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UFT Delegate Assembly Minutes – June 10, 2026

Published June 10, 2026 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
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President’s Report

Moment of silence for former Chapter Leader Joe Seidel from Automotive and Townsend Harris.

Federal

Been talking about federal tax credit/voucher program for past few months. Coming to us very shortly. Guidelines/regulations supposed to be out over the next few days or next week. This was in the Big Beautiful Bill. Wherever they’ve done tax credits or vouchers, it’s been an abysmal failure just based on education results, not to mention separation of church and state. They were smart in how they packaged this one. They keep saying the same thing – it’s not a voucher program, it’s a tax credit program. At this moment, there’s no cap on it. How will federal government afford that? $1,700 tax credit you can donate to schools. It’s a way to pull people from public schools. What happens is that slowly, over the years, the tax credit gets raised. More of a burden on states to fund public schools because no federal funding will go to state. Everything will become a tax credit for vouchers. Met with AFT 2 weeks ago. Completely up to state governor, not legislature, if they want to opt in. Our governor has said that she’s very interested in anything that will help the middle class get tax breaks. Had a brief conversation. We are gearing up for that fight. All of the state federations in the AFT – AFT sending letter to all democratic governors not to do this. They’ve carefully put together a package where they have lots of talking points about. Will let public schools use this. Majority of parents we serve in public schools aren’t looking for tax credits. Looking to pay basic grocery bills. This is a giveaway to more affluent families. Will start over summer when regulations come up. Will try to have it out by the midterm elections.

AI – Lots of opinions on AI. Some want it banned completely. The AFLCIO took a position that we need guardrails on AI. Datacenters – I don’t know how you would stop them. Massive projects and infrastructure deals that are going to move forward. People want a complete moratorium or local community has to approve it. But AFLCIO has all of the construction unions. Will move data centers to impoverished areas. In terms of us with AI, we continue down the path that we have to have more guardrails for children’s and our own privacy. We finally have gotten to the point where we are training teachers to use AI to write IEPs, use AI for things beyond the lesson plan. Unrealistic to block students from using AI. This is the stuff where as new technology emerges, we’ll train people to get what we need out of AI platform. Not simple. AI companies go to where the money is. Administrators and school boards control the money. Administrators want to come up with a system that will do observations. That’s been their thing all across the country. Thousands of teachers are not observed every year in NYC. They want AI to do it for them. We’re not going to let that happen. What helps our children best? That’s what we want.

State

State budget is finally done. Still don’t have school budgets. Thanks DA for advocacy. Made a significant step forward in fixing Tier 6. Would not be sitting here talking about age 58. Other unions made choices based on what they need. Every year we knocked off the age saved people $9,000 per year in pension contributions. If you knock off 5 years, that’s $45,000. We also wanted to remove the penalties. If you were going to retire 16 years from now at 58 in Tier 6, before this legislation passed, you would’ve lost 25% of your pension, which is ridiculous, because you already paid for it. That’s why Tier 6 is so bad. Aggressively negative. But we are not done. We have to get to 55. Have to get the contributions. Those are all very important things. Have to move forward.

We wanted to fix the foundation aid formula. People got on bus to Albany and lobbied. We were able to get homelessness and other things included in budget to help fund NYC schools. Community schools got a lot of money. State has moved forward. Over $20 million to community schools. Teacher centers also got funded.

Supposedly all the grades are getting a new math curriculum next year except 9th grade. We know it won’t be helpful. Teacher centers are very important.

City

Class Size – We have a class size working group that meets on a weekly basis with the chancellor’s office and CSA. Schools submitting plans are highly successful. Budget in place so that everyone hired for class size is a separate line item. That’s a big deal because of school budgets. Teachers hired for class size must be a separate line item. We got to 60%. Law is 4 years old but requires work from the DOE. Two major things that they didn’t do over the last 4 years – the capital space plan, what construction we need to do. It’s a lot less than we thought but we have no plan. No construction started. If you’re going to build more classrooms for more classes, you need more staff. DOE doesn’t recruit themselves. Didn’t design a plan. When they said we need an extension, we told them we need a complete commitment on a capital construction plan and a recruitment strategy for NYC. After the budget was done, we came to a place with the DOE and chancellor – and they had an analysis for every district and every school. Three categories – 1) they needed a small construction project (simpler), 2) large construction (extension, annex, new building, etc.), 3) program correctly. Said they can fix a few hundred schools just by helping programming. Just starting the construction projects now. NY Post says we shook them down for $20 million going in our members’ pockets. Didn’t shake them down. Held them accountable. They said the only way to get this done is to give a bunch of exemptions. We said no. We want it done correctly. Reorganization will be part of our school system for decades. There are schools this year that if they did their capital plans, would’ve had their space done by now and they would’ve gotten to 80%. Schools being used for space exemptions may be eligible for the differential, as well as schools with funded positions who were unable to hire teachers due to recruitment problems. If you’re a teacher in a classroom with a hard-to-staff differential, you MAY be eligible for the differential. Won’t know until November 15. An exemption class helps move them toward 80% even though it’s not in compliance. Those are classes eligible for differential. Differential for this year, larger differential for next year.

I believe there’s a meeting tomorrow with chancellor and principals. Once that meeting is over, we expect everyone to get their budgets. I’d appreciate it if they say it’s unacceptable. There were years where budgets were not done until July and August but schools received preliminary budgets. Not done this year. No budget, no line, how can we hire anyone? They put us in a bad position. Not the way you want to start. Budgets out with less than two weeks left of school.

Lots of emails about the chancellor. We believe in due process. We know that the procurement process at the DOE is beyond broken. It’s a disgrace. Does not serve the school system. The chancellor has been very supportive of us. But due process is due process. In this political environment, who knows what’s really going on? I have to think about the working relationship he has with our union. Right now, I’d say he has a very good working relationship with us. But we don’t need any more distractions.

One big thing on agenda that has not been accomplished yet. Respect. Next two weeks are about budgets. SBOs coming in by the hundreds. Thanks CLs. The SBO process is off the chart. Next year’s calendar is insane because of all of the holidays. Need to continue pressure on the RESPECT check. Had a hearing today at City Hall. Shout out to Priscilla Castro, paraprofessional CL. Gave testimony in favor of RESPECT check. There is movement. Costing process almost finished but pressure has to remain. We’re all happy about the Knicks, the World Cup. They’re building little bleachers everywhere. Huge ship armada coming in. Pushed back Fleet Week. All happening inside of NYC. Need to keep pressure on for the RESPECT check.

TRS and para executive committee elections are done. Thanks Tom Brown and para execs. Get to work.

Early voting starts Saturday. Lots of contested elections. All will be settled in next few weeks. Everything turns to midterm elections. Thankfully we get a little bit of a break. Retirees are very interested in politics. One of the biggest strengths of our union.

Certain things we need to get done in June. In case of endorsements, we bring executive board in. No nefarious stuff going on.

Midterms in November are clearly very important for us. Much at stake for public education. Also need to begin the process of negotiating a contract. We will have the largest negotiation committee in our history, hands down. More than what’s in this room by far. Almost 700 people will be on the negotiating committee. Notice will go out next week. June 24 virtual welcome. Lay out the process. All about educating ourselves, educating new people on negotiation committee. It’s not a joke. We will be sitting across the table from the City. Our strategy is that we want our members doing the work talking to them. Shame them because they have no idea what you do. That’s how we have in last two rounds of bargaining – every contract has had changes in them, not a single giveback. No givebacks. Only positive changes. You have to come up with your plan. Have to represent. When we get paras done, City can’t use that against us in negotiations. Enough with having workers paying for other workers’ raises. It becomes about educating everyone. Each one will come up with their own list of demands, Come to consensus. That’ll be fun with 700 people. Even in committees, these are very important things. Educating and training people. Massive time commitment. Had a couple of instances in the past. Guide for committee comes from membership. Nobody can hijack the committee with an agenda. We know what the number one issue is before surveys are sent out – money. First and foremost. We’d like to figure out a way for more vacation days. City hates it. Might be a way it opens up. Maybe they look for something and we negotiate. There are certain titles in this union that have a basic, sound argument as to why they might need more. Each title in this union will come up with what their demands are, vote on it, then start the process with DOE. We probably will not set the pattern. Many unions are still waiting for contracts from the last round. We got in. Did the smart thing. Got our raises. Someone will set the pattern before us. Don’t like it but it is what it is. School opening late in September. People are upset about ending on a Monday. If I’m CL, first thing I’m asking principal is if we’re really having pd on June 28

Staff Director’s Report (missed some of this)

– 5k on Saturday

– RTC gen membership Tuesday

– Student debt webinar

– Game On June 18

– Hispanic affairs committee on 6/26

– 11 days left of school.

– NYSUT for get out the vote rally in Peekskill

– Celebrates people retiring this year

– Pride month parade on June 28. UFT is one of largest groups in that parade.

– Caribbean American month

– Puerto Rican Day parade this Sunday

Question Period

1. Fair student funding. Can we make effort to getting it funded per class instead of per student? Do it per class in suburbs.

MM: anything designed by Klein or Bloomberg is bad for schools. Designed after retail stores. We don’t have right to negotiate funding. Not covered by collective bargaining. Got around this with class size law. Over a billion dollars in outside contracts. We pay for all this.

Adams and de Blasio didn’t work. Lots of people hired and we don’t know who they are.

2. All day PD during virtual days. Had people asked to come in to work to sit in front of computer all day being interrupted by everything happening in school just to sit in front of the computer and go home. Can we push DOE to allow for these teachers to engage in virtual PD remotely?

MM: Yes.

3. Policy for dual certified teachers. Can the principal make you teach under a different license every year, giving you a split schedule?

MM: You may be dual certified but you’re licensed under one. You may be split schedule, but you must have four classes under that license. Tell them you have to teacher under license.

4. I received 3020a charges and have been removed from my classrooms, I’ve been retaliated against because of my chapter leader activism. My attorney said I’m not alone. Has 5 cases in last few weeks from teachers and CLs. Trumped up charges. Nothing egregious. This is my 27th year. I’ve chosen to stay when I had opportunities to leave. My membership is living in fear. I’m BEGGING union for support. Begging to keep my job. If you hold a principal accountable in the DOE, you’ll be retaliated against. I’ve had three reassignments in the past week. Reassigned to my home. What is the union going to do? It’s not for lack of advocacy. How will you help me, Mr. Mulgrew?

MM: I was happy to see you and call on you. Won’t go into specifics about your situation but there have been many discussions already. We fully expect to protect you first and foremost as an educator and chapter leader. We have a lot of information from inside your building because we’ve visited. Want people in the union to understand the situation. We’ve had principals removed. I never want to sugarcoat that the union has a magic wand. There’s no two chapter leaders that are the same. If you choose to be a CL, you’re putting your butt on the line. There’s an obligation on our behalf to say you’ve gone above and beyond. I’m sorry for what you’re going through but you’re not going to go through this alone.

Motions directed to the agenda

1: Motion to add a resolution to this month’s agenda. RESOLUTION TO FIGHT AGAINST PRIVATE SCHOOL VOUCHERS

Vote – Yes: 748 No: 123 (online) Yes: 250 No: 19 (in person) 88%. Placed on this month’s agenda.

2: Motion to add a resolution to next month’s agenda. Copays. Copays are a hidden premium and a tax for being sick. UFT has pledged for premium free healthcare but you can’t call it free when you have to pay every time you go to the doctor. Retirees have gone from $0 to thousands per year with copays. Wants negotiators through the MLC to recognize copays as hidden premiums. Must make rolling back copays a priority at bargaining table.

Question: Why is resolution not moving this towards our healthcare committee rather than doing this here?

MM: Told retirees that if this comes to floor, I have to call it out of order. Ruled out of order because it needs to go through healthcare committee, which was overwhelmingly supported by everyone. All financial and technical matters need to go through healthcare committee. Everyone here is against copays. If healthcare committee can actually come up with something, they recommend it to the Delegate Assembly. If we tell City we’re not paying copays anymore, they’ll say “fine” and take it out of our raises. We’re not going to do something that hurts us later on, If we can lessen copays, we want to do it, but that would have to go through the healthcare committee. They directed us throughout the NYCE PPO, as the resolution you all passed told them to do. We can say yes to this. The City’s position will simply be that if we don’t want to pay for these, we have to pay now. Arbitrator will rule for them. Healthcare costs are a constant problem. This union has dealt with many complicated issues. Don’t want to divide. Don’t want in-service using part of their raises due to copays. We’re uniquely different than other unions. Our retirees get more than other retirees in NYC. We don’t want things that will divide us. We won’t let healthcare divide us. It is clearly out of order. We will vote on if Chair is correct.

Question: Thought we can bring this to the DA.

MM: Anything on healthcare has to go to the healthcare committee. Healthcare committee comes back with recommendation, then DA votes upon it. If this reso said we want this issue to be sent to the healthcare committee and come back with a recommendation, this would not be out of order.

Question: Check Roberts Rules. This is debatable.

MM: It’s my first time running a meeting.

Question: Was healthcare committee elected or chosen by leadership?

MM: Resolution itself brought by retiree group said what makeup had to be – all representative caucuses within the union.

Vote – Do you support the ruling of the chair (that this reso is out of order because it tries to supercede what DA has voted on this year about anything substantive regarding healthcare has to go through the healthcare committee first): Yes: 606 No: 229 (online) Yes: 189 No: 79 (in person) 72%. THIS RESOLUTION IS OUT OF ORDER.

Resolutions

AGENDA ITEM #1 – RESOLUTION TO EXTEND THE HYBRID DA RULES

RESOLVED, that the rules of order adopted in June 2021 be continued for the 2026-27 school year and that in June 2027 UFT delegates will revisit the question of the nature of the Delegate Assemblies for the following year, if not sooner; and be it

RESOLVED, that the UFT will continue to look for the best methods to safeguard Delegate Assembly participation.

Question: Can we have video of these meetings to see who’s talking? It’s boring listening from home.

