New Action – UFT

LeRoy Barr: We will begin with an open mic. There are two speakers, so you each only get 5 minutes. This is not a debate portion. We will ultimately have a conversation about the online policy. We have to make sure people can be allowed in, but also have to verify that they are UFT. Christina is responding, I believe, to allegations at the last executive board meeting RE election complaints. We are one union, elections are over. We want people to be here, but are having difficulty verifying everyone, so bear with us.

Christina Gavin: Can you pause, because we are waiting for a few people to get in (Ronnie Almonte and Daniel Leviatin).

LeRoy Barr: We have tech on this, but we can’t let people in if it says ‘iphone,’ for instance. We need to know who folks are. We got 20+ emails.

Christina Gavin: I’m here to discuss 2 false allegations presented here in front of the executive board. First had to do with a Google Group that I made in 2020 following a request I made in January in 2019 to you (LeRoy Barr) for a UFT group that librarians could communicate on. So I made the Google Group, and we sent that information to you. Beth Norton claimed that because the word UFT is in it, it’s the UFT’s. The process to join is to email me on personal email, and I join you. There must not have a been a thorough investigation, because this is not a UFT listserv.

Second claim has to do with Bill Woodruff. He knows I was recording, and continued to talk for over 40 minutes. He said I’ve messed up using an expletive, among other similar statements, and indicated that wounds need to heal at our union. He apologized sincerely and said Christina did nothing wrong. Later, she found that a false allegation was made by Bill against her. It appears that Ms. Lopez also spoke with him and filed another complaint against Christina. The bar was public, no part of the bar was set aside for a UFT function, and I had express permission from the bar to distribute. I did not take or use any of the UFT resources on that date. In addition to verbally assaulting me, Bill Woodruff prevented me, Peter Zucker, and even Unity members from handing out election complaints. I would like to invite you to visit the website I put up to see Bill Woodruff’s comments, which are transcribed.

Mary Perez: I am a CL from the Bronx, D79. Speaking about the same event as Christina. Had 10-12 teachers go to this bar at 3:00, and William was greeting. Conversations were great, there were no flyers anywhere. I saw William in the front the whole time I was there. He wasn’t drinking or eating anything, just waiting. I saw a lot of people later giving out UFC flyers, but I wasn’t there for that. I was there socially. Christina came in when I was at the bar at a stool. We were getting ready to leave, I saw her flyers and I saw her on the phone, and I don’t know what the conversation was, perhaps about joining UFC, but I made her know I wasn’t interested in anything. But, I felt she just continued behind me. I felt uncomfortable and harassed by her. My friend asked her to leave me alone. I felt she was there for an agenda.

LeRoy Barr: These comments are in response to an election complaint made here. So you heard from both sides, and I wanted to make sure that you all heard that. There’s no back and forth. It’s just a chance for us to hear, and we usually don’t respond. With respect to the UFTlibrarians@gmail.com (did I get that right), this election was a little different. We got complaints about members who just happened to work for UFT using their own personal accounts that had UFT embedded in it and we told them that they could not use their own personal accounts because it had UFT embedded. In the context of the election, we ruled that way. The UFT librarian account falls into that ruling. This meeting should not be recorded. I will drop everyone and make this an executive session. If you can’t adhere to that, it will affect whether we do this in the future. This is recorded for minutes, but we are not recording outside of that.

With respect to the district 7 account, we heard different accounts. We ruled everyone should be respectful. The election is over, and this is one union.

Official minutes all approved.

Michael Mulgrew: Nice to see so many people here. Right now we are in Albany, a lot going on. Today the assembly conference over Mayoral Control, and also talking about class sizes. Spring conference went great. June 2nd is the end of the legislative session, early because of primaries. Lots of lines redrawn, elected officials are freaking out. For us, we’re focused on the legislative session and getting finished. We’ve already received funding, but there are major policy issues.

Calendar: the sacred calendar that never comes out. Was just on the phone, DOE has finally sent up the calendar for approval to the state education department. Hope to be finished shortly. Once out, we’ll send it out, and SBOs will kick right in. Ridiculous that bureaucracy gets in the way of calendars getting out.

June 9th guidance, it will be treated the same way as election day. In consultation, DOE agreed that it would be a virtual day unless it’s actually necessary to bring people in.

32,400 people filled out contract survey, those results will go negotiating committee. Gonna bring people in again for that June 15th.

Questions Period

Mike Schirtzer: 3 questions, and please also address at DA.

(1) Can we move forward SBOs on scheduling.

(2) Are we included on the new state guidance on appealing regents scores.

(3) APPR, is our district included.

Michael Mulgrew: Chapter leaders like to do SBOs all at one time. Debra P. says we’re ready to go once the pilot workday is out. As for questions 2 and 3, we haven’t heard from DOE yet, but hopefully will hear on Wednesday. I did sign for the waiver for APPR, and we just need to see where they are. We both have to agree; we both have veto power. It’s up to the school districts, not the teachers union.

Michael Friedman: Superintendent, who I’ve known for 30 years, who is very good. I haven’t always agree with him, but he cares about kids, is knowledgeable, is humane. He was put in a position not to be a finalist, though now is after all the politics. But, he was clearly the best candidate at that town hall. And I’m worried. We have many issues in this district, e.g. special education. We need this person to be in charge, and it’s disconcerting what’s happening.

Michael Mulgrew: That superintendent is a good man. There’s a lot of politics in some of these districts. You have people running campaigns, which has made it very interesting. What I’ve gathered is that they’re backing away from the original position that they’re going to take the recommendations of those involved in the process. They’re saying that they’re the final determiners. As far as I’m concerned, if people feel strongly, we’ll support them in making sure that our voices are being heard.

George Geist: Shout out to Jeff P. for talking about all the safety stuff to his school.

Michael Mulgrew: Jeff and his team have been doing a great job during this pandemic. They visited every school in a 2 week period and came up with a report RE ventilation etc before anyone went back to the buildings. We have multiple schools on lockdown every single day. So thanks for the shoutout to Jeff.

Reports from Districts

DeShanna Barker: Two fridays ago, Queens high schools had our annual bowling event. It was successful. The spirit of solidarity was there and we felt the sense of normalcy. Hopefully next year we’ll make it a COPE event.

Seung Lee: Great turnout at the AAPI Parade.

Melody: Plea for paid leave. How can patients manage after surgeries and cancer treatments with all the time we have to take off for ourselves or our loved ones? We have great healthcare, but it’s only good if you can do it without the detriment to their family. I was one of the people who was negative in my CAR after spring break. We need to make our benefits at least equal to that in the private sector. We need to attack paid leave head on, or we are failing women.

Janella Hinds: Great abortion rally on May 15th. Proud that UFT was marching, because abortion rights are workers rights.

George Altomare was acknowledged for his 60+ years of service to the labor movement. George is just one of many founders who has been fighting for workers rights for decades. So the ALC gave him an award last Tuesday.

Tammy Miller: Provider appreciation ceremony went well. Shelly Abrams was awarded.

Rashad Brown: Annual scholarship from pride committee. It only takes for a UFT member to nominate, then the committee decides. We have at least one recipient per borough. We’re going to go to the schools and allow their schools to celebrate them. We will also be doing some fundraising.

Second, PSLF loan forgiveness. October, the limited waiver ends. Right now, we have a lot of rules that can be overlooked. So we’re going to send out a video to district reps.

Mary Atkinson: Some of our superintendent town hall forums have happened. I encourage you to join if yours hasn’t happen yet. We are going to hear from the candidates and to listen to feedback from community members. Everyone has a chance to speak at the end, when candidates are dismissed. There is a chat, you can give feedback.

Mike Sill: We are all UFT members. Compelled to say something – 250 years ago, James Madison wrote that: “A zeal for different opinions concerning religion, concerning government, and many other points, as well of speculation as of practice; an attachment to different leaders ambitiously contending for pre-eminence and power; or to persons of other descriptions whose fortunes have been interesting to the human passions, have, in turn, divided mankind into parties, inflamed them with mutual animosity, and rendered them much more disposed to vex and oppress each other than to co-operate for their common good.” Our debate aught to strengthen us, not weaken us. That talk at our meeting about what happened at the bar, but to assume the worst about motivations – that does not strengthen us, it weakens us. We should have debate post-election, but we should not cast dispersions on our members or assume negative motivations. We are one union , so let’s act like it.

LeRoy Barr: Willing to work with any activist willing to take on the work. Only way to get through this is together. Every conversation strengthens us, so co-endorse what Mike Sill said.

