Evening Extracts: UFT Responds to ATR Pressure - Will Hold Meeting

We GEMers were at the Brooklyn ATR job fair at the Brooklyn Museum. Poor tourists who came from all over only to find the museum closed. This is breaking news - I gotta go for the ATR conf call. Back later.

9-20-11 Brooklyn Museum "Job Fair" for ATRs

Hundreds lined up for another day of futility and humiliation at the mandatory DOE job fair at the Brooklyn Museum where few will land jobs.

ATRs without specific assignments for the year from Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island were mandated to attend.

The ATR attendees were a majority of older higher paid experienced teachers.  Again, the majority were Black and Latino.

Abandoned by the DOE and the UFT leadership, with this summer's agreement,

unassigned ATRs will in October become wandering substitutes who will be sent every week to different schools. Many expressed anger and fear that the untenable situations created by this new ATR substitute arrangement could force many into quitting.

All of us need to demand:

• Seniority transfer rights with guaranteed jobs for all experienced teachers. (a UFT contract right prior to 2005)
• Tenure rights protection for all NYC teachers.
• Fair tenure granting processes for all.
• LIFO (Last In First Out) protections.

Experienced quality higher paid teachers are essential to successful community schools

and must be defended.  Tomorrow any one of us can become the ATR excessed teacher 

as the City closes more schools and converts into privatized charters.

Organize to fight back. 

Attend our ATR - GEM committee meetings.

Angel Gonzalez

 UFT Calls Borough ATR Meetings

Bronx: Oct. 3
Brooklyn: Oct. 4
After resisting calls to organize ATRs the UFT has succumbed to pressure and has called for an Oct. 4 meeting. See below the fold for the letter. That doesn't mean they will really organize them. Or give them representation. Or really answer their questions other than to say, "You're lucky you have a job!" What they will do is tell them how things are better in NYC than in Washington or Chicago.
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CEC 14 Meeting

Sept. 15

Hi Norm,

The meeting tonight was probably one of the best we've had.  There were folks there from the five affected schools in D 14.  Parents spoke.  Teachers spoke.  Principals spoke.  Reps from Diana Reyna's office spoke as well as Evelyn Cruz from Nydia Velasquez's office.  CBO people spoke.  Every educational issue was touched upon: bringing the message into  the communities to the parents in understandable languagen not DOE jargon;  why charters are being put into communities of color; the under funding and under resourcing of public schools; class size; saying the DOE encourages outreach to communities, but does not fund programs such as Pre-K so schools can build and grow, stating emphatically that our district does not need or want Success Academies and Eva Moskowitz with her over $300,000 salary; how charters do not service special needs students and English Language learners and how these students are taken in and back to the public schools among many others.

The DOE representative could not get out of her robotic answer box.  She spoke to me before we left about the Pre-K need at our school which the DOE has ignored.  She said she was taking notes.  I reminded her that she had to be sure to read them.  She also said someone would come to the school to look at the situation.  We'll see.

Before we left we got into conversation with Tessa Wilson, CEC 14 president.  I gave her a copy of the film and she was delighted.  She had heard about it and said she definitely wanted to see it and possibly have a community viewing.

From: Debra Poulos 


Sent: Monday, September 19, 2011 6:18 PM


To: #Brooklyn District Reps


Cc: #Brooklyn Special Reps; #Brooklyn Ed Liason; Howard Schoor; Amy


Arundell


Subject: FW: Meeting for ATR's





District Rep's,  Attached is the flyer for the ATR meeting on October


4th. Please forward to your Chapter Leaders or give them a copy at your


next chapter Leader meeting. Request that they post it in the school or


give a copy to the ATR's in their buildings. 


Thanks Let me know if you have any questions. 





Debra Poulos


UFT Special Representative


335 Adams Street 25th Floor


Brooklyn, NY  11201


(718)852-4900

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