Much Ado About Making Resolutions: ICE Reso at Ex Bd, Jan. 2007

With regard to closing schools:

The DOE is successfully implementing the Grover Norquist “Starve the Beast” policy and it must be stopped. Norquist recommends tax cuts and more tax cuts so that government won’t be able to function and then his people complain that the government is doing a terrible job and needs to be cut some more."
-----Jeff Kaufman, posted on the ICE blog, Jan. 2007

I find the NAC attack on ICE over the silly notion that presenting resolutions at UFT Executive Board meetings is the most important thing one can do extremely funny. Especially since that is all New Action does. ICE, you see, has been out there actually supporting people at closing schools over the years.

Today's court decision on the closing schools is a perfect example of how UFT resolutions mean little. There have been quite a few resos against closing schools over the years. Why did it take so long to go to court? As I read it, the complaint is over the way procedures were not followed. Tweed's arrogance ha been exposed. But expect them to do it more carefully next time. The UFT doesn't oppose the closing of schools - as long as the procedures are followed. But a good aspect it that Tweed will have to come up with some consistent "facts"- twisted of course - for why schools should be closed. Like, Eva needs more space.

While New Action makes empty resolutions in a sea of Unity clones, ICE people have been at closing school meetings and PEP meetings and charter invasion hearings speaking up in support.

Not that ICE never made a closing school reso when we were on the Executive Board. James Eterno reminded me today about this post on the ICE blog on Jan. 13, 2007 by Jeff Kaufman, currently ICE-TJC candidate for Assistant Treasurer. It exhibits the kind of work ICE did on the Exec. Board, with analysis of DOE policy behind school closings.

James Eterno, ICE's High School Rep, submitted a resolution calling for the UFT to get off the fence and call for a moratorium on the closing of schools before an independent evaluation can be concluded.

While hundreds of our members face excessing Weingarten showed how she can fiddle while Rome burns and substituted a watered down resolution which called for the DOE to "refrain" from closing schools.

Thanks, Randi. Way to stand up to BloomKlein who close schools for political reasons and to create large pools of excessed teachers. But what could we really expect, especially when you completed a sweetheart deal to continue the decimation of seniority, loss of grievance rights and other basic rights of our members? You showed your true colors when you "agreed" with the closing of Lafayette. The teachers and staff at Lafayette thank you as well.

The resolution follows:

January 2007 Resolution Calling for a Moratorium on Closing Schools

WHEREAS, the Department of Education (DOE) chronically mismanages schools, refuses to provide schools with adequate funding and then blames staff for failing results; and

WHEREAS, there is no valid evidence that proves the educational benefits of the DOE’s policy of closing schools, not admitting new students, displacing staff, and then reopening the same building as a different school or group of schools; and

WHEREAS, there is no clear standard for what constitutes a failing school yet the DOE in December announced the closing of five more schools; and

WHEREAS, the resulting period of uncertainty can have a deleterious impact on students in the effected schools as well as in neighboring schools that become severely overcrowded by accepting incoming students who would have gone to the schools being phased out; and

WHEREAS, new/redesigned schools do not have to accept special education and Limited English Proficiency students in their first two years of existence, thus creating fewer educational options for some of our students most in need, and concentrating disproportionate numbers of these students in other facilities, straining the resources of those schools too; and

WHEREAS, the 2005 UFT Contract eliminated Article 18G5, which gave staff in closing or phased out schools the “broadest possible placement choices available within the authority of the Board;” and

WHEREAS, the current Contract throws staff (experienced and new) from closing/phasing out schools en masse onto the “open market” where they must look for their own jobs or become Absent Teacher Reserves (day-to-day substitutes) thus discouraging UFT members from wanting to work in difficult schools; and

WHEREAS, many of the schools that replaced previously redesigned schools are now themselves failing and in danger of closing; therefore be it

RESOLVED, that the UFT call for an immediate moratorium on the closing down/ redesigning of schools by the Department of Education until independent studies are done to assess the effectiveness of the newly redesigned schools as well as the overall impact of closing/redesigning schools on students, staff and communities throughout the system; and be it further

RESOLVED, that the UFT use part of its “Teachers Make a Difference” campaign to publicize the need for full funding of all schools, with particular attention paid to calling for extra funding for troubled schools in order to: lower class sizes, provide modern up to date facilities as well as safe and stable environments as an alternative to closing schools, displacing students and staff resulting in overcrowding of neighboring schools.

It’s time for the UFT to use its resources to stop allowing the Department of Education to get away with holding teachers and students accountable for their mismanagement.

The DOE is successfully implementing the Grover Norquist “Starve the Beast” policy and it must be stopped. Norquist recommends tax cuts and more tax cuts so that government won’t be able to function and then his people complain that the government is doing a terrible job and needs to be cut some more.

The DOE chronically under-funds schools. The courts have declared that the city doesn’t even give adequate funding for a sound basic education. The DOE adds to the problem by chronically mismanaging schools and then blaming us when schools don’t get everyone to be proficient.

Instead of thanking the teachers and other UFT members for performing educational miracles with so many students in situations that are virtually impossible, our schools are deemed failing by some criteria that nobody knows about. The schools are then closed down, we are displaced and have to apply for our jobs back in our own schools. Kids who would have gone to the school closing are directed to other schools which become more overcrowded and then they are deemed as failing. The new schools don’t have to take special education students or ESL students for two years so they look like they are succeeding but the success and extra funding later dry up and certain new schools have already been deemed as failures. This has been going on for years. This cycle must cease as nobody has shown any concrete evidence that any of this works for students

The UFT’s position on all of this has been to wait. In 2003 the Manhattan High School Chapter leaders came up with a resolution calling for a moratorium on the breakup and redesign of large high schools. I cosponsored the introduction of that resolution in this body and it was tabled. The UFT put together a small schools task force that called for among other things a study to be done on the effectiveness of small schools but it didn’t call for the DOE to stop closing schools until we have the data.

In 2006 the Parents Citywide Council on High Schools called the Chancellor to substantially delay the implementation of small high schools in part because of the issue of special ed and ESL students not being accepted in new schools. I asked last year at this body if the UFT supported that resolution and I was sent a copy of the small schools task force and later the UFT sponsored a resolution reaffirming the value of large high schools but not calling for the DOE to stop closing schools.

Now we need to go further. When the DOE brings in an outside agency to review schools and they find Tilden High School is proficient and then soon thereafter it is announced that Tilden will be closing, there is something that doesn’t smell right. Small schools versus big schools is not the issue. The issue is what constitutes a failing school? It’s not only large high schools that are in danger. Schools that have already been redesigned are in trouble. Many of us are being threatened with being closed because we exercise our contractual rights. I have been told that I better tone it down or Klein will come in and shut us down.

What this resolution asks is for the DOE to stop shutting down schools until we can get some fair, independent studies done to assess the effectiveness of newly redesigned schools including examining the impact on neighboring schools. This resolution also asks for the UFT to publicize the need for fully funding all schools but particularly schools that are in trouble so we get what we need to succeed and stop the madness of closing schools, displacing students and staff and then overcrowding other schools where they then are deemed as failing. That cycle must end now.

This is a powerful resolution, with an analysis of the motives behind school closings 3 years before the UFT woke up. And we're still not sure they have. Of course, Unity and New Action ignored what we were saying. If there is a point to making these resos, it is to use them to educate people on the issues. Without putting this up on the ICE blog, the reso is meaningless, since Unity waters them down or rejects them. A fundamental difference between New Action and ICE is that we believe the UFT/Unity machine has to be beat over the head to move, not have a nice chat with them over policy. When we have an army of thousands at our backs we will be able to force change. Otherwise, we are talking into space.

Historical Perspective of ICE and GEM: Getting the Message Out

I don't write enough about how proud I am of the role the Independent Community of Educators (ICE) has played over the years in the resistance movement.

With our large-scale petition signing event going on this afternoon and the time I have spent in helping to organize it, time I often resent because I am just not super interested in dealing with UFT elections and view it as worse than a trip to the dentist, I thought it useful to share a few thoughts.

ICE has all too often been viewed only as a UFT caucus battling over internal UFT politics, something we have not always been too effective at doing.

But ICE was founded more as a group to analyze the state of public education and has done a great job at bringing the issues to attention. It was only the sell-out and collaborative policies of the UFT that forced us to get into the pit with Unity Caucus and its sell-out partner, New Action.

Since this the attack on public education began in NYC 7-8 years ago we have seen a big jump in getting our word out. Note how many speakers - even the UFT - are using our analysis.

ICE began in Nov. 2003 (and Ed Notes years before that in 1996) motivated by getting the word out even to our colleagues in the opposition, people who told us mayoral control and testing were not their issues. When ICE people attended all the UFT mayoral control meetings over the last few years and put out a minority position, even someone as astute as Angel Gonzalez said he was beginning to understand the big picture. Michael Fiorillo has been sharing the "big picture" with us for years. Now Leo Casey is giving Michael's speech about privatization at PEP meetings. But over the years, the UFT leadership has consistently coopted positions we took. Some think that is a good thing - look, you all had some influence. But they only took those positions on paper for PR purposes and to undercut the influence ICE might have.

Recently, though we are a tiny voice, our positions on testing (ED Notes as raising resos at the UFT DA as far back as the late 90's), mayoral control, charter schools, merit pay, etc, have been reaching a crescendo.

ICE has attracted deep thinkers about education, some of the highest quality people I have met. What we were missing were people who were activists with experience in organizing. When Angel Gonzalez joined us over a year ago (his retirement in July 2008 made him available) he brought that edge to ICE. Angel suggested ICE form a committee to address the ATR issue. The always amazing John Lawhead added the element that ATRs came from closing schools and closing schools came from the high stakes testing regimen.

A year ago a few of us from ICE held the first committee meeting in a diner. There were 4 of us. At that point I was attending meetings of Justice, Not Just Tests, a NYCORE group focusing on fighting high stakes tests. We invited Sam Coleman to attend our meetings. Others joined in and the concept of GEM was born. Following on the work CORE in Chicago was doing, we held a conference in March, reaching out to some of the Harlem schools under attack by Eva Moskowitz and a march and demo at Tweed in May. Somewhere in this time we picked up the GEM name.

In late June/early July when PS 123 came under attack by Moskowitz, GEM came out in force and started making contacts all over the city.

GEM has been a totally different experience from the more cerebral ICE. Most of the ICE core has jumped in. That has left ICE with less time and resources to devote to the UFT election, which we committed ourselves to a year ago. But I view it all as one movement over the long run. GEM is involved with ICE, NYCORE, TJC, ISO, Teachers Unite, CAPE and goodness knows how many other organizations involved. GEM is not a UFT caucus and is working with student and parent groups.

That TJC and ICE chose James Eterno as our presidential candidate last May has turned out to be a good thing. While James cannot campaign (Mulgrew naturally can visit numerous schools every week) due to the closing of Jamaica HS where he is chapter leader, he has risen to new heights as a fighter for his school. Despite his candidacy, he has worked closely with the UFT leadership and has in no way tried to make hay of his situation vis a vis the campaign.

The election has spurred interest by a batch of younger teachers through the work of Teachers Unite's Sally Lee (just returning to action after giving birth in September) and some members of NYCORE. Some have signed on to run with us and this is a major change from past years. Are there enough to make a big difference in terms of the vote? Hard to say. But in terms of organizing a core of committed activists, we are very early in the game. If the people who are praising Mulgrew as being very different from Randi are correct we will see a turn of the UFT and that would establish a different relationship between ICE, GEM and the UFT/Unity caucus.

But I believe in the long run people will see the differences are due to Mulgew's style and over time he will "evolve" into the traditional UFT leader. In the meantime, he seems to be getting a bit of a honeymoon with even severe critics of Unity in the blogging world seemingly impressed. (Actually, there is no one, including me and even her most adamant supporters in the past, who do not feel Mulgrew is an improvement in style over Weingarten, who has just about wore everyone out.) With people like Leo Casey getting up at public meetings and making speeches that channel ICE's Michael Fiorillo, one would think the UFT has changed. But they have always adopted and adapted ICE and now GEM positions for rhetorical purposes.

Mulgrew has made the union even less democratic than Randi did with new restrictions on the delegate assembly. Until there is a move to democratize the UFT and add diversity to the Exec Bd (Mulgrew would have to end the phony alliance with New Action that allows them to get 8 Ex Bd seats and ICE/TJC none despite their out polling New Action) nothing will change.


Ed Note: I know that new readers, and even some old ones, may have trouble following the acronyms of all the groups. I may have to put up a guide on the sidebar if there are requests.

But here is a guide:
ICE- Independent Community of Educators
GEM- Grassroots Education Movement
NYCORE- NY Collection of Radical Educators
TJC- Teachers for a Just Contract.
CAPE - Concerned Educators for Public Education
CPE - Coalition for Public Education

There are many other groups active currently that we are dealing with and if you were left out email me.

ICE Petition Signing Event at Murray Bergtraum HS, Jan. 29, 3-7 PM

NOTE: YOU MUST SIGN UP IN ADVANCE FOR THIS EVENT SO YOUR INFO CAN BE PREPRINTED ON PETITIONS TO SAVE YOU LOTS OF TIME

From Ellen Fox, ICE Election Committee

Help ICE-TJC get on the ballot, so it can launch a campaign against a Unity leadership that seems lost in a moment of crisis that it helped to create.

We really, really need everybody to pitch in for this important activity, so that a strong ICE-TJC slate can stand up against a UFT "leadership" that has allowed a situation of true crisis to develop.

Before our eyes, the threats continue to proliferate, as we watch more and more schools slated for closing; charters siphoning off students, space and resources that once belonged to neighborhood public schools; seasoned teachers turned to ATR's; others relegated to TRC's (aka Rubber Rooms). Now the corporate voices of Bloomberg, Klein, Arne Duncan, Weingarten and their ilk are calling for teacher ratings, and perhaps tenure, to be tied to student performance on standardized tests. Remember when our biggest problem was what to do with the 37 1/2 minutes?

In the face of all of this, Unity leadership looks more and more like a deer caught in the headlights, shifting the burden of defense increasingly to individual schools, without any effective and unified plan to ward off the threats.

We need your agreement to sign ICE petitions on Friday, January 29, as well as your personal data, including your complete name, file number, and the school where you are working, so that we can prepare petitions in advance for you to sign. You'll enjoy congenial company, perhaps a pizza or two, and the knowledge that you've taken a step to help us get on the ballot.

If you can attend email your name, school (or where you work) and file number or last 4 digits of SS to ellenunion@yahoo.com

Historical Perspective of Education Notes

A short history of Education Notes, its relationship to the UFT leadership, the formation of the Independent Community of Educators (ICE) and the Grassroots Education Movement (GEM) was distributed in the hard copy Dec. '09 edition of Ed Notes at the Delegate Assembly, where I have been handing it out almost every month since 1996. That's pretty much the entire Brazilian rain forest. There is a pdf available for downloading if you wish to share it with someone who has no life. (http://www.scribd.com/doc/24276475/Ed-Notes-Dec-09)

I began publishing Education Notes in 1996 at Delegate Assemblies because I was frustrated at the process that allowed the chair, usually the UFT president, almost total domination of the procedures. If you wanted to get the floor to make a resolution they had total control over who got to speak and if you were too outspoken on issues not liked by the leadership, you could easily get shut out. By distributing Ed Notes before meetings, I got to say my piece, whether I was called on or not. Ed Notes grew in size from one sheet to a 10-14-page booklet and then in 2002 when I retired, it became a full-sized 16-page tabloid published 4 times a year.

Having come out of the opposition movement to Unity Caucus in the 70’s (I was mostly inactive in the union from the mid-80’s through the early 90’s) I became active again when I replaced a Unity Caucus chapter leader in 1994 at my elementary school, which had a “my way or the high way” principal for over 15 years and we had butted heads all the time. My becoming chapter leader freaked her out and I began publishing a school newsletter, often once a week. That freaked her out even more and I began to understand the power of the press, even at the most local level.

I took a look at the opposition groups and didn’t find much that appealed to me. New Action was the major opposition caucus and was fairly ineffective though it did win support in the high schools by winning the 6 high school Exec Bd seats on a regular basis. Six out of 89 gave them little leverage and after leading the successful battle against the first 1995 contract to be rejected by the membership, they started fading. PAC, a smaller opposition group was totally focused on the teachers who were losing their licenses when they didn’t pass the teacher exams. Teachers for a Just Contract took positions I agreed with, but I thought they focused too much on a narrow range of issues.

I would attend UFT Exec Board meetings and was so frustrated at the way New Action would deal with Unity, so often cowed into submission. There didn’t seem to be enough fight in them, though a few like Marvin Markman and James Eterno were at times effective. But New Action leader Michael Shulman was the dominant player and so often seemed to throw a blanket over the Caucus.

Thus I figured the only way to create some change in the union was to appeal to what I felt had to be a progressive wing of Unity. At that time, Randi Weingarten was about to take over the union and presented herself as leading that progressive force. She reached out to me, claiming she agreed with me on so many issues, sometimes through late night email exchanges. Her people whispered that she was going to make changes in the union to democratize it and even make changed to liberalize Unity. But absolute power --- you know the drill.

By 2001, it was becoming clear that Randi was not only not liberalizing the union, but also making it more undemocratic than ever. As a small example, the new motion period ever since I became a delegate in 1971, took place immediately after the question period. Suddenly, if Randi didn’t like a resolution I was proposing, she either eliminated the time altogether or pushed it to the end of the meeting. She became more and more of a demagogue. In 2001, I became increasingly restive as she started supporting merit pay schemes and mayoral control, and I became increasingly critical of her and Unity Caucus, seeing that whatever progressive wing there might be (and I had plenty of conversations with people who came off that way) was cowed by Unity Caucus discipline. It became clear that the caucus was like a black hole. Once you went in you never came out.

Many of the positions Ed Notes took in the late 90’s - opposition to high stakes testing and the ridiculous accountability it engendered, unbridled principal power, drastic reductions in class size, support for chapter leaders under attack, a stronger grievance procedure, total opposition to merit pay, a broader curriculum not based on standardized tests began to attract some of the few independent delegates not affiliated with the other opposition groups. People like Michael Fiorillo.

The New Action Sellout
For activists in the union, the dirty deals made between Randi and New Action Caucus in 2003 whereby they wouldn’t run a presidential candidate against her in the 2004 elections and she wouldn’t run Unity Caucus candidates against their 6 high school Ex Bd candidates was a seminal event. Dissidents in New Action who opposed the deal contacted me. James and Camille Eterno, Ellen Fox and Lisa North. They were outraged at the sell-out, especially over the fact that all of a sudden, New Action members were on the union payroll.

Eterno, who had been serving as a New Action Ex Bd member for years, turned down that guaranteed opportunity. We called a meeting of the New Action dissidents and the independents I had been meeting through Ed Notes. Incredibly impressive people like John Lawhead (now chapter leader of Tilden HS), Sean Ahern, Jeff Kaufman and Julie Woodward. Added to that were some of the people who I had been active with in the 70’s: Ira Goldfine, Loretta and Gene Prisco, Paul Baizerman and Vera Pavone.

Formation of the Independent Community of Educators
Out of that meeting on Halloween 2003 came the Independent Community of Educators (ICE), which decided to run a slate in the 2004 elections and challenge New Action for those 6 high school seats, which given the fact that Unity was not running for those seats, we had a chance.

In the meantime, TJC was emerging as another group willing to challenge the Unity/New Action alliance. There were some differences and some ruffled feelings at the time but TJC and ICE united to run one group for those 6 seats, and surprise, surprise, we knocked New Action out of the box by getting more high school votes than they did. This put Jeff Kaufman and James Eterno, along with some strong people from TJC on the Board. For the first time, I saw some fight at these meetings, as Eterno now out from under the New Action blanket, teamed with Kaufman to run Randi ragged. The schlep into the meetings every 2 weeks now became worth it.

By the 2007 elections Randi was desperate to get Kaufman and Eterno out of her hair at these meetings and took her alliance with New Action one step further. She ran a joint Unity/New Action slate for 8 seats, including the 6 high school seats. Thus, every Unity vote would also be a vote for these New Action candidates. Shulman, like a porno salesman with dirty pictures approached one of the former New Action members who was with ICE and offered one of these positions. He was turned down.

Thus, New Action, which actually tells people they have these 8 seats on the Ex Bd without telling them how they got them, tries to claim they are independent. But dare them to declare their independence by running directly against ICE/TJC and without Unity support and see what they will tell you. Shulman actually has the nerve to brag that he refuses to take the double pension from the UFT he could get for his job.

In the upcoming UFT elections, ICE/TJC are running a full slate for the officers and Exec Bd, with an outside chance to win back those 6 high school seats as a beachhead on the Ex Bd to force the leadership to examine its disastrous policies on mayoral control, testing, closing schools, charter schools - you name it, they have been wrong. In response to New Action’s contention its qualified support for Unity has helped the union, I ask them to show us where. By abandoning its historic role opposing Unity, no matter how weak that was, it left a vast vacuum that ICE and TJC have struggled to fill.

ICE/TJC Candidates for HS Ex Bd
There is a superb slate running for all positions, but for now I’ll focus on the six high school candidates, who if elected will have an impact:

Michael Fiorillo is an ICE founder, when Michael speaks or writes on the educational issues of the day, people sit up and listen. He was the chapter chairman at Newcomers HS and is now the delegate.

Arthur Goldstein was recently elected as Chapter Leader of Francis Lewis HS, one of the most overcrowded in the city. Widely published in numerous newspapers and a regular at the Gotham Schools blog, Arthur has established a national reputation as a witty and incisive commenter. In his short time as Chapter leader, he has led the battle to address the overcrowding issues. His commentary on the conditions in the trailer he teaches in has embarrassed Tweed on numerous occasions.

John Lawhead, now chapter leader at Tilden high school, was an ICE founder. He contacted me when he found a copy of Ed Notes in his mailbox at Bushwick HS and wrote some articles. His depth of knowledge on educational issues, particularly on the high stakes testing, is astounding. I went with him to a conference of activists opposing NCLB (remember the UFT/AFT was supporting it) in Birmingham Al, back in early 2003 and hobnobbed with the national resistance to NCLB and high stakes testing. There is not one ICE meeting that goes by that John doesn’t say something that puts things together in a way that makes me say “Aha!”

I’ve known the TJC candidates for years, but I’ll leave it to them to provide more details in their campaign literature.

Kit Wainer, chapter leader of Leon Goldstein HS in Brooklyn for many years, was the ICE/TJC presidential candidate in 2007. Every time I hear him talk at a meeting, he makes complete sense and says it in an amazingly impressive manner.

Marian Swerdlow, who was a long-time delegate from FDR, has been a stalwart of the opposition for almost 20 years. She is as good as anyone I’ve met in breaking down an issue and analyzing it. For years Ed Notes published her awesome DA minutes, which she is still producing. They are not to be missed. If for nothing else, it is worth seeing her on the Ex Bd for those delicious minutes. Imagine the impact Swerdlow, with her ability to think on her feet, would have when Unity tries to pull its shenanigans.

Peter Lamphere, chapter leader at Bronx High School of Science, has been engaged in an epic struggle with a horror story of a principal. Peter was one of the leaders of the 20 math teachers who filed a complaint over harassment. He is as impressive in a public forum as anyone I’ve seen.

Formation of GEM
I must conclude with an account of the origins of the Grassroots Education Movement (GEM), which has been leading the battle against charter, schools and school closings. GEM emerged out of an ICE committee addressing the ATR issue in Jan. 2009. Spearheaded by John Lawhead and Angel Gonzalez, a recent retiree who had been part of the FMPR group supporting the teachers in Puerto Rico and had come to ICE for help and joined, the committee began to address the issue of the roots of the ATR issue by bringing together NYCORE people who were fighting high stakes testing and people from closing schools (it was Lawhead who put these concepts into a neat package for us). GEM held a conference and a march from Battery Park to Tweed last spring and during the summer worked up in Harlem to support the teachers and parents being invaded by Eva Moskowitz’ Harlem Success schools. In a short time, GEM has become recognized throughout the city as the group to go to for support, since the UFT has left such a vacuum.

....to be continued

Goldstein and Eterno: ICE Chapter Leaders in the NY Post

The new ICE election 2010 blog has this item:

ICEr CLs in Queens schools quoted in the NY Post

One of the things to be proud of: the amazing work people associated with the Independent Community of Educators do. Queens chapter leaders, the vet James Eterno (Jamaica HS) and the newly elected CL Arthur Goldstein (Francis Lewis) are featured in this excellent piece in the NY Post by Angela Montefenise. Goldstein makes the point that the solution to the overcrowding at Francis Lewis HS is to improve the other large high schools in the area.

“I absolutely believe that they can make the other schools in the area better,” said Goldstein. “It’s their job to make the other schools better. Better options would spread students out, and everyone would be better off.”

A perfect example is Jamaica High School, a large school located less than three miles south of Francis Lewis. It received a C on its progress report, has attendance rates in the low 70 percentile and a grad rate of only 47%, stats show.

Francis Lewis received almost 13,000 applications — the most in the city — from students eager to go there. Jamaica received 1,580 applications, eight times fewer.

Meanwhile, with 1,416 kids, Jamaica is 700 students under capacity.

“I understand the DOE wants to give parents and students what they want,” said Goldstein. “But they should be focused on getting kids interested in Jamaica so they want to go there. That should be the goal.”

Eterno, the ICE/TJC candidate for UFT President against Unity Caucus' Michael Mulgrew, is known as one of the top chapter leaders in the city. He talks about Jamaica HS:

Jamaica social studies teacher and UFT rep James Eterno said his school “has the dedicated staff and programs” to be successful, but needs a helping hand to become more attractive to students.

“We have the space right now to lower class sizes,” he said. “If we could offer really low class sizes, personal attention, parents would send their kids here. That’s something Francis Lewis can’t offer.”

The DOE response:

DOE spokesman Will Havemann said class size is not just tied to space, but also to the number of teachers at the school. “Principals are free to hire new teachers to reduce their class sizes, but given the city’s financial circumstances, significantly reducing class sized may be prohibitively expensive,” he said.

Eterno has repeatedly reported on the ICE blog how the DOE has put Jamaica in a situation that steered kids away. We know their policy is not to build up a school like Jamaica to make it more attractive but to openly and surrepticiously undermine it so the fabulous building will become available for Gates, New Visions, or any charter school looking for free space.

James Eterno is running for UFT President and Arthur Goldstein will be running for a UFT Executive Board position on the ICE/TJC slate in the upcoming UFT elections.


Support the election effort by joining the ICE fundraiser Monday night. Make it a virtual party if you can't make it by sending a check made out to Independent Community of Educators (not ICE) and sending it to:
Box 1143
Jamaica, NY 11421

Independent Community of Educators is Ready to Parteeeeee!

ICE plans its first fundraiser of the UFT election year

TIME TO PARTY!

Benefit to raise funds for the UFT elections

Show your support for ICE —
the Independent Community of Educators,
a caucus of the UFT

Come out and enjoy a late afternoon/evening
of conversation, food and drink.

Stay late. There're no students in
school the next day, only PD!

When: Monday, November 2, 2009,
the day before Election Day

Where: Woody McHale's, 234 West 14th St.
(between 7th & 8th Aves.)
Time: 4PM - 7PM and beyond

http://www.woodymchales.com

See your local ICEer to buy a ticket.
Advanced Reservations can be made at ICEUFT@gmail.com, or call 917-538-9815.

ICE blog ICE main site

Read the full ICE platform at UFT Elections 2010


Sick of Unity Caucus controlling the UFT for 45 years?
The UFT leadership is the true Manchurian Candidate, the enemy within.
Help to build a base that can become an alternative to Unity.
And make sure to check out sections of the dynamic and progressive platform at the new ICE election blog: UFT Elections 2010

Randi Grandstands at the DA – After Accusing ICE of Grandstanding

"Say NO to the political grandstanding and opposition without meaning." - Unity Caucus leaflet handed out at the Delegate Assembly, May 13, 2009

Ya gotta hand it to that wacky Randi Weingarten. In the midst of running the national AFT and the local UFT into the ground, she finds time to focus on the ICE/Ed Notes little ole resolution on chapter leaders.

On Tuesday night we posted this:

Defend Chapter Leaders Sent to Rubber Rooms

With the triennial chapter leader election season taking place, the attacks on chapter leaders as a way to undermine the union, particularly by Leadership Academy principals, has become an issue prospective CL's have to consider. This leaflet is to be handed out at today's Delegate Assembly and raised in the new motion period - if Weingarten ever stops filibustering. So don't count on it. Full text published at the ICE blog or click on the graphic.

At the Delegate Assembly Wednesday (May 13), she announced she had read a resolution on chapter leaders on the blogs and she thought it was a good one - especially since it came from those grandstanders without meaning. (She not only read it but she commented on the ICE blog "anonymously" using the opportunity to attack Jeff Kaufman - I include the exchange at the end of this post.)

She called for a suspension of the rules, which the Unity faithful voted up immediately. She finally seemed to have noticed that with chapter leader elections coming up and leadership academy principals obviously trained in tactics to undermine CL's, some people, afraid for their careers, are declining to run. Of course, it took a few blog postings from us little old grandstanders without meaning to remind her. But we're always willing to help out.

She said that the union had done a little bit of rewriting, handed out their version of our resolution and lined up a chapter leader who was in the rubber room to speak. Wow! What union support he got. Phone calls and visits from his district rep every hour. And union VP Bob Astrowsky dropped by to bring him flowers and lunch every day. And Randi herself landing on the roof of the rubber room in a helicopter. I began to think maybe we are wrong about these union leaders. They are really concerned with people in the rubber room, especially the chapter leaders. No wonder they don't have time to handle grievances effectively.

Well, Randi asked if anyone wanted to speak against and if I were a delegate I would have gotten up to oppose a motion I had mostly written myself. When I was a delegate I used the tactic of opposing a popular motion because it was a way to get the floor since they have to call on someone opposed. Unfortunately, no one took advantage of the opportunity to point out the hypocrisy of Randi, who had to be reminded by our grandstanding blogs that attacks on chapter leaders and the union's inability to defend them were bleeding away the lifeblood of the union at the chapter level.

I would have also pointed out how this replacement motion was true grandstanding without any real teeth.

And note how she had the resolution rewritten and passed out as their motion, taking out a few things that gave it teeth. So much for a "grandstanding opposition without meaning" as quoted in the Unity leaflet handed out Weds. What they took out is indicative of how they think.

The Unity/UFT version
Removed this whereas: The number of teachers sent to rubber rooms has escalated since the beginning of mayoral control which has led to an increased level of autocratic rule in many schools;

This is important as if they left it in it would be an admission that their support for mayoral control has had a disastrous result in the schools, something they keep denying.

Replaced "Leadership Academy Principals" with just "principals."
This ignores the fact that the LA seems to focus training on chapter leaders.

Removed from the Resolve: a letter to principals putting them on notice that without a substantive emergency reason for rubber room placement there will be counter charges of harassment based on union/age/freedom of speech issues.

The Unity version ignored our case study where we pointed out how they tell people not to talk about their cases, to sit back and be silent and "it was not the time to file an Art.2 harassment grievance. Call it the basic inaction plan whereas the ICE resolution was more proactive.

You can pass any number of resolutions but with a collaborative union without spine nothing will change for chapter leaders under the gun just as it didn't when Ed Notes raised an even stronger resolution 10 years ago and Randi opposed it. How have things been going for chapter leaders since then? the Unity version has no teeth by putting the SWAT team on the case and calls for monitoring OSI - we could have made it stronger by calling for Jeff's original point of hiring our own investigators and probably some other things.

We know one thing: this Unity version will have zero impact on protecting chapter leaders or anyone in the RR. It will take a union with principles and spine, not resos to protect people.

Is Randi really leaving?
Now you tell me if someone who is so engaged in the minutia of what the tiny opposition grandstanders are doing is planning on leaving the UFT soon.

As early as this summer according to Wayne Barrett in his ridiculous article in the Village Voice? Randi's involvement in this ICE resolution, suspending the rules of the DA with so much business to conduct, even commenting anonymously twice on the ICE blog is a strong sign that she will be running for President again in the winter of 2010.

James Eterno has a DA report on the ICE blog. I disagree with his interpretation and think the Unity version has enough differences to have opposed or amended it. Next time.

It's great to see our grandstanding without meaning be given so much meaning by the Unity Caucus leadership. (Read on for more on the meaningless actions of the opposition given meaning by Unity.)


Related:
The April DA was also dominated by those political grandstanders at ICE when their leaflet listing the ICE contract demands for the next contract dominated the discussion at one of the best DA's in memory according to sources. That was because for one solid hour the members were allowed to talk, something extremely rare at the DA.

James had an excellent report in the April DA. One of the key issues discussed was Letters in File (LIF) and the removal of the right to grieve them in the 2005 contract, something the union claims was a good thing. From James' report:

The best part of the meeting came when a delegate brought up the issue of winning back the right to grieve to remove inaccurate/unfair letters from our personnel files. She talked about how the threat of multiple grievances often forced principals to back off of our members.

Randi asked for someone to find any substantive right on this issue that we have lost since 2005. She went on to talk about how after three years, letters are removed from files if we haven't been charged and we could bring up the issue if there were a spike in letters.

[ICE's] Julie Woodward rose from her chair and answered Randi specifically. She said that we could no longer stop Principals from lying about us in letters written for our files with a grievance. She stated that principals could write anything about us and we were basically powerless to do anything in response. In the course of this debate,the standard from the old Contract, inaccurate or unfair, that allowed us to fight grievances successfully was raised. Randi responded that we almost never won and letters were just altered and now they are removed after three years.

So at the May DA, UFT Grievance chief Howie Soloman gave a PowerPoint presentation (boooring and we left) on LIF. Under Assualt takes Solomon's presentation apart in this post: New info on LIFs! Just kidding. Excerpt:

Let's tell all those union management people — who just loved the idea of PD for all — to go get some PD for themselves. Maybe even an internship for a year in a real school.

We're up against an army of corpocrats and their generals, people who seek power for power's sake. Union management doesn't have a clue about the reality of what we're dealing with. If I'm wrong and they do, their band-aid approach to this abuse is stunningly anemic, or . . . they're collaborating big-time.

*Randi's back and forth on the ICE blog comments.
How can you tell? Randiologists can recognize her imprint anywhere. No one else in the UFT hierarchy follows the details of stuff that took place so many years ago. Or gives a crap. And look at the language. She has used the same wording at Exec Bd and DA's. Her venom at Jeff shows. The only thing she didn't do was call him "Jeffrey" as she used to at Exec Bds. (Those Randi-Jeff battles ever other week at the Exec Bd were worth the schlep over there.)

Anonymous [Randi] said...
What! It is our understanding that you called upon the union to work with you when you were sent to the rubber room. You personally called the president and was she not responsive? This was mentioned at the delegate assembly. Why not include the entire story Jeff?

Chapter leaders in the rubber room, as well as all members receive personalized attention from the Union and they are all provided with an attorney.

Jeff, why be disengenious...you should know and share the special actions that the union takes on behalf of the union reps. Care to share info on PERB charges??? Or do you want to complain and exclude attempts made on your behalf as well as other chapter leaders...convenient!

Wednesday, May 13, 2009 6:29:00 AM

Someone responds...
As a start the principals who file frivolous charges against veteran teachers should be named. This, of course, will be over the muddled protests of the union leadership. I am not saying that they themselves should be sent to the rubber room on trumped-up charges...just named. Let's show some guts.
As it is now there is no down side for principals to dispatch teachers to rubber rooms. Why WOULDN'T they continue to do just that.
And to the first anonymous: Nice try at misdirection. the post is not about 'Jeff' at all. Please re-read the post or stop your own disingenuous commentary.

Anonymous [Randi] said...
Wrong, at the exec board, Randi did not say it was too expensive! What I attempted to point in utilizing Jeff as an example (as you did in the blog..so following the lead) was that his Union through support behind him while he was chapter leader. Was it one time or two times that the principal was removed? And having an attorney assigned and taking the case to PERB, all the way. Perhaps the findings were not suitable, however support was provided to him as a chapter leader and as a member..as it should be. Let's be clear, the blog referenced Jeff...and let's get the facts straight.

Mayoral Control: Bad for Teachers, Students, Parents and Communities

Here is the 2-sided ICE leaflet being handed out at the UFT special Delegate Assembly today to endorse the UFT task force report on mayoral control. ICE has another view.

Bloomberg screams hysterically about these mild limits placed on his power - like he can't control the reps the borough people choose - see one Martine Guerrier the former Brooklyn rep who was hired by Klein as parent CEO. It is all much ado about nothing.

In the UFT "reform" he still gets to appoint the chancellor and the UFT doesn't even endorse the CSA call for the chancellor to be an educator. The ICE plan calls for 5 years of teaching experience, among other reforms. Even the UFT says we don't want to go back to a central board of education, which by the way has never been elected like boards of education are all over the nation. Have you seem the results of a dictatorial mayor controlling things? Teachers and parents know the phony stats are total bullshit and most kids are more poorly educated today than they ever were under the old system.

Read the view of one parent/teacher below the leaflet.

Click on images to enlarge



From a parent and teacher critical of the UFT plan:

Read some of the articles of parents who went to Washington D.C. to testify AGAINST Mayoral Control - it SEEMED like a good idea at the time to "save" the failing public schools. Type in"Mayoral Control NYC DOE" in your browser to find articles relating to this.

Change for changes' sake is NOT always a good idea- we need solid ideas, and the political will to implement these ideas, if we really want to save public education and turn the public school system to what it should be- TRUE education for all that are capable. Schools should be turning out graduates that know how to read, write, think critically- this ISN't happening.

As a parent of a NYC student and a teacher, AND resident of the city, I'm appalled by how my daughter has been miseducated all of these years. How will she be able to realistically compete for any kind of meaningful job when she graduates? For years, she hasn't had textbooks, workbooks, NOTHING to work with, to read or study from. It's not the fault of the teachers, it's the decisions that have been made from the top and pushed down to the bottom rungs.

My story is repeated by the parents of other students, I'm sure. Who loses as a result of mayoral control? The students, the very people that schools are supposed to exist for....

Reports from the Belly of the Beast: What Happened at the UFT Exec Bd Meeting

From a correspondent attending the UFT Exec Bd meeting on Feb. 2.

Michael Fiorello from ICE got up to speak under the 10 minute open mic period. Bob Astrowsky who was running the meeting (and from all body language, seemed to not care less) told Michael that he could speak when the item of governance was on the agenda. Michael began to walk away, but then quickly returned and and asked for confirmation - good, quick move Michael. Astrowsky added that he would need a 2/3 vote of the body to speak. Michael was not about to give up the mic, when UFT Governance Task Force co-chair Emil Pietromonaco said that any member of the committee would be able to speak.

The UFT governance report, though it does put in some checks and balances, does not gut mayoral control. When Michael spoke he talked about mayoral control against the national backdrop and pointed out that it was fraught with danger, particularly privatization and charterization of public education. He also talked about how the report may be politically expedient, but not necessarily good for members, kids and communities. He asked for our minority report to be attached.

At this point, people asked for copies, which we made available, although the issue was not what was in the report, but a member's right to attach one. Randi took the mic and began to question Michael.

She may have been trying to determine if our members shared their report with ICE, which we all know to our frustration, they did not. She asked if it was written up between the time that the UFT report was written and tonight. Michael responded to her questions.

For the record, the basis for that report was written in Loretta and Gene Prisco's living room 3 years ago by a diverse group of Staten Islanders - not yesterday or even last month. It has been edited, condensed and amended after discussion with ICE and a Staten Island Democratic Club. They even discussed how could to write a minority report when the specific details of the report were not known. ICE decided to submit the entire plan.

Leo Casey put up a resolution that the UFT print our minority report for the delegates on Wednesday, in addition to that of any other caucus, and have it available at the table at the DA. This passed.

There were some who attempted to tear at everyone's heartstrings by telling us how hard they worked, how many hours they worked to get this report done and questioned why this was brought up now. Then the usual arguments: There is strength in unity, a minority report would weaken the work of the committee and we have to go to Albany united.

In fact, an organization that has diversity and can withstand diversity is much stronger than one that has all marching lockstep.

The most brilliant comment came from an executive board member who said that this wasn't from a minority - it was only from three people. Is he teaching social studies?

New Action spoke. One spoke against the official report saying it just wasn't strong enough against Mayoral control. Another attempted to amend the report by adding that the Chancellor have a background in education. Unity's Sandi March said if that were so, we wouldn't have had a Harold Levy. Does March have an education background? If she does, it doesn't show. (Levy was a Regent, by the way.) If I hear one thing from teachers, it is their disgust that those who are making decisions aren't educators.

A few things struck me - in the years that I have been going - there is never discourse - they all agree, defend, pander. 81 people are all of one mind. Another point of view will not even be entertained. I don't think I belong to any organization like that. As a matter of fact, in the organizations that I belong to, if there are 20 people in the room, there are 28 different points of view.

The other, is that New Action [with 8 members who got elected with Unity's endorsement], is a loyal opposition. They serve the purpose of saying there is opposition - makes it look oh so democratic and a deliberative body. Even their voice votes were weak and feeble - and I am not sure that there were 6 of them heard in the roll call vote. If I were one of the opposing votes, I would have wanted my vote recorded so that I could stand on that record.

It also occurred to me, that if a majority of the people on the Exec. Bd. were in the schools working under this despotic system, threatened by becoming ATRs as schools closed, harassed by principals, faced the fear of being sent to the rubber room, losing academic freedom in the classroom, and doing hours and hours of detrimental test prep in large classes - they would be shouting to gut mayoral control and teachers and parents are doing,

We are definitely on the side of the angels on this one.

Joel Klein's Perfomance: Leonie and I on WBAI this Morning

UPDATE: David B. extracted just the portion of the program with Leonie and I.



The WBAI full program segment:
http://archive.wbai.org/files/mp3/081113_070001wuc.MP3

Our segment starts at 40:43 after Miriam Makeba sings.

I think I said that Klein persecuted (instead of prosecuted) Bill Gates during the anti-trust case. The host made the interesting point that Klein did not enforce anti-trust laws much beyond Microsoft. He went for the one case that would make him look good. Why are we not surprised?

WBAI may be doing something tonight around 7:30 or 8 on the same subject. I don't know who the guests are.

It's pretty interesting the ride this is being given.

At yesterday's UFT delegate assembly there was also a discussion and a resolution. The ICE attempt to amend it to expand things beyond Klein to the genre he represents was turned down.

Good work Lisa North and Michael Fiorillo in making some important points. While we focus on Klein, the idea that Michelle Rhee would also not be objectionable should also be raised. How long before Washington parents and teachers start their own petitions? I guess she has to be there longer than a year to alienate everyone, but she's doing even better than Klein at that.

Here is the text of what we handed out.

No Klein Or His Ilk In Obama Ed Dept.

ICE congratulates everyone who worked so hard to have Barack Obama elected US President. The multitudes of teachers who donated and worked for Obama expect that we will be respected by an Obama administration. We have suffered through a quarter century of teacher bashing in this country since the infamous A Nation at Risk was published. First, there was competency testing of teachers (supported by Hillary Clinton incidentally). Then, the one-way accountability system was introduced that blamed teachers for all of the social ills of the country. This led to the high-stakes testing movement which combined with Mayoral dictatorships over schools in many of our large cities. Blaming teachers became an acceptable form of discrimination. ICE states emphatically: TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF TEACHING BASHING IS ENOUGH! We must send real educators to Washington who will support an education policy that respects our work. ICE would like to see the following motion added to the agenda today:

Resolved, that the UFT will work to see that the Secretary and Under-secretary of Education share our values and we will toil to defeat any nominee such as Arne Duncan, Michelle Rhee, Joel Klein, Paul Vallas or any other potential Secretary of Education who supports corporate style, top-down, high stakes test crazed, teacher bashing accountability.

Where ICE Stands

As the Independent Community of Educators is about to reach its 5th anniversary (on Halloween, of course) we put this outline of some of ICE's basic positions without going into depth, which we will be doing on the ICE blog and web site. But you get the idea. I'll be writing more reflective pieces on the evolution of alternative views in the UFT over time.

Share with your colleagues. Contact me if you need a hard copy of an emailed pdf.

Click to enlarge.

A tale of the UFT and non-union building

Need to Run a Chapter Leader Election?

Some teachers have returned to school to find their chapter leader has resigned, been excessed, hung. Sometimes they contact the union to find out what to do. It's sort of left to someone conscious enough to take action. Sometimes, since there is no one in charge, they don't and the principal can just give out those parking permits as they wish. And do some other crap too.

Now one would think the UFT machinery would provide schools with an automatic method of handing this situation. An election for chapter leader should be held immediately but the UFT is so missing in action at this crucial moment in the school year. I guess they have other fish to fry (hint - look for a large green dot) than worrying about schools being left hanging without a union rep.

frying fish at the UFT

Some district reps take some initiative and set up a load of info.

Others respond with: "They are out of the kits and have ordered more. When it arrives, I will mail it to you."

Now this is one dumb (or lazy) district rep. (Why worry if a school has no union rep?) Maybe he thinks the kit comes in a box.

The ICE web site (not the blog) has the scanned "kit" downloadable in a pdf. (6th item on left hand panel.)

Maybe I missed it but I wish the UFT web site had the elusive "kit." If anyone wants to go on a scavenger hunt to find it, let us know.

Rubber Room Suit Out - Kaufman Comments

Elizabeth Green writes about the tossing of the rubber room suit by a state judge in today's NY Sun. Jeff Kaufman provides more extensive background on the case by Teachers4Action and comments on the ICE blog. Head over and read Jeff's entire piece. Here are a few excerpts:

Back in January a group of rubber room teachers who called themselves “Teachers4Action” filed an action in Federal District Court against the City and the UFT (the UFT was not originally named but was later included as a necessary party which resulted in the loss of union representation for the charged teachers) in an effort to shut the rubber rooms down. Erin Einhorn of the Daily News reported that “The suit alleges that the rooms are part of a "scheme" to discriminate against experienced teachers and "reduce salaries by forcing teachers to quit or be fired.

Teachers4Action is to be congratulated for having the courage to bring these proceedings. They have clearly been instrumental in maintaining the pressure on the both the UFT and the DOE to help stop the abuse that rubber room teachers are subjected to every day.

While kudos go out to Elizabeth Green of the New York Sun for covering this story it is important to note that Justice Payne did not throw out the case because “there was no evidence that the arbitrators were biased against the teachers.”

While the judge made a side comment about the lack of evidence he never heard any evidence since the case was dismissed because Teachers4Action filed the wrong paper.

We hope they will continue to fight.

Jamaica High School: Sabotage and Shock Doctrine

The ICE blog prints James Eterno's letter published by the NY Teacher over their error in publishing that Jamaica HS, where James is the chapter leader, will be closing. Let's see now. The UFT makes "simple" mistake on Jamaica HS closing - one of the centers of the opposition and a place where many votes came from in the election for high school executive board in recent elections. Do you think they are not planning ahead to the next election where they will try to maintain the New Action phony opposition members on the Exec Bd and keep ICE/TJC out again? And if Jamaica closed - no more James to deal with at chapter leader meetings, delegate assemblies, etc. And it will be less likely they will have to read honest reports on the DA written by James.

And on Charlie Rose, Randi said "after getting help" - what exactly is "help", like maybe cutting class size in a struggling school which apparently is not part of the UFT formula - schools should be closed (Shanker used to say the same thing). No matter how many resolutions the UFT passes, they are not opposed to closing schools and Peter Goodman (Ed in the Apple and Edwize) has made some nice bucks working on committees that lead to closing schools.

Call the article in the NY Teacher wishful thinking.

Below, George Schmidt gives a broader perspective.

After reading the information provided by James Eterno on the destabilization of Jamaica High, it all sounded too familiar.

The privatization formula is simple. First the public school is destabilized, then they come in with a "solution" off the privatization and public school replacement script.

I wish we had had enough staff and will in Chicago to track every instance of this, since Chicago provided many of the templates. But I was glad to read that you are documenting these realities in real time. Thanks.

Let's get together in Chicago during AFT and figure out how to maintain our tracking of these things in the big cities.

Next on your agenda, if the pattern is followed:

Complete privatization via charter schools is the next wave they implemented in Chicago -- with the "failing" high schools as the primary targets.

You're already in trouble in NYC because your local union (thanks, Leo) has cocked up support for the "charter ideal" with those silly samples.

Starting this year, Chicago has been replacing its "failing" small schools with "turnarounds" and charters. You're next. And with the help of your own union leaders, you've already given a green light to the privatization via charters.

George Schmidt
Editor, Substance

Puerto Rico, My Heart's Devotion

I was singing "America" from West Side Story all week while on my first trip to Puerto Rico, most of the time spent at a resort lounging at the beach, snorkeling, reading book after book and eating (a lot). One of the great things about retirement is the ability to travel whenever.

Color War
There were many corporate groups meeting there and we got to see first hand the "business" model of team building - expensive retreats and competitions with loud speakers and annoying noisemaking. One group wore tee-shirts that said their goal this year was $75,000,000.
This is the aspect that has been missing from BloomKlein's attempt to bring the business model to the schools (except maybe at KIPP where spending $70,000 on retreats to the Caribbean is acceptable.) It looked like one of those old camp Color War games where learned all about competition. I was such a lousy hitter when I was 10 years old, my teammates told me to go into the woods and pee when my turn at bat came. (My hitting didn't get much better over the years but I can pee on demand now.)

Coming soon:
Get those scores and grad rates up trips and tee-shirts with logos - 80% grad rates or bust.

I felt real comfortable in PR - lots of good feelings connected to working with mostly Puerto Rican kids in Williamsburg - and we hope to return. Maybe drive around the entire island stopping at beaches.

Next trip is to London in March for the 40th anniversary concert of The Zombies - (INSIDE JOKE FOR ZOMBIE FANS - I hope they're there. Or not there. Or maybe she won't be there.) And then on to Japan in April for the Asian Invitational FIRST LEGO League tournament. And maybe Iceland in June. Phew! I'm tired already.

In the meantime, I haven't been too active in local ed politics recently, with the Privatization Forum the week before last and the big FLL tournament coming up next Saturday (check the norms robotics blog for robotics in NYC for news) and my working for the past month on the FLL program guide (modeled on the old Ed Notes format - see, they were worth more than just using as ballast under the tires when it snowed) which, thank goodness, was just sent to the printer (a pdf is available for those interested, here.)

Last week's Delegate Assembly was the first I missed in a long time and I hear my buddies from ICE actually got something passed. We had a pretty good ICE meeting on Jan. 11 with a lot of people attending and discussed some strategy behind making amendments to a UFT resolution on school leadership teams.

I wouldn't attach too much significance to the fact that Leo Casey supported it, but you can read all about it at the ICE blog. I'll have some comments on the Hillary call later.

Ellen Raider from ICOPE did a presentation at the ICE meeting on their governance plan and we had a rousing discussion that ranged from "Their bottom-up governance plan is just pie in the sky" to "We need to start somewhere and work from that place." I personally support the bottom up concept where the school is the basic unit of power and urge people to take a look at the ICOPE model.

No one other than ICOPE seems to have come up with much of an alternative. Leonie Haimson always points to the "Who controls the money" argument whenever we talk about decentralized plans. But in reality, I feel we will still have some form of mayoral control because the UFT and just about every politician supports it. The UFT is doing its phony baloney Governance road show (tomorrow, Tuesday, at Martin Luther King HS in Manhattan at 6 if you are interested) to make it look like they don't really know what they'll do. They will issue a report to give venting to what people have to say and then do what's in the best interests of the leadership - which guess what, is mayoral control with a few tweaks since they are expecting to get Bill Thompson (who also called into the DA to show Blacks support Hillary) as the next mayor.

Smoke on your pipe and put that in.

Weingarten Says: It's All Hunky Dory in UFT/Tweedland

When only around 500 chapter leaders out of a potential 1500 showed up at the citywide Chapter Leader meeting on Tuesday, Randi Weingarten stated it must be because things are going well in the schools.

"This was one of the smoothest openings of schools ever," she said.

Boy, that wacky gang at Tweed must be doing something right.

Only 4000 over class size grievances and not the usual 6000. See, they're listening.

Last year almost twice as many CLs attended the Sept. meeting (held at the the magnificent auditorium at UFT HQ at 52 Broadway) and squeezing almost a thousand people into a room holding only 850 served to remind them of their overcrowded classes and how years of the UFT's "reduce class size" campaign has netted them nothing. And a lot of people never got a banana.

So this year I was all excited when they moved the meeting to the Brooklyn Marriott, where if I got there early, I was sure to score a macadamia nut cookie. And a banana.

But so many happy chapter leaders were busy celebrating the glorious opening of school with their colleagues, the meeting had to be moved to a much smaller room, which they had plenty of time to arrange since Weingarten showed up so late. But chapter leaders have plenty of extra time on their hands, so they didn't mind.

And I had time to eat and drink myself silly.

I was there with my leaflet announcing that after 10 years, the final print edition of Ed. Notes would be distributed at the OCT. 17 Delegate Assembly (you can read it here.)

There was shock and awe in Unity Caucus at this news and I had to console them. UFT District 22 rep Fred Gross came up with tears streaming down his face after reading the news and pleaded with me for another copy. I had to turn him down and he went off sobbing.

Well, here's some more good news. (Read James Eterno's right-0n report on the meeting at the ICE blog.)

The UFT will join the fight on NCLB, not to eliminate the horrendous law, but to stop the provision calling for individual merit pay for teachers. (Remember Randi's suggestion years ago that summer school teachers who get good scores should get free airline tickets.) But as a compromise the UFT/AFT seem willing to accept merit pay for entire schools that raise scores. Just plugging into the "test will decide all" mentality that I always charge them with no matter what their task force on reading says.

With reports of open revolts about to take place in the Queens and Staten Island rubber rooms, where the inhabitants blame the UFT as much as the DOE for their situation and the formation of groups like TAGNYC (who did such a good job standing up to Klein at the PEP meeting on Monday) to defend themselves in the absence of the UFT, Weingarten announced that the UFT will focus on ATR's and the rubber room and will be holding meetings with both groups. More deflection by the "masters of deflection." [Make sure to check this post out as it develops my theory on how the UFT operates.]

The work Woodlass has been doing on this blog on the ATRs and excessed has clearly had an impact and gotten the UFT's attention. (It is amazing how much they worry about anyone out there organizing.)

In a post the other day I wrote "the screams of the people are beginning to be heard and with the potential national impact of blogs calling Randi a sellout, she is trying to make it look like they will do something-- she has assigned Ron (back-stabbing worm) Isaac, Betsy Combier and reporter Jim Callahan to visit the rubber rooms and come up with suggestions. So she is trying to let the air out of the balloon."

It will be the usual "We hear you, we feel your pain." People will feel good like the union is paying attention and will stop organizing. A year later when nothing much has changed they will get the message: Talk loudly, carry a tiny stick.

3 Stooges
Jeff Kaufman (who brought rubber room conditions to everyone's attention in 2005) in a post called "Rubber Room Redux" wrote on the ICE blog about what he termed the "3 stooges" Randi has appointed to investigate the rubber rooms. I know all of them and only consider Ron (the back-stabbing worm) Isaac a true stooge. Jim Calahan is a reporter for the NY Teacher who has written a number of exposes on abusive principals and probably has good intentions, but will not have much impact.

Betsy Combier, not a teacher but a parent advocate who I have worked with on a number of cases, was recently hired by the UFT, ostensibly to assist in rubber room cases. But since the real reason she was hired was to keep her from revealing sensitive information about some high UFT officials she gained from a FOIL request, I have to be suspect about how effective she will be. But if someone wants to pay you 50 grand to keep your mouth shut, who can blame them? And since I and others know the sensitive info, it will do them no good anyway.

NOTE: Want a job with the UFT? FOIL all the work records of every former and current district rep to see if they actually teach the one period a day. Word is that a reporter for a local daily has already done so, which is causing all the DR's to make sure to do their daily period of teaching - poor dears.

Weingarten hired Ron Isaac last year for 60 grand a year as a reward for his work during the 2005 contract negotiations in stabbing the opposition in the back. (Ron had run with ICE in the 2004 elections and parlayed that into his job.) I also used to publish Isaac's articles in Ed Notes when the UFT did not want anything to do with him (years of applications to get into Unity were rejected.)

And by the way, one of Isaac's main jobs is to monitor this blog all day. From our conversation the other day it is clear he knows more about what I write than I do.

So, this is the rubber room crew that Weingarten has put together. If I were in the RR I wouldn't make plans to be back at my job real soon. Better to join up with TAGNYC.

Apparently there's some upset at Kaufman's calling them "3 Stooges." The UFT wouldn't know how to spell rubber room if not for Kaufman.

On a closing note, it was nice to get responses from people about the impact Ed Notes has had. (check the comments here). One chapter leader who I did not know came up and said he really enjoyed reading it all these years and even some positive words filtered out from some Unity people the non-suit non-goon wing.

It is also nice to see ICE beginning to stir again after a bit of hiatus. One Unity slug commented: "ICE melts slowly." Or not at all.

UFT To Members: Seniority is No Longer An Issue Because We Eviscerated It

......was posted by Jeff Kaufman on the ICE blog.

It lays out the basic seniority issues very well from the teacher rights point of view.

We should not view the issue solely from the perspective of teacher rights.

Joel Klein makes the argument that a school system should not be about job protection but about teaching and learning. Sounds noble if you don't know the real deal. Weingarten goes along with these beliefs as evidenced from her actions in relation to seniority protections and by info from the inside that she talks more about getting rid of bad teachers than about being worried about protections.

There's a case to be made (NEVER by the UFT, of course) that seniority rules create stability and school cultures that overcome the instances of the bad teacher being protected (I still think there are as many poor teachers, if not more, since BloomKlein and many people loyal to the principal will be protected no matter how bad they are.)

Stable schools include experienced people, many of whom share their knowledge and do the real training of newbies. Kids have long-standing relationships with teachers in these schools. The assault on seniority had done as much damage, if not more, to the educational institutions as it has to the traditional perspective of job protection.

Tilden and Lafayette: A Tale of 2 Chapters...

....What a farce 3

The response from the Unity gang at Lafayette to the posts of comments by current and former teachers at the school is so indicative of how Unity operates. They brag about how they got rid of the doctor even though the patient died. And add on some egregious statements that confirm the charge of one teacher about how they play both sides against the middle.

Unity: The DOE had the support of the Alumni.
ICE: They distributed to all staff the recent op-ed by well-known Lafayette alumnus Jerry Della Feminina denouncing Klein for closing Lafayette and calling for a rally of alumni to keep the school open.

Unity: Support the 2005 contract and denounce the ICE person at the school for being anti-union for opposing the contract.
ICE: They ostentatiously denounce the 2005 contract as the "worst" contract ever.

The anon. Unity comment "the ICE guy MELTED during the fight against Rohloff" is interesting considering he was the one who openly was quoted in the NY Post about the lack of textbooks in articles as he stood up despite Rohloff's attacks. That has to be put in the context of the comments from the teachers who were attacked by Rohloff (as posted in both What a Farce items below) that they did not feel the Unity people really fought for them. Besides, as one of the fairest-minded people I know, the ICE guy always felt that, though Rohloff was so wrong-headed, he felt she had some positive things about her and never gave up the idea of getting her to function in a better way. Idealistic? Maybe. But he kept his eye on the prize - keeping the school open.

Contrast the actions of the Unity people at Lafayette with the way the Tilden chapter responded as both scenarios played out at the same time. Weingarten, who in the initial stages did not respond at Tilden, was forced to do so when the chapter activated itself to engaged in an active fight to keep the school open, a fight that they are still engaging in, as Meredith Kolodner pointed out in last week's article in The Chief.

I posted a series of articles on the evolving situation in Tilden on this blog. (Do a search of the blog for the Tilden tag to read them, in particular the comments of ICE's John Lawhead, one of the leaders of the fight keep Tilden open.

Of course having a user-friendly principal at Tilden helps, so the cases are not exactly equal. But the ICE person tried to get the chapter at Lafayette to unite behind the idea of keeping the school open.

When Weingarten said that Lafayette should be closed -

"It is no secret that there have been problems at Lafayette, so its closing is not surprising. We are working with the DOE to create a redesigned school - and potentially two new schools - that parents will want to send their children to and where educators will want to teach."

-that was the death knell for any action by the Unity reps there to engage in such a fight. The Unity gang owe allegiance to Unity and the leadership over the members at Lafayette - remember, there are free conventions to attend and other perks. So when the leadership decided getting Rohloff's scalp took priority over a battle to keep the school open, it was game, set and match for the demise of Lafayette. The people at Tilden may not win the fight and end up being closed anyway, but they are still in the game.

The Unity "victory" over Rohloff has resulted, and will result, in many of the teachers at Lafayette ending up as ATR's. The anon. Unity commented,

"As the unity folks at Lafayette have seniority, more than 60 years combined in teaching, they have a right to remain until excessed. Or do you and the ICE person begrudge them that?"

With the Unity abandonment of seniority, resulting in so many senior teachers under attack despite, and maybe because of their high salaries, this comment shows they are not too worried. Just another perk of being in Unity.

What a farce II...

... a response to Unity

Yesterday's "What a Farce" posting resulted in a comment by an anonymous Unity person, most probably one of the 2 Unity people referred to in the response below:

I read the "What a Farce" item on your blog, and your facts are correct. The note from "anonymous" purports to be for the record, but it attempts to muddy the record. The ICE person tried to do just what you said he did, get the chapter to ease up on the relentless ad null campaign against Rohloff in order to focus the chapter's energies against the closing and the long-term negative impact on the school of this strategy since as long as the closing was a fait accompli, Rohloff was gone anyway. That's the kind of "support" for Rohloff, in order to challenge Weingarten's capitulation to Klein's small school, break the union strategy. The ICE person asked for a truce in the battle against Rohloff and that would have built a stronger chapter that could have also checked Rohloff's U-rating binges.

As you suggest, the two [Unity] prime movers of the "Rohloff is the root of all evil" demarche, remain secure in their jobs, at least for now. Meanwhile, they ostentatiously denounce the 2005 contract as the "worst" contract ever, without even mentioning that they supported it, stuffed the mailboxes for Unity, and attacked ICE for being anti-union [because ICE opposed the 2005 contract].

"Anonymous" further claims that the Alumni, as well as one politician approved the takeover of Lafayette by the High School of Sports Management and two other schools. Yet "Anonymous" also distributed to all staff the recent Post (?) op-ed by well-known Lafayette alumnus Jerry Della Feminina denouncing Klein for closing Lafayette and calling for a rally of alumni to keep the school open. I hope more alumni write your blog and let you know how much they "approve" of the closing of Lafayette!