Business

LeRoy Barr: AFT resolutions going up very shortly. Two resolutions

Seung Lee: (1) condemning hate crimes against Asian Americans. We should take a leadership roll here.

*Passes unanimously.

Rashad Brown: (2) Resolution to pardon Marcus Garvey. National situation that needs to be handled now. Marcus Garvey was wrongly convicted of mail fraud. He is a civil rights hero. J. Edgar Hoover hired an African American in the FBI just to infiltrate his organization and wrongly convict him. We need to push federal legislators to pardon Marcus Garvey.

LeRoy Barr: J. Edgar Hoover cut his teeth on Marcus Garvey – that was the FBI’s original counter-intelligence program. We need to come to terms with our history.

*Passes unanimously.

6:01 LeRoy Barr: Open mic period: Norm Scott supposed to speak, but isn’t here. Mike Schirtzer mentions he’s running late. Leroy says if he’s running ten minutes late for the ten minute period, maybe we’ll give him 60 seconds? (Laughter).

Minutes approved.

Mary Atkinson: Had a great decision from PERB last week for one of our district 7 chapter leaders, who has since left the school. Part of that decision is that she be returned. She was a long-time CL who was bullied and given bad ratings and given 3020-A charges in retaliation. NYSUT represented and Bill Woodruff were there and she won on every level of case. She won that her fine (6k) must be returned to her, she must be returned to her school, that the DOE must stop rating her ineffective in retaliation for her union work. Our CLs are our first line of defense, so this is a great win for her. We will be there to join her when she returns to the school. Should also thank Bill Woodruff, the UFT, and NYSUT.

Rashad Brown: Pride committee, scholarships. Application deadline closes May 21st.

Tom Brown: Had a great retirement meeting. With the pandemic, we’ve almost exclusively dealt with internal benefits. Going to go back to external meetings in June, dealing with NYC and US races. We are looking at going from Zoom meetings to hybrid meetings. October 18th, expect a hybrid meeting.

Name Missed: Manhattan held a new member meeting, with several guest speakers from UFT staff. Was a good event.

LeRoy Barr: Next Saturday, May 14th, is the 5k walk in Coney Island, starts at 8:30 AM. Spring Conference at the Hilton, need a nice turnout, so make sure to participate. That’s May 21st at 8:00 AM. It’s a full day of events. Provider award celebration is here Friday, May 13th.

Norm Scott: Given 10 minutes by LeRoy. Election stuff. Election is over, we’ll have results in a day or two. Things get heated. We’ve seen it. Things will tone down once it’s over and we can have some dialogue I hope. This election brought out a lot of people who weren’t involved before. Some were neutral or on other sides. But one thing that people were enraged by the most was that people weren’t being heard, whether at the DA or elsewhere. People don’t mind losing a vote if they have a chance to present their point of their view. Fine with majority rule, but the minority needs a chance to present their case. If we don’t get to talk about where we differ or disagree-that can’t happen.

Election complaints: different levels of complaining. One thing that bothered some was that people who were working for the union were doing things on union time. We were trying to track that, which caused some consternation. But we felt that if you were on the clock, you shouldn’t engage in union politics. But what we found was that we were being charged for doing things on school time. Well if we did, that shouldn’t be a UFT issue, that’s DOE. We were also stopped from giving flyers in mailboxes by Unity CLs. Can understand when a principal doesn’t get the memo, but people running on your slate should be told that they have to allow us in. We had times where we went 3 times, and were told by CLs that we wouldn’t be allowed to put in mailings.

Some complaints on what UFC has done. One complaint tonight. We had a candidate, who did not realize he was a candidate. He complained. Friday, I spoke to him and he said he didn’t complain – he made an inquiry. He showed him what he wrote, and saw that yes, it did look like a complaint. So I’m going to explain what happened – a misunderstanding. This candidate indicated he had an interest in running, but was convinced that exec board would be too much work (even though the food is great!). Once he saw his name, he realized he didn’t have the time. When I spoke to him on Friday, explained the exec board and that it involved a zoom every 2 weeks, he said that he’d be fine serving under those conditions. He had thought it was a much more time-intensive position. So this was a misunderstanding on the part of the both sides. I told him we regret it, but part of the issue is he didn’t make it quite clear. There was a lack of clarity. We have addressed that and hopefully to the satisfaction of the exec board. Please enjoy my Beef Wellington.