MM apologizes for boringness

Vote – Yes: 888 No: 28 (online) Yes: 218 No: 35 (in person). 95%. PASSES

AGENDA ITEM #2 – ENDORSEMENT OF CANDIDATES FOR CITY OFFICES: CONTINGENCY RESOLUTION

RESOLVED, the United Federation of Teachers’ Delegate Assembly authorizes the Executive Board to consider, make or modify endorsements during the summer in order to have a timely impact on any such campaigns.

Objection: Exec Board may endorse people without DA support who do not help the UFT and our students.

MM: This provision is only for unforeseen circumstances, like someone being arrested. If we have to call a special DA for September before endorsing, we can do that.

Vote – Yes: 558 No: 143 (online) Yes: 177 No: 63 (in person). 78%. PASSES

Have a nice summer. Thanks to people retiring.

Meeting ends.

UFT Town Hall Minutes – June 3, 2026 (Class Size Law extension, differential payment stipulations, exemptions, etc.)

Published June 3, 2026 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
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Editor’s Note: Most of the information about who will qualify for the differential pay is towards the bottom in the Q&A section. Educators will receive differential pay if their class(es) are not in compliance and school does not have an exemption. The amount of differential pay one receives will be based on time spent teaching oversized classes. If your entire schedule is oversized, you will receive the entire differential. If you teach two classes that are oversized, the differential will be prorated. Differential pay will be split into two payments – in March and August.

You can read the full minutes below…

Mulgrew: Agreement between UFT and the City.

Class Size law passed in 2022. This is the 67th year our union has worked on the class size issue of NYC. We have the law. We need to protect this law and ensure educators are treated fairly while this law is being implemented. When we finish implementing the initial phase of the law – which is full compliance – this law lives forever.

Three entities: DOE NYC, UFT, CSA. Each has a legal right in regards to decision making inside the law. We didn’t want class size plans coming from the DOE. Schools need to make the decisions.

We’re in year 4 of the class size law. We’ve achieved 60%. UFT and CSA said schools have to do the plans, not the DOE. DOE always screws up. Schools thought they weren’t going to get the money. Schools were skittish about submitting anything. More than 700 schools submitted plans and the majority of them were approved. Money sent to those schools to hire teachers. Money will come every year now. Will not disappear.

Mayor and previous administration did not want the class size law.

When the law was passed originally, the City was already almost at 40%. Some schools prefer smaller class sizes.

Our class size committee, working with DOE and CSA, looked at everything. We have no capital plan in place. Not enough space to get to 80%. Also no recruitment in place, so can’t get to 80%. Had to figure out how to protect the law. Will not allow anyone to say the law is impossible. We now know we don’t need as much construction as what the City originally claimed. Need less than half of what the City originally claimed.

Two major things – construction projects and recruitment – were not planned out by the DOE. School Construction Authority (SCA) does big projects (annexes, new schools, etc.) and School Facilities (smaller projects). DOE did not follow through on getting big projects done that we need to comply with class size law.

DOE did not do anything to help with recruitment.

DOE messed this up, so now we need to detour. Need a capital or building plan. Need an aggressive strategy on how to recruit people into our school system.

City wants to do a lot of exemptions to hit the class size law. We pumped the brakes and said it needs to be done correctly. We need to get this right. Need to protect our school system.

Three types of exemptions: 1) hard to staff (schools have funding but can’t hire); 2) lack of space (approved projects or space limitations being addressed – needs to already be approved, whether in design phase or construction phase); 3) over-enrolled schools.

No such thing as a permanent exemption in the law. They tried to list specialized schools, schools with traditionally high enrollment as exemptions. We said no.

This week we agreed to extend the class size law. Will let it go to 70%, then 80%, 90%, 100% instead of 80% to 100%. The teachers shouldn’t pay the price for the DOE’s failure to not put in a construction plan or because they chose not to have a plan in place to recruit. Many parents and I kept asking about the capital plan over the years. City sat silently, never answered.

NY Post trying to act like we did a shakedown. No. Teachers/classrooms that qualify for an exemption – that means the DOE has the responsibility to fix the situation that allowed the exemption to happen. Flipped it on the DOE. DOE needs to work with us – the capital plan, building and construction, and recruitment.

This differential is just a tool, a tactic to use to make sure the law gets to completion. The big picture – this is about us. We have a responsibility to get this law done. DOE rolls out curriculums with no differentiation. Really aggravates us. DOE central makes a decision and just dumps it on the schools. This is their incompetence. They’re responsible. Now they’re going to pay because they have to get their work done. That’s why the whole differential piece is in place.

Retirees and older teachers sacrificed a lot for this. Money, etc.

A school may only qualify for space exemptions if:

– A real space plan exists

– Design or construction work is already underway

– Schools must still lower class size whenever possible

Schools have a “Blue Book” that shows the space available in their school. UFT went around. All of them were wrong. Not going by that.

Just because school is granted an exemption doesn’t mean they don’t have to get as many classes as possible to meet the class size benchmark.

A school may only qualify for hard to staff exemptions if:

– the school has received funding to lower class size

– the school has actively recruited and attempted to fill the position

– class sizes still remain out of compliance

Every school in the City submitted a plan.

June – principals will receive notice of class size funding. Planning and staffing decisions begin.

Summer – schools review staffing and space needs. DOE recruiting & planning continues

September & October – schools hire additional teachers depending on hiring, funding, and space.

November – DOE issues compliance report. DOE, CSA, & UFT produce a list of exempt classes. This will determine differentials for space and hard-to-staff exemptions. Compliance Report Day is a big day now. Probably comes out around November 15.

March – Eligible teachers will receive the first portion of the differential. The second payment will come in August.

This is a two year agreement. Will monitor implementation and protect the law. Put pressure on DOE to move.

Nobody is taking Foundation Aid out of our school system. We go to court and we win. Mayor is huge supporter of the law. One of the first things he said when he got elected is that “we’re going to get this done.” Chancellor also on board. I know the DOE doesn’t support this law. A lot of work on their behalf. They don’t want to do it.

Over the next two years, we’re going to lock down that capital space plan.

Increase of student-teacher programs in every borough. The schools knew to make a plan to make deal with colleges to recruit. The DOE doesn’t come up with any plan except the Fellows program where we have teachers coming from Iowa, who we love. But can do something with CUNY or SUNY.

This union went on strike in 1967. Big part of that strike was class size. Took us until 2022 to get to a place where we got a law passed. We tried to do it multiple times. Tried through a referendum. Then-mayor pulled it off the ballot because he knew it would pass. Parents want this. We’ll read speculation in media about class size and how we shook down the City for money. It’s silliness. You don’t fight all these years and allow something to get destroyed at the very end. We need a rock solid foundation. Won’t let DOE abuse the exemption process and make a mockery of this law.

Q&A

1. How will the amount of money per person be decided?

MM: Amount of time in class that has qualified and amount of teaching they’ve done in front of it. If you’re in a classroom all day that is not compliant but not exempt, you’ll get full amount. If you’re in that room 2-3 periods per day, you’ll get pro-rated. Same if your class(es) is switched in the middle of the year.

2. What about schools who completed plans for funding but haven’t received it?

MM: I would want someone from the union to contact you to figure out why you did not receive the funding. See if there’s something we can do to amend the application your school put in.

3. Does it matter how over the class is in terms of receiving the full differential?

MM: No, but remember, once it’s over, it’s over. But this will probably happen. Class with exemption but will not be in compliance with the contractual limit for class sizes, which is still locked in. Different than state law. Have had success with getting class sizes under the contractual language. We’ve seen a massive drop in oversized classes.

4. Would both teachers in an ICT classroom get the differential if eligible?

MM: Yes. Simple.

5. For ICT, is 60/40 still going to be the standard?

MM: 60/40 is still the standard. Part of federal and state regulations. Irrelevant of what the number of students is. Must have 60/40. Already have thousands of ICT classes in compliance.

6. Is the differential pensionable?

MM: Yes

7. Will teachers receive pro-rated differentials if class size changes during the year?

MM: Yes, especially the reorganization schools. Lots of high schools reorganize in late January-early February. Also, right before state tests, elementary schools get an influx of children.

8. Is there a limit to how many classes per school can get a differential?

MM: No

9. If there are classrooms who get a differential, will cluster teachers receive it also?

MM: When they’re in a room that is not exempt, they will get part of the differential.

10. This will impact Regents and MOSL scores. How do we compare to schools complying with class size law?

MM: We do pretty well with MOSLs. But it is much easier to teach 22 per class than 32.

11. Why are kindergarten classes not being capped in my school? 25 kids in Kindergarten, 20 in other classes.

MM: Calls on Carl Cambria. The school is doing that to not comply with the law. Doing this to hedge their bets for upper grades. Playing games. Will follow up.

12. Will some teachers in the same school receive the differential while others do not? How will union help prevent admin from picking favorites to receive differential?

MM: Dealing with admin who have ill intent or power trips is something we deal with all the time. People don’t use power correctly and are unfair. I’m not saying the differential or class size law will stop that behavior, but we love to fight with those folks. The process is 70, 80, 90, and then 100%. Everyone will eventually receive the benefit.

13. We were told Gifted & Talented classrooms are exempt from law.

MM: They’re not exempt from the law. Gifted & Talented has been a political hot tamale for 10 years. There is no way anyone gets a permanent exemption. If that means creating more G&T classrooms, then create them. Law does not allow it. You might have the superintendent saying it. Political for them. But for us it’s about compliance with the law. What’s so hard? Stop with the DOE talking about why they can’t do something. The DOE has stopped advancement more than politicians, parents, etc. DOE has fought against class size for 60 years.

14. Are dual language classes following the same class size law and are they eligible for differential?

MM: Absolutely.

15. Will this differential be something I have to apply for in November or come from a compliance report and automatically done for me?

MM: Calls on Cambria. We’ll have agreed upon exemptions in November. That will be list we work off of to see who receives differentials. Schools will receive notice of the classes being exempted and those will be sent to State.

MM: When that notice goes out, CLs should request that from the principal.

CC: We’ll reach out to all schools that are part of the exemption process.

MM: We can revisit this agreement in two years. Class size is a big deal. We know it makes a difference. Not going to rush. Make sure it’ll be done the right way. It will serve the city for decades. Children deserve it. We deserve it. We work in the most challenging school district in the world. This time next year, we’ll be talking about 80%. Next school year we’ll be 70% in compliance.

UFT Delegate Assembly Minutes – May 20, 2026

Published May 20, 2026 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
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President’s Report

Moment of silence for teacher in District 6 in the Bronx. Her and her son passed away in the Inwood fire. 

Moment of silence for friend of Mulgrew. Previous President of 1199 – George Gresham. 

Thanks to chapter leaders for running TRS elections. Not easy when DOE runs an election. 

Introduces new assistant secretary of the UFT – Khiera Pena. 

Federal

One of the aspects of the Big Beautiful Bill is the tax credit/voucher program. Anyone can donate up to $1700 to a public institution except for public schools. The bill is clear about the fact that you can start donating to private educational institutions – religion, private schools, or anything else. People trying to privatize education. Trying to erode faith and funding in public education. That will become very front and center in June, July, and August here and across the U.S. Governor told folks she would support this bill. That’s the next challenge and drama before us. Working with other people and groups who have been by our side for many fights. 

I’ve never seen someone dismiss a lawsuit against themselves. 

State

The State legislative session officially ends June 4. Budget was due April 1. It’s May 20. Not done yet. Next week everything has to get done. When budget is completed earlier in session, usually local taxes and other important stuff get done. Things pushed out of budget like mayoral control gets done during that time. But it’s all going to get done now because legislative session ends June 4. Primaries on June 23. State union has rightfully said they don’t want to do endorsements until budget is done. Makes sense. That’s what’s going to happen over the next 2-3 weeks because this thing is going to shut down. First bill was about school funding. NYC receiving $860 million increase in education funding. All the lobbying we’ve done – this is what happens. Went above $250 million more than what governor put into budget. Already had built-in increases we normally don’t see. Significant win for us. In balance with foundation formula with the rest of the state. Lobbied for changes in foundation formula. Requires more money to educate our students because they need more services. Once the bill is printed, it sits – literally – on a desk – and then gets voted on. Did not agree with governor on 4 years for mayoral control. 2 years only. That’s inside of this bill. Nothing yet on Tier 6. Nothing about pensions and class size at this point but will be coming soon. Tier 6 is always about age. Always ugliness. Always fights. We focused on years. Most important thing. Majority of members starts before 25. Every year you pay contributions. Other thing Tier 6 has is massive penalties. If you retire at 55, pension is basically cut in half. That’s why we’re pushing hard on age. And contributions – whatever we get this year – significant progress. I think we’re going to be happy but we’re never done. Not done until job is complete. Go back at it. We lit up Albany. Rich people did it to the workers. Every year that goes by, we get Tier 6 members in the legislature. We like to tell them that. We don’t stop. That’s the UFT. That’s our real superpower. We keep grinding at them. Excited to see where it’s headed.

Class Size – finally having meaningful conversations about their capital plan. Has the School Construction Authority (SCA) finished a project on time and on budget in the last 30 years? No. Before they even start, the cost doubles. A constant thing. Department of Ed has basically visited every school. They have a preliminary breakdown of every school that’s going to need a construction project. Big projects and small. You can do small construction project with school facilities. SCA is the one that builds annexes, extensions, and entire new schools. We’ve analyzed the list. Now have to go to schools ourselves. Then there’s a group of schools – we have to have a special committee – to help schools program properly. Big problem with programming. DOE has identified a bunch of schools with problems with programming. They said every superintendent has a team of expert programmers on their staff. I think they just slap a name or title on anybody at this point. They’ve said we need to train people to program in a different way. If you have a cadre of experts in each superintendent’s office, why do we have so many problems with programming? This is a big deal. These are the challenges as we get to the last 40% of Class Size. Hiring teachers, specifically certain titles. Everyone knows the traditional ones – math, science, special ed, any title with bilingual in front of it – is a massive shortage area. Then there’s just enough teachers themselves. The hard to staff issue is now going to come up. Have provisions in our contract. Some of that may work but need to come up with something else. Should not be collectively bargaining. Should be a plan to get us in compliance. So if you can’t attract certain titles, you need to deal with that.

Certain neighborhoods that we need schools built in will be difficult to build schools in. Competing with developers looking for lots for sale. We need to come up with a plan to deal with this issue. When the mayor makes an announcement and says “we’re only going to hire 1,000 teachers,” he can’t say that because there’s a law about compliance. You’ve heard me talk enough about the City’s budget this year. City always claims they’re broke but they have $7.5 billion in reserve.

Pension stuff – whatever you want, you have to send to our trustee boards. Let them work and make a decision. They are there for a reason. Most famous example – 1970s fiscal crisis. Members said no. Trustees said yes. Way over 15% return on our money. Anytime an issue comes up, people will automatically say no. The reason why you have people who are experts and study it and this is their life, you let them work. People just like to run political campaigns. If I say “we should go left,” they’ll automatically say “we should go right.” Hope this is all settled by the next Delegate Assembly. Rest of state voted on budgets which they don’t have.

Saturday’s Spring Conference – phenomenal panel of teachers. A lot of elected officials were there early. Said they didn’t understand all of the intricacies that goes into Class Size at the school level.

City

If we go back 10 years and it was 92 degrees on May 20 on a school day, more than half of schools would be a complete sweltering mess. 40 heat complaints over the last two days. But we gotta stay on it at all times. School facilities started a program two years ago that informed the principal that if there’s a room without a cooling device, to let them know. Some principals didn’t tell them. Didn’t want to be responsible for air conditioners, paying for new ones. Told principals we’ll take air conditioner from your office. Let students go to your office.

City’s budget – what’s our priority? The Para RESPECT check at all times. Now it’s heating up. Julie Menin spoke. She was very loud with her fist in the air yelling, “I am passing the Para RESPECT check legislation!” Paras will do some work this week asking the mayor. We know he supported this bill. Want to check in. In my conversations with him, I said he has to talk about this publicly. And he did. He testified and said “We need to start doing something. We should not spend millions per year in lawsuits because we don’t have appropriate staffing in our schools.” That was about paras. We want to turn the heat up. They’re not going to hand us anything. Moving forward on that. Going to be a big deal. They increased budget on lawsuits. Bit DOE in the ass. How do you feel that one of your agencies would rather spend billions on lawsuits rather than spending $300 million for appropriate personnel?

SBOs. Calls on Debbie Poulos.

Poulos: Hold on SBOs. 4 pre-approved that we just renewed an hour ago. One pre-approved for an Election Day block. No longer PD. November PTC to be swapped with Election Day. Election Day would be just 3 hours remote instruction. Everyone will be home. The day of your half day for PTC would be a full day. Because it’s not an even swap, everyone gets two hours remote time – OPW. We were not able to get anything for in person in November and March. Could not get those in person. Only September and May.

Mulgrew: You can’t remove any instructional time this year. We are literally at 180. Some popular SBOs not available.

LIRR strike – If you had any issues in terms of being late on Monday, please let us know. If principal didn’t approve it and it was less than three hours, let us know. You can email MSill@uft.org. Thankfully that got settled quickly. The governor told everyone to work remotely. Lots of emails about that. We were in contact constantly with DOE telling school leaders it won’t be easy for folks traveling from Long Island.

City budget supposed to be done and balanced by July 1. It’s June 30 close of business. Should be there July 1. Education funding will be in good shape.

June 23 is Primary Day. Congressional and State. The State hopefully next weekend, if majority of budget is done, NYSUT will start moving on endorsement. NYSUT has already submitted congressional endorsements to AFT. Lander-Goldman race is controversial down here. No agreement upon it. Disagreement between UFT and PSC. We basically have an understanding with the AFT that if you have an incumbent with a 100% voting record, you try to support that candidate. NYSUT said we can split. PSC is endorsing Lander. UFT is pushing Goldman. We have a congressional person who voted 100% on every issue for the AFT. Period. The other candidate wants to run but if we set an example that even if you’ve done everything we’ve asked, that will have ramifications in a lot of different places (some people hiss at MM). The other candidate knew what he was getting into – AFT told us clearly that Goldman voted 100% with us. That goes forward. Main people in NYC in congressional – the Reynoso race. A lot of assembly races that will be interesting. Thanks to political action department. Talk to candidates. Not easy. If you have a problem with it, please volunteer to be part of that process.

June 5 clerical day for elementary and middle schools is remote. 

High Schools – remember remote day you received earlier this year when elementary was not remote.

What’s happening with Albany budget is not acceptable. It’s May 20 and schools don’t have initial budgets. Will get very messy fast. Don’t have answers for schools who submitted plans for hiring teachers for class size. School districts around us are hiring. Disadvantage. Need a better process. Not working for us. Too much at stake. Work we’ve done is amazing. Got Tier 6 in budgets. First two steps are great. Need more. It will help all positions. Thank you for all work we’ve done. Confident we will make progress. Budget needs to get done on time.  Much easier to lobby when they know we’re serious about an issue.

Staff Director’s Report (missed some of this)

– Staten Island craft workshop yoga

– AI virtual showcase at 52 Broadway

– AANHPI banquet 

– June 2 Albert shaker scholarship 

– June 5 (missed) 

– June 6 UFT Family Day 

– June 13 UFT 5k

– Four Mondays left

– Happy Memorial Day, Eid Mubarak, Pride Month 

Question Period

1. Question about Roberts Rules. Always had a speaker for and against before ending debate. RR says you need an opportunity for debate. If debate isn’t offered, what happens to resolution that’s passed

MM: Can say we were out of order as a body. If there was no opportunity .

2. For elementary, what guidance as to what can be done for clerical day? What to do at home?

MM: Chapter leaders:  make sure you know what can happen if you ask certain questions.

3. Do gyms require air conditioning units?

MM: Yes. Gym is a class. All instructional spaces get an AC.

4. Preference sheets. Admin sometimes requests to know about prelim retirement.

MM: Can grieve. Go to the superintendent quick with that. They can’t back that up.

5. Admin questioning grading policy. Want us to pass chronically absent students. What can we do?

MM: Teacher can say “my grades are my grades.” Would have to consult with teacher. Can’t jump to “kids cutting all the time.” If they get all the work done and pass the Regents and things like that. If they’re saying blanketly to pass children, file a grievance, get it out of the building as fast as possible. Principals want a passing percentage so they can brag. But it’s not real. Then children pass who don’t know the subject. That’s a sham, especially if student didn’t show mastery of the subject. Mastery of subject is key. There are seat time requirements for credit recovery. We’ve gotten many schools in trouble for that.

6. What is maximum number of ICT students in ICT class, self-contained with new class size law?

MM: Depends how many students are in the room. It’s always a max of 40%. If there’s 10 in a room, max is 4. Dictated by the size of the class.

7. Question about endorsement process. You said there was a disagreement about Goldman and Lander. How was that process arrived at that UFT would recommend Goldman without coming to the Delegate Assembly?

MM: At State level, we need to work with NYSUT. Need their input, not just ours. AFT is very much about voting records. It’s all about the voting records. If somebody is 100% and an incumbent, unless there’s something crazy that nobody knows about, we go with them. AFT was very strong on supporting an incumbent that supported AFT with all their issues. AFT recommended to us. We agreed because we had no issues with that person. 

8. Remote days. What counts as students’ attendance? Some parents email the principal saying they can’t log on.

MM: Did they log on? Some sort of participation. Part of principal’s rating is based on attendance. Should have this conversation on school and district level. Students have to log on. Can’t say they were there if they weren’t logged on.

Motions directed to the agenda

1: Motion to add a resolution to next month’s agenda. Resolution to ensure human oversight and accountability in AI based decision making in schools.

Opposition Argument: Don’t trust principals. Teachers should be specifically mentioned.

Vote – Yes: 696  No: 113  (online)   Yes: 213  No: 14 (in person) 88%. Placed on next month’s agenda.

2: Motion to add a resolution to next month’s agenda. Resolution maintaining focus on core union priorities. Mentions too much focus on issues going on half a world away. Controversial global issues can cause reputational harm. UFT does not have a mandate to do this or adopt official positions. 

Opposition Argument: Goes against past policy and practice. May be people opposed to international issues. There’s never been a limit on membership to bring questions. I can give a list of resolutions that have come across this body. It would prevent people with powerful feelings of international issues from bringing them up. 

Vote – Yes: 434  No: 403  (online)   Yes: 84  No: 140 (in person) 49%. Not placed on next month’s agenda.

Resolutions

AGENDA ITEM #1 – UFT ORGANIZING CAMPAIGN TO DEFEND SOCIAL SECURITY, MEDICARE, AND MEDICAID RESOLUTION

Proposed amendment to strike the first WHEREAS from the reso (citing 1096). It reads: WHEREAS the election of UFT endorsed Zohran Mamdani as Mayor of New York City has definitively ended the immediate danger that UFT and other NYC municipal retirees would lose our traditional Medicare and be transferred into a Medicare Advantage plan against our will, as Mamdani has unequivocally committed himself to the UFT’s position in support of maintaining traditional Medicare

Vote on Amendment to Resolution – Yes: 408  No: 253  (online)   Could not hear in person vote count. PASSES. The first WHEREAS is struck.

Vote on Resolution as amended: – Yes: 538  No: 115  (online)   Yes: 165  No: 41 (in person). 82%. Resolution PASSES as amended. 

Meeting ends.

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