can change teacher evaluations moving forward.  We’ve had fairer evaluations since using the combination of student learning and the administrator’s judgement.  The data is very clear.  Going back to when the administrator made the final judgment on a teacher’s evaluation is not an option.

Nothing is moving in the city’s administration.  We have to continue to focus on Special Education.  It is a mess and not working at all.  These children are not getting the services they need and it is quite disheartening.

On a brighter note, the golf outing is this week. 

Assistant Secretary Michael Sill reported on para vacancies.  We know the DOE as a matter of practice does not open the nomination period for sub-paras until October for their own bureaucratic reasons.  In the meantime, students are underserved.  The Galaxy Table Organizations is the document of record for the dollars that are spent and the HR realities in a school.  There is a paraprofessional section in that budget.  On it are lists of all full-time paras.  In addition, there’s a per diem section where all subs are paid out of.  There are no names in that section.  Every para hired starts as a sub para and gets hired from there.  You rarely see vacancies listed because principals move money out of that section into the per diem section so they can pay the sub paras.  All vacancies already had been closed because the money got moved into the per diem section of the budget.  As a result, para vacancies are under reported.  We need a lot of responses to the survey about para vacancies.  We need voluntary information on the numbers.   We believe that the need for paras is greater than they have ever reported in the history of this city.

Motion:       To approve the following:

Resolution: Close Schools on Monday, December 23, 2024

Whereas there is a longstanding practice of closing NYC Public Schools on Monday, December 23rd when it falls on a Monday; and

Whereas this practice has been followed in previous years, including 2019, 2013, 2002, 1996, 1991, and 1986; and

Whereas closing schools on December 23rd would provide students and families with a longer winter break, allowing for more rest and relaxation during the holiday season; and

Whereas closing schools on this day would reduce absenteeism and improve instructional outcomes, as students and families would be less likely to miss school for vacation or holiday travel; and

Whereas closing schools on December 23rd would alleviate the financial burden on the school system, as there would be reduced costs for food, transportation, and utilities; and

Whereas a student petition has been launched to support closing schools on December 23rd;

Therefore, be it resolved that the Chancellor of NYC Public Schools and the Board of Education should close schools on Monday, December 23, 2024, to provide students and families with an uninterrupted winter break and reduce costs for the school system.

If schools cannot be closed, then be it further resolved that the Chancellor of NYC Public Schools should implement a remote learning day on Monday, December 23, 2024, which could be used by NYCPS to fully stress test pivoting to remote by all divisional levels at the arrival times of each school in the system which has never been attempted.

                                            Carried

Motion:         To adjourn.

                                              Carried