Ed Notes Online: Principal Union Insists on Awful Principal Return, We Expect No Less from the UFT (Just joking)

Monday, June 22, 2015

Principal Union Insists on Awful Principal Return, We Expect No Less from the UFT (Just joking)

The principals union insisted that Hawkins be returned, a demand the DOE did not fight, sources said.... NY Post, Principal who mishandled child abuse claim returns to school.

Greta Hawkins, Principal of PS 90. Allegations: threatening to report the parents of misbehaving students to the Administration for Children's Services; ...Don't Tread on Educators

Tell me the last time you heard the UFT insisting a railroaded teacher be returned to the classroom. Either the union has just given up, knowing full well the DOE will fight it even if the incident is trivial. Now we know that principal Hawkins has also been a tyrant to teachers, yet has the UFT intervene and protest the kowtowing to the CSA?

Note this story on the UFT web site from 2012:

Brooklyn principal a 'bully' | United Federation of Teachers

That was due to the work of District Rep Judy Gerowitz, one of the few DRs whom I would vote for. But she is only middle management.

www.uft.org › ... › News stories

United Federation of Teachers

Mar 8, 2012 - UFT District 21 Representative Judy Gerowitz (left) and Chapter Leader Vicky Giasemis outside PS 90, where Principal Greta Hawkins has ...

UFT leaders and the bosses at the principal union, the CSA, are old pals.

The UFT should lodge its own protest over the double standard.
Don't hold your breath. But you never know.

Some links to Hawkins stories.

Greta Hawkins, a Principal Trampled in the Rush to Vilify ...

www.nytimes.com/.../greta-hawkins-a-principal-tra...

The New York Times

Jun 15, 2012 - Greta Hawkins, principal of a Brooklyn elementary school, has been excoriated over replacing Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the U.S.A." in an ...

Greta Hawkins, PS 90K - Don't Tread on Educators

dtoe.org/greta-hawkins-ps-90k/

Greta Hawkins, Principal of PS 90. Allegations: threatening to report the parents of misbehaving students to the Administration for Children's Services; ...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...: If you read the link it states that the cops found that the child fabricated the claim. While there are many many issues here the UFT has fought hard, and won them. The reason the Principal was suspended was because of a false claim. If one of our members received a false claim against them and the charges were dismissed they too would be put back, and the UFT would fight to get them the back pay they deserve. The story in the post does not give all the facts, just a sensational view of what is going on behind the scenes.
This Blog post does not separate the issues properly. The issues of Union Animus, and harassment of the Chapter Leader are separate from what the principal was suspended for and should be viewed as such.; Tuesday, June 23, 2015 at 11:45:00 AM EDT
Anonymous said...: The UFT chapter leader who was constantly harassed by her Principal won a major arbitration case against her. The Principal could no longer harass, intimidate, or insinuate vial actions towards this UFT representative. Every negative observation, ineffective rating, and disciplinary letters had to be changed or removed from her file. The Principal can no longer rate or observe this teacher/Chapter leader, for it must be done by the Superintendent or his/her designee. Furthermore, the Principal has been told "Do not bully this pedagogue" because there will be dire consequences. That said, it was our UNION that fought every step of the way to expose and stop this horrible Principal from continuing on a path of animus. The courage of this Chapter Leader needs to be applauded, and the skill and knowledge of the UFT needs to be recognized. Thank you, Dr. John Marvul.; Tuesday, June 23, 2015 at 12:12:00 PM EDT
Anonymous said...: When was the last time the UFT intervened on behalf of its members? All the time. The UFT has supported and protected this Chapter Leader, just as it does all its Chapter Leaders, and likewise does not allow abusive principals to harass good teachers. The Union has just won a huge grievance victory against this principal, which will have positive effects for the Chapter Leader and other staff in the school as well as send a powerful message to keep this bully principal in check to protect students. The UFT has neither permitted this principal to continue her destructive behavior nor acquiesced to CSA.; Tuesday, June 23, 2015 at 7:28:00 PM EDT

"A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

What media call "philanthropy" for the public schools are actually seed monies to establish a private "market" in publicly-financed education - an enterprise worth trillions if successfully penetrated by corporate America. Cory Booker, one of the "New Black Leaders" financed by the filthy rich, is key to creating a "nationwide corporate-managed schools network paid for by public funds but run by private managers.

"Ed Reformers" want to cash in on public education and to control its content and outcome, not improve it. Provide great education? Baby boomers had as close as this country has ever gotten to it when we were growing up. The Ed Reform Movement has no interest in seeing such a well-educated, democratically astute population ever again.

http://blackagendareport.com/content/cory-booker-clear-and-present-threat-public-education

History of the UFT Pre-Weingarten Years

This award-winning series of articles by Jack Schierenbeck originally appeared in the New York Teacher in 1996 and 1997.

Naturally, from a certain point of view. But, despite certain biases, Schierenbeck, a great guy, was one of the best NY Teacher reporters so this is worth reading. Jack suffered a debilitating stroke many years ago (I used to get secret donations to ed notes from him through a 3rd source.)

This chapter looks interesting:

Class struggles: The UFT story, part 3

“The schism in the union over radical politics [is] a major reason for stalling the growth of a teacher union for decades.” Revolutionary politics and ideology take center stage, as the original Teachers Union becomes a battlefield, pitting leftist against leftist and splitting the union.

Clarence Taylor's "Reds at the Blackboard" focused on the old Teachers Union which disbanded in 1964 after suffering from anti-left attacks.

Of course for another view, check out the review at New Politics of the Kahlenberg Bio on Shanker by Vera Pavone and me: Albert Shanker: Ruthless Neocon

Effective Union Organizing

A video series put together by Jason Mann from the British Columbia Federation of Teachers about social media and how to use it for effective union organizing.

The first series was called New Media For Union Activists Roadmap and it's still available on-line at:
http://www.newmediabootcamp.ca/welcome/
I watched some of them and need to rewatch as they are loaded with information.

The second series started last week and it's called "Online Campaigning for Union Activists"

You can sign up for this free series at :
http://act.bcfed.ca/online-campaigning-for-union-activists/

You Don't Have A Choice - Join the Revolt

Ex-Harlem Success Teacher Comments on Eva the Diva

Ex-HSA Teacher has left a new comment on your post "Fear and Loathing at Evil's Harlem Success Empire ...":

I am a former Harlem Success teacher. Not many people who work/worked for her like her very much. I once made the comment that she is very nice when I first was hired. Two of her closest colleague responded immediately almost in unison, "Eve is not nice!" Over time I realized that there was a lot of political games going on. Another colleague once said to me that he was tired of "being part of a political campaign." Sending out 15,000 applications for only 400 seats in a school is reprehensible. The money that paid for those mass mailings could have paid the yearly salary of another teacher not to mention the heartache of all those parents who applied but did not get a spot. She does good work trying to give disadvantaged students a quality public school education but at a great cost to staff AND the school's educational budget! school budget.

Davis Guggenheim Compared to Riefenstahl

“Waiting for Superman" is the second most intellectually dishonest piece of documentary work I have seen. It is surpassed only by Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will," the pro-Hitler propaganda classic, in that regard. Uses personal narratives of adorable children to create narrative suspense that overrides public policy discussion with pure emotion in unscrupulous attack on teachers and their unions, among others

Timothy Tyson
Professor of African American Studies and History
Duke University

How Teaching Experience Makes a Difference

Even as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Michelle Rhee and others around the nation are arguing for experienced teachers to be laid off regardless of seniority, every single study shows teaching experience matters. In fact, the only two observable factors that have been found consistently to lead to higher student achievement are class size and teacher experience, so that it’s ironic that these same individuals are trying to undermine both.
- Leonie Haimson on Parents Across America web site

Full article with charts here.

Weingarten/Gates Foundation announce drone-driven teacher evaluation

According to a press release issued by the Gates Foundation, the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, these three have entered a ground-breaking partnership to evaluate teachers utilizing the drone technology that has revolutionized warfare in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. A bird-size device floats up to 400 feet above a classroom and instantly beams live video of teachers in action to agents at desks at Teacher Quality Inspection Stations established by the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

When asked if the drones were authorized to drop bombs on teachers who exhibit inadequacy, Chester E. Finn, Jr., president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, replied, "Don't be ridiculous. Gates money puts other methods at our disposal."

Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.5-million-member American Federation of Teachers said the powerful union has signed on to the drone project...

More at Substance

The Real Reason Behind Push for Standardized Tests: It's All About the Adults

On standardized testing in our schools

A must read article about the standardized test industry.
Written by an insider who has worked as a test scorer, the article outlines a multinational industry based on an army of temporary workers paid by the piece at $0.30 to $0.70 per test, translated in the need to grade 40 tests per hour to make a $12 salary. The article goes on to show how the companies gauge the grading "results" based on the need to ensure new contracts to continue profiting off of our youth. The original article is from Monthly Review. Here it is on Schools Matter blog.

http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2010/12/on-growing-use-of-corporate-test.html

Parallels between America today and Germany in the 1920's and early 30's

"Resentment and obstruction are all the right wing in America have to peddle. Their policies are utterly discredited. Their ideology - even by its own standards - is a sham. They are so bereft of leaders, their de facto leader is a former drug addicted, thrice-divorced radio talk show host. That is literally the best they can muster. But they have built a national franchise inciting the downwardly mobile to blame the government, not the right, for their problems, exactly as Hitler did in the 1920s."

The US Is Facing a Weimar Moment

Published on Sunday, March 15, 2009 by CommonDreams.org

Chicago View of Unity/UFT on Charters

After many meetings and debates, the Chicago delegation succeeded in working with the New York United Federation of Teachers, Local 2 (UFT) to push the AFT to take stronger stands on charter school accountability and school closings — though many delegates from Chicago would have liked the language to have been even stronger.

Generally speaking, the New York delegation represented organizing charters as the best model for handling their role in reshaping unions, despite the fact that according to many reports few charter schools in New York have been organized as is the case in Chicago. This logic is the same touted by the Progressive Caucus of the AFT. The few that have been organized are a part of the UFT local though they have separate contracts negotiated with the help of UFT. The Chicago delegation reflection the mindset that allowing new charters to continue to proliferate while attempting to organize existing charters is an end game in which public schools and the union lose.

Jen Johnson, CTU, Local 1 in Substance

Ed Notes Greatest Hits: HSA Rally and Founding of GEM

SEE MY VIDEO ON HARLEM SUCCESS RALLY 2009:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEp7rg_L5JI

Angel Gonzalez and I attended that rally and used the footage to promote our conference on Mar. 28, 2009, which is where the concept of a group like GEM emerged. Until then we had basically been a committee of ICE working with the NYCORE high stakes testing group. The actions of Eva and crew helped spawn GEM. Mommie Dearest!!

I have more video somewhere. I was hoping to get Leni Riefenstahl to edit it but she died. We would have called it "Triumph of the Hedge Fund Operators."

Ed Notes Extended

Monday, June 22, 2015

Principal Union Insists on Awful Principal Return, We Expect No Less from the UFT (Just joking)

3 comments: