UFT Executive Board Notes

Monday, Oct. 18

A correspondent reports:

• Four people got up and requested reports:  one on the reorganization of D 75, another on the ATR agreement,  and the last on a report of the unionized charter schools.  The answers were in order were:  "yes, we will get it to out", "the DOE is having discussions and will get back to us", and to the last question "we'll look into it".  You know as much now as you knew before.
• But on the issue of the ATR's, perhaps there is a hint of what to expect in the longer answer which was:  the DOE is discussing whether or not they want to continue subsidies or something else.  They said they would get back to us in a few weeks.  The agreement expires on Nov. 31. One teacher who is an ATR said although the agreement says that they will be assigned in their districts, he was assigned 1 1/2 - 2 hours from his home and traveling is costing him $400 per month.  He was told to file a grievance and wondered of what use the agreement is with the grievance process going so slowly.
• It was clear that we will not be supporting a candidate for Governor.
  
• They gave out blue t-shirts, superman style with UFT written in the logo
• When a member asked why we are supporting Nicole Paultre-Bell for City Council as she supports charters, the response was that "charters are not the line in the sand, we have two of our own"!  The other candidates were labeled as "slick" candidates, turned down by voters in the past. (We predicted long ago that opening up two charters was dangerous for us.  And since when don't we support "slick" candidates?)
• There was a resolution on supporting Dignity for All in response to the recent bias attacks and suicides.  (The reality is that there once was an Office of Multicultural Education at the DOE that promoted anti-bias education  and were awarded Districts funds to conduct programs. The DOE ended the office.The reality is that at one time teachers had the time to teach values education.  The emphasis on test prep has stolen all of that time away. The resolution is a weak one in terms of prevention. )