Is Cami Anderson Out in Newark?

Cami Anderson will be leaving.  It is your efforts on Fight Back Fridays, our Mayoral Election efