Unity Caucus at the Ex Bd Meeting: Tears of Woe Over Not Having Time to Think of Ways to Oppose Our Resos

Arthur Goldstein—MORE—I am flattered that the 95 of you are so confounded by the seven of us that you need to curtail the few privileges we enjoy. I regret you are unable to muster persuasive responses when we raise resolutions. We are prohibited from electing our own Vice President, and this is just one more example of anti-democracy. Resolutions are regularly handed out on the spot at the DA and there are far fewer people here. This is not the way to go in the age of Janus. ..... NYC Educator responding to Unity Caucus reso
UFT Executive Board September 26, 2017--We Support Adult Ed., Maternity Leave, Puerto Rico, Florida, and Texas. Overcrowding? Class Sizes? Democracy? Meh. -   

RESOLVED, that all ad hoc resolutions for consideration by the UFT Executive Board not listed on the printed agenda for the day's meeting will be published and available on the agenda table at least one-half hour prior to commencement of the meeting, except for resolutions where circumstances arise within hours before or during the meeting that would require immediate discussion and action.... Reso passed with unanimous Unity Caucus support at Sept. 25 Ex Bd meeting.
......Unity reso presented at UFT Ex Bd meeting, Sept. 25, reso opposed by MORE reps.

Unity Caucus on the move

I gave a preliminary report on the UFT Ex Bd meeting early on Monday - Child Care Leave Issue Front and Center at UFT Ex-
but there's no way to properly describe some of the goings on there --- it is worth the price of admission. I will get to the adult ed and parental leave issues in a follow-up. Arthur and James did prelim reports on the meeting here and here.

But the reso put forth by Unity last night was so hilarious I can't pass up a separate post about it.
Many Unity people at EB meetings come off as hacks
Let me explain what this is all about. Since MORE got elected last year, our reps have used the EB meetings to raise resos -- sometimes they send them to the leadership in advance, sometimes they don't --- often last minute ideas come up and people sign the resos at the pre-meeting. When they raise the ad hoc resos it is a given that Leroy Barr - since so few in Unity are capable of even mustering a valid argument - will speak against it or amend it - and the rest of the Unity crew will vote the way they are told.

So the fact that they are calling in this reso for us to have our resos on the table a half hour before the meeting -- ie. 5:30 - when no one is there -- most don't come until 6 anyway -- is a joke. What they want is to give Leroy more of a heads up to prep his opposition - or to prep someone else to oppose it with at least a rational argument of some sort.

I often comment as our people are making their reso that we should give Leroy a chance to speak against it BEFORE we bring up a reso. In fact how about this alt to the Unity reso:

RESOLVED, we will oppose any reso coming from MORE. I mean why do they need time to come up with reasons? Just say you oppose and the Unity hacks will vote against since they don't need no stink'n reason.

Jonathan Halabi and New Action's approach to this reso was that they could live with this as long as Unity followed their own rules by not springing memorandums of agreement, etc on us in the future. I still feel New Action compromises too much.

Other than Arthur Goldstein, no one in MORE/NA called out Unity about the real purpose of this reso -- and what it exposes --

• that they will vote against a MORE/NA reso unless they are told to vote for it 
• that they can't think on their feet fast enough to respond and are embarrassed time and again when we report their response. 

Arthur expressed the outrage many of us feel about Unity, which was attacked extensively by rank and file teachers at the mic during the pre-meeting. The rank and file are all too often ahead of the leaders of the opposition in their instincts. Arthur is different. He is not trapped in the bubble.

Here are some other reports on the meeting. More to come from me later.

NYC Educator

UFT Executive Board September 26, 2017--We Support Adult Ed., Maternity Leave, Puerto Rico, Florida, and Texas. Overcrowding? Class Sizes? Democracy? Meh. -  

ICEUFT Blog

MULGREW SHOWS UP FOR OPEN MIC TO HEAR PAID FAMILY LEAVE PETITION PRESENTED AT EXEC BD - Michael Mulgrew, the UFT President who almost never shows up to hear members under attack pleading their cases at the open mic before Executive Board meeti...

Child Care Leave Issue Front and Center at UFT Ex Bd - Come see the show

SPOTLIGHT ON THE UFT'S MATERNITY LEAVE POLICY: Later today, New York City schoolteacher Emily James will attend the United Federation of Teachers' executive board meeting deliver a petition with around 78,000 signatures calling on the union to implement a maternity leave policy. 

NY1 reporter Lindsey Christ laid out the current policy in a series of tweets: "Policies that assume only women should care for infants are inherently sexist, negatively impacting working women (and parenting fathers!) ... And here is city and @UFT policy: Only women who physically give birth are even allowed to use their own sick days. And only for six weeks ... Female, straight teachers with no fertility issues try to plan pregnancies so children are born in the summer. Everyone else is out of luck." Even the Department of Education's own LGBT community liaison, Jared Fox, criticized the policy on Twitter, writing, "This very much affects same sex couples. I encourage LGBT UFT members to join this effort." See the Change.org petition here.....  Politico, morning NY ed report

I'm heading over to the UFT Ex Bd meeting later. Emily James is the heroine of the day - she has managed on her own to garner super attention to this issue.

Kudos to MORE's Mike Schirtzer for contacting her and telling her about the UFT Ex Bd option for speaking time before the meeting and also for offering the services of the MORE/NA EB people for follow-up. Two weeks ago MORE people did bring this up and the UFT leadership responded --- First UFT Ex Bd Meeting of Year - A Stephen King H...

I'll have more on this after the meeting but here are some notes for now.

One comment in a school was from a man:

I think mothers definitely deserve paid maternity leave.  However, what greatly concerns me is that fathers are left out of this petition.  As a father who wants to share the responsibility of parenting, I have found it extremely difficult.  It is a travesty that mothers have to borrow days after exhausting their CAR, but what is also terrible is that fathers don't even have that option.  Fathers are allowed the three personal days, and that's it.  Schools with understanding principals might find a work-around, but the work-arounds certainly don't eliminate the job-stress during a very stressful time.

(Obviously, both mothers and fathers have access to FMLA, but who can honestly afford that?)

I don't know about you, but I am all on board with the deal the rest of the state got.  I would love to pay more into disability and then use that when necessary to take care of my healing wife and newborn child.

I signed the petition, but maybe we can broaden its horizon?

Sincerely,

Mike replied:

When we speak on executive board, we always discuss it as family or parental leave. The UFT leadership has been using the terminology "family leave". Emily James who created the petition that went viral, she and her colleagues are women elementary school teachers and moms- they are not affiliated with any caucus. She is presenting this on behalf of the nearly 80,000 that signed- MORE/NA will support her in any way we can, as we hope our brothers and sisters in Unity caucus will do the same. We will also bring up the other petition. (MORE garnered 3000 sigs last year).

On the second point -I do think we disagree that the deal the others got is acceptable- I would read this great analysis by member and friend James Eterno

http://iceuftblog.blogspot.com/2017/09/independent-budget-office-crunches.html

I would sum it up as our position is there should be no givebacks, parental leave in a membership that is over 75% female and a majority are primary caregivers should have already happened, needs to happen now, and come without give back of wages or days. - ms

Also see:

https://ny.chalkbeat.org/posts/ny/2017/09/21/new-york-city-teachers-dont-get-maternity-leave-their-paychecks-prove-it/?utm_source=Master+Mailing+List&utm_campaign=696b5e49ed-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_09_22&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_23e3b96952-696b5e49ed-50239673

Please support the signers of the petition who will present to the UFT Executive Board.

6:00pm at 52 Broadway NYC.

Share the petition on your social media and in your chapter 

https://www.change.org/p/michael-mulgrew-help-nyc-teachers-fight-for-paid-maternity-leave?source_location=minibar

Read more about it here

https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/ny/2017/08/09/a-teachers-petition-reignites-a-push-for-family-leave-for-new-york-city-educators/

From the petition:

New York City Department of Education currently offers their teachers who have just become mothers NO PAID maternity leave. These are women who devote their lives to helping raise other people's children.

After getting pregnant in 2012, I went to a maternity workshop to help understand my maternity benefits. It began as a room full of bubbly, pregnant women, and ended with many of us in tears.

• Here is what we learned: In order to get paid for up to SIX WEEKS (you read that right-not months, weeks) we would have to use our own small number of saved sick days. If we had none, or few (which was the case for most of us, being around children all day long) we learned that we could borrow up to 20 days that we would eventually have to repay or rebuy.  

Most women never make it out of their negative balance. If you have more than one child, forget it! You have likely borrowed all you can for the first.  When I had my second daughter, even after two years of excellent attendance, I only was able to get paid for seven days after I gave birth.

This is completely common among teaching mothers. 

For all our union fights for, I'm asking Michael Mulgrew, our Union President: When will the fight begin for our teaching mothers? As an education system, we are well aware of the importance a parent's presence has on his/her child. Yet why don't we value that? Why do women who spend day in and day out educating, nurturing, and supporting other people's children, continue to suffer for having a family of their own? We are the teachers and the mothers of this city-- a city that prides itself on being one of the most progressive and socially conscious cities in the world- and we deserve to be fought for.

NO PAID MATERNITY LEAVE FOR NYC TEACHERS — Chalkbeat's Christina Veiga: "Susan Hibdon opened her front door and saw nothing but white. It was a day that would go down in tabloid headline history after schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña declared it 'absolutely a beautiful day,' despite a forecast calling for 10 inches of snow. For Hibdon, a Brooklyn high school teacher, it was memorable for a different reason. It was exactly six weeks after she had given birth, which meant it was time to go back to the classroom." Read more here.

Leonie Haimson on Loss of Thousands of Classrooms: What Role Did Charter Influx Play? Where is UFT, Chalkbeat?

Leonie Haimson:  Unfortunately, very few news outlets carried stories about the report, including those that repeatedly report on the non-newsworthy complaints from the charter lobby every time they hold a press conference or send out a press release.  The Walton Foundation and hedge-funder backed charter including Families for Excellent Schools, Students First, and other astroturf organizations, constantly and erroneously repeat the refrain that charters are unfairly deprived of their fair share of space. Why this lack of interest on the part of NYC reporters?  I could speculate but choose not to.... Leonie Haimson

Leonie doesn't name names and reporters but we know she is talking about astro-turf journalism from Chalkbeat which given its other reporting leaves this one alone.

I dare anyone from the press to show this chart

Astute observers of the NYC ed scene know that Leonie Haimson through Class Size Matters has often done the work the UFT should be doing. Here is another example of the wonderful work Leonie has been doing for the past 15 years. Did Bloomberg et al funnel most available seats to charters? Hell yes - don't need no stinkn data to tell us that.

NYC Public School Parents  
How many thousands of school seats were lost during the past decade, how did this contribute to overcrowding and how many went to charter school students? - 

Last  week Class Size Matters released a new report entitled Seats Gained and Lost in NYC Schools: The Untold Story.  For the first time, this study documented that more than 50,000 NYC public school seats were eliminated during the decade of 2004 to 2013.

These seat losses, mostly because of lapsed leases, the removal of trailers and the elimination of annexes, were identified using data from the annual DOE School Capacity and Utilization Reports, known more familiarly as the Blue Books.

Rather than creating net 100,000 seats during this period, as former Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the Mayor's Management Report claimed, the real figure was less than half that number — only about 45,000, when seat loss is taken into account.

Moreover, of these net seats, the vast majority were filled by charter school students in public school buildings, with only 2,357 net seats filled by district public school students during this decade.

 

These findings help explain the worsening overcrowding that has plagued New York City schools, especially in the elementary grades, with the number of overcrowded elementary school buildings increasing by 17 percent and the number of students in these buildings increasing by 29 percent between 2004 and 2012. 

Meanwhile, the total number of students last year in overcrowded school buildings of all kinds was more than 575,000 --- according to the DOE's own "target" methodology.
In fully half of all districts, elementary school buildings lost net capacity during this period.  Of the 19 districts that experience growth in elementary school enrollment, in only three districts did the net new capacity exceed growth: in districts 2, 11, and 22.  If you'd like to see how many seats your district lost during this period, check out the report here or below.
The report also points out several factors that may make seat loss an even more important concern in the future.  This includes the DOE’s plan to accelerate the planned removal of TCUs or trailers, and the fact that there are no funds allocated in the five-year capital plan towards replacing their classrooms.  Moreover, the amount of funding in the capital plan dedicated to replacing lost leases has sharply declined since 2009.
We suggested some  proposals that the DOE could use to stem the loss of seats and to make the process of school planning more transparent and efficient, so that the problem of overcrowding doesn't worsen,  given the boom in residential development throughout the city and the Mayor's focus on increasing the number of affordable and market-rate housing units.
We also urged an end to any further co-locations, which exacerbate overcrowding; and our figures showing that the vast majority of net new seats went to charter school students over this decade provides an important factual counterbalance to the constant demand from the charter school lobby for more space within our already overcrowded school buildings, and the claim that they have been deprived of their fair share of classrooms. 
Unfortunately, very few news outlets carried stories about the report, including those that repeatedly report on the non-newsworthy complaints from the charter lobby every time they hold a press conference or send out a press release.  The Walton Foundation and hedge-funder backed charter including Families for Excellent Schools, Students First, and other astroturf organizations, constantly and erroneously repeat the refrain that charters are unfairly deprived of their fair share of space. Why this lack of interest on the part of NYC reporters?  I could speculate but choose not to.
Instead, please take a look at the report yourselves, and please let me know what you think in the comments below.  thanks!

See the report at Leonie's blog:

https://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2017/09/how-many-thousands-of-school-seats-were.html

 

Memo From the RTC: Don’t Feed The Elephant Man and an Upcoming Benefit October 7

Memo From the RTC:  Don’t Feed The Elephant Man and an Upcoming Benefit October 7

Sept. 22, 2017

By Norm Scott

“We are inspired by the beauty of John  Merrick’s life.” ­– Frank Caiati, Director’s Note, Rockaway Roster, Post Theater, Fort Tilden.

New York's Greatly Hyped Success Academy Tainted by Racist Board Members and Radical Right-Wing Money | Alternet

Yet another Success Academy Board member has a long history of making incendiary racial comments.

Here's a link to an article on Eva you won't see posted on Chalkbeat.

http://www.alternet.org/success-academy-race-baiting-trolls

An excerpt:

Board member Charles Strauch has had a blog for years that specializes in right-wing race baiting and recycled conspiracy theories from the dregs of the Internet, many with a racial tinge.Strauch’s blog, Wealth Creates Good, was taken down on September 5th, not long after I began Tweeting excerpts of his posts to Success, asking for a response. (An archive of some of Strauch’s post can still be viewed here.) 

Go ahead and try to get info about these characters as they declare themselves private when inconvenient - one of the best arguments to make for why charters should not exist.

Harris Lirtzman found a nugget in a CB link that touches on this transparency issue.

We can regret Chalkbeat's place in the media solar system but it still breaks interesting stuff:  A classic example of CMO executives claiming 'public school' status for political purposes while wrapping themselves in 'private school' protections when they're useful ....

https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/ny/2017/09/21/private-managers-of-public-schools-charter-leaders-enjoy-extra-buffer-from-public-records-laws/

Diane Ravitch reports on the same issue:

Eva Moskowitz to Chalkbeat: Buzz Off! We Are a Private Corporation, Not Public! by dianeravitch

Chalkbeat thought that it would be interesting to gain access to the email correspondence of Success Academy Network to find out how they handled the Dan Loeb crisis. It's reporter filed a Freedom of Information request. Dan Loeb is the billionaire who is chairman of the SA board who made a racist comment, writing that the leading African American legislator in the State Senate did more damage to black children than the KKK. The SA Network refused to release any records because they are private, not public. Public records laws don't apply to them, they said.

CB today does link to a a review of Eva's book:EVA'S EDUCATION The latest review of Success Academy CEO Eva Moskowitz's new memoir calls it "the most intimate look to date into ... a woman who is as infamous as she is admired." The Atlantic, Chalkbeat 

Chalkbeat As Astroturf Journalism

Chalkbeat: Softball Interview With Success Academy attorney
The interviewer asks not a single question about the numerous charges vs. Success; their push out and disciplinary policies; and the numerous court cases/civil rights complaints and confirmed privacy violations at Success that Kim as the attorney for Success allowed to continue and defended time after time..... Leonie Haimson

See https://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2017/09/why-emily-kim-former-attorney-for.html

True reformers have been growing increasingly critical of the constant pro-deform drum from Challbeat's so-called "journalism." Leonie nails them on this interview with former Success Academy lawyer Emily Kim: Chalkbeat

Success Academy's former lawyer is trying to start her own charter network. We sat down with her to hear her vision for schools.

A pushed out parent had these comments about Kim in Leonie's post:

Emily Kim had a personal hand in making sure my son's IEP was not met. This happened continuously from first to third grade. She conducted herself unprofessionally in meetings, emails, and during phone conversations. On more than one occasion I had to not only seek but retain legal counsel to try to protect his civil rights and to obtain his mandated services as required by his IEP. 

When I was banned from entering the school, Emily personally enforced the ban with no evidence of any misdeed on my part, and instead offered to find a new school for my child. The ban wasn't lifted until I appeared at a press conference with the Public Advocate Letitia James, in which Ms. James asked SUNY to investigate the abuse of special needs children.

Here is another example of Chalkbeat duplicity - publishing a link at another biased "journalism" site run by Campbell Brown - this biased anti-public school teacher absentee "study"

CHRONICALLY ABSENT Teachers in traditional schools are more likely to be chronically absent than teachers in charter schools, according to a new study by the Thomas F. Fordham Institute. The 74

The argument is that less sick days for teachers is better for students. And charters of course have less benefits -- not that charter school teachers have to come in when they are sick because they fear being fired. And by the way -- many new public school teachers without tenure also fear taking sick days. And also -- why believe any data coming out of charter schools?

Before it became Chalkbeat it was Gotham Schools. They used to have a party every year. At one of them Eva and her hubby showed up - I bet with a donation.

Arthur has been doing a number of pieces on what he terms "reformy" Chalkbeat. A quote from a recent piece:

Reformy Chalkbeat Peddles the Moskowitz Book

After reading a story by Juan Gonzalez, instead of asking, "Holy crap, how does she get away with this?" reformy Chalkbeat wonders why everyone is ganging up on poor Eva Moskowitz. That's the kind of coverage you get when Gates and Walmart subsidize the education press. You get "theories" as to why Moskowitz might be a controversial figure.

 Another piece by Arthur:

Reformy Chalkbeat Still Sucks

And if you haven't been following another Chalkbeat fave, super astroturf Families for Excellent Schools which will get 10 people out to some anti-teacher, anti-union event and get coverage from CB as if they were a legit organization instead of being funded by the same people who fund CB:

Authorities Close In On Pro-Charter School Nonprofit For Illicit Campaign Contributions

https://theintercept.com/2017/09/19/massachusetts-charter-school-group-fined-new-york/

Support Charter/Spectrum Workers on Strike

If you were a Time-Warner subscriber, the sale of that company to Charter Cable/Spectrum was not a good thing for the workers and I bet ultimately the customers. I'm going to try to make this event.

Brothers & Sisters,
We are ONE day away from coming together as NYC Labor to to march across the Brooklyn Bridge and rally in Foley Square with IBEW Local 3. 1,800 cable workers at Charter/Spectrum have been on strike for six months, and we are with them in their fight for a fair contract.

AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka and IBEW President Lonnie Stephenson will join Local 3 Business Manager Chris Erikson, NYS AFL-CIO President Mario Cilento, NYC CLC AFL-CIO President Vinny Alvarez, and labor leaders and union members from across NYC to stand up for our striking sisters and brothers.  We are asking you to stand with Local 3, too.

We'll assemble in Cadman Plaza and march across the Brooklyn Bridge to Manhattan for a rally at 4PM in Foley Square.
Find out more about Monday's march and rally here.

Adult Education Teacher to UFT Exec Bd

The Adult ed chapter of the UFT has been under assault since Supt Rosemary Mills took over. A group of teachers attended the UFT Ex Bd meeting last week, as I reported the other day, First UFT Ex Bd Meeting of Year - A Stephen King Horror Movie.

The fact that the UFT has allowed the chapter itself to flounder is not an insignificant factor -- like a UFT official sitting there quietly whole Rosemary Mills berated a UFT member at a meeting. I suspect, based on my instincts of how some of the UFT hacks have operated in the past, that if you are not viewed as a Unity Caucus loyalist you are under suspicion. I am told there is no chapter leader at this crucial time and people have been forced to do things ad hoc. The UFT's Patti Crispino is supposed to be on the case. If you knew Patti like I knew Patti --- don't expect much.

Note this comment from Fran Myers:  Mills knows what’s going on in chapter more than we do. We need info on discontinuance and percentages to strategize. Demand transparency.

Peter Romani read the following statement at the first UFT EB Meeting of the year:

To the Executive Committee of the UFT,

The steering committee of the Adult Education Chapter has formed the Adult Ed Action Committee. Our chapter has been under attack by Superintendent Rose Marie Mills of the Office of Adult and Continuing Education for close to 5 years.

Having consolidated her power through her close colleagues at the highest levels of DOE, she has been empowered and enabled to supervise a decades old program with 150 full-time adult education teachers and hundreds of per session K-12 teachers with absolute impunity. Noteworthy that our numbers have been shrinking every year, not by accident.

As a result, she has successfully overwhelmed every successive chapter leader with hostility, intimidation, and by running them ragged all over the 5 boroughs in this city-wide program which serves 35,000 adult students. The disciplinary hearings have increased exponentially and the paperwork redundancy and petty policies are designed in part to render any chapter leader ineffective and exhausted. We have lost yet another chapter leader this summer, retiring from the position after one year and from DOE in disgust and frustration. You may be aware that this past June we saw 20 – 30 annual “U”ratings, along with several discontinuances of vulnerable teachers. Out of 150 or so full-time teachers, this is an alarming percentage of U ratings. The observation process under Mills has become nothing more than a tool to meet quotas of harassment, hostility, early retirements, and terminations.

The Adult Education Action Committee has been formed out of a desperate attempt to continue advocating for this once proud program and the chapter members, as Ms. Mills now breaks or bends every rule, policy, or protections she arrogantly believes she can get away with. We feel let down by our union and betrayed by Chancellor Farina, Deputy Chancellor Dorita Gibson, and Senior Superintendent Laura Feijoo.

We are concerned that there will continue to be a vacuum in the chapter leadership and that Superintendent Mills will surely try to discreetly install a candidate of her choosing, knowing that there are few if any left in the chapter who would willingly run for this position. We strongly urge our UFT leadership not only to intervene meaningfully on our behalf, but to implement the following common sense remedies:

• Reconfigure and expand the chapter leader position to allow for multiple chapter leaders, perhaps one per borough citywide, in order to meet the inordinate time demands and duties of this chapter.
• Provide for a mechanism whereby the Adult Ed Action Committee can schedule meeting space on a regular basis at UFT headquarters for chapter-related business.
• Assign a separate District Representative dedicated solely to this superintendency and the needs of the Office of Adult & Continuing Education exclusively.

We understand that the political winds of public education are not blowing in our favor, but no one should have to suffer for so long in this manner at the hands of a superintendent with unchecked power, zero accountability, and the arrogant abuse of power that naturally follows from the blind, entrenched, backing of the Department of Education.

--- Peter Romani

Memo From the RTC: Elephants and Tap Dancers in the Closet

We talked a lot about the visa process. What is going on really does hit home when you meet people in that situation.

Welcoming dancers from Japan to Rockaway at Tony's barbecue (without the tap dancing)

For the Sept. 15 edition of The Wave.

-->

Memo From the RTC:  Elephants and Tap Dancers in the Closet

By Norm Scott

I’m looking forward to Friday’s opening of “The Elephant Man” at the Rockaway Theatre Company in Fort Tilden. I never saw the play because at the time it won the Tony the subject matter wasn’t interesting to me. But this time I am excited because any production directed by Frank Caiati will be worth seeing. www.rockawaytheatrecompany.org or call the ticket hotline at 718-374-6400.

I used to be an occasional theater goer, going mostly because my wife wanted to go. But since getting involved in the RTC and learning so much about so many aspects of the theater on the stage and behind the scenes, my interest has perked up and I thoroughly enjoy all aspects of the theater experience (except being squeezed into tight seats with my knees pressed against the seat in front of me – and people with big heads.) Now I notice the lighting, the sound and especially the sets and how they are manipulated, often with the thought of how RTC master builder Tony Homsey would manage to do it, expecially given our stage size limitations and the lack of our ability to make things rise from underneath of have things fly in from the top or the wings. We got a tour of a Broadway theater backstage a few years ago and the amount of space was astounding. So the limited space at the RTC makes for some very creative approaches to making the sets work. Last year the RTC invested in two more sets of curtains set back from the main curtain, thus providing some flexibility. But space limitations don’t offer room for a lot of tricks. Very often set pieces have to be moved in and out the side doors. Due to some creative set design, that doesn’t have to happen this time. One more treat is having Suzanne Riggs back to stage manage the show.

Another treat of being part of the RTC is getting to meet so many new people, sometimes from far away. Over the past few years we’ve had some native Japanese actors studying dance in New York who have found their way to our theater for various shows. And through them we have been introduced to some of their friends, many of them dancers too. Recently, we were paid a visit by tap dancer Makiko Kuri, whom we met in Guys and Dolls. Makiko, who comes from the city of Kobi (of Kobi beef fame), brought along two  friends who were visiting from Japan. All three ladies are studying or teach tap and have lived and worked in New York at various times. Tony hosted them at his house in Breezy for a steak barbecue (but not Kobi beef) after they came back from whale watching. He will deny it but I believe the supposed stage shy Tony was hoping to pick up some tap dancing tips so he can lead the tap line in a future show. After the delicious barbecue feast Tony put together, none of us could get off the ground.

Norm often taps his feet while doing his blog at ednotesonline.com

Photo credit: Makiko Kuri

Caption: East meets west  at Tony Homsey’s kitchen table.

First UFT Ex Bd Meeting of Year - A Stephen King Horror Movie

NYC Principal in uniform

I felt I had walked into "It", the new Stephen King horror movie, where we hear of principals in clown suits knifing teachers in the back.... and when the Executive Board, controlled by Unity Caucus, is asked to remove the knives, the Unity Caucus votes it down by saying a knife in the back with the fingerprint of the principal is not enough data. Isn't it possible the teacher tripped backwards and fell on the knife?

Monday night was the first UFT Ex Bd meeting in almost three months.

Read NYC Educator on the Ex Bd meeting:

NYC Educator

• Executive Board Takeaway, September 11, 2017 -analysis

• UFT Executive Board September 11, 2017--UFT Defends DACA and Dreamers - Notes

Noted in Arthur's report is this comment from a teacher to the Board:

—School founded six years ago to teach construction trades, was happy place. Were productive. Sent students into trades making more than college grads. Principal was removed. Don’t know why. Joyce Polfis new principal. 21 of his colleagues left willingly, out of 30. It’s like a different school. We look the same, but we aren’t. If everyone who wanted to leave did, there might be only 6 left. I returned to support students. This was done by design. Principal encouraged open market. his shows disregard for well-being of our students and community in S. Bronx. We had the attention of the mayor, teachers looked forward to coming to work, and kids would stay late. Clear we have crisis of leadership.

[Read about this principal at: http://dtoe.org/pulphus/]

What do you have to say when a teacher reports 80% turnover after a new principal comes in and when the UFT leadership is asked to publicize a list of such schools, it turns it down?

A summer of freedom from hearing rank and file teachers showing up to tell their horror stories can make one forget. Before the meeting officially begins any UFT member who signs up in
advance can speak for 2 minutes. After hearing the numerous stories as Arthur chronicled below, I felt I had walked into "It", the new Stephen King horror movie. In the version we saw at the EB meeting, principals dressed up as clowns stab teachers in the back and when the Executive Board, controlled by Unity Caucus, is asked to remove the knives, the Unity Caucus votes it down by saying a knife in the back with the fingerprint of the principal is not enough data. Isn't it possible the teacher tripped backwards and fell on the knife?

I excerpted a few comments by Arthur:

Bronx School founded six years ago to teach construction trades, was happy place. Were productive. Sent students into trades making more than college grads. Principal was removed. Don’t know why. Joyce Polfis new principal. 21 of his colleagues left willingly, out of 30. It’s like a different school. We look the same, but we aren’t. If everyone who wanted to leave did, there might be only 6 left. I returned to support students. This was done by design. Principal encouraged open market. his shows disregard for well-being of our students and community in S. Bronx. We had the attention of the mayor, teachers looked forward to coming to work, and kids would stay late. Clear we have crisis of leadership.... Notes from .... NYC Educator
UFT Executive Board September 11, 2017--

Rose-marie Mills

Villains to note: Rosemary Mills, Supt of Adult ed whom the NY Post excoriated in this Sue Edelman piece:

Many blame Superintendent Rose-Marie Mills, who has led OACE for three years. They charge she has squandered funds, hired friends without adult-ed experience as administrators and failed to give teachers the curriculum they need to help students. “There’s no feedback, no support, no curriculum. We’re left to our own devices,” said a veteran teacher.

Joyce Pulphus

and  
Principal Joyce Pulphus - Bronx Design And Construction Academy --

More from Arthur's report:

Roberta Pikser—Adult Ed.—In June dismissed with no reason after 16 years. Never got U rating before. Got 2 U observations last year. Year end U rating. Dismissed via email. Teaching adults very different. Many uncertified teachers working. Many U ratings this year by new principals. All appointed by Rosemarie Mills.

Had meeting of 20 teachers, most of whom never had U ratings before. She’s waiting on grievance. Mismanagement destroying program. Asks EB for support. Asks for info on how many teachers let go, and how many U ratings. Asks for resolution against harassment. If they can mistreat us, will mistreat you.

Dianne Jenkins—Adult Ed.—Number of students who vitally need adult ed.—those who don’t have HS, English skills, tech skills. 40,000 per year. Rosemarie Mills, from day one, put us on notice they are in a battle and she planned to win. She had no experience in adult ed. Nor do those she hired. Staff rude, walks into classrooms, stop lessons and harass in front of students.  Teachers walking on eggshells expecting U ratings and discontinuance. They serve parents of K-12 schools. Need able help. Asks for help.

Fran Myers—Adult Ed.—Mills knows what’s going on in chapter more than we do. We need info on discontinuance and percentages to strategize. Demand transparency.

Peter Romani—Adult Ed—Has Action committee—has been under attack for 5 years. Numbers shrinking each year, not by accident. Has intimidated every CL. Discipline hearings increased, CLs rated ineffective. 20-30 annual U ratings, and also discontinuances. Observations used to meet quotas of hostility. Mills breaks or bends every rule. We feel let down by union and betrayed by DOE. Vacuum in chapter leadership. Mills will install candidate of her choosing. Need to reconfigure and expand CL position, provide mechanism for AE committee to meet, asks for own DR. No one should suffer so long with supe with unchecked power and entrenched backing of DOE.

Also see: ICEUFT Blog
EXECUTIVE BOARD REPORT -

Families for Excellent Schools busted - Pro-charter school group pays state’s largest campaign finance penalty

A wealthy New York organization that poured $15 million into last year’s unsuccessful ballot question to expand charter schools in Massachusetts was hit Monday with the largest fine in state campaign history after officials found the group was illegally hiding the identities of its donors.

Families for Excellent Schools-Advocacy, a nonprofit that was the single largest funder behind Question 2 in Massachusetts, was slapped with a $426,466 fine, the largest in the 44-year history of the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance.... Boston Globe

Chair of the board overseeing charter schools gives half a million to promote charters? Bald blatant corruption! Prosecute! Fire! If a Democrat did that the GOP would be totally on fire! ... Comment on Boston Globe story on FES

The shit hit the fan on the actions of the slime ball astro turf Families for Excellent Schools on their actions in Massachusetts.
The list of donors is here: http://files.ocpf.us/pdf/guides/fesacreport.pdf

Check out this story and please share in NY threads. Note that the Chair of the MA Board of Elementary and Secondary Education gave - in secret- $500k to support the charter ballot question last fall.

a small but meaningful victory
solidarity
Barbara Madeloni 

Jia Lee writes:
The Massachusettes Teachers Association, under Barbara Madeloni's leadership and EDU's (their social justice caucus) organizing, worked successfully against millions in dark money to fight a charter ballot question AND now this!

The outrage is that the press, especially Chalkbeat, acts like FES is a legit grass roots org. This quote from the story:

Maurice Cunningham, a political scientist at the University of Massachusetts Boston, said the cloak of secrecy helped Families For Excellent Schools-Advocacy project an image as a grass-roots organization focused on helping urban youth.
“You can’t say, ‘We’re Billionaires for Excellent Schools,’ ” said Cunningham.

Leonie Haimson:

The list of donors is here: http://files.ocpf.us/pdf/guides/fesacreport.pdf

The only NY donor at first glance was Kenneth Langone of Home Depot.

Problem is there is about $3M listed from FES - which means the money is still dark and probably from NY as well.  Wonder if anyway we can get identities of those donors.  If not, perhaps there should be a letter to the NY AG and/or legislators, demanding action on the dark money issue similar to the disclosure laws they have in MA.

Also troubling is that while FES is barred from campaigning in MA for 4 years, their major donor the Walton Foundation has now set up another fake AstroTurf org in MA apparently called Mass Parents United.

See Ravitch on the story:

Massachusetts: State Fines Dark Money Group $426,000 in Charter Battle

Here is the complete Boston Globe Story  where you should read the comments. Also below the page break.

A WTF Moment: Marc Sternberg Comes Down From the Mountain to Attack ATRs

Marc Sternberg, the director of K-12 education for the Walton Family Foundation, was a deputy chancellor of the New York City Department of Education during the Bloomberg administration.... NY Times Op ed

Isn't an attack on ATRs below Mark Sternberg's pay grade? Dragging out a major ed deformer warrior like Marc Sternberg, one of our leading Joel Kleinites who made his bones (and fortune) in the ed deform industrial complex and now occupies a top level position with the Walton Foundation, to attack the ATRs in our city in a NY Times op ed is a sign of desperation among the deformers.

The establishment of the ATR pool in 2005 in agreement with the UFT, despite its attempt to rewrite history (UFT's Fake History - Denies Responsibility for ATR Pool), is one of the linchpins of the assault on teachers nationwide because it opened a major wedge in the seniority protections and allowed them to start closing schools with impunity without having to worry about placing teachers from those schools.




The real reason there has been so much press and publicity and ed deform frenzy is that the ending of the ATR pool with forced placement of the teachers undermines one of the pinnacles of ed deform -- ending the seniority system in total and making every teachers an at will employee -- vis a vis the charter schools which have proven they cannot retain teachers and must rely on a constant turnover pool of young, inexperienced teachers to keep them going. Witness the current controversy over the attempt to reduce NY State requirements for teacher certification for SUNY authorized charter schools do a minimum.

Sternberg claims he hired fantastic teachers when he was 90 day wonder principal - how would he know when most of them had little or no experience? How can he claim in his op ed that having a great teacher is so crucial when he helped implement a system that focused on hiring TFA types with 6 weeks training? In other words, the goal is not great teachers, but cheap and replaceable parts teachers.

Note how Sternberg focuses on the minority - not calling for those who have had good ratings to be placed. Part of the duplicitoud, dishonest nature of these people -- and Sternberg was one of the worst, along with John White, not the Supt of Louisiana schools, Michelle Rhee, Cami Anderson, etc -- a veritable rogues gallery of Joel Kleinites.

Sternberg points to "Other big cities, like Chicago and Washington, have set reasonable limits on the period of time that unplaced teachers can continue to draw a paycheck."

It is true that the ATR pools in other cities do lose their jobs and those systems are or have been in chaos.

The ed deform movement and its accompanying fawning press has been thrown into a dizzy by the attempt to place around 800 teachers from the ATR pool, two thirds of whom have had no disciplinary actions taken against them but lost their positions due to schools being closed or from budget cuts. And of the third (around 280 teachers) who did have some disciplinary actions against them, an arbitrator ruled that whatever they were charged with was not consequential enough to fire them.

Arthur Goldstein posted a piece on Diane Ravitch's blog, Arthur Goldstein: The Myth of NYC’s “Rubber Room” of “Bad Teachers”
in response the op ed by Sternberg.

Diane shakes out the Sternberg bio:

... became an instant principal during the Bloomberg-Klein regime and left to join the rightwing billionaire Walton Family Foundation, as director of its K-12 program. The Waltons despise public education and spend hundreds of millions backing charters, vouchers, and other modes of privatization. The WFF claims credit for funding one of every four charter schools in the nation. The Waltons individually spend millions on political campaigns to support privatization and undermine the teaching profession. They are avowed enemies of public education, the teaching profession, and collective bargaining.

Sternberg was a golden boy in the Bloomberg-Klein era. He graduated Princeton in 1995, joined Teach for America, picked up an MBA and MA in education at Harvard. Only nine years after finishing college, he was a principal in New York City. He quickly became a Klein favorite and moved up to become Deputy Chancellor in a few short years.
Now, at the pinnacle of rightwing power, with hundreds of millions to dispense every year, what really annoys him is that Mayor de Blasio plans to place hundreds of displaced teachers into classrooms.

I used to run into Sternberg time and again at various closing school hearings, PEP meetings and other events. The last time was at some tony event around the time of the Chicago Teacher Union was talking strike in 2012. He came up to me to ask what I thought would happen in Chicago. "I hope they strike," I said. "And I hope one day we do that here too."

He put on a phony look of concern - "Can it happen here," he asked, knowing full well Mulgrew was a puppet of Randi the collaborator.

"Not with your pals at the UFT in charge," I told him. He objected, saying something about Mulgrew making militant noises.

I laughed, referring to Mulgrew as a weak-kneed lackey who would do nothing to resist. He didn't argue.

Recent Ed Notes blogs on ATRS

• Chalkbeat, Subsidiary of Ed Deform, Beats the Anti-ATR Drum
• A first-person account of an ATR teacher in New Yo...
• Attacks on ATRs is Spear at All Teachers 
• On "Fair" Student Funding, ATRs, Chalkbeat Deforme... 

The Sternberg op ed
 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/07/opinion/new-york-bad-teachers.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share&_r=0

School Scope: Schools and Hurricanes - Norm in The WAVE

Published Sept. 8, 2017 in The WAVE, www.rockawave.com

School Scope: Schools and Hurricanes
By Norm Scott

Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2017
I noticed that another school year has begun. I got a hint when staff members’ cars from the school up the street began appearing on the block. I still get a hint of those Labor Day butterflies leftover from having attended or worked in schools from the age of five through sixty. Fifty five years of habit is touch to break even a dozen years later. Having so many school worker friends posting their laments and excitements on social media has kept me in touch. Some teachers are hesitant to share the fact that despite the end of another glorious summer, there are excited to get back to work. The main problem I had was the end of two months of freedom, but every year I also had feelings that I couldn’t wait to get back. Too much freedom can be a dangerous thing. Almost every retiree I speak to say how much more productive they were when they were working. Now if they get one thing done a day they celebrate – some say they get much less done than when they were under a time gun.

My continued involvement with alternate voices in the UFT challenging the leadership has also kept me in touch with the political issues facing teachers. Testing continues to drive the agenda in judging student, school, and teacher performance. The scores from last spring were published a few weeks ago in the dead of August. Minor gains in the city were championed by de Blasio as victories. Some de Blasio supporters had hoped he would take on the test mania but instead, he and his partners in the UFT leadership have continued running the same train down a broken track.

Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters, posted on the NYC Parent blog: “State test scores increase again; but is it real? Opt out rates remain high.” She wrote, “… the NY State Education Department has appeared unable since 2002 to produce a reliable test and score it consistently enough to allow one to assess if there’s been any sort of improvement in our schools. Instead, Commissioners and their staff have repeatedly changed cut scores and set proficiency rates to make political points.” Call this cheating at the highest levels.

Leonie also points to the still very high opt-out rates in the state, the highest in the nation, though NYC lags far behind the rest of the state due to massive repression and threats to punish schools with high opt out rates from the top officials of the NYCDOE. Read Leonie’s very insightful post at https://tinyurl.com/y97vmk9d.

For decades before Sandy, since we moved to Rockaway in 1979, I had been tracking potential and actual hurricanes from their earliest stages. I remembered the stories of the bay meeting the ocean from the early 60s and with every hurricane that threatened our area that nightmare was always on my mind. We evacuated twice over the decades, the last time with Irene in 2011, which so lulled us we didn’t leave during and after Sandy in 2012 when the bay met the ocean in spades. Everyone in Rockaway understands what Houston is going through and sadly, this will not be the last time somewhere in the coastal USA there will be some similar disaster on an increasing basis.

Just as Harvey was slamming Texas we began hear of Irma, which at the time was forming off the coast of Africa (and Jose following behind). As I write Irma is a Cat 4/5 storm pushing through the Caribbean and heading for a possible landing in Southern Florida or if it shifts north, the Carolinas or even with a bigger curve north, maybe us, which if it hits will be a week away and scary. Just in case, we are making plans to get stuff out of the basement and onto higher floors. This time evacuation will be more likely for us. The cats however, are not sure they want to go.

I don’t want to get into the weeds of the politics of global warming or the role humans have in increasing the rate. I believe we have been a warming trend for 15 thousand years – remember, massive glaciers covered most of NYC. These changes came in slow enough increments to allow humanity time to adapt. Remember those pre-Indians who walked across the land bridge connecting Siberia to Alaska? They had some time to adjust to not being able to go back as the seas rose. The issue is the rate of warming which has been increasing at a higher rate over the past 150 years as the industrial revolution proceeded. Rising seas and warmer ocean waters make for bad hurricanes (is there a good one?) and more violent weather. To me that is a given. The question to me is not whether human actions at this time can reverse the rate but rather slow things down just enough to give humanity time to adjust. The Greenland ice sheet is melting as is the Antarctic ice shelves, which will raise sea levels hundreds of feet – imagine even the highest sky scrapers sticking up in a world of water.

But don’t fret – it won’t be all bad living in Venice on the Hudson.

Norm frets daily at ednotesonline.com.

There's No Such Thing as a Free Lunch - Or Is There?

I'm real happy the NYCDOE has decided to offer every child a free lunch. As a classroom teacher it always seemed crazy to send home those forms for parents to fill out when almost every kid was entitled. And no one was checking to see if someone was lying. I do remember a few kids who were supposed to bring in money to pay every week and that became such a drag the schools just began to ignore it. Someone in the school had to deal with all the paper work involved and there were just not enough resources to do that -- often a school aide ended up doing it.

So this is a not only a rational progressive move but also a real time saver for schools and the system administratively.

I just heard on The Takeaway that 75% of NYC kids are entitled to free lunch even if a third of them don't eat it. There was talk of shaming and how kids felt eating the school lunch was degrading. Maybe in schools where there are significant numbers of people who come from incomes high enough - in my school even teachers tried to scam a free lunch even though we were required to pay for them technically. When we were on lunchroom duty we felt we were entitled -

Joey Chestnut - get rid of those dogs and go for beef patties

How many Jamaican beef patties can you eat in 50 minutes? I was the Joey Chestnut of the school lunchroom.

KidsPac - de Blasio's Education Report Card

Don't mistake KidsPac for one of those astroturf ed deform groups just because they are legitimately holding deB accountable. Many of our parent allies are involved. It is funny to read the illegitimate attacks on deB from the likes of Eva and other charter slugs because their whining for more space hasn't led to him putting them at the top of his To Do list. He has not done very well in terms of resisting their outrageous demands which are also based on lies and distortions of their needs as they attempt to disguise their real goals -- to take over entire swaths of valuable real estate while squeezing public schools into oblivion. deB doesn't get a very good grade in resisting this trend.

http://nyckidspac.org/2017-mayoral-report-card/

http://nypost.com/2017/09/05/school-advocates-give-de-blasio-an-f/ 

Chalkbeat links:
REPORT CARD A parent advocacy group gave Mayor Bill de Blasio poor marks on school policy. DNAinfo, Chalkbeat (Sept. 5)

Join us today at 11:30 am for the release of the NYC Kids PAC 2017 education report card for Mayor de Blasio

I foresee some bad grades in the de Blasio/Farina future.

For more information contact: 

Shino Tanikawa: estuaryqueen@gmail.com

Parents, kids & advocates release Education report card for Mayor de Blasio

WHO: Parents, kids and education advocates
WHAT: Release of the 2017 NYC Kids PAC education report card for Mayor de Blasio, on issues ranging from testing, class size, school overcrowding, to funding, transparency, special education and diversity
WHERE: On the steps of Tweed, 52 Chambers St. in downtown Manhattan
WHEN: Tues. Sept. 5 at 11:30 AM