On Make-Up Days: Dear Mr. Mulgrew

The strong letter below touches on numerous issues. After the 68 strike they made up days from x-mas vacation and paid doubletime plus extending the day by 45 minutes until all time was made up. I and a friend already had xmas plans so we didn't work those days and we lost that doubletime pay.

Dear Mr. Mulgrew:
 
I was somewhat dismayed by your letter stating we must make up days in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. I'm a little shocked the union would conclude this without having even consulted rank and file.
 
This, however, is not at all my only concern. First of all, there has been very public talk of relaxing the minimum attendance requirement statewide. We certainly ought to be open to that, and examine our options before simply agreeing to Chancellor Walcott's very public pronouncements. As you pointed out in your letter, we have worked up to 196 days a year and there was never extra compensation for our efforts.
 
My primary concern is for my members, many of whom, like me, have not been able to stay in their homes for over two weeks. We have not, in fact, spent our time off watching Oprah and eating popcorn. Most of my time has been spent frantically calling electricians and plumbers to replace walls, floors and appliances destroyed when six feet of saltwater rampaged through my home. Despite being essentially homeless, like many of my members, I've yet to miss a day this year.
 
Many of my members have already made plans for breaks and are set to lose considerable sums of money if these plans are abruptly altered by mayoral fiat or otherwise. At the last Queens Chapter Leader meeting, I was reminded that article 6C of our Contract lays out the days we are required to report.
 
I certainly hope I did not make an error sharing that information with my members.  Further financial strains on those affected by the storm will not be welcome. As you know, all city employees but educators received raises in excess of 8% between 2008-2010. My members, who have gone four years without a raise, are ill-prepared to take such a hit at this time.
 
In fact, last year we took no snow days at all, and Walcott, in a bizarre but typical DOE aberration from logic, gave us a choice in June of having kids attend or running an SBO for a PD day. My members were quite confused at the prospect of making up a snow day we did not actually use, and have reminded me of this frequently, most recently last Friday.
 
Personally, I'm incredulous the UFT seems to have capitulated to Walcott's demands for more days without any discussion, let alone demands. If Walcott wishes for us to be reasonable, the very least he can offer in return is a contract, with the 8% raise he unconditionally granted all other city employees.
 
Thank you for your attention in this matter.
 
Very truly yours,
 
Arthur Goldstein, UFT Chapter Leader
Francis Lewis High School

Cheers,
Norm Scott

Twitter: normscott1

Education Notes
ednotesonline.blogspot.com

Grassroots Education Movement
gemnyc.org

Education columnist, The Wave
www.rockawave.com

nycfirst robotics
normsrobotics.blogspot.com

Sent from my BlackBerry

Rockaway Update: Small Steps Toward Normalcy - Day 1 of Not Living Out of an ice chest a Real Dinner, Some Heat, Plus Bill Clinton Supposed to Visit Today

Gee, I better run out and get some munchies in case Bill stops by to help haul wet sheetrock.

I'm looking forward to reports of MORE monthly meeting yesterday. If you were there shoot me an email or leave a comment.

Sunday, Nov. 18, 8AM

I want to start by reiterating that we feel in better shape than 99 percent so no one should view anything I say as a real hardship. Not back to normal yet, but far from hardship.

Weekends out here are really wild as the mix of family members, volunteers, contracters, sanitation (the heros of this disaster - and a govt agency to boot), fire, police - both also doing amazing work and the gas (earlier on) and now power trucks - our area from Quebec though I've met guys from indiana, Conn, texas and other places.

A number of people on my block are not staying here at night so by 5pm all goes dead except for the continuing massive sanitation cleanup that goes on all night. The front of my house is loaded once again with a massive heap, this time containing the remnants of sheetrock that got wet - that dreaded mold must be conquered.

Yesterday I ran an extension cord through a hole I cut in the wall back of fridge. Seeing the light go on is a biggie. We dragged the smelly ice chest outside - almost 3 weeks - and I don't know if I wrote this but as the water rushed in on Sandy night I went to the den in almost knee high water to grab it as it floated by.

As expected, Matt the contracter sent 3 of his guys, led by the always amazing Jose, over for the day to pull as many of the walls that got wet. As I pointed out the other day, my house is a special case due to its 4 main levels, each half way up the other. So my basement filling to the top (around 7 feet) also filled the adjoining den, garage, laundry and bath rooms to 56 inches. That's a whole lot of sheet rock (including some in the basement).

When Jose saw the super large crow bar and other demolition tools I bought the night before his eyes lit up because Home Depot was totally out of this stuff.

I've been feeling pretty good physically from the daily manual labor, though eating more than ever. But on this day when there were 3 guys working I was just getting in the way, so I sat this one out, sort of wondering around with nothing much to do.

Then Pat the plumber calls to say his guys were bringing the new boiler to do most of the installation even though there was no power to the basement, only the 4 outlets Ken had left me.

I found a work light I had rescued off our trash heap 2 weeks ago and voila, there basement light for Pat's 2 guys. All 5 guys seemed to know each other from other jobs, so it was a lively day of lots of Spanish with a radio blaring some great music.

A lady came by inviting all of us to eat a few blocks away. Her crew had come from Manhasset. So we all drifted over but on the way there were also various groups set up with feed trucks.

I was honored by a visit from Christine Rubino of Facebook court case fame and her 2 kids as they stopped by to say hello on the way to help out a friend.

Pat and Matt stopped by to check on the work of their crews. This should be a factor when choosing contractors - are they paying attention?

I saw Jose and crew emptying each bag they had filled - his keys had gotten mixed in somehow. I was so impressed at the good humor and the lack of panic as they went about this frustrating task. They went through about half the bags before finding them.

They were done by 4 and the plumbing guys a half hour later. Vera drove in from Brooklyn to say hello. An uber serious gardener, Vera tried to offer some hope but much of it looks dismal. No worries till spring. If we have to start over we will - I'm thinking paving stones. Vera suggested a zen garden. Hmmm. Some sand and a few plants. Sparse looks good now.

We went inside and when I turned on the hot water there was none. And no gas for the stove. I realized the guys had turned them off but forgot to turn them on. Unlike Jose, I panic. My wife had gone to stop n shop to get stuff for our first cooked dinner at home and I also needed a hot shower. Vera and I went down to the dark basement to check it out but we didn't have a clue. I called Pat who sent them back, possibly from staten island and an hour later we were up and running. The first dinner of the new era was delicious.

Shelly and Joel came by for a social call and we traded stories. Theirs of wading across the street at 2AM with other neighbors and pets to a safer house is more interesting. They actually could watch the scary sight of 130th St burning.

By 10pm we were all ready to go to sleep.

Saturday night in Rockaway under the new normality.

-----
Upcoming this week
Sun nite: pray for word fr electrician Ken that he will come.
Lament another Jet embarassment.

Monday; Am visit from regular (not flood) insurance guy. PM- meet julie and jack and go to speak to a class at bklyn college at 6pm

tues- go to location in downtown bklyn to get our safe deposit box stuff which was moved from local ruined bank. Who would have thought of that?

Maybe order car.

Weds; wait for verizon guy
Pm- writing grp - if I go a real sign of normality.

Thurs - despite generous invite fr vera to come to massive TG event in bklyn, we will head out to Northport to wife relatives. Bro and sister in law will come to us first from Sandy Hook with their stories as we drive out together. Lucky I made him take his lionel train set a few months ago though he didn't take some of his other stuff, now residing in a compressed heap of garbage in Riis Park.

Friday - figure out next steps - how to heat spaces with no walls?

Cheers,
Norm Scott

Twitter: normscott1

Education Notes
ednotesonline.blogspot.com

Grassroots Education Movement
gemnyc.org

Education columnist, The Wave
www.rockawave.com

nycfirst robotics
normsrobotics.blogspot.com

Sent from my BlackBerry

Rockaway Report: And the Lord LEPPA Saith: Let there be Some Power, Light and Heat, Though Imperfectly and Thanks God for Frenchmen

Whilst the Lord Verizon saith "No internet, phone or TV until Weds - maybe."

Sat, Nov. 17
BEWARE the 11th Plague: Mold- Green, slimy mold that will crawl inside your walls and cover your face while you sleep.

Well, nothing's simple. Today contractor Matt is supposed to send a demoltion crew to remove lots of walls/sheetrock that were under water. The FEMA guy measured the ground level water line at 56 inches. That's like neck high. All these walls are going to come out ultimately though garage and bathroom will be spared today.

Have crowbar, will travel

Last night we went to Loews to stock up and I spent 20 bucks on the biggest crowbar I could find. I love demolition. Just ask Randi Weingarten. I spent some time yesterday using just a hammer and pry bar to knock into walls. Oh what fun. I'll be doing this all day instead of attending the MORE meeting. I may just give up politics for demolition.

Now for some semi good news. On the Tues morning after Sandy - almost 3 weeks ago going on what seems like 3 months - when I saw that both my electric boxes had been under water - it was clear they had to be replaced. Even if LEPPER had turned on power the next day there was fire danger to turn on the boxes. So I made a smart decision for once - get an electrician to change the boxes ASAP. But Ken, who I met when he did the electrical work installing our split air cond system in May was busy in Howard Beach. I decided to wait for him as long as we didn't have power. Another good move.

Let me say here that the number of decisions to make and the order you make them is crucial to getting back to normalcy - not usually my best thing. But so far I have been lucky.

Going back to the decision to put in the split system, which is also a heat pump, in the bedrooms. My wife resisted. So what that I had to shlep and install window units up and down? I was sick of it.

Plus, I was thinking about having individual heating units for each bedroom esp in the case of a failure of my heating system, which we installed in 1979. (It really pays off sometimes to be a doom and gloom guy.)

We installed similar units on the main level 6 years ago and they worked great. How smart was I to not let them put the compressor on ground level but hang it on the wall about 2 feet up - in case of a flood I said at the time. Big joke now looking at 56 inches of flood and a ruined compressor. But at least I considered it.

So this past May, thinking of Irene last year, I told the AC guys to hang it high. Ugly, obtrusively, 8 feet high on the house. "It looks stupid," my wife said. Heh, heh, heh. Last night as that sucker got us up to 68 degrees it didn't look so ugly. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Ken and his assistant Tom did the wiring back in May. I felt real comfortable with them so I was overjoyed when they said they were coming this past Thursday. With rumors of power coming back any day, even without a replacement burner in place, we'd have the bedroom heat pumps working and hopefully could get the ruined compressor on the other side of the house replaced sooner than a new burner. So far I'm feeling pretty smart.

But Ken takes one look at my basement and sees that all the BX metal sheathed cable running along the ceiling beams had had water covering them - I guess seaweed is a clue. I basically need much of my house rewired - nyc may be the only place in the world where BX is required but the metal also contains electrical fires - supposedly.

Since there's no power, Ken really can't test anything so he disconnects my entire electrical system - but he will replace the box in the garage, hook up the ac/heating unit and give us a few dedicated outlets in the garage to run off extension cords snaked upstairs. And most importantly, he fills out the paperwork for LEPPER, which we hand in at a special trailer on 108th St on Friday morning - 24-48 hrs they tell us.

We are leaving around 5pm to go car hunting and we see 3 power trucks from Quebec on our corner with a bunch of guys in orange suits speaking French and poking at the power lines with 20 foot yellow poles. I go over and point to my house asking when? "518? You have power now." I ask him to come check since I can't tell which is on or off for the circuit breakers. We bring down a coffee grinder - one of the most important appliances we own - and the joy of hearing that buzz sends us into ecstasy.

Actually, for my wife, not as much ecstasy as she felt after picking up that cute French TV reporter earlier in the day. He must have been impressed because he stopped by the house later in the day. But that's a story for another time.

-------
This just in: Pat the plumber is on the way with the new burner. Hope he brings his mandolin since there is no power to the basement.

Cheers,
Norm Scott

Twitter: normscott1

Education Notes
ednotesonline.blogspot.com

Grassroots Education Movement
gemnyc.org

Education columnist, The Wave
www.rockawave.com

nycfirst robotics
normsrobotics.blogspot.com

Sent from my BlackBerry

MORE PRESS RELEASE: UFT RTTT Agreement A Terrible Mistake

For Immediate Release

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Contact: Julie Cavanagh -


UFT RTTT Agreement A Terrible Mistake

The UFT has agreed to sign onto NYC's RTTT application, adding as many as 100 schools to the city’s three-year-old "Innovation Zone" and expanding online learning and instruction among other technology-based techniques.

This agreement is a terrible mistake, selling out teachers and kids. This agreement was made despite the fact that there is no research to show that the millions of dollars currently being spent on online learning in the 250 schools already in NYC's Izone have worked to improve schools, or help students learn. According to Gotham Schools, the UFT leadership’s Mendel said, "the union wanted to facilitate efforts to boost student achievement, even if it’s not clear whether the efforts will ultimately pay off," and, "that we should be experimenting with different things. If they don't work, shut it down. If they do work, then expand them." MORE caucus does not believe in this time of devastating cuts to our schools allocating millions of dollars to experiment on other people's children is what is best for our schools or the students we serve.

According to Julie Cavanagh, MORE caucus UFT presidential candidate, "There is no evidence to support online learning anywhere else in the country. Putting kids on computers does no "personalize" learning; it does the opposite. This RTTT application, which the UFT has agreed to, would allocate funding to support the creation of as many of a dozen new schools built on the basis of online learning; which would ultimately likely help the DOE in closing down existing schools rather than improving them, in the process causing more chaos, disruption and "churn" and excessing more teachers."

This agreement also obligates the UFT to adopt a teacher evaluation system tied to test scores by 2014-2015, which many experts have stated and highly flawed TDRs revealed, is highly volatile, unreliable and unfair.

"Before the UFT negotiates any new teacher evaluation system with the city, they should require that the teacher growth scores already completed by the state, that do not take class size or demographic background of students into account, be revealed to individual teachers and are proven to be valid. MORE caucus is also calling for a democratic membership vote to adopt any potential evaluation system before an agreement is made," said Peter Lamphere, MORE member.

MORE caucus believes the UFT leadership should insist on progress for reducing class size, the top priority of parents and the ONLY way to truly personalize learning or differentiate instruction instead of agreeing to misguided and destructive policies poorly disguised as potentially beneficial experiments on our children. Class sizes have risen five years in a row, with the union leadership doing little or nothing to stop it.

-------------
My last post before going back to the cave in Rockaway. Good work by MORE in this response.
In case you didn't notice: Joel Klein agrees w/@rweingarten: We Need a Bar Exam for teachers http://bit.ly/XGNVAh.

How do you spell Vichy?

DoeE Gives Up the Leadeship Academy Ship - Millions spent on Failed Policy

But since they will never admit they do something wrong they will keep it open but won't require the killing of small helpless animals in order to graduate.

I'm in Brooklyn for a few hours with REAL internet access.

Good piece from Gotham - a few delicious quotes below.

http://gothamschools.org/2012/11/15/in-a-change-city-is-steering-aspiring-principals-off-the-fast-track/#dsq-form-area

Realizing that its strategies for stocking the city’s ever-expanding supply of schools with excellent principals have fallen short, the Department of Education is launching new programs aimed at slowing down the transition from teacher to administrator.

When Joel Klein became chancellor in 2002, launching an era of rapid-fire, corporate-influenced policy changes, one of his first moves was to create a fast-track principal training program. Former GE executive Jack Welch chaired the NYC Leadership Academy, which was aimed at developing leaders who would be the CEOs of their schools: free to make major management decisions with minimal bureaucratic interference, but accountable for improving performance. By 2009, 15 percent of principals were Leadership Academy graduates.
The program quickly drew criticism. Parents and teachers at some schools headed by graduates complained of heavy-handed management tactics, while others questioned how people who had taught for only a short time, or not at all, could supervise experienced educators. Some graduates left the system or were later demoted. A 2009 study of the program found some positive impact on student test scores, but a different analysis found higher teacher turnover and lower progress report grades at schools run by Leadership Academy graduates.
Now, nearly two years after Klein left the Department of Education, there are fewer than 30 people in the Leadership Academy. One reason for the decline, officials say, is that the department could not sustain the costs in a faltering economy. But they also say a different strategy is needed.
The department has “not done a great job” of recruiting principals, Deputy Chancellor David Weiner told a group of principals in January. He added, “Starting at the end of the process might not be the best place.”

Rockaway Update, Thurs. Nov 15: What was and is to be done

Mandolin-playing Pat the plumber comes through.

So much going on and things to do I can't keep up. I do have a scheduled appearance with Julie and Jack in a class at Brooklyn College this Monday night - they watched the film last week - so that should be a refreshing change.

I have been in the recovery cave for over 2 weeks so I am fairly out of touch with the ed-political world. I check email but the net is so slow on my phone I don't click on links.

Here's praying the electrician shows up this morning to fix what's wrong and certify us for power, then a race over to Lipa hq on 108th St to hand it in. My neighbor said our corner traffic lite was on for a while last nite, a good sign - and as we left around 6pm for the eve we spoke to some guys from someplace else - trucks said Connecticut- and at least they were working on it.

Even with power we still don't have heat or internet - I imagine verizon has a massive job so that could be a long time - I have to check into alternate ways of getting online.

But we do have hot water. After a miracle visit Tues late afternoon from mandolin-playing Pat the plumber sent to us by Matt the contracter, he called Wed morn to say a shipment of AO Smith hot water heaters just came in and he was sending guys right over. I'm constantly amazed at how lucky we are.

Weds. Nov. 14 - what was done.
Hot water heater intalled: check

Pull wet sheet rock from basement ceiling in vicinity of water heater using newly bought tools: check.

Visit from FEMA adjuster (retired firefighter from Tacoma): check

Geiko visits 3 month old CRV and totals it: check

Retrieve 4 license plates and scrape off registration sticker from windshields: check for 3 out of 4 plates (back of Accord pushed up agst other car).

Start moving stuff from den to garage in prep for Saturday demolition of den walls: check

Geiko calls with pleasantly surprising hard numbers: double check

Check out Toy RAV4 (nahhh): check

Pig out at Frank's Pizza with shrimp parm hero and large carafe of bergundy: Triple check

Find signs of power trucks on block: check

Go to sleep at 9pm and sleep till 6AM: all this manual labor just makes me want to eat and sleep.

-----
I'll try to work more on the account of the night of Sandy.

Cheers,
Norm Scott

Twitter: normscott1

Education Notes
ednotesonline.blogspot.com

Grassroots Education Movement
gemnyc.org

Education columnist, The Wave
www.rockawave.com

nycfirst robotics
normsrobotics.blogspot.com

Sent from my BlackBerry

Rockaway Update: Flood Despair to Euphoria

Lessons from Sandy: Water seeks its own level.

If you give to any relief effort - time or money - Occupy Sandy has been doing a great job. I don't have link.

Good news for us - electrician tomorrow AM, plumber recom by our contractor Matt came yesyerday and will get us an AO Smith water heater installed by Fri and a Weil Mclain or Burnham boiler somewhat later on - and we have some secondary heat sources once power is on so we are moving forward.
And the great Matt (even tho a romney guy) came the same time to set up the demilition for Sat - anything that got wet is threatened by dreaded mold.

Also good news yesterday was my wife having a giant cavity filled by a new dentist for us (our regular guy is out due to storm). My wife has always bragged about her perfect cavity-free mouth so I am doubly happy so I can shut her up.

To all those asking how to help us -

We are the 1% in our ability to recover. We have the resources - contacts, insurance, backup funding, etc. We have a borrowed car through Thanksgiving and we have an allowance to rent one. And after today's visit from Geico to my 3 month honda crv we should be able to get a replacement - this time leasing looks good. We spent a chunk of yesterday meeting with the guy who sold us the car and also looking at a Subaru - how surprising that the salesman lives 2 blocks from us - 2 blocks closer to the fire - and he had some stories about wading through the water to get further away.

And we signed up with FEMA Sat nite and a guy called last night - he is coming this morning.

All we have needed has been places to shower and do laundry (mostly the messy work clothes).

The Night of Sandy

The experience of living on our own island for a few hours on the night of Sandy is not something I want to repeat. It is not easy to describe the relief when we realized the ocean had stopped rising inside and outside our house and we weren't on fire.

My house, which the previous owners had custom built around 1960 is very unique, especially for Rockaway - a split level - in essence 2 separate houses split down the middle, each with 2 levels, 4 in all - if you don't count the 2 level attic where we could have taken refuge. (Actually, that makes 6 levels.)

The main level - living, dining, kitchen is about 4 plus feet up from the ground with decks in front and back, a basement around 7 ft deep underneath. Next to it is a ground level slab with den (which was used mostly for storage, beach transit, plants wintering over) bathroom, garage and laundry room, a 6 step flight of stairs down to the basement and 6 steps up to the main level. Over this space are the bed and bathrooms which connect to the main level with about 6 steps, putting them 8-10 ft above ground level.

Thus, given that we are over 3 blocks from the beach and not threatened by a giant wave since the water from the ocean would spread out by the time it reached us, we figured our lives were not in danger from water. The house might end up being a mess, but we would live to clean it up. I never thought of fire.

But what about the bay a little over half a block away even though protected by a 6 ft wall? My figuring was that if the moon at high tide were pulling the ocean toward us it would also be pulling the bay away from us. But then again there were the northeat winds pushing the bay back to us. Who would have thought the ocean and bay would actually say "howdy"? Yet the relative lack of bay-side destruction compared to beach devastation sort of proves my point.

But what I couldn't conceive without actually experiencing it were the multiple paths water could take to enter - not just the basement but through windows and back door of the den, through the garage and laundry room on the ground level, all of which flooded probably before the basement. We could clearly see and hear the water rushing into the den and then rising step by step while also rising up our front and back steps until it reached both decks.

So I ran from front to back window to den door to watch the water rise. 3 ways to watch the coming doom - if it got to the first floor the house becomes unliveable. I knew that high tide at 9PM and a little beyond would be the high point.

Running out of power. I'll finish our Sandy story of Monday night/Tues morning next time.

Cheers,
Norm Scott

Twitter: normscott1

Education Notes
ednotesonline.blogspot.com

Grassroots Education Movement
gemnyc.org

Education columnist, The Wave
www.rockawave.com

nycfirst robotics
normsrobotics.blogspot.com

Sent from my BlackBerry

Rockaway Update: Flood Despair to Euphoria

Lessons from Sandy: Water seeks its own level.

If you give to any relief effort - time or money - Occupy Sandy has been doing a great job. I don't have link.

Good news for us - electrician tomorrow AM, plumber recom by our contractor Matt came yesyerday and will get us an AO Smith water heater installed by Fri and a Weil Mclain or Burnham boiler somewhat later on - and we have some secondary heat sources once power is on so we are moving forward.
And the great Matt (even tho a romney guy) came the same time to set up the demilition for Sat - anything that got wet is threatened by dreaded mold.

Also good news yesterday was my wife having a giant cavity filled by a new dentist for us (our regular guy is out due to storm). My wife has always bragged about her perfect cavity-free mouth so I am doubly happy so I can shut her up.

To all those asking how to help us -

We are the 1% in our ability to recover. We have the resources - contacts, insurance, backup funding, etc. We have a borrowed car through Thanksgiving and we have an allowance to rent one. And after today's visit from Geico to my 3 month honda crv we should be able to get a replacement - this time leasing looks good. We spent a chunk of yesterday meeting with the guy who sold us the car and also looking at a Subaru - how surprising that the salesman lives 2 blocks from us - 2 blocks closer to the fire - and he had some stories about wading through the water to get further away.

And we signed up with FEMA Sat nite and a guy called last night - he is coming this morning.

All we have needed has been places to shower and do laundry (mostly the messy work clothes).

The Night of Sandy

The experience of living on our own island for a few hours on the night of Sandy is not something I want to repeat. It is not easy to describe the relief when we realized the ocean had stopped rising inside and outside our house and we weren't on fire.

My house, which the previous owners had custom built around 1960 is very unique, especially for Rockaway - a split level - in essence 2 separate houses split down the middle, each with 2 levels, 4 in all - if you don't count the 2 level attic where we could have taken refuge. (Actually, that makes 6 levels.)

The main level - living, dining, kitchen is about 4 plus feet up from the ground with decks in front and back, a basement around 7 ft deep underneath. Next to it is a ground level slab with den (which was used mostly for storage, beach transit, plants wintering over) bathroom, garage and laundry room, a 6 step flight of stairs down to the basement and 6 steps up to the main level. Over this space are the bed and bathrooms which connect to the main level with about 6 steps, putting them 8-10 ft above ground level.

Thus, given that we are over 3 blocks from the beach and not threatened by a giant wave since the water from the ocean would spread out by the time it reached us, we figured our lives were not in danger from water. The house might end up being a mess, but we would live to clean it up. I never thought of fire.

But what about the bay a little over half a block away even though protected by a 6 ft wall? My figuring was that if the moon at high tide were pulling the ocean toward us it would also be pulling the bay away from us. But then again there were the northeat winds pushing the bay back to us. Who would have thought the ocean and bay would actually say "howdy"? Yet the relative lack of bay-side destruction compared to beach devastation sort of proves my point.

But what I couldn't conceive without actually experiencing it were the multiple paths water could take to enter - not just the basement but through windows and back door of the den, through the garage and laundry room on the ground level, all of which flooded probably before the basement. We could clearly see and hear the water rushing into the den and then rising step by step while also rising up our front and back steps until it reached both decks.

So I ran from front to back window to den door to watch the water rise. 3 ways to watch the coming doom - if it got to the first floor the house becomes unliveable. I knew that high tide at 9PM and a little beyond would be the high point.

Running out of power. I'll finish our Sandy story of Monday night/Tues morning next time.

Cheers,
Norm Scott

Twitter: normscott1

Education Notes
ednotesonline.blogspot.com

Grassroots Education Movement
gemnyc.org

Education columnist, The Wave
www.rockawave.com

nycfirst robotics
normsrobotics.blogspot.com

Sent from my BlackBerry

Rockaway Update: Flood Despair to Euphoria

Lessons from Sandy: Water seeks its own level.

If you give to any relief effort - time or money - Occupy Sandy has been doing a great job. I don't have link.

Good news for us - electrician tomorrow AM, plumber recom by our contractor Matt came yesyerday and will get us an AO Smith water heater installed by Fri and a Weil Mclain or Burnham boiler somewhat later on - and we have some secondary heat sources once power is on so we are moving forward.
And the great Matt (even tho a romney guy) came the same time to set up the demilition for Sat - anything that got wet is threatened by dreaded mold.

Also good news yesterday was my wife having a giant cavity filled by a new dentist for us (our regular guy is out due to storm). My wife has always bragged about her perfect cavity-free mouth so I am doubly happy so I can shut her up.

To all those asking how to help us -

We are the 1% in our ability to recover. We have the resources - contacts, insurance, backup funding, etc. We have a borrowed car through Thanksgiving and we have an allowance to rent one. And after today's visit from Geico to my 3 month honda crv we should be able to get a replacement - this time leasing looks good. We spent a chunk of yesterday meeting with the guy who sold us the car and also looking at a Subaru - how surprising that the salesman lives 2 blocks from us - 2 blocks closer to the fire - and he had some stories about wading through the water to get further away.

And we signed up with FEMA Sat nite and a guy called last night - he is coming this morning.

All we have needed has been places to shower and do laundry (mostly the messy work clothes).

The Night of Sandy

The experience of living on our own island for a few hours on the night of Sandy is not something I want to repeat. It is not easy to describe the relief when we realized the ocean had stopped rising inside and outside our house and we weren't on fire.

My house, which the previous owners had custom built around 1960 is very unique, especially for Rockaway - a split level - in essence 2 separate houses split down the middle, each with 2 levels, 4 in all - if you don't count the 2 level attic where we could have taken refuge. (Actually, that makes 6 levels.)

The main level - living, dining, kitchen is about 4 plus feet up from the ground with decks in front and back, a basement around 7 ft deep underneath. Next to it is a ground level slab with den (which was used mostly for storage, beach transit, plants wintering over) bathroom, garage and laundry room, a 6 step flight of stairs down to the basement and 6 steps up to the main level. Over this space are the bed and bathrooms which connect to the main level with about 6 steps, putting them 8-10 ft above ground level.

Thus, given that we are over 3 blocks from the beach and not threatened by a giant wave since the water from the ocean would spread out by the time it reached us, we figured our lives were not in danger from water. The house might end up being a mess, but we would live to clean it up. I never thought of fire.

But what about the bay a little over half a block away even though protected by a 6 ft wall? My figuring was that if the moon at high tide were pulling the ocean toward us it would also be pulling the bay away from us. But then again there were the northeat winds pushing the bay back to us. Who would have thought the ocean and bay would actually say "howdy"? Yet the relative lack of bay-side destruction compared to beach devastation sort of proves my point.

But what I couldn't conceive without actually experiencing it were the multiple paths water could take to enter - not just the basement but through windows and back door of the den, through the garage and laundry room on the ground level, all of which flooded probably before the basement. We could clearly see and hear the water rushing into the den and then rising step by step while also rising up our front and back steps until it reached both decks.

So I ran from front to back window to den door to watch the water rise. 3 ways to watch the coming doom - if it got to the first floor the house becomes unliveable. I knew that high tide at 9PM and a little beyond would be the high point.

Running out of power. I'll finish our Sandy story of Monday night/Tues morning next time.

Cheers,
Norm Scott

Twitter: normscott1

Education Notes
ednotesonline.blogspot.com

Grassroots Education Movement
gemnyc.org

Education columnist, The Wave
www.rockawave.com

nycfirst robotics
normsrobotics.blogspot.com

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NEW Caucus on Why Vote NO

7PM. Isn't it time for bed?
Running out of cell charge but will try to do another Rockaway Update when recharged as a bunch of stuff happened today to inch us forward.
Still working off my phone so can't do fully linked report.
--------------------------------
Our comrades in Newark are still battling to keep another Randi contract off the sell-out tour list.

First, a tweet

@NEWCaucus: Check out the latest piece from Jersey Jazzman on the proposed contract in Newark. The Jazzman rightly takes the... http://t.co/jaFjQPrp

Followed by:

11 November 2012

Newark Education Workers (NEW) Caucus

Why We Need to Vote No

As rank-and-file NTU members, we realize that moments of meaningful union democracy are rare. Typically, union leadership decides on its own what is in our best interests as teachers, clerks, aides, and clinicians. In times of contract negotiations, union leaders represent us at the negotiating table and try to win the fairest contract possible given the perceived limitations of the times. For some, this top-down, service-style unionism appears to have worked in the past. Though, for others, the lack of bottom-up, democratic input into how our union works, what our union fights for at the negotiating table, and where we are going as a union and as a working class profession has been a source of understandable concern. These concerns have increased over the last five years as we have witnessed the dismantling of public education in Newark and elsewhere across the country.

Yet, on Wednesday, we have one of those rare chances to make our rank-and-file voices heard on what direction we think our union and our schools should be moving in over the next three years. Unfortunately, the contract agreement reached between our state-controlled district and the NTU does more to hurt public education than it does to help fix our schools, our union, and our city. For this general reason, and the three specific ones stated below, NEW Caucus urges all NTUers to vote no on the proposed contract.

First, the proposed contract centralizes power in administrators and the superintendent, especially in regards to the yet-to-be-finalized evaluation system. Peer review, touted as a victory by AFT and NTU officials, only provides a non-binding advisory role for us, an essentially non-enforceable power when one examines the details of the contract. Selection criteria and management of peer evaluators is completely in the hands of the superintendent. All decisions about the quality and content of our evaluations is in the hands of building administrators and the superintendent. Without a real balance of power in the peer review process whereby NTU members have an actual voice in who our peer evaluators are and the ultimate fairness in our evaluation's content and quality, we open up the possibility of subjective and flawed evaluations being used to withhold our increments and even takeaway our tenure if we receive two years of negative evaluations.

Second, the proposed contract treats teachers like undignified donkeys, not like the dignified working class professionals we already are. This carrot-and-stick, reward-and-punish approach is accomplished through the unproven and ideologically-driven system of merit pay. As a pay scheme for teachers, merit pay experimentation has never worked since the first time it was tried in the 1920s. There is not a single study that exists which shows merit pay improves teacher or student performance. Further, it forces teachers to compete with one another and opens us possibilities of favoritism through the subjective aspects of the new teacher evaluation system while discouraging a meaningful culture of educator collaboration inside schools. Additionally, with the data systems currently under construction to track student growth and the "value-added" by teachers, merit pay could be determined by a yet-to-be-decided percentage on student test scores, possibly 50% if the NJDOE has its way. This presents big problems because test scores have been shown to be an unreliable factor of student progress with statistically significant margins of error. Moreover, standardized tests do nothing to account for social and economic factors that lay outside the control of teachers. By all objective measures, then, merit pay is not a fair way of compensating Newark teachers for their dedication and hard work inside the classroom.
Cheers,
Norm Scott

Twitter: normscott1

Education Notes
ednotesonline.blogspot.com

Grassroots Education Movement
gemnyc.org

Education columnist, The Wave
www.rockawave.com

nycfirst robotics
normsrobotics.blogspot.com

Sent from my BlackBerry

Rockaway Update: Power Rumors - Tues. Nov. 13

I hear The Wave is operating online (www.rockawave.com) so check it out for what should be good local storm coverage.

One thing I knew the morning after Sandy's visit - 2 weeks ago today though it seems like months - as the waters receded, with one look at muddy grit and grime on my 2 electrical boxes - one in the garage and one in the basement - was that no matter how long LIPA took to turn on power I wasn't going to turn on nothin' until these boxes were replaced. Oh, I did shoot fresh water into them to try to flush out the saltwater but even if they "worked" I am told corrosion could cause issues, including worst case scenario electrical fires. So I decided not to wait for LIPA to send someone by to tell me that but to do a preemptive strike and get them changed. Given rumors of a month or more before we get power I was willing to wait for the electrician I wanted. But now I hear we could have power soon and getting Ken over here is getting more urgent. He said maybe wed or thurs. I liked that he asked me to send pics of the boxes.

I didn't turn off the main power - we still had lights as the water started coming in - and there are stories of people drowning in their basements trying to do so as the water surged - possibly that is what happened to Rick the neighbor who lived behind my house. When we started smelling smoke Monday night at around 8pm with waters rising and no escape we experienced moments of terror thinking we were on fire because I didn't turn off the power - until I opened the rear door and realized the smoke was coming from elsewhere. I didn't find out till the next morning that 130th st, 4 blocks away, was burning.

Many watched the fire from their windows fearing the flames would start jumping. One couple and their neighbor grabbed the cat and dog and waded in thigh high water across the street to a neighbor's house.

------
60 minutes did a segment on Belle Harbor and my wife heard it on the radio - I was sleeping at 6:30 pm on sunday and didn't get up till 4 in the morning. I was wondering why cbs had a satellite truck outside Rick's house all day. When we get power, followed by a new hot water heater and heating system and then track down verizon to get us phone, internet and TV back, I'll get a chance to watch it - maybe during Hillary Clinton's second term.

-------
Thanks to Anna from Teachers Unite and her friend Chris for stopping by on their way to heavy duty volunteering work in Rockaway. Chris offered to help schlep the formerly gleaming washer and dryer from garage to curb, not a lite task given the Atlantic ocean sloshing around inside.

Sammy, the rock'n Moroccan who was part of the crew who we hired to clean out the basement, stopped by to load the machines in his truck. He does the anti-fungus and asestos removal for his company which is based in the Danbury Conn area - they drive here every day. Sammy pointed out that many basements are being cleared by friends, family and volunteers and if there's asbestos that is a considerable danger. Just another bunch of oy veys for Rockaway.

Cheers,
Norm Scott

Twitter: normscott1

Education Notes
ednotesonline.blogspot.com

Grassroots Education Movement
gemnyc.org

Education columnist, The Wave
www.rockawave.com

nycfirst robotics
normsrobotics.blogspot.com

Sent from my BlackBerry

Patrick Sullivan Report from PEP: Mayoral Bloc Rejects Call for Delay in Charter School Co-locations

Demand the UFT call for end to mayoral control and will actively oppose any candidate who continues to support it.
Of course I'm joking since this will never happen. So read Patrick's report and weep as to why parents like Patrick do more to defend our interests than uft leaders do.

Original Message-----
From: Patrick Sullivan
To: nyceducationnews <nyceducationnews@yahoogroups.com>

All,

Here's my account of Thursday's PEP.  

On the blog as well at http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2012/11/peps-mayoral-bloc-rejects-call-for.html

Patrick

Thursday's Panel for Educational Policy meeting at Frank Sinatra HS started forty minutes late as Vice Chair Freida Foster waited for enough mayoral bloc appointees to ensure the mayor's super-majority was in place to approve resolutions.

Deferral of Co-Location Votes or "The People's Business"

Brooklyn representative Kelvin Diamond introduced a resolution to defer co-location votes from the rescheduled December PEP meeting to January.  Diamond cited the losses and disruption caused by Hurricane Sandy as obstacles to holding public hearings where the affected communities could weigh in on the decisions.  Chancellor Walcott spoke against the resolution citing the need to proceed with "the people's business".  I joined the Queens representative in supporting the Brooklyn resolution.  The resolution failed as the Staten Island representative joined the mayoral bloc in dismissing our concerns about the ability of the public to focus on these hearings and the larger privatization effort underway in the aftermath of the hurricane. Of the ten proposals in question, six of them are to place schools privately managed by the Success Academy Network in public school buildings. Gotham Schools has a good account of the discussion.

Budget Vote and Rules of Order Skirmish

Next up was an $8 billion budget vote, the aggregation of actual school budgets for approval.   Chair Freida Foster recognized me to ask questions and make comments.  I asked why the budget had been delayed and then imposed under the Chancellor's emergency powers, a highly unusual event.   The response was Mike Tragale, the DOE CFO was sick.  I remarked upon the inconsistency in how the DOE decided to defer the budget vote when one person was sick but proceed with the Success Academy co-locations when hundreds of thousands were distracted.  I was about to raise a concern about the poor fiscal management practices that place so much importance on a single person when I was interrupted by a member of staff, Courtenay Jackson-Chase, the DOE's general counsel and  secretary to the PEP.   I explained that she had not been recognized by the PEP chair, had no standing to interrupt me and was not even a member of the Panel.  Chancellor Walcott began lecturing me about bullying.   I noted that he had not been recognized to speak either.   Eventually after criticizing my comments and questioning by prerogative to even pose them he relented and I went to my next question, about the record number of budget appeals requested by principals and granted by the DOE.

The episode underscores how the PEP is merely a vehicle for the imposition of the mayor's agenda.  The legislature stripped the Chancellor of his chairmanship of the Panel along with his vote.  Yet nothing has really changed.  The Chancellor routinely interrupts or speaks without any regard for decorum or rules of order.  The Panel secretary, Jackson-Chase (previously Mike Best) sits next to the Panel Chair, always a malleable mayoral appointee, delivers instructions on how to conduct the meeting and cuts off speakers, both Panel members and members of the public alike. 

Proposals for Co-locations and Expansions

A proposal related to the Brooklyn College Academy failed for lack of votes.  The mayor typically has three appointees associated with CUNY on the PEP.   These CUNY-affiliated members generally keep quiet and rubber stamp the mayor's proposals.  In this case these members abstained due to conflict of interest. 

The principal of PS MS 15 in the Bronx spoke against the expansion of another public school in her building citing the loss of three classrooms currently serving children with special education needs.  The DOE dismissed her concerns because her school would still be "at footprint".  The action will result in severe overcrowding in the building with an estimated utilization between 116% and 132%.  I was joined by the Brooklyn and Queens representatives in refusing to support the change.  There is currently no Bronx appointee to the Panel.  The proposal passed 8-3.

A Success Academy co-location was approved by an 8-3 margin with the mayoral bloc and Staten Island member opposed by Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.   This vote was premature as the school in question is asking us for public school space to serve middle school students despite not being authorized by the grantor of its charter to do so.   The host building will go to a utilization of 113% to 138%, an increasingly typical level of overcrowding for Harlem schools subject to co-location with privately managed charter schools.   I asked the mayoral bloc Panel members why we could not instead provide this space for the excellent public school in the building, PS 175, to expand as it previously requested.   Only Ian Shapiro responded, criticizing me for challenging the DOE experts who decided a charter school would better serve this community than growing a successful public school. 

Contracts

We had an absurd discussion about "in-sourcing" the Galaxy budgeting system by paying the consultants who run the system $23 million over the next five years.  The deal reminded me of the contract with Future Technology Associates (FTA).  In both cases the DOE similarly bundled three or four discrete pieces of work together for the incumbent rather than keeping them separate so multiple firms could bid.  And DOE offered the same argument to defend the consulting contract - "only the consultants know how to run this system".  Let us all hope this one turns out better than our deal with FTA.  The principals of FTA ended up with indictments following an investigation that revealed widespread fraud.

A contract for a tutoring firm discovered to have committed multi-million dollar over-billing errors was considered.  One of our new student representatives, Ilan, pointed out that either the firm stole from us or was so incompetent as to make massive billing errors.  Either way we shouldn't want them tutoring our students.   Despite this display of sagacity so rare at PEP meetings, the contract was approved 8-3.

Cheers,
Norm Scott

Twitter: normscott1

Education Notes
ednotesonline.blogspot.com

Grassroots Education Movement
gemnyc.org

Education columnist, The Wave
www.rockawave.com

nycfirst robotics
normsrobotics.blogspot.com

Sent from my BlackBerry

Rockaway Update - Things to Be Thankful For, Sunday Nov. 11

Is Walcott still Chancelor or has Cathie Black been bought back by Bloomberg? I've been a little out of touch.

Thanks to----

The horde of firemen and the crew that came down with a big crew from New Haven and set up a barbecue on 139th and Cronston with all sorts of goodies including the largest and meatiest burgers I've ever seen.
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The mob of volunteers from all over the nation. There looked to be hundreds mobilizing in front of PS 114 on my corner. There are 7th Day adventists, Americore, and I hear Mormons from California are roaming the neighorhood.
And kudos to the AFT relief efforts in Coney Island where Kombiz Levasny tweeted he was going all day.
I feel increasingly guilty that I don't seem to have it in me to make some time to volunteer myself.

-------
Being able to get gasoline without waiting on line on Sat nite at 11PM on an even day even tho I'm odd (no jokes).

Our wonderful friends Mark and Peggy who invited us to dinner in Oceanside last night. (They also gave us the use of an apartment in Brooklyn to use). To drive out there or not became a big decision given we are down to less than a half tank of gas (we were full thanks to cousin Danny's delivery from Jersey of 10 gal last Sunday.) But we can't just sit in the dark starting at 5pm so we decide to go (we can't leave till after 6 - see below) and there on Atlantic Av and Long Beach Road is a Gulf with few people at pumps. But we decide to wait until after the delicious dinner and company (and showers and laundry and charging) to take a shot despite being odd. And YES, we are full with food and gas and can try to escape the dark again tonight.
Driving at night in Rockaway is positively surreal.

-------
Great friends like Ira and Sheila who have offered house, car, food, showers, laundry and charging in Brooklyn. They enticed us away from the cleanup Friday afternoon to go see Lincoln (Spoiler alert: he dies at the end) followed by a feast at a Chinese rest across from Eva Moskowitz HS in Irving Place.
--------

The flood insur adjuster who showed up around 5pm Saturday just as we were closing down the day's cleanup. He and his dad spent an hour working in the dark - not optimal but getting past this has been crucial as we now can throw out more stuff - like our 2 month old washer and drier.

And the other adjuster from our regular insur just called to say he will be out on Nov 19 - they only cover non-flood damage - damn those locusts.

--------
Matt, the wonderful contracter who did our bathroom in Sept (upstairs and undamaged) and our laundry room (which has a 4-5 ft water line and has to be gutted again- all inner walls contaminared by sea water have to be removed - something about fungus.) A call to Matt, who is from Argentina, is always reassuring. Ignore that 6 grand est from the demolition crew from Missouri (yes they are pouring in from all over) he tells us. He will send in a crew next Saturday. I guess I have to miss the MORE meeting but anyone not being demolished that day should go.
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The nyc sanitation crews who work all day and night in what seems to be an organized military op. Also to the numbers of police and fire crews and national guard and goodness knows how many others. There are so many vehicles, leaving Rockaway bet 5 and 7 is insane as backups stretch for miles. Same with coming in in the morning.
-----

And most important, my wife Carol who has been a partner in every way in sharing all the important stuff we have to do. We made a decision to try to get even the tiniest thing done every day.

-----------
Today's jobs: draining each of the 3 zones in my heating system and cleaning out the garage (which is part of my house and had 5 ft of water --- the ins adj told has to have the walls removed. Oy!

And if there's time, looking for a car -- we have the loaner from our friend who left town due to her building being damaged and won't be back till after thanksgiving.

No thanks to
LIPA

Maybe thanks to FEMA - we finally registered last night -

Here's hoping I can give thanks soon to a plumber who will install a new hot water heater and boiler and an electrician who will replace the flooded elec panels and certify us when LIPA turns on the power sometime in 2015 - actually just heard it might be coming this week but useless to me without the boxes. Major decision - wait for the electrician I really want or get it done quicker with an unknown?
Sooner, later, sooner, later....

Why do I feel like Hamlet trying to decide?

Well, this is a warm week, so as long as we can get gas and get out of here in the evenings we'll be ok.
Does TV and the internet still exist?

When's the next PEP? Give Cathie Black my regards.

Cheers,
Norm Scott

Twitter: normscott1

Education Notes
ednotesonline.blogspot.com

Grassroots Education Movement
gemnyc.org

Education columnist, The Wave
www.rockawave.com

nycfirst robotics
normsrobotics.blogspot.com

Sent from my BlackBerry

Rockaway Update - Thurs Nov. 8 - Who Needs Light and Heat

Found out my regular home insurance covers locusts, frogs and muraine but not floods. Except if flood occurs during week of Passover and we can prove water came from the Red Sea.

I slept 12 hours last night for the first time in my life. Blame it on darkness, cold and a lot of wine.

Thurs, Nov. 8, 6pm: 10th day without power or heat. Or more importantly, internet or TV.

Lots to tell about look of war zone here but another time.

I intended to keep a daily diary but with only spotty phone internet access and having to save laptops for powering the phones and with all the stuff we have to do during the day and the depressing darkness at night - now starting at 5pm since Sunday.

"Look how little it takes now to make me happy." ----- My wife upon finding the new lantern/flashlight we just bought at Home Depot is better than anything.

Gee, almost makes me wish for regular floods.

One of best stories for us: finding phone mssge from alarm comp from around 7pm Monday, Sandy night, that our basement water alarm to detect floods went off. Gee, thanks. It goes off if we get 2 inch of water. How about 7 feet?

Let me point out so no one feels sorry for us, we are the top 1% in terms of how much better off we are than most and able to deal with all of this. The 80 year old woman who lives behind us comes knocking on our door at least once a day in a semi-state of confusion. We offer as much help as we can but not sure exactly what to tell her other than to calm down - she has an apt in the city - just go there and wait it out. Her response - the worst thing is seeing everyone else getting things done while she marks time.

And I get that. Our pals J&S had their contracter install a water heater and they can take showers. I'm adding that task to my loooong list.

Sorry I haven't compiling this info daily so I could remember things better. I'll try to backtrack. One day at a time.

So, the key to dealing with all this is to get something done every single day and celebrate whatever it is, no matter how trivial, as a major victory.

Today was a biggie.

-reached Ken the electrician who had asked me to send pics of our 2 power boxes that were under water. We don't intend to wait for boobs at LIPA (yes Rockaway is only area of nyc in their zone) to tell us we need to replace them. We're going for a pre-emtive strike so when they show - sometime in January - we are ready for them. Ken says maybe by end of next week. Maybe. That doesn't mean power from lipa which I hear can take 2 months but I've put this task as current top priority.

-Brian the tow truck guy who thankfully lives on my block sent guys to tow my 3 month old Honda CRV out of my neighbor's garage. He towed my wife's car out of our garage last Friday (nov. 2 which seems like a year ago) as a big favor so we could have space for the crew we hired (at an outrageous price) to clear our disaster of a basement. Well maybe not so outrageous. Now we just have to get that damn Geko out here to look at them.

-Called Geiko, Flood insur adjuster, Matt our fab contracter, Barry our alarm guy. Matt says he can send demolition crew week from Sat. That's nov 17. Jeez.

-The apartment we were offered by our friends in Trump Village (not Towers) in Coney Island - we went over to check it out, took showers and charged computer and phones. We may use it to sleep there - imagine being able to actually read in the evening - but right now we intend to live out here until it is too cold. Moving cats is a big issue - you know their comfort is more important than ours.

Timeout: wife curses that fuckn Cuomo and says she will never vote for him - blames him for gas and Iipa situation. How does he make Cristie look good?

I saw one LIPA truck on Monday - only one in all this time driven by a guy from Suffolk who drove 3 hours. "You won't have power for 2 months. They pulled me from areas where I could actually be getting people back up so I could drive around here doing nothing other than showing lipa has a presence. Political crap."

So yes we will need that apartment.
Admission: I miss TV. And the internet. I may have to do mi-fi.

Then off to check out a car, eat lunch and go to Home Depot.

Stop off at J&S with sandwiches and big push broom and back home to find first mail delivery in 11 days.

Do victory lap around pile of mail for small sign of normalcy. damn bat running down. Bi

Cheers,
Norm Scott

Twitter: normscott1

Education Notes
ednotesonline.blogspot.com

Grassroots Education Movement
gemnyc.org

Education columnist, The Wave
www.rockawave.com

nycfirst robotics
normsrobotics.blogspot.com

Sent from my BlackBerry

Vincent Wojsnis on "Why I Joined the MORE Caucus, UFT"

Vincent points to an interesting trend: people who up to now stayed out of union internal politics believes he can not longer sit on the fence. He has not only joined MORE but become an active participant in building the organization, a key component if MORE is to grow.

Why I Joined the MORE Caucus, UFT by Vincent Wojsnis

Anyone who knows me knows that among the things I really care about are teaching social studies and working for the United Federation of Teachers*. I am a New York City teacher but I am also a union activist and for me, the struggle to defend public education and trade unionism are one and the same. As a teacher, I believe a good, free public education, available to all, is a goal worth fighting for. I also realize that belonging to a strong union allows me to advocate for my students as well as for our members. 

I've been a chapter leader, a delegate, an arbitration advocate. In 2009 I joined other UFT members to help organize teachers for the AFT in Texas. My union activity was recognized by the union leadership later that year when I was received a Trachtenberg Award as well as a UFT Partnership Award that I shared with my former principal. I am proud of it all. The roots of my activism began when the NYC Department of Education decided to close my former school, MS 399 in the Bronx, a school where I worked for nearly a decade. From that point on, I decided that I would "fight back" by doing what I could to build this union. 

Until recently, however, to anyone who'd ask me to which caucus I belonged I would simply say, "UFT." So-called "in fighting" within the union, it seemed to me, was factional and counter-productive. I no longer feel that way. The extreme agenda advanced by the so-called "education reform movement" and our union leadership's weak (often questionable) response to it has made me a partisan. Earlier this year, concerned over the direction that the union leadership was taking both in New York and nationally, a group of UFT members joined together and formed the Movement of Rank and File Educators (MORE) as an alternative caucus within the UFT. I joined the MORE Caucus because I believe that union has to go in a different direction. 

For more than fifty years the majority Unity Caucus has controlled the UFT leadership. And while it is true that under Unity, the union has won significant rights and benefits for our members, the unprecedented, persistent assault on our union by the right wing in both major political parties has led to an erosion of those rights and benefits. Their so-called "reforms" include attacks on tenure, seniority and the right to due process. They have sought to undermine our pensions. Their new evaluation process overwhelmingly and unfairly relies on data derived from standardized test scores. 

The MORE Caucus calls for fair and improved contract, without givebacks, that protects and preserves our rights and benefits. We are calling for a union-wide discussion and vote on any agreement on a new teacher evaluation process. We reject any agreement that would include a test-based evaluation. Moreover, we believe that the fight for a fair contract begins now by mobilizing our members and not solely relying on the courts or waiting for a new administration to take office.

 The so-called "reformers" have cynically misrepresented their efforts by proclaiming that it is all in "best interests of children," but nothing could be further from the truth. Their so-called "reforms" would increase in class sizes, where no child would get the kind of attention they deserve. Their special education reforms have reduced services for those students who most need them. By placing a disproportionate emphasis on reading and math scores they have narrowed the curriculum by eliminating or greatly reducing a curriculum that includes social studies, the arts, physical education and extra-curricular activities. 

As the social justice caucus of the UFT, MORE stands with our communities against the corporate takeover of our public schools. We oppose the theft of public space and resources by privately-run charter schools co-located in public school buildings. We call for an end to high-stake testing and the restoration of a broad and robust curriculum. We advocate for our students by demanding smaller class sizes and that every child with special needs receive the services that they need and deserve. 

Mayoral control under Michael Bloomberg has been a disaster for NYC children. How obscene is it for the mayor to undermine the very school system he was entrusted to protect? Though it has sought to modify the state law that gives the mayor total control of the public schools, under Unity, the current UFT leadership supports mayoral control of the public schools. As a former District Rep once told me, "mayoral control was here to stay because no mayor would give up that much power." If it has proven anything, after more than a decade of mayoral control under Bloomberg, it is that it is too much power to be held by one mayor. Yet, in school districts across the country, school boards are still elected by members of the community for candidates (mostly parents) who seek to have a voice in education policy. This is particularly true in affluent, suburban, mostly white school districts. Meanwhile, school districts in big cities (New York, Chicago, Detroit, etc.) have been placed under control either by the mayor or an "educational management organizations" made up of business people with little or no stake in the schools they govern. Are not parents of urban, less affluent communities of color entitled to the same rights as affluent suburban communities? 

I joined MORE because MORE calls for an end to mayoral control of the public schools and the restoration of popular control through democratically elected school boards. 

Under mayoral control hundreds of qualified teachers have had to re-apply for jobs they've already had. Through school closings, the elimination of programs and a narrowing of the curriculum, these teachers have been placed on the Absent Teacher Reserve. The difficulties many have had finding permanent positions have had less to do with their qualifications and more to do with their age, their salaries and whether or not they are tenured. 

The mayor, the chancellor and media have maligned these colleagues as "bad teachers" and "overpaid subs." Anyone of us could be an "ATR" tomorrow. A union resolution passed last spring called for providing assistance and training to help excessed teachers but the resolution fell far short of resolving the real problem which is the current system that keeps qualified teachers in a kind of institutional "limbo." There is no reason that any qualified teacher should remain in excess especially when there are positions available in any school. 

I joined MORE because MORE calls for an end of the so-called "free market" system that is the ATR along with the creation of a sub-class of teachers whose rights are routinely violated as a result. 

To achieve these goals we deserve a union that is democratic and transparent. We intend to fight for these goals by running our own candidates in the upcoming UFT elections in the spring. These are the main reasons I joined the MORE Caucus. I urge you to join us and support our candidates and platform. To learn more about MORE go to the following links: 

http://morecaucusnyc.org/mission-statement/

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/new-uft-evaluation/

 I also recommend you see the film, The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman - Now Online at: http://gemnyc.org/our-film/

Fraternally, 

Vincent C. Wojsnis, UFT Chapter Leader, Antonia Pantoja Prep. Academy

Jonathan Kozol event at the Grad Center Friday CANCELLED

Folks,

I'm sad to report that Jonathan Kozol is too sick to come to NYC this week.

The wet and cold has made it worse, and now his doctor is forbidding travel.

Thus, the event we were planning at the Graduate Center with him this Friday is cancelled.

Hopefully, we will be able to reschedule when he is feeling better.

I can't recommend his new book, Fire in the Ashes, enough.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/books/2012/08/26/review-fire-ashes-jonathan-kozol/FU0YEhIhUf4X7IUKaZEFqI/story.html

Best,

Brian


--
Cheers,
Norm Scott

Twitter: normscott1

Education Notes
ednotesonline.blogspot.com

Grassroots Education Movement
gemnyc.org

Education columnist, The Wave
www.rockawave.com

nycfirst robotics
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Jonathan Kozol & Brian Jones (MORE) Fri, Nov 9th, : Fire in the Ashes: Victims and Survivors of Apartheid in New York

Two postings in a row with the leading MORE candidates in the upcoming UFT elections. Brian is running for UFT Secretary which is the second in command position in the UFT, a position Randi and Tom Pappas held.

Julie and Brian make for a power house pair to lead the MORE ticket.

Friday November 9, 5pm

 

Fire in the Ashes: Victims and Survivors of Apartheid in New York

Jonathan Kozol and Brian Jones


Returning to the scene of his prize-winning books Rachel and Her Children and Amazing Grace, Jonathan Kozol shares insights of twenty-five years in New York’s poorest neighborhood’s public school system in conversation with teacher, activist educator Brian Jones. Together they will explore the urgent issues that confront our urban schools – a devastating race-gap, and a pathological regime of obsessive testing that prioritizes exams over rich curricula that excite a love of learning. Why do certain children rise above it all, graduate from high school and do well in college, while others are defeated by the time they enter adolescence? How can we organize and mobilize educators, parents, students, and our communities against the corporate and government policies that underfund, undermine, and privatize our public school system?

Co-sponsored by (In)equality Matters,Advanced Research Collaborative, Rethinking Schools, Save Our Schools, Change the Stakes, Haymarket Books, PhD programs in Urban Education and Critical Social/Personality Psychology, Center for Human Environment, and Public Science Project

 

 

Free and open to the public. All events take place at The Graduate Center, CUNY 365 Fifth Ave btw  34th & 35th. The building and the venues are fully accessible. For more information please visit http://centerforthehumanities.org/  or call 212.817.2005 or e-mail ch@gc.cuny.edu

Also from Brian:

Racism, Class and the Attack on Public Education: A Talk by Brian Jones

Still Separate, Still Unequal: Racism, Class and the Attack on Public Education, with Brian Jones from N Alexander on Vimeo.

Cavanagh and PS 15 Teachers Relief Efforts in Red Hook While DOE Treats Them Like Shit

P.S. 15′s staff remained uncertain about where they would be reporting once classes resume on Monday. While they were at Red Hook Initiative on Wednesday, they learned Mayor Bloomberg had announced that they would be expected to show up for work on Friday to prepare for the challenging circumstances.

“Where are we supposed to go?” asked Marie Sirotniak, another P.S. 15 teacher.

Late Thursday evening, an answer was still not clear. P.S. 15′s principal instructed teachers to meet at the school’s network offices in Bay Ridge. Department of Education officials had promised to release alternate locations for teachers working in severely damaged schools by Thursday afternoon, but did not do so until nearly midnight. Teachers from P.S. 15 were instructed to report to South Shore High School, more than eight miles away in central Brooklyn. --- Gotham Schools

Good piece by Geoff at Gotham on the work Julie Cavanagh and other staff members at PS 15 are doing. Julie also sent out this missive on Saturday:

1. At PS 15K, we will meet on the playground from 10 (and will work until 3, or the job is done) to coordinate classroom materials to be boxed and organized for transport to our temporary location (we are still awaiting truck transport information). Our principal will be on site for this effort.  71 Sullivan Street

2. Volunteers from the PS 15 playground who can be spared there will be deployed to Calvary Baptist Church for donation efforts for Red Hook school-based families as needed.

3.  We will try to coordinate with Red Hook Initiative for any overflow of volunteers to help with their amazing efforts (I left them a message already and will do further outreach, but we can also just walkover/send folks there if we do not hear anything).

Julie is the chapter leader and the MORE candidate for UFT President. True social justice unionism. I know there are readers out there who scoff at these type of activities by teachers. Beyond basic humanitarian issues (and Julie is one of the great humanitatians I know) if you just think of things selfishly --- you want community and parents behind teachers? Earn it with some sweat and blood.

In battered Red Hook, teachers struggle to connect with families

by Geoff Decker, at 1:07 pm

Julie Cavanagh and her husband prepare to pass out supplies to Red Hook residents affected by the storm.

City teachers were told to stay home from school this week until today because of damages and disruption wrought by Hurricane Sandy. But staff working in one of the city’s worst-hit areas showed up anyway.
A group of teachers and aides from P.S. 15 in Red Hook met on Wednesday, just a day after the storm ended, hoping to distribute supplies to residents from the nearby Red Hook Houses, a sprawling campus of public housing where many of the school’s students live.
“P.S. 15 has always kind of been a hub for the community and in the absence of that hub, we wanted to try and do something,” said Julie Cavanagh, a special education teacher who invited families via email to meet at the school on Wednesday afternoon.
Cavanagh bought $200 worth of supplies — water, food, batteries, and even som Halloween candy — at Costco that morning, and said her plan was to give it away at the school, which was also badly damaged from the storm that flooded the rest of the neighborhood on Monday night.
But few people showed up at the scheduled meeting time on Wednesday. Some families had likely evacuated, and Cavanagh said she knew of some co-workers and families who stayed put but weren’t able to receive calls or emails.

Cavanagh ended up giving some food and water to passersby outside of the housing project, including one P.S. 15 parent of three students.
Alys Lugo, a P.S. 15 paraprofessional who lives in the houses, took a gallon of water and tuna up with her. She said she was traumatized by scenes from the storm.
“I saw the water coming up, into the park and the streets,” said Lugo, who watched the storm’s surge quickly blanket surrounding blocks from her apartment in one of the tower’s top floors. “There was water everywhere.”
Chancellor Dennis Walcott told reporters on Thursday that most schools would not get a complete picture of how their families were affected by the storm until Monday, when students are expected to return. But the efforts by P.S. 15 teachers was one example of where teachers showed a greater eagerness to reestablish communication while schools were closed.
“It’s a horrible feeling to be disconnected from the kids we see every day not knowing where they are or if they’re alright,” Cavanagh said. “Folks feel a sense of urgency to get reconnected with students and families.”
Cavanagh and her colleagues eventually drove their supplies to Red Hook Initiative, a community-based organization that had quickly became a central meeting place in the neighborhood for hot meals and volunteer coordination. Cavanagh said she saw many P.S. 15 families at the center and thought the donations would be better put to use there.
P.S. 15′s staff remained uncertain about where they would be reporting once classes resume on Monday. While they were at Red Hook Initiative on Wednesday, they learned Mayor Bloomberg had announced that they would be expected to show up for work on Friday to prepare for the challenging circumstances.
“Where are we supposed to go?” asked Marie Sirotniak, another P.S. 15 teacher.
Late Thursday evening, an answer was still not clear. P.S. 15′s principal instructed teachers to meet at the school’s network offices in Bay Ridge. Department of Education officials had promised to release alternate locations for teachers working in severely damaged schools by Thursday afternoon, but did not do so until nearly midnight. Teachers from P.S. 15 were instructed to report to South Shore High School, more than eight miles away in central Brooklyn.

Update from Rockaway

I've been getting lots of requests for info on how we're doing (much better than most) and tho have some cell serv phone bat runs down fast so I'm posting a short version tho I've been trying to keep a diary.
I've barely been off my block so only know of devastation as u get closer to beach thru stories.

Had mountain of debris from basement and den covering 2 house lengths. Wonderful sanit guys sent here from Kew Gardens spent an hour loading truck as I tried to help best I could. Loads of volunteers coming by all day. One of neighbors sent a few over to help load truck. Big relief to clear that out. They are using Riis park lots to dump garbage so trucks get back quickly. Sanit has done amazing job.

For us - Lots of water and scary moments Mon nite as water rose an inch short of main floor. When we smelled smoke we thought we were done but it was from massive fires 4 blocks away. That was in add to breezy pt fires. Loads of stories but no time for details.

We're doing ok and getting things done. No warmth or elect. Elect panel boxes were under water so have to be replaced even if power does come on. Using stove for some heat. Cousin Dan came from jersey w 10 gallons of gas last night so can use one of borrowed cars to get around. He also brought 2 giant subs so plenty to eat.

May try to get apt for a few months or go to florida in dec.

Mostly cleaned up. Paid a company lots of dough but expect fld ins to cover. One car towed and one more to go.

Today will finish cleanup hopefully.
Many neighbors had to leave esp older people. One gave us a check to pay cleanup crew.

Neighbor behind my house drowned in basement. We saw them take body out through my back window on tues nite. We both moved in at same time in Aug 79. His wife was pregnant at time. Didn't know him well. Saw daughter next day. In midst of this they have to clean up.

Hearing other stories of people going down to retrieve something and getting caught in surge. I actually did go down to den twice to get ice chest and a few things as water rose. So lucky.

Water reached top of basement and as it dries main floor hardwood floors may buckle. That will be fun to watch.

Basement and den - areas most damaged were a catastrophe before Sandy. Wife always said it would take an act of god to get me to clean them up. Now u can eat off basement floor tho I wouldn't advise it.

Damn phone bat running down. Gotta run.

Cheers,
Norm Scott

Twitter: normscott1

Education Notes
ednotesonline.blogspot.com

Grassroots Education Movement
gemnyc.org

Education columnist, The Wave
www.rockawave.com

nycfirst robotics
normsrobotics.blogspot.com

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Fire Fiorillo's Ass for His Political Views

Kyle Olson on Michael fiorillo political views on blog comments he made: fire him to keep him away from your kids. Would Olsen say same if a right wing teacher called Obama a socialist?
Olson actually thinks Democrats are left-leaning which puts him on the creepy right wing fringe.
______________
Union Activist Says Obama, Booker 'Genetically Engineered to Divide and Negate Black Political Energies'   

·       Kyle Olson
 

Nov 04, 2012

It's becoming more obvious by the day that many teachers union activists are on the creepy radical fringe of American politics. They're proudly on the outside and far to the left of the left-leaning Democratic Party.

How else can one explain the angry reaction of so many union activists when Democratic politicians endorse or accept a few government school reforms?

Take United Federation of Teachers activist Michael Fiorillo. He takes no prisoners when it comes to his analysis of those Democrats, like President Obama and Newark Mayor Cory Booker, who call for more accountability for public school teachers. He recently wrote:

"Corey [sic] Booker, neoliberal puppet and certainly one of the most insipid and insufferable politicians who has ever lived. Both he and Obama share many attributes, and seem to have been genetically engineered to divide and negate black political energies in the interests of The Overclass, while making b*llshit white liberals feel good about themselves. An evil, albeit fascinating, dynamic."

Obama, of course, remains the darling of his party and may very well win a second term in the White House next week. Booker is a rising star in Democratic circles. They are both very liberal, but obviously not loyal enough to Big Labor for some teachers.

An increasing number of mainstream Democrats like Obama and Booker are tiring of the teachers unions and their self-serving ways. They see little political payoff in siding with unions that are willing to sacrifice the best interests of American students to get their way at the collective bargaining table.

That means radicals like Fiorillo are running out of friends in high places. If they continue to turn on everyone who dares to question their motives and agenda, they will soon be largely isolated in the American political scene.

That will be their own fault, and nobody will mourn their demise.

But there is one other concern that parents should be thinking about. Fiorillo and many like him are public school teachers, and have a great deal of influence on impressionable children five days per week.

Does anybody really want their kid to learn from someone who considers Barack Obama too conservative and a traitor to his race? These people are off the chart, and in a perfect world they would be kept as far away from students as possible.

 
Cheers,
Norm Scott

Twitter: normscott1

Education Notes
ednotesonline.blogspot.com

Grassroots Education Movement
gemnyc.org

Education columnist, The Wave
www.rockawave.com

nycfirst robotics
normsrobotics.blogspot.com

Sent from my BlackBerry

Ohanian update

Finally getting some cell service back but keeping phone charged is big factor. In the absense of power posting a new update from Susan Ohanian is is good as gold. Our big achievement today? Getting massive cleanup of basement done by pros. You can eat off the floor. I did warn one of the guys using the toilet in the den to watch out for sharks.

Susan speaks:
I have another denunciation of Smarter Balanced. My plan was to make the one at Daily Censored national and the one in Vermont Digger 'local.' Even though you don't live in Vermont, I think you'll find plenty of meat:

VT Digger
http://vtdigger.org/2012/10/31/ohanian-putting-a-test-on-computer-doesnt-make-it-up-to-date/

I plan to send this to officials at the Department of Education and to every member of the legislative education committee. Then I'll revise it and try VT print media, who seem singularly disinterested in education policy. VT Digger is much more politically attuned.

I'm not posting these two pieces on my site yet because I hope people will read them where they appeared first--to let those folks know this is an important issue. Both sites encourage comment.
Eventually, I'll post them on my site--because I like to keep track of things. But meanwhile, please go to VT Digger and Daily Censored.

Daily Censored:
Snookered by Bill Gates and the U. S. Department of Education

http://www.dailycensored.com/2012/10/28/snookered-by-bill-gates-and-the-u-s-department-of-education/

I would remind you there are 343 pieces about what's wrong with the Common Core on my site:
http://www.susanohanian.org/core.php

The point to keep in mind is that the Common Core exists so we can have a national test. And Smarter Balanced is so rotten, everyone should be concerned.

Take a look at the cartoon. It is something each of us could do:
http://www.susanohanian.org/cartoon_fetch.php?id=692

My husband is making progress but yesterday he was told 'six more weeks of quietude.' I don't have a word for what that means for the wife.

Susan

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
To the editor
Multiple authors
Wall Street Journal
2012-10-30
http://susanohanian.org/show_letter.php?id=1479

Letters responding to the division between the 'practicality' of science and the humanities

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
To the editor
Stephen Krashen
Cincinnatti Enquirer
2012-10-29
http://susanohanian.org/show_letter.php?id=1478

This is a good answer to a corporate-oriented article implying that if third graders only read better, job crisis would be solved.

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
New PA Study Shows Full-time School Librarian Boosts Student Achievement
Press Release
Education Law Center
2012-10-23
http://susanohanian.org/show_research.php?id=499

There are lots more reasons schools should have qualified librarians on staff but certainly it is significant that the presence of qualified librarians improves the test scores of <i>all</i> students.
----------------------------------------------------
Order the CD of the resistance:
"No Child Left Behind? Bring Back the Joy."

Cheers,
Norm Scott

Twitter: normscott1

Education Notes
ednotesonline.blogspot.com

Grassroots Education Movement
gemnyc.org

Education columnist, The Wave
www.rockawave.com

nycfirst robotics
normsrobotics.blogspot.com

Sent from my BlackBerry