Mel: When do you call a point of personal privilege?

LeRoy: We have open mics historically. So it’s not a point of personal privilege. It’s something we haven’t done in a while, but when people call, we do it.

Michael Mulgrew: Happy Mother’s Day to everyone. Getting calls on Mayoral Control and following the resolution. If you’re following, Superintendents are getting large staffs and it’s going to be a Superintendent-based system. We’ll be part of the process. At the end of this legislative session, we’ll get the APPR option passed. Don’t think DOE will do it (not having APPR final processes, because of COVID). Same situation this year as last year, but have to wait to see where that goes. Besides that, it’s about waiting for that transition in the DOE to happen, and it’s getting late. A lot more names are popping around. Sure a lot of you are hearing the different names being bandied about.

This Saturday, Janella Hinds will be leading us. Rich has brought the run back to Coney Island. There will be a big mobilization on abortion and Janella Hinds will be coordinating that. That ends the report.

Questions:

Mike Schirtzer: APPR, if the Governor signs the bill. Do we have a position. Do we, the UFT, think it should be waived?

Mike Mulgrew: DOE said that our APPR worked so why waste the observations we did. I have signed the form for the waiver. So I guess that’s technically my official position since I signed the form.

(Question on Calendar): Mulgrew: We’re looking at all the things that go into the calendar, so we’re looking at instructional days. Our goal is to set the calendar this week. That would be earlier than the last two years, which is sad to say.

LeRoy Barr: 3 election complaints.

1. What Norm touched on. This complaint is election fraud by (name redacted). Complaint was made to Carl Cambria that he was placed on ballot without knowledge or consent. Spoke with Norm about this improper nomination. Recommend that complaint be upheld. In future elections, all candidates should sign a form to their nomination. Executive Board reserves right to take future action if election is impacted. Apparently candidate wasn’t aware he was on the ballot until members of his school approached him. In text exchanges, it appears that the candidate was interested in one position (NYSUT Delegate), but not executive board. Appears that there were communication issues, and our text data isn’t complete (parts of conversation deleted). The candidate does not want to be on the ballot and this allegation should be upheld. Mike Schirtzer debates. He gave his information to be on the ballot, said he wanted one position but not another, is that correct? Vote: Upheld, Schirtzer abstaining.
2. Competing complaints by Unity and UFC candidates. There was campaign activity, allegedly, at a UFT event in March. Recommendation: complaint should be dismissed, and that all candidates be reminded to have professional composure. Bill Woodruff allegedly did not allow UFC literature to be distributed at a UFT event, but did allow Unity materials to be distributed. UFC candidate was told by Woodruff to stop handing out flyers and was yelled at by Woodruff, allegedly. But, two other witnesses suggest that there was no campaigning of Unity materials until UFC handed out flyers. Union resources can’t be used for campaigning, so Woodruff was right to stop all campaigning. So I think this event was purely social and there was only unity campaigning in response to UFC campaigning. This allegation should be dismissed. But, did Woodruff act unprofessionally by allegedly yelling at the UFC candidate? Other witnesses suggest this characterization is inaccurate. Given that there is conflicting accounts, so we should reject the complaint, but should remind others to be professional. On the other hand, the UFC candidate is alleged by witnesses to have been unprofessional. Still, it’s difficult to say whether this rose to the level of unprofessionalism. Therefore, we recommend rejecting this as well. Vote: accepted recommendations, Schirtzer abstaining.
3. Complaint that candidates have been treated unequally with respect to equity in NY Teacher ads. Marie W., independent candidate for Executive Board at Large. Recommendation: complaint should be dismissed. More ad space was given to other caucuses (Marie W. got 1/8th). We voted that caucuses get 2 pages and independents get one quarter of space. Our recommendations were meant to have equity. Marie W. alleges that UFT violated election rules because election rules was posted too late in April, but that post was actually a follow-up notice. So this allegation should also be rejected. Third, in March, there was a meeting with Cambria with reps regarding using the UFT election system. Marie W. Indicated that she did not want to use this system. A breakdown of related costs was provided to each slate and to independents on April 6, 2022. Cambria has not received any responses on this, so there was no information to report back. That allegation should be rejected. Vote: accepted recommendations, Schirtzer abstaining.

Meeting adjourned at 6:44 PM

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.