New Action – UFT

As reported on the ICE blog, NYS has passed a bill in both houses that allows districts to waive APPR (teacher evaluations) this year. Last year, a similar bill was passed, but the Unity machine argued that we should have them in NYC anyways. I still remember the arguments: observations are good for tenure, we should be ‘proud’ that our observation system works unlike many upstate, and teacher evaluation is ‘good’ for our professional growth. So, I suspect Mulgrew and co. will make the same arguments this year.

Those arguments, of course, are nonsense. If you’re at a school where observations are generally fair, you might not be aware of the problems with APPR. But those of us working in schools with weaponized observations or maddening MOSL flukes know the issues. Our teaching evaluation system has been bad even in a good year. Observations are easily abused by administrators targeting teacher unionists, and MOSL is arguably junk science. Add to that that this year, teacher observations were arguably a public health hazard , because they dictated group learning strategies during a pandemic.

Unlike last year, this year abusive principals finally have a chance to get back at teacher unionists they’ve been unable to penalize with fabricated ‘Developing’ ratings. This year, if you are being retaliated against with weaponized observations, you’re subject to the craps game that is our junk-science MOSL system. That means that next year, many of our unionists will be on TIPs and face legalized micromanagement. They’ll also face the possibility of losing their jobs if they have another unlucky year or two in a row. Other teachers off the radar will also be casualties. And that’s because, unlike last year, when we were able to use a ‘citywide’ MOSL measure that defaulted to Effective for every teacher that picked it (and basically everyone did), this year the MOSL is back in its old ‘individualized’ fashion.

Teachers are rightly more afraid of the MOSL than usual this year. In high schools, Regents have been gone for so long that we have no idea what to expect with many students taking them for the first time. That goes double for teachers of upper-level subjects like Algebra II, who fear that students who had Regents waived for both Algebra I and Geometry, might not have actually been prepared to take the Regents for the first time in the culminating subject. With students taking these tests again for the first time in years, it’s absurd to be using them to evaluate teachers as part of the MOSL. We need to get a sense of what these tests will look like for students taking them ‘post’-pandemic, before we start allowing the system to come down on teachers because of aggregate student scores. So, let’s not be the only district in NYS to have teacher evaluations this year. This isn’t the year to open up the door for TIPs and the gateway to future ‘incompetence’ charges. Let’s cancel APPR this year, like everyone else in our state.

Approval of the Minutes: All approved unanimously.

LeRoy Barr: Welcome back. Reminder of dates: 5k Walk on May 14th at MCU Park in Coney Island at 8:30 AM. Spring Conference is on May 21st at the NY Hilton at 8:00 AM. Nurse Award Dinner on May 17th. Reach out to Ann Goldman for questions. Better Speech and Hearing Celebration is on May 18th, virtually. Great event, please sign on. We can get you the link. On Monday, May 2nd we have the Eid holiday. The following Monday is the next Exec Board. May 25th is the next DA. Friday May 15th is the Provider Award event.

Report from Districts:

Mike Sill: Summer school postings are now up on the DOE. We are involved in speaking to members on the intent list, people on a LOA who have to declare their intent to be on a leave by May 15th. If they don’t declare their intent, they can be declared voluntarily resigned. This does not apply to people on leave for vaccines. There’s a similar but alternative process for them.

Certification: EdTPA, costly and burdensome, is now done away by the state.

Mike Schirtzer: Shoutout to people in ‘Listen Up,’ talking about class size and SEL. Shoutout to Emily James and everyone else involved.

Michael Mulgrew, President’s Report: Still working out calendar for next year. New crew at DOE.

DOE Vaccination card issue. Small number of teachers believed to have fraudulent vaccine cards. They are removed from payroll. We have to put on our unionist hats, not about the vaccine. Does the City and DOE have the right to just remove teachers from payroll? We think, no. There was no disciplinary hearing, they were just removed from payroll. We have begun to take legal action.

Listen Up was a great event. It worked out really well. We just sent out the video today. We’ll be doing more of that through this Spring. Class size was big, but so was curriculum. Wrong curriculum could mean kids won’t be able to read. Kids need to be happy.

Going to arbitration on 683 and vacation days. We said don’t ask, but someone asked. So now we need to see where that ends up.

This week, state assessments. We are still in appeal to federal government to stop schools being labeled as failures.

Marty Walsh was here. We’re talking about retirement security. Not just about us. A national conversation about retirement security helps our pensions. Everyone should have retirement security.

Mike Schirtzer: US History. Totally new regents. One prototype. June 1st, early. Are you aware? Anything you can do? Mulgrew says he’s working on it. Need prototype year to year.

On election: UFT election. Mulgrew refuses to answer, says any questions on election must be sent to Carl Cambria.

Carl comes up. Mike asks: why is it 2 weeks before deadline this year to get a ballot delivered if it wasn’t sent to your house this year? It was 1 week before the deadline last election. Not to mention there wasn’t the spring break issue last time. Members who just got back from vacation and were told they have to go in person to AAA to get ballots in person. Is there anything we can do to extend that deadline?

Carl Cambria: AAA can’t guarantee extending deadline will allow ballots to get back in time. What we have done is allow teachers to go to AAA in person this Thursday Friday between 9 and 5 and submit ballots in person. Post office isn’t working at the same pace as last year, which is why we landed where we landed.

Lamar Hughes: Anything you can shed light on for supporting people with vaccine issue? Many swear they are vaccinated. Mulgrew says we are reaching out to them. Get in touch with Michael Sill. Need answers to key questions, at individual level, as soon as possible.

Priscilla Castro: During Spring Break, had 43rd conference. Great conference, paras, autism, etc.

Name Missed: Great conference last week. Paras were happy. Manhattan event.

Joe (last name missed): behind on Shanker scholarship, but students will get acceptance emails tomorrow. Expecting up to 185 students accepting the award. That’s up from previous years. We’ll get information to the boroughs. June 7th is date of scholarship.

Motion to adjourn.

In 2019, active member turnout in the UFT elections was 17.7%. Our teachers and other educational professionals are overwhelmingly proud unionists, so why this low turnout? It can’t just be the ballot, which can easily be filled out. It can’t just be the lack of electronic voting as an option. It’s bigger than that. The reason, I think, that so few vote is because Unity Caucus has trained us to think that unionism is about UFT leadership ‘doing the work,’ not us. Or as they put it in their updated campaign slogan, “we do the work so that you can do your work.”

To be clear, United for Change is not just critical of Unity’s work. We’re critical that they monopolize the work. We’re critical that their service-oriented version of unionism divorces rank-and-file educators from decision-making over their working conditions. And to be clear, that’s Unity’s model: ‘don’t worry about the union stuff, we’ll do it for you.’ We aren’t encouraged to organize; we’re encouraged to call 52 Broadway and hope someone picks up the phone to answer a query or solve our grievance in 6-60 months. And it’s not just that the UFT is focused on understaffed offices for day-day operations. Even with democratic decision-making, educators are rarely consulted. Case and point: this year, as usual, even Unity’s At-Large Executive Board candidates are filled primarily with the names of paid staffers, whereas UFC’s corresponding slate is made up entirely of rank-and-file teachers (and a few particularly active retirees). After 60 years of being told that union decision-making is for paid staffers, not teachers, no wonder so many of our educators end up opting not to fill out and mail their ballots.

Don’t get me wrong, we’ll keep a qualified staff at 52 Broadway. Their work is essential, and in many ways hiring likely needs to even be expanded. But we’ll bring the teachers back into the United Federation of Teachers. For far too long, the message has been paid staffers detached from the classroom do the work and make the decisions. United for Change thinks you should start having a voice. So, if you want to have a say in what your working decisions look like, before you go on your vacations today, make sure to send out your ballot and mark an X under the “United for Change Slate.” We’ll shift the union from the opaque bureaucracy it too often resembles, into the transparent democracy it deserves to be.