UFT Election, ATR Update: Luck Be a Lady and Her Name is Norm

I drew first and picked Jia Lee for top of the ballot.

I had a busy day yesterday. I had a lunch date with a teacher who was going to put MORE election lit in the mailboxes of 5 neighboring schools (Lunch With a Chapter Leader I Met for the First Time) followed by a meeting at 52 Broadway to draw ballot positions for the UFT election - as I reported, UFT Election Update: Today is the Drawing for Slate Positions - #MORE2016.

I met up with New Action's Michael Shulman at the UFT for the 4:30 meeting run by Amy Arundel. I reported on some of the issues yesterday: UFT Election Update: Today is the Drawing for Slate Positions - #MORE2016

Amy's first comments were about my ATR posts:

• ATRS Targeted by Brienza Consultant Firm Formerly ...
• An ATR Tells Us a Story - Where is the UFT's Plan

Amy disputed that Brienza was hired as a consultant by the DOE and said she had checked with the DOE and they had no record. She said that most likely the school itself had possibly hired them but also felt that there should have been no contact with the ATR since that should be handled by the field supervisor. She wanted me to give her the name and particulars about the ATR but I would not do that until further consultation with the ATR. I shared some information about the case but was not specific. I felt the union has been letting him down. She promised to rectify that situation.

We had a very lively discussion on the ATR situation where we disagreed on the UFT's agreeing to allow ATRs to be shuffled to multiple districts. Amy, who I and many others respect, claims the wider exposure has helped ATRs get jobs and out of the ATR pool. I felt that more ATRs are hurt than helped by this change. Amy promised to assist in any way possible to help this ATR and I will follow up with her. I know some ATRs who have been helped behind the scenes by Amy.

Once we got that out of the way we got down to election business.

In addition to Amy, the meeting was attended by some members of the UFT election committee. Ellie Engler, David Hickey and Leroy Barr were in the room. Solidarity had the time wrong and their rep, Michael Herman, had to participate by phone.

Each candidate for the officers and exec board are on a folded piece of paper and each caucus draws and the order on the ballot is determined. One caucus did not meet the 40 candidate requirement and that issue is still up for discussion. I will report in detail on this aspect later tonight.

There were multiple drawings for individual ballot positions. First came the president and I drew first and hit the jackpot - Jia Lee will get the top line. Mulgrew will be 2nd and some other guy will be 3rd.

Then we drew for each candidate for the Ex Bd divisions and Ex Bd at large. We alternated between Leroy, Amy and I and I also got the first draw for high schools and drew Mike Schirtzer who will appear at the top of the high school ballot. He owes me a dinner.

The rest went fairly hum drum and we were done by 5:30.
The UFT election committee is meeting today at 6 after the DA to make some final decisions.

Today is a UFT delegate assembly followed by a MORE happy hour. We are bringing 10,000 election leaflets to the DA so we have enough for people to take back to their schools. Last time we brought 5000 and didn't have enough. MORE will have an organized crew on hand to log which schools are being covered.

Here is the MORE announcement:

Please pick-up you election fliers at UFT 52 Broadway NYC from 3:45 to 6:00pm. Post DA Happy Hour 6:00-7:00pmBlarney Stone 11 trinity place - one block way. Please take for your school , nearby chapters, and for your friends to distribute.

Chapter Leaders and Delegates please support our resolution to calling for an end to test based evaluations and motion to amend the receivership resolution.

http://morecaucusnyc.org/2016/03/20/get-test-scores-out-of-teacher-evaluation/

Before the DA I am dropping our lit at various schools in lower Manhattan with MORE's John Antush. Between us and New Action we may be getting out 70-80 thousand pieces of lit.