Monday, June 25, 2018

PS 25 Update: Leonie's Amazing Blog on Secret Agreement with Eva Moskowitz, her distortions, etc

[Moskowitz] put out a press release, claiming that the school was being “evicted” and that the de Blasio administration was “employing a bureaucratic paperwork loophole to block the school from opening. …. Officials could fix this problem with the stroke of a pen, yet they’ve refused to do so for purely political reasons.”

Note that word “evicted”, though these students had never been in the building in the first place..... Leonie Haimson
Remember these posts on PS 25 and the court case filed by parents with Leonie Haimson's help to keep the school open?
Also see this video of Leonie's assistant, Sebastian Spitz at the PEP - https://vimeo.com/272118347. (Sebastian will be attending Harvard Law School in the fall. Leonie attracts some talented people.)

The transcript was released of the court case.

There is so much meat in this post by Leonie that you have to read it multiple times to absorb it all. She exposes bad policy and dishonesty by the DOE -- and slimy lies by Elizabeth Rose.

Another excerpt from Leonie:
I had known that a Success elementary school, Success Bed Stuy 3, had already moved into the PS 25 building in the fall of 2016.  PS 25 was originally a K-8 school, but several DOE’s decisions had contributed to its enrollment shrinking over time. As of 2004-2005 school year, PS 25 had 773 students throughout grades K-8. In the fall of 2006, the upper grades of PS 25 were separated from the elementary school, creating the Upper School at PS 25 (IS 534), leaving PS 25 to serve only grades K-5. Then in 2016, IS 534 was moved half a mile away and merged with PS 308 Clara Cardwell, a far less successful school with an impact rating of .30, the same year that Success Bed Stuy 3 moved into the building. 

I had heard murmurings about a Success middle school, as Eva Moskowitz had been insistent that DOE had to provide her with more middle school seats, but I hadn’t paid this issue much attention as the DOE had had said that it had no plans for the space that PS 25 would vacate.  The only mention of this issue in the EIS proposing PS 25’s closure, dated January 5, 2018, was that: “Pursuant to Chancellor’s Regulation A-190, the NYCDOE may issue an EIS for the future use of space in K025, if applicable.”  
Yes, Virginia, there is duplicity at the DOE hand in hand with Evil Eva.

Here is a reason to vote for Leonie as the best person in the world and Eva Moskowitz for the worst.

Another reason to support the work Leonie does. I know that sometimes people don't click on links.
This is such a strong blog and a must read, I am including it embedded here. The details and research Leonie has done is mind-blowing.

Sunday, June 24, 2018

Part II of the PS 25 saga; Eva Moskowitz steps in

Please send a letter now to Chancellor Carranza to rescind the decision to close PS 25 and allow the school to grow by putting a PreKch and a 3K class in the school for next year.




As described earlier on this blog, and in several news articles, Judge Katherine Levine of the Kings County Supreme Court blocked the DOE from closing PS 25 Eubie Blake, and on May 24 extended the temporary restraining order to allow this Bed Stuy public school to remain open at least another year. 

The DOE had proposed closing the school, ostensibly because it was “under-enrolled.” And yet by the their own admission, it was the fourth best elementary school in the entire city, according to the “impact” rating on the DOE performance dashboard, which former Chancellor Carmen Farina had boasted was the “most advanced tool of its kind.” While the school is above average on performance on raw test scores and attendance, its impact is stellar if one takes into account the socioeconomic background and need level of the students.
 
We now have a transcript of the PS 25 court hearing, in which the issue of class size repeatedly came up. The school has very small classes of 10 to 18 students, and none of the other schools that DOE allowed PS 25 parents to apply to have classes that small.  Among the questions Judge Levine asked was, “Would you concede that maybe one of the reason this school is doing so well is because it has small class sizes?”  Response from the city’s attorney, Caroline Kruk: “I can’t speak to that.”  
When asked what the downside would be if the school remain open for another year, Kruk replied that 3,000 students from all the schools DOE had proposed closing could not be re-assigned to different schools, which Judge Levine said was “ridiculous.” Only those students who currently attended PS 25 and whose parents wanted to remain there would be affected.

Judge Levine went on to ask, “The worst that happens if I keep the stay on [to keep the school open] is that the kids will have the benefit of this school for another year.  Now what are you going to tell me, financially, it helps the DOE if I close it?  What is the argument other than the fact that you think this school should be closed?  Forget about 3,000, we’re talking about 100.  What is the downside?”

Kruk had no real answer to that pivotal question.  “It’s simply …a low demand, there’s low attendance and …there is a lack of resources, you know, information –

Judge Levine:  “No.  I’m not hearing – do you have anything in your papers that say this school really stinks and there is no resources for this school so four kids are suffering?  What resources are lacking?  They are learning and they are doing well.”

Ms. Kruk: “Okay, understood, and your Honor, I would stress even if the equities don’t weigh in the Department of Education’s favor—"

Judge Levine: “They don’t.”

The Judge then asked if the DOE would agree to promise that if the school closed, its students would be able to attend a better school than PS 25.

Ms.Kruk: ”… because of the ranking of the school, it has a high ranking, its simply unrealistic to supply all the students with better schools.”
 

Because the city could not explain what damage would be done by keeping the school open for another year, and that the DOE could not agree that they would attend a better school (indeed there are only three in the entire city, and none were offered to the parents) the Judge ordered that the school stay open at least another year.  Over that time, she would carefully untangle the complicated legal issues involved, including whether a vote of the Community Education Council was required to close a zoned school.   

Since any changes in zoning lines have to be approved by the local CEC, according to NY Education law 2590-E, this was one of the plaintiffs strongest arguments as no CEC vote has yet occurred. The city’s attorney unconvincingly argued in response that the zoning lines “haven’t been amended.  They are currently in existence, there is just no school within it.”

In the end, what was evident from the city’s arguments that apart from the illegality of closing a zoned school without the approval of the CEC, they really have no reason to close PS 25, at least no reason that they were willing to make public at this time.

Soon thereafter, however, Eva Moskowitz went on the warpath.  On June 11, she sent out a press advisory, announcing she would hold a rally in front of City Hall the next day, to protest that the DOE was denying space to “Success Academy Lafayette Middle School”, a school,  which by the way, did not yet exist. 

She claimed that the Mayor was waging “bureaucratic trench warfare against Success — the latest episode of a long-running political vendetta,” by denying middle school seats to the fourth graders about to graduate from the Success Cobble Hill elementary school, and that the city had reneged on a promise to her that they would be able to attend a new middle school in the PS 25 building:

 “70 kids are set to begin fifth grade at the school, located in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, in just 10 weeks. In a complete about-face, City Hall is now threatening to prevent the school from opening — and leave the building with 900 empty seats — due to a bureaucratic paperwork issue.”

I had known that a Success elementary school, Success Bed Stuy 3, had already moved into the PS 25 building in the fall of 2016.  PS 25 was originally a K-8 school, but several DOE’s decisions had contributed to its enrollment shrinking over time. As of 2004-2005 school year, PS 25 had 773 students throughout grades K-8. In the fall of 2006, the upper grades of PS 25 were separated from the elementary school, creating the Upper School at PS 25 (IS 534), leaving PS 25 to serve only grades K-5. Then in 2016, IS 534 was moved half a mile away and merged with PS 308 Clara Cardwell, a far less successful school with an impact rating of .30, the same year that Success Bed Stuy 3 moved into the building. 

I had heard murmurings about a Success middle school, as Eva Moskowitz had been insistent that DOE had to provide her with more middle school seats, but I hadn’t paid this issue much attention as the DOE had had said that it had no plans for the space that PS 25 would vacate.  The only mention oat f this issue in the EIS proposing PS 25’s closure, dated January 5, 2018, was that: “Pursuant to Chancellor’s Regulation A-190, the NYCDOE may issue an EIS for the future use of space in K025, if applicable.”  

Chancellor’s regulation A-190 in accordance with NY education law Section 2590-h requires that any change in the utilization of a public school building must follow a certain legal process, including the posting of an EIS at least six months ahead of the next school year, followed by public hearings and a vote of the Panel for Educational Policy.

At the the Success rally in front of City Hall on July 12, Eva Moskowitz excoriated the mayor: “The de Blasio administration throwing kids out onto the street? Does this sound familiar? But this might be a new low for the mayor. Can you imagine how the mayor would react if this was his own kids?”

The day of the rally, she put out a press release, claiming that the school was being “evicted” and that the de Blasio administration was “employing a bureaucratic paperwork loophole to block the school from opening. …. Officials could fix this problem with the stroke of a pen, yet they’ve refused to do so for purely political reasons.”

Note that word “evicted”, though these students had never been in the building in the first place. The press release went on to argue:

How did it come to this? Earlier this year, the city Department of Education agreed to let Success open four additional middle schools across the city, including Success Academy Lafayette in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. SA Lafayette was a stopgap solution because the city claimed to need more time to find a location in District 15 for Cobble Hill and Williamsburg families, who have been waiting for a permanent middle school location for nearly four years. Out of necessity, Success proposed converting an existing elementary school (SA Bed-Stuy 3) into a middle school and transferring the elementary school students to two nearby Success schools. The city agreed to this plan. [emphasis mine].”

However whether adding a middle school into the building or converting Success Bed Stuy 3 into middle school and moving its current students elsewhere, would entail a change in school utilization, and legally require the process described above. An EIS would have had to be posted no later than March 5, given the six-month mandate outlined in state law and Chancellor’s regs. This never occurred, and it would be too late to occur now, at the end of the school year.

Eva tried to dispute that an EIS would be necessary, but then conceded, “However, even if DOE were correct that an EIS were now required, there is a simple and easy solution.” She proposed that the chancellor skip the required six-month process, by latching on to an exception in the law:

“In the event that the chancellor determines that …. significant change in school utilization is immediately necessary for the preservation of student health, safety or general welfare, the chancellor may temporarily…. adopt a significant change in the school’s utilization on an emergency basis. —Education Law §2590-h(2-a) (f)”.

Yet this section in the law is supposed to be contemplated only in the cases of actual emergencies, like hurricanes or other disasters rendering school buildings uninhabitable, so that entire classes of students would have to attend school in other buildings; it would surely be illegal to cite this exception to allow charter schools to move into buildings at the last minute, with no such rationale.

The day before, Deputy Chancellor Elizabeth Rose had responded to Eva Moskowitz’s press advisory, with a letter, released to the press, that laid out alternatives for space that could be provided to her middle school class of 70 students.

These alternatives included a list of facilities that Success already occupies in Brooklyn, or would next fall that are all within .7 and 3.7 miles of PS 25, totaling more than three thousand available seats, arrayed in four DOE-owned buildings and two stand-alone buildings.

Because three of these buildings would only house Success students, including one in a DOE-owned building, Rose added the following notation in the right-most column of the chart: “No EIS for this building”– suggesting that no public process or vote would have to occur to change the building’s utilization, itself a rather questionable interpretation of the law.  There is no exception in the law that allows changes in school utilization to evade the required public process, even in the case of DOE-owned buildings that only contain charter schools.
Yet Rose also admitted that there had indeed been an unpublicized agreement with Eva that her middle school could be inserted into the PS 25 building, that is, before the court ordered that PS 25 should remain open:
The Panel for Educational Policy unanimously voted to approve the closure of P.S. 25 at a public meeting on February 28, 2018. Success Academy requested additional rooms in K025 for the 2018-­‐2019 school year to serve fifth grade students from Success Academy Cobble Hill. The DOE agreed to this request, for one year only, under the assumption that Success Academy Bed-­‐Stuy 3 would be the only other school operating in K025 during the 2018-­‐2019 school year….
First, Rose’s statement that the vote to close PS 25 was unanimous is false.  As the PEP minutes of the February 28 meeting confirm, the vote was 8-5, as is usual with controversial proposals, with every mayoral appointee voting yes, and every borough appointee voting no.
 Second, the idea that this would be only a “temporary” arrangement, and that Eva would agree to move the middle school out of the PS 25 building after one year is risible; especially as she is already claiming eviction when her school was never in the building in the first place.
Rose went on to argue that this insertion would have been lawful, but it was the litigation over PS 25 that now made it illegal:
“The lawsuit contesting the closure of P.S. 25 commenced shortly after the vote. As part of the litigation, DOE has been stayed from closing P.S. 25, which has the effect of staying the siting of any other school there. In addition, Success Academy notified families—though not the DOE—that it would close Bed-­Stuy 3 at the end of this school year, leaving no PEP approved Success Academy school in the building. Unfortunately, in light of this litigation and related developments, Success Academy Cobble Hill fifth graders cannot legally use building K025 next year.”
Yet whether or not PS 25 had closed, it would have been violation of both Chancellor’s regulations and Education Law 2590h to alter the utilization of the PS 25 building by moving a Success middle school in, without an EIS and a separate vote of the PEP.
Instead, the DOE could have proposed the Success middle school should be inserted into the building, and posted an EIS by March 5, or even earlier in December, when the proposal to close PS 25 was first released.  Why they didn’t do this, and insisted they had no additional plans for the building until now is hard to understand– unless Rose thought by doing so would provoke even more community opposition and suspicion that the real reason the DOE wanted to close the school was to enable Eva Moskowitz to further expand her empire.
This would not have been the first time the DOE cleared out an entire public-school building for Eva.  Check out the “East Flatbush” building with 1000 empty seats listed in the chart above, K864/K869 in District 22.  In December, one month before the proposal to close PS 25 was announced, the DOE proposed to move P.S. 361, an early childhood school,  out of its building, and move it into P.S. 269, despite the fact that the EIS predicted that this move would overcrowd PS 269 building up to 102%.  The school would also likely lose its science room, its space for ESL services, and more. All this, despite the fact that PS 269 is already a struggling “priority” school according to the state, and as a Community school, receives “wraparound” services from DOE.  The entire building K864/K869 will be given over to Success for its new East Flatbush middle school next fall.  
Following her rally at City Hall, Eva has continued her campaign to insert her building into PS 25.  She has written Chancellor Carranza, claimed that the DOE “ took away our school building”, and demanded that he meet with “the Committee to Save SA Lafayette Middle School, a group comprised of parents and educators whose children were evicted by City Hall from Success Academy Lafayette Middle School in Building K025.”
Note that word evicted, once again; though there was never a Success Academy Lafayette Middle School, it was never sited in Building K025, and once PS 25’s closure was halted by the court, the only school that was supposed to be evicted would be Success Bed Stuy 3, which Eva planned to move out to make way for her middle school.  
The press release claimed, once again unconvincingly, that “Officials could fix this problem with the stroke of a pen, yet they’ve refused to do so for purely political reasons.” She added:
Many of the parents in the Committee have children who attend or have graduated from Success Academy Cobble Hill, a diverse elementary school that has suffered the impacts of the DOE’s inaction….Success Academy Cobble Hill has a student body that is “33% Hispanic, 27% black, 10% Asian, 24% white, and 6% multiracial… about half receive free or reduced price lunch.”
So let us take a look at the stats of Success Academy Cobble Hill elementary school, as neatly laid out in the DOE performance dashboard
 In every respect, the need level of Success Cobble Hill students  less than PS 25’s -- and less, for that matter than the students at Bed Stuy 3, that Eva had planned to move to make way for her new middle school
At 12 percent, the percentage of Cobble Hill’s disabled students is only about half of the citywide average.  It has a lower economic need index than average and far fewer English language learners.  Its impact rating is high at .89 – but not as high as PS 25’s at .93.
Moreover, the demographic snapshot for Success Cobble Hill elementary school suggests a significant rate of attrition at the school.  In 2013, there were 105 1st graders, with that number falling to only 68 fifth graders this year.
Compare the student composition of PS 25: last year 85 percent of students were economically disadvantaged, and this year 99 percent are in poverty, according to the DOE’s demographic snapshot. In every respect they are needier than the city average.
And while its total enrollment is small, PS 25 does not appear to be losing significant numbers of students over time, unlike SA Cobble Hill.
There is little information on the dashboard for students at Success Bed Stuy 3, whom Eva was prepared to move out the building, or “evict”,  to make way for her more “diverse” middle school.

Yet the DOE demographic snapshot also shows that the poverty level of Bed Stuy 3 has dramatically increased from 52.4% to 74.3% this year.  Perhaps that’s why Eva is so eager to displace its students, to provide room for the more advantaged (though yes, diverse) Success Academy Cobble Hill students.
In any case, Eva continues to regularly send out press releases and is currently engaged in a petition campaign, urging the Mayor and the chancellor to give into her demands.  Reporters continue to run stories about her claims, though none of them have pointed out the absurdity of her repeated use of the term “evicted”, even as she is content to entertain the prospect that other students, including the students of PS 25 and the students of Success Bed Stuy 3, should be moved elsewhere to make space for her middle school.  And no reporters have yet challenged the questionable legality of her prior if secret agreement with DOE. 
When PS 25 parents learned of the judge’s decision, they were thrilled, and its teachers were ecstatic. A little boy who attends the school later told me that while he had cried when he heard that the school was closing, he was so happy when he heard it would stay open for another year. Please send a letter to Chancellor Carranza to rescind the DOE’s decision to close PS 25 and allow the school to grow by putting a PreK and a 3K class in the school for next year.

Breaking: Oneatha Swinton Will Not Be Giving Out Diplomas at this morning's graduation

Superintendent will be handing them out. This is a sign that Swinton's days are numbered as interim acting principal. The bad press is what the DOE cares about. Watch Swinton disappear into a cushy 6 figure job at DOE headquarters.

We reported on this situation over the weekend.

Sunday, June 24, 2018

Mulgrew Comments on Janus and NY Law Offering Cover

UFT President Michael Mulgrew talked about the Janus case at the June 20 Delegate Assembly. One of the reasons the DA was postponed from last week was the hope the decision would be out in time for the delegates to be informed on union plans.

I usually don't go up to the 19th Floor to listen to Mulgrew's reports but since I've decided to temporarily suspend handing out materials at the DA I headed up after schmoozing with people downstairs. I wasn't going to go to the DA but  I went to help a parent activist hand out leaflets about a bad principal at Port Richmond HS. (See video: Oneatha Swinton Follow-Up: Video and Links

You might want to read this article I posted a few minutes ago:An Odd Twist: Might a Response to Janus Make Adjunct Organizing Easier in New York State? - New Labor Forum

Mulgrew said that there are 20 cases still to be released and they can keep them coming until the end of June. (Some of us have speculated that they are holding this case until school is out as a way to mute teacher union response.)

He talked about the law passed in the state legislature to have our backs -- the one pushed by Cuomo that allows unions escape from having to provide lawyers to those who leave the union.

Two NYSUT members, undoubtedly backed by anti-union forces, have already filed a law suit against the law. Mulgrew said they tried to make the law fool-proof against such suits. We'll see.

The law gives more access to unions to workers.
Mulgrew said the city hires 4000 every year -- the state law gives the union access. The first batch of 800 met and the UFT had access and signed up every one - in fact he said they ran out of cards. Here are some pertinent points in the law:
Within 30 days of employment or “reemployment” (or transfer into a new bargaining unit), the employer must provide the representing union with the name, address, job title, employing agency, department or other operating unit, and work location of the employee.[viii] Within an additional thirty days, the employer, “shall allow a duly appointed representative of the employee organization that represents that bargaining unit to meet with such employee for a reasonable amount of time
From Arthur Notes at the DA: http://nyceducator.com/2018/06/uft-delegate-assembly-june-20-2018-we.html
We have had two NYSUT teachers who’ve sued against anti-Janus law in NY State. We knew this was coming. We kept it quiet so it wasn’t scuttled while negotiating it. Similar suits in  NJ, PA and others. We expect to win lawsuit but opponents have unlimited funds.

This is why it’s so important to have a union in the first place. People were frustrated because we didn’t have it. Grassroots pushed this up. If there’s momentum we can do it. That’s collective action. If we had to wait, it would be part of our next negotiation, and we would get worse deal.

On Charters: Remember when charters said only certain ones could certify their own teachers? They lost. We sued them, and they lost.


An Odd Twist: Might a Response to Janus Make Adjunct Organizing Easier in New York State? - New Labor Forum

NY State law: unions will have the option not to represent non-members in grievance hearings (often related to unpaid suspensions or firings) which can consume a large part of unions’ financial resources and attention. As a result of this provision, each union will assess which path to take: continue to represent those who do not contribute to the union in the hopes of recruiting them in the near future, or cease to represent them, in theory incentivizing them to join... New Labor Forum
Aside from the interesting points raised by this article, note that the co-author is Marc Kagan, whose sister on the Supreme Court is one of the people ruling on the Janus case. Guess which way she will go?

The key is the analysis of the new NY State law which offers some interesting opportunities to unions.

I didn't include the initial points so go to the link to read it all. But did include the stuff about the law. Here is an important point that Mulgrew referenced at the DA - I will go into his comments in a companion piece.
Within 30 days of employment or “reemployment” (or transfer into a new bargaining unit), the employer must provide the representing union with the name, address, job title, employing agency, department or other operating unit, and work location of the employee.[viii] Within an additional thirty days, the employer, “shall allow a duly appointed representative of the employee organization that represents that bargaining unit to meet with such employee for a reasonable amount of time




http://newlaborforum.cuny.edu/2018/06/22/an-odd-twist An Odd Twist: Might a Response to Janus Make Adjunct Organizing Easier in New York State?

June 2018

Oneatha Swinton Follow-Up: Video and Links

Principal will still hand out diplomas days after fraud arrest --- While her students will be wearing caps and gowns Monday, Port Richmond High School interim principal Oneatha Swinton might want to consider donning an orange jumpsuit..... NY Post, Sue Edelman


Yesterday I posted this item:

Video: Parent Activist on Abusive Principal Oneatha Swinton, Arrested Yesterday

Below is a video I made with some background info. Before we knew about the arrest - the day before - we went to the UFT DA and the PEP - which we found had been moved from Brooklyn to Manhattan -- we found out when the translators who were also confused rushed out of the building to head to Manhattan. Annette Renaud actually asked them to give us a ride. There's no stopping her, which Oneatha Swinton, who was the principal when Annette was PTA president at the School of Journalism on John Jay Campus and once attacked Annette, is finding out.

https://vimeo.com/276717595



Here is the link to the Daily News article:
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-metro-staten-island-principal-busted-insurance-fraud-20180622-story.html

NY1: http://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2018/06/23/interim-acting-principal-of-staten-island-school-arrested

And the NY Post:
https://nypost.com/2018/06/23/principal-will-still-hand-out-diplomas-days-after-fraud-arrest/

While her students will be wearing caps and gowns Monday, Port Richmond High School interim principal Oneatha Swinton might want to consider donning an orange jumpsuit.
The embattled educator is scheduled to hand out diplomas at the Staten Island school’s commencement ceremony — even though she was arrested last week on felony insurance-fraud charges.
School leaders dashed off a letter Friday to Chancellor Richard Carranza demanding Swinton’s “immediate removal,” citing the criminal case and complaints that she has mismanaged the budget.
But a city Department of Education spokesman on Saturday said Swinton will remain in the post “while we review the charges.” The DOE would not say if Swinton will show up for graduation.
Swinton, 39, is accused of registering two Lexuses at the Pennsylvania home of a city vendor she had hired, a scheme The Post exposed last November.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro hit Swinton with four counts of insurance fraud, plus theft by deception and criminal conspiracy.
The vendor, Tanya John, a former city principal, is charged with insurance fraud and conspiracy for allegedly letting Swinton use her East Stroudsburg, Pa, address to get low-cost car insurance.
A defiant Swinton, who is seeking to be named permanent principal, refused to comment when confronted by a Post reporter at the school Friday.
But Swinton recently contended her critics are unfair.
“I know that people have done things to disrupt me or make me leave,” Swinton told a School Leadership Team meeting this month. “There are people looking to get me on an investigation.”
City Councilwoman Debi Rose, who has staunchly defended Swinton, is set to speak at Monday’s graduation ceremony. “​I understand that these allegations are serious, but individuals are innocent until proven guilty, so therefore we await the outcome the court proceedings,” Rose said in a statement to the Post.
In a criminal complaint, the Pennsylvania AG said John put her energy bill in Swinton’s name for three months in 2014 so that Swinton could show it as proof of residency to obtain a driver’s license. She also used the fake address to register two luxury cars, replacing one Lexus with another.
Swinton then bought car insurance using her fraudulent Pennsylvania license and registration — saving about $3,000 because rates are cheaper in rural East Stroudsburg than in NYC, the AG said.
She later filed two claims, both in September 2016, reporting damage to her car in Staten Island and Brooklyn fender-benders, costing the insurer $2,247 to repair.
After getting wind of the AG investigation in December 2017, officials said, she tried to cover her tracks by getting a New York driver’s license with her own Staten Island address, and changed the registration of her Lexus to New York State.
Swinton and John, who have not yet entered pleas, turned themselves in Thursday, and both were released on $5,000 bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Aug. 15. Swinton called in “sick” that day, staffers said.
John, 44, is the CEO of Feetz LLC, which has collected at least $1.3 million in payments from DOE schools since 2012 to tutor students, run “character development programs,” and take kids on college tours.
Swinton hired Feetz at the Secondary School for Law in Brooklyn, where she was formerly principal. Soon after joining Port Richmond last year, Swinton planned to hire Feetz again, staffers said.
Swinton has endorsed Feetz on its website with a blurb saying “Teamwork really does make the Dreamwork!”
John, married to a DOE teacher, refused to comment.

Saturday, June 23, 2018

Video: Parent Activist on Abusive Principal Oneatha Swinton, Arrested Yesterday

"She will remain as interim acting principal at the school while we review the charges," said a spokesman for the Department of Education.  "We treat these matters with the utmost seriousness and will ensure it's appropriately addressed." ... Staten Island Advance, June 22, 2018
Today is Port Richmond HS interim acting principal Oneatha Swinton day at Ed Notes as we put up a series of reports on the breaking story. Swinton, who was arrested yesterday in Pennsylvania for insurance fraud, came to Port Richmond as a principal who abused teachers and parents at her old school in Brooklyn's John Jay campus at the School of Journalism, didn't change her stripes at Port Richmond.

One of the founders of MORE and GEM, a strong fighter against racism in his political work, was the chapter leader at the Brooklyn school and posted this response:
I had the “pleasure“ of teaching at her school for five years. Can’t cheat karma :)
I mention racism because Staten Island politician Debbie Rose has defended Swinton by charging the critics were racist.

A leading parent from Swinton's old school -- the PTA President was Annette Renaud. As a black woman abused and physically assaulted by Swinton and put in the hospital in 2016, Renaud rejects these charges of racism. (We will have more details of this assault which was ignored by OSI - until this past month when the DOE probably learned that something was going on that would take Swinton down and is trying to cover its ass.)

Here is the first video I posted on FB of Annette outside the Delegate Assembly where she handed out a leaflet to raise the issue in the hope the UFT leadership would take strong action.



Later, I will put up another video of Annette in front of the DA and in Brooklyn at the location of the PEP meeting which seemed to have been moved - with more news stories.

Here is a short video I made of a large group of parents and teachers who attended the April PEP meeting:

Video: PEP April 25, 2018 - Port Richmond HS Protest Principal

https://vimeo.com/267774737



And here is the Staten Island Advance story from yesterday:

https://www.silive.com/news/2018/06/interim_port_richmond_hs_princ.html


Interim Port Richmond High School Principal Oneatha Swinton was arrested for insurance fraud, authorities said.



Interim Port Richmond High School Principal Oneatha Swinton was arrested for insurance fraud, authorities said. (Staten Island Advance/Annalise Knudson)

Friday, June 22, 2018

School Scope: The UFT, Janus and Democracy - The WAVE June 22, 2018

Published in The WAVE - June 22, 2018 www.rockawave.com

School Scope: The UFT, Janus and Democracy
By Norm Scott

Unions nationwide are awaiting the Supreme Court decision in the Janus case that will turn New York, one of the heaviest pro-union states,  into a right-to-work (RTW) state, along with the entire nation. Mandatory union dues will become voluntary  while those who join and those who do not, still get the same benefits that those who remain in the union would continue to receive. The expectation is that the court will rule against the unions. I find it interesting that the usual conservative argument for states having more power ends up being reversed in this case. If New York State wanted to continue agency fees it would be against the law of the land. But don’t discount some creative solutions to protect unions which are often viewed as partners rather than foes by government agencies.

The UFT leadership, under control of the Unity Caucus Party since the founding of the UFT in 1962, is pushing hard to organize people to remain in the union and keep paying the $1400 a year dues. The leadership has been supported in this endeavor by most of the organized internal opposition groups like New Action, ICEUFT and MORE.

Angry voices of the disaffected have been urging people to leave the union as a way to punish the leadership. Why pay for services they do not get they argue? They feel the union  has been an enabler of Department of Education policies considered abhorrent and has been unable, or unwilling, to defend UFT members from the assault these policies have effected on the teaching profession. The counter argument is that even if not perfect, a much weaker UFT will be harmful to everyone, including students. Look at the massive problems in the right to work states where teachers have been in revolt, not only over low salaries, but over the monstrous cuts to education that have harmed students.

A few of the disaffected have called for people not just to leave the UFT, but to pool their resources and find another union to represent them, an unlikely outcome.

For the 25% of those who vote against the Unity Party in UFT elections, this is a conundrum of sorts. The fool-proof system of control set up 55 years ago by UFT founders who use Unity Caucus as a mechanism to control the union, is impregnable. Alternate voices have little room to gain a foothold for their views in the UFT other than to lobby the leadership. Sources inside Unity say there is no democracy internally either, as a few people at the top make all the decisions and the rest of Unity becomes a rubber stamp. This iron-clad control by so few people making decisions in their own little bubble is harmful to all UFT members who have little recourse to change policy which can become a justification for some to leave the union.

Will the issue of democracy resonate with UFT members when they have to make a decision on voluntarily joining the UFT? That only roughly 30% of the membership actually votes in general UFT elections is a sign that democracy is not an issue that resonates with most UFT members.

High school teachers, on the other hand, have voted for opposition parties on the UFT for most of the past 30 years. A few talk about separating the high school division from the UFT and having their own union similar to pre-1960 when the UFT was formed. Will this talk die down or accelerate if the Janus decision goes against the union?

More on the high schools and the opposition next time.

Recent  columns on Janus:
The UFT and Janus:  https://tinyurl.com/y9kyljjq) (May 25)
Is the UFT in Danger from Janus as Staff Layoffs and Retirements Loom?  https://tinyurl.com/y789glbb. (June 8)
The UFT and Janus: Better Service, YES, More Democracy, NO https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2018/06/school-scope-uft-and-janus-better.html (June 15)

Norm wastes his life away blogging at  ednotesonline.com.

Wednesday, June 20, 2018

The Victory of Parental Leave - Where UFT Members pay for the benefit

City must be broke again? No, they have surpluses as far as the eye can see ($8 billion) but UFT the membership will pay the price once again.... Eterno on the ICEUFT blog
This never would have happened if not for  you guys -- a Unity Caucus member on the way into the Del Ass.
I'm not sure what he meant by "you guys."

Did he mean the MORE caucus which has been pushing to go beyond parental leave by calling for family leave?

Or did he mean the work of now ex-MORE -- the purged Mike Schirtzer who upon reading about Emily James' 80,000 parental leave signatures contacted her and invited her to an Ex Bd meeting to make her case -- she didn't even know the UFT had an Ex Bd -- and that was the only time Mulgrew stayed around to hear what someone had to say and he immediately took Emily under his wing and worked with her and escalated things.

I'll vote for the latter. And super congrats to Emily James for taking the initiative and putting the pressure on the union to get even this much. Read Emily's piece on the Daily News -- she is one powerhouse.

 Emily James shared an update on Michael Mulgrew: Help NYC Teachers Fight for Paid Maternity Leave Check it out and leave a comment:
Petition Update

Victory!

We Did It! Today, Paid parental leave for UFT members became a reality! Thank you, everyone, for all of your support! All of you did this!! This is a truly amazing day for NYC teachers.
Read full update




So the big story today is the UFT's victory in winning paid parental leave. Not family leave -- taking care of elderly parents for instance. While this is being won in many plaw

I want in the deal. Anyone want to have my baby?

I am trying not to rain on anyone's parade because I think this is a good thing. But make no mistake about it -- UFT members are paying for it with the extension of their contract by 73 days, which then drops the yearly raises "won" by the UFT/Unity leadership in the 2014 retro-pay contract to

At last night's Skinny Awards in my speech I talked about my early years of teaching - a time when we won demands and didn't end up paying for them. But I guess times are different. Now people pay for things by extending contracts -- a neat trick -- in this case 73 days of a salary freeze --- think of the next contract and if late there would be retro - or would have been back to Nov -- now any retro in future contracts is back to Nov plus 73 days.

OK. Maybe not a biggie for most people but still -- there is something about paying for stuff this way to irks me.

On the other hand we can put out all kinds of suggestions.

How many days of a contract extension to guarantee there's toilet paper in teacher bathrooms?
Just think of the possibilities.
Pay out of your CAR to have your class size reduced.
The DOE can be like the airlines.
Want a bigger desk or a classroom or paper? Give on some CAR.
System wide -- 20 in a class for a 20 year contract extension (which equals a pay freeze.)
Maybe people can negotiate individual extensions with their principals for, say, better classes or a better schedule or lunch hour.

The possibilities are endless and exciting.

James, Mike and I were texting late morning and afternoon as we got word before the announcement. James then worked up the numbers and while not thinking this is a catastrophe he breaks through the spin while Unity apologists spin on their tops.


MULGREW-MAYOR AGREE TO 6 WEEKS PAID PARENTAL LEAVE PAID BY ALL OF US -
  • The cost will be paid for, not by the city, but by all active UFT members. We will achieve the savings by extending the present contract by another 73 days.
Therefore, the current contract raises are now 10% total salary increases for a total of 7 years and 3 months and 13 days (we already extended a month to pay retro for 2009-2014 retirees). The average raise for the present contract is now down to 1.37% per year. Mulgrew set the worst pattern ever and it only continues to get worse. That is not a misprint.

Any increase in the next contract will be delayed until mid February 2019 so you now have almost 30% of a year of another 0% increase. Remember, the contract originally ended in October 2018.

City must be broke again? No, they have surpluses as far as the eye can see ($8 billion) but UFT the membership will pay the price once again.

Blogger Quinn Zannoni commented ...
At the DA tonight, Mulgrew said two things that don't make any sense to me.

1: "No loss of raises." Obviously, the benefit to the City of extending the contract is to delay raises, effectively reducing our pay during the next fiscal year.

Turns out that 73 is exactly .2% of 365.

Let's assume an average DOE salary of 80,000. (Is there a more accurate figure? I can't find average DOE salary online.)

For a 1% raise, that's a .2% reduction. On average, that's $160 per member.
For a 2% raise, that's a .4% reduction. On average, that's $320 per member.
And a 3% raise, that's a .6% reduction. On average, that's $480 per member.

2: The more confusing part, he says, "We're not getting fleeced, we are paying exactly what the benefit costs." Without contract negotiations still ongoing, we can't possibly know what kind of raises we are delaying, and so we can't know the cost of this agreement. As you can see above, the difference between a 1% and a 3% raise is triple! The only thing that makes sense to me is that the DOE and the UFT secretly agreed that no matter what raises are negotiated over the course of the contract, the very first raise in the contract will be an agreed upon amount.

Monday, June 18, 2018

Ed Deform Debunked: DC's public schools go from success story to cautionary tale

Critics view the problems, particularly the attendance issue, as an indictment of the entire data-driven evaluation system instituted a more than a decade ago when then-Mayor Adrian Fenty took over the school system and appointed Michelle Rhee as the first chancellor. Rhee's ambitious plan to clear out dead wood and focus on accountability for teachers and administrators landed her on the cover of Time magazine holding a broom. But now analysts question whether Rhee's emphasis on performance metrics has created a monster.... Top News
 Another find from Fiorillo:
Good to finally see, even if you have to go al the way to the very last paragraph to see the name Michele Rhee mentioned... Still, articles like this will be the coffin nails of test-based "reform" ---- Michael Fiorillo
From day 1 of the ed deform miracles  those experienced in working in schools knew they were bullshit.


http://enews.earthlink.net/article/top?guid=20180617/92fb606c-ea5e-4e9d-a1a5-c330cacf73dd

By ASHRAF KHALIL
From Associated Press
June 17, 2018 7:42 AM EST
WASHINGTON (AP) — As recently as a year ago, the public school system in the nation's capital was being hailed as a shining example of successful urban education reform and a template for districts across the country.

Now the situation in the District of Columbia could not be more different. After a series of rapid-fire scandals, including one about rigged graduation rates, Washington's school system has gone from a point of pride to perhaps the largest public embarrassment of Mayor Muriel Bowser's tenure.

This stunning reversal has left school administrators and city officials scrambling for answers and pledging to regain the public's trust.

Sunday, June 17, 2018

Tale From the Bubble: Can The Left Talk to the Working Class? Does it Really Want to?

Hey! I'm a Normie.

The comments in the snapshot above that came to me from FB are interesting. I've seen a lot of the tendency described about within MORE -- some describe it as a bubble. I love the author's "cultural ghetto."

Some have said that is the reason MORE has not made much headway with the mass of rank and file teachers in the UFT after almost 7 years of existence. But MORE is evidence of certain tendencies on the left and many people on the left I know are not, nor ever have been, comfortable within the MORE environment. So the above comments did strike a note.

This year I finally came to the conclusion that MORE would aim its appeal to the left-leaning segment of the UFT and not grow much beyond that. There is definitely a left out there -- just as there was in the late 60s/early 70s when we tried to unite people under one banner but it all came apart in leftist sectarianism. So what else is new?

There is not even agreement on the left within the UFT - as recent internal disagreements point out. I mean if people like Mike Schirtzer, Arthur Goldstein and most of the people in ICE are not welcome in MORE we can't even say MORE can organize even the so-called "left" in the UFT.

The author talks about "the left" as not being able to talk to the working class because it does its main organizing in colleges. Many of the people active in MORE were organized in college rather than on the job, so they do bring that culture to organizing.

Bernie Sanders is the left yet he can talk to working class people. So my feeling is that the author is talking about a segment of the left.

"What is the left?" My Trump-supporting right wing friends call the NY Times the left. The left is hard to define.

Most of the people I know who call themselves "left" are socialists of some sort -- from Bernie Social Democrats (think of the socialist parties in Europe) to Marxist-Leninists who see a revolution as the only solution. And that category breaks down into the increasingly rare "Stalanist" vs the more numerous anti-Stalin Trotskyists - and Trots themselves break down unto multiple sectarian groups. Trots have an advantage when challenged that socialism didn't work by saying "that is not our version," which seems to have an appeal since it gives them hope.

While I think of myself as left I have not been able to pull the trigger on calling myself a socialist and an anti-capitalist - I believe in highly regulated capitalism -- though even that is being shaken by the realities of capitalism -- that the forces in control will gain more control - even over the press which can expose them.

Still, it is a mis-characterization to refer to "the left" without talking about the many variations, too complex an issue to delve into here.

I will say I've learned a hell of a lot about what constitutes the left from my work over the past almost 50 years in the UFT dissident movement - and recent events in the dispute between the leftists in ICEUFT and the leftists in MORE have given me further insights.

There will always be left sectarianism. (You can't herd cats). That is why my view of a big tent opposition with room for many political points of view has come crashing down. I never learn. Maybe this time.

MORE - or LESS - to come as I sort things out.

Friday, June 15, 2018

School Scope: The UFT and Janus: Better Service, YES, More Democracy, NO

To be published in The WAVE June 15, 2018, www.rockawave.com

School Scope: The UFT and Janus: Better Service, YES, More Democracy, NO
By Norm Scott

Recent columns have addressed the probable Supreme Court decision in the Janus case that will make the entire nation right-to-work (RTW), which means those who don’t join the union won’t have to pay dues, thus leading to weakened unions. (Background at: The UFT and Janus: https://tinyurl.com/y9kyljjq and Is the UFT in Danger from Janus as Staff Layoffs and Retirements Loom? https://tinyurl.com/y789glbb.) Unions must represent all people covered by contracts even if they choose not to join the union. In non-RTW states they must pay dues, known as agency fees, at a somewhat reduced rate. In the UFT there are reportedly over 3000 agency fee payers. They do not have the right to vote in general union or school elections and, theoretically, can be kept from attending school and citywide union meetings. Post Janus, expectations of members leaving the UFT run anywhere from 10-25%, which would be a damaging loss.

The UFT leadership has blitzed schools and membership with appeals to stay, even going so far as to visit members at home and organizing school-based teams to lobby colleagues. The UFT as the sole bargaining agent for all employees must continue to provide services to everyone, even those who leave the union, a serious and unfair drain on resources. Politicians recognize the threat to undermine strong unions like the UFT, which helps manage members’ expectations and militancy, is also a threat to the ability to run the schools if teachers were free agents unbound by union contracts. We saw this in the red state rebellions, all in RTW states where strikes are illegal (they are here too) where weakened unions were outflanked by a militant rank and file.

A recent state law pushed through by the UFT’s former enemy and now best friend, Governor Cuomo, would free unions from having to provide lawyers, possibly putting a scare into people thinking of leaving. I think the UFT needs to do more to offer positive reasons for staying, like better service and a more militant stance against the DOE and de Blasio. The UFT has not done enough to defend members from abusive principals. Untenured, who must wait at least four (or more) years for tenure, basically are without union protections. They can be discontinued at any time for practically any reasons. (Tenure forces administrators to provide some basis and guarantees a hearing.)

The anti-union forces have gone on a blitz to urge people to drop out and “give themselves a raise” by saving on dues, which in the UFT amounts to around $1400 a year. The salary structure is regressive as the gap between newer teachers and those at the top is so wide. Will new teachers opt in to join the union, especially if they intend to leave after a few years (over 50% do leave by the 5th year)?

Many of the deepest critics of the UFT/Unity Caucus leadership in the opposition to Unity Caucus are urging people to stay in the union and keep paying dues. In UFT elections they get about 25% of the vote and those who leave are more likely to be anti-Unity. But politics aside, Janus presents an existential threat to the lifeblood of all employees. Still, one of our major complaints has been the lack of democracy. While the UFT may offer better services, don’t expect democracy to be on their agenda. But does anyone really care about democracy in today’s world? More on this next time.

Norm runs his ednotesonline.com blog in a democratic manner – he makes all the decisions but argues with himself first.

Thursday, June 14, 2018

Old News: UFT District Rep and DOE Supt - An Affair to Remember - Or Not

Now that I enticed you, I admit I have very little to report. But today we got together with some old pals - who were in Unity Caucus and in reminiscing one of them says to the other - remember the Supt who was having the affair with the UFT District Rep? Everyone in the District office and the UFT knew about it.

Now this was a long time ago but hearing this story today would you be surprised? We recently heard that a UFT District rep and an awful Supt vacationed together -- rumor only.... but.

By the way, the Unity guy asked how come Unity still was able to keep the opposition at bay given how bad things seem to be?

"Because the opposition has been inept," I said.

"Isn't that you," he said?

"Absolutely, I have been part of the ineptitude."

NY1 Reports on Abusive Port Richmond HS Principal Oneatha Swinton

See below for the June 13 NY1 report on the principal.

Ed Notes has covered the Port Richmond story. Here is a short video I shot at the PEP:
 
People from the school have been in touch through an intermediary. Swinton has a bad rep from her old school at the John Jay Campus in Brooklyn and supposedly has brought along a number of her cronies. One of the MORE people had been chapter leader at the Brooklyn school and said she was awful. Yet, she will probably get appointed, thus continuing the tradition of putting in DOE slugs.

I am urging people who are willing to take a stand against abusive principals publicly to show up and sign up to speak at PEP meetings directly to the chancellor. Tell your stories for public consumption. The next PEP is next Weds, June 20 at Prospect Hts campus.

I'm also working with James Eterno on a plan to gather people from various high schools together to come up with joint strategies and maybe joint actions, including how to get people in their own schools on board. This summer we will hold some behind the scenes meetings. At the June 22 ICE meeting we will talk about the feasibility.




New details have emerged about the interim acting principal at Staten Island's Port Richmond High School.

Oneatha Swinton was appointed to PRHS as interim acting principal last July. Now the city Education Department is considering making her temporary appointment permanent, despite multiple complaints made by parents and teachers.

Swinton previously was principal at John Jay high school in Brooklyn.

When she left the Education Department's Office of Special Investigation had been looking into complaints by parents, alleging on cronyism and transparency.

That inquiry continues and others have since launched, including one looking at allegations she drives a car registered to a Pennsylvania address also used by an Education Department contractor.

Other complaints allege spending more than $400,000 on unnecessary positions for her friends and inflating grades to boost graduation rates.
Parents and teachers say they also have filed complaints with the governor's office which referred them to the state Education Department. That agency declined to comment as did Swinton. 
City Councilwoman Debi Rose downplays the concerns, telling NY1, "How many people that are in positions of power that are under investigation have been under investigation? And I don't think it's fair until you know, all of that's been, gone through the process and been decided."
NY1 has learned that two other principals considered for the position were told they would not get the job back in April, leaving only Swinton as a potential candidate.
Still, despite the ongoing investigations the Department of Education insists that the selection process continues.

Acting Port Richmond principal likely to win post amid probes

By Amanda Farinacci  |  June 13, 2018 @11:59 AM
Video at

Acting Port Richmond principal likely to win post amid probes

By Amanda Farinacci  |  June 13, 2018 @11:59 AM
http://www.ny1.com/nyc/staten-island/news/2018/06/13/new-details-in-controversy-over-acting-principal-at-staten-island-hs-

Wednesday, June 13, 2018

NYSUT Opposes Bill on Evals and Flanagan Sells Out Education to Yeshiva Interests

At first glance, this appears to repeal the teacher evaluation law APPR, increases charter school cap by 100, and appears to undercut Commissioner's authority over non-public (read Yeshiva) schools... Leonie Haimson

Aside from the awful stuff about raising the charter cap which would do a lot more to undermine union teacher jobs than the eval law repeal.

Here is the NYSUT response:



Sen. Flanagan must think we were born yesterday. The Republican State Senate majority leader showed again last night how little he and his GOP colleagues respect public school teachers.

Instead of passing S.8301, a clean bill with 55 sponsors in the Senate to reduce testing and fix the evaluation system, Sen. Flanagan introduced a bill that ties APPR to millions of dollars for the charter industry and his political donors and to loopholes for private schools. This is just another distraction and a stall tactic.

Our message has not changed. The Senate must pass S.8301, with NO STRINGS attached.

Reject Sen. Flanagan's gambit. Tell your senator to demand the majority leader allow a vote on S.8301 now.

The vast majority of Senate Republicans joined all the Democrats to co-sponsor S.8301, our bill to fix New York's flawed and unfair teacher performance review law, weeks ago. Yet for all their talk about supporting it, Senate Republicans failed to even allow an up or down vote. They could have done it, but they didn't.

Reject Sen. Flanagan's gambit. Tell your senator to demand the majority leader allow a vote on S.8301 now.

We have been working for years to return control over teacher evaluations to local school districts and teachers. Thanks to you, we are closer than ever to fixing New York's flawed and unfair teacher performance review law. Our bill passed the Assembly 133-1. Now the Senate needs to honor teachers by voting on S.8301 now, with no strings attached.

Let's get this done now!






In solidarity,

Andrew Pallotta
NYSUT President


P.S.:  


Leonie has been on the case of the shameful response to the lack of education in yeshivas which get money to teacher certain subjects but don't.

See the video I shot of the YAFFED press conference: Video: YAFFED Press Conf - De Blasio, Farina, Felder Slammed
https://vimeo.com/263492801

Here are Leonie Haimson's comments on her must read nyceducationnews listserve:

New Flanagan bill re yeshivas

Here is Yaffed’s ceo, Naftali Moser’s analysis of the Yeshiva portion of the Flanagan bill/

Retired Teacher Chapter Meeting Update - Unity Caucus Wins Chapter Election - DUHHH!

Wednesday, June 14, 8 AM

Today's Delegate Assembly has been postponed until next week pending the Janus decision (Lack of Decision as Yet on Janus Causes UFT to Post...).

I attended the final retired teacher chapter meeting yesterday for some crazy reason -- it was a gorgeous day.

I wanted to touch base with Lisa North, who opposed Tom Murphy for chapter leader, and Gloria Brandman who helped organize and coordinate the work we have been doing with New Action and Retiree Advocate people recently.

I also like Scott Stringer because he put Patrick Sullivan on the PEP and he was the guest speaker. Scott got a rousing reaction when he reminded us of the support the UFT gave him when he defeated Eva Moskowitz for Manhattan borough president before she began her charter career, partly I think to get revenge on the UFT. And in fact Eva and her non-unionized 50 charter schools has cost the UFT more members than Janus will.

Stringer compared the city and state pension systems. He has to consult with the unions in decision making on investments which he believes is a good thing -- compared to the state where the comptroller has sole decision making power. He said our pensions were 70% funded.

I got an important phone call related to Evil Eva and Success while Stringer was answering questions and had to go outside to take the call (more on this angle in a future post) and the meeting ended while I was on the phone.

Gloria, Lisa and I got to hang out after the meeting and talk about our own situation in ICE and MORE.

(A group of people in MORE sent a public email on the MORE Listserve asking the 3 of us to basically leave MORE or choose between ICE and MORE. As founders of ICE and MORE and having put 6 years of effort into MORE, we ignored them. Some of them have been in MORE for 10 minutes.)

One of the interesting aspects of RTC meetings is what they call "Good and Welfare" where anyone can get up and say something. Chapter leader Tom Murphy announced that G and W would be put up front of the meeting instead of the end when people are leaving. I've been asking for a feature like this for MORE Meetings but have been ignored. So it was interesting to see an RTC meeting run with more openness than the usual MORE Meetings. But more on MORE and democracy in future posts.

(A wise person who left MORE recently told me - if MORE is going to be like Unity at least Unity has the toys.)

The results of the recent UFT Retiree chapter election between the Unity slate and the Retiree Advocate/MORE/New Action slate went according to form. I wrote about the election here: VOTE Retiree Advocate: Current UFT Retiree Chapter...

19,084 - 30% - voted out of the over 60,000 ballots sent out.  Unity received 82- 83%, or 15,334 while our slate got 3405 votes -- 17-18%. This falls in line with the outcomes of general UFT elections and is a key point in why Unity will always win. There is no way to make a dent in the retiree vote.

Most important is that Unity gets to fill all 300 seats at the Delegate Assembly while we get none. In fact Unity has a lot of trouble getting 300 retirees to want to go to a DA every month and they only show in rare occassions when called out for a vote Unity is worried about.

In a proportional rep system we would get 18% of the delegates, which would be about 36 -- and our people would show. It would get me and Eterno and Gloria and Lisa and the New Action crew back in the DA -- which is why you will never see proportional rep in the UFT. Is it democratic to shut out even 17% of the voices? Those 3400 people who voted for us have their voices stilled.


Tuesday, June 12, 2018

Lack of Decision as Yet on Janus Causes UFT to Postpone this Week's Delegate Assembly?

Huh? Apparently, the UFT had expected a decision by now. I guess they are hoping there will be one by next week when the DA is now scheduled to meet. Some are speculating about the delay, but it is not unusual for the Supreme Court to release major decisions late in June.

Reports are that once the decision is out, the UFT will consider laying staff off and forcing some staff members into retirement to cut costs. A recent report by Mike Antonucci point to the NEA and the California Teachers Association making roughly 10% budget cuts, which might indicate they expect 10% of their membership to leave the union.

Some of us were speculating today at the delay in the decision. Is it possible the red state teacher revolts in right to work states had some influence in the deliberations? I don't expect the Court to go the other way than expected but they might offer states some wriggle room to protect local unions if they see fit.

Or not.

At any rate we may see a changed landscape as the UFT for the first time in a long time has to hustle to keep its membership. Improving services and responsiveness seems to be on the minds of some. (AMY ARUNDELL APOLOGIZES TO MEMBER PUT ON HOLD AND DISCONNECTED)

Of course, if the UFT reduces staff their ability to offer services may suffer. On the other hand if they get rid of the dead weight it may not make a difference.



Monday, June 11, 2018

Hillcrest HS Admin Engaged in Sexual Harassment - Another Queens HS Under Supt. Juan Mendez

The hits keep coming. Last week we reported on the principal of Forest Hills HS in Queens, ( Principal Ben Sherman: Forest Hills HS Teachers Issue Declaration of Independence).

The story below about another Queens HS, most likely under one of the worst Supt., Juan Mendez. was just published in the Daily News.

Look for that bastion of moral turpitude, the CSA, to defend these guys to the hilt. And the DOE to give them promotions.

Me Too, anyone?

Queens high school administrator slept with at least four teachers and one student and tormented subordinates: lawsuit


http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/ny-metro-assistant-principal-torments-teachers-20180611-story.html?utm_content=buffer31145&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=bchapman+twitter