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“Abusive Administrators” — a real and ongoing problem in many schools

Published December 17, 2012 Abusive Administrators , New York CIty Department of Education , NYC , UFT , United Federation of Teachers Closed

(from the New Action leaflet distributed at the December 2012 UFT Delegate Assembly).
For a printable version click: Leaflet 2012 December

New Action continues to receive numerous reports about abusive administrators. The DOE itself now says that the Principals Leadership Academy has not worked. See the December 6, 2012 issue of the New York Teacher (editorial on page 8). New Action has been saying this since the inception of the “Leadership Academy.” Not long along New Action put out a leaflet that laid out 14 steps to deal with abusive principals. It first requires serious solidarity amongst the staff to be successful.

Look at our list at our website. Consult your DR. Speak with colleagues about ways to support one another.

End Mayoral Control of the Schools

Published December 2, 2012 New York CIty Department of Education , NYC Closed
Tags: , ,

(from the New Action leaflet distributed at the November 2012 UFT Delegate Assembly).
For a printable version click: Leaflet 2012 November

It is almost ten years since State legislation gave Mayor Bloomberg control of New York City schools. Our union played a major role opening the door to making that happen by letting our legislative friends in Albany know we did not oppose the change.  This has proved to be disastrous for educators, students, parents, and our schools.  New Action opposed giving mayoral control to this mayor.

In November 2008 New Action introduced a proposal to campaign against Bloomberg’s effort to overturn term limits. That proposal was defeated at a November 2008 UFT Executive Board. That was a colossal mistake – mistake number two.

In the last mayoral election New Action/UFT was the only caucus to endorse William Thompson for mayor. The UFT stayed neutral and Thompson lost by four percentage points. Mistake number three for our UFT.

In June of 2012 the UFT called for a Task Force (a second one) to look at Mayoral control. This followed a New Action petition campaign calling for an end to mayoral control. That campaign garnered over 2,100 signatures. New Action is adamant that the UFT should not tinker with mayoral control but rather call for its demise. We chose not to serve on the Task Force – the right conclusion is already obvious.

This month we have learned that the MORE caucus will call on the UFT to reject its support for mayoral control. New Action welcomes MORE’s effort to weigh in on this topic. A united union can successfully turn back this near ten year disaster.

Mayoral Control – The Verdict is in!

Published October 28, 2012 New Action , New York CIty Department of Education , NYC Closed
Tags: ,

(from the June 2012 Delegate Assembly)
Click Leaflet 2012 June for printable version

The Bloomberg/Klein years have been an absolute disaster for education, our members, our students, our parents, our communities, and our schools. For New York City educators the verdict is in – we cannot suffer three more years of mayoral “mis” control of our schools. The last time the UFT faced this question, we put together a Task Force. It engaged 1,200 educators, parents, students, elected officials and community groups in numerous public hearings. The Task Force concluded that its primary goal was “passing legislation in Albany which will change the system of governance to make it work better students, for teachers and for schools.”

The Task Force recommended:

 

  • Checks and Balances to prevent abuses of power in the current system
  • Real Voice for Teachers, Parents and the Community to restore school and district leadership teams to the rightful place as leaders of educational and budgetary decision-making.
  • Rule of Law to stop the DOE from simply ignoring the parts of state law it finds inconvenient.;
  • Transparency and Accountability to end DOE’s practices of. arbitrary school closings and other secretive practices.


But after the Task Force recommendation, President Weingarten agreed to give the mayor absolute control over the PEP which has decided the fate of scores of schools.

The UFT is NOW reconstituting the Task Force to examine mayoral control.

NEW ACTION HAS ALREADY CONCLUDED THERE’S BEEN ENOUGH “TINKERING” WITH MAYORAL CONTROL.We call for an end to mayoral control of the school system. We should not place our faith in the next “friendly education” mayor. We are calling for an end to mayoral control!

We do not oppose the call for another Task Force. They may come to the same conclusion. HOWEVER, New Action will not participate in yet another Task Force.

It is in the interest of the educational community to conclude that mayoral control of the schools has been a disaster. We call for an independent panel of people, fairly and democratically chosen with background and knowledge in education. The precise make-up of the new panel should be determined after broad discussion and consultation with all stakeholders.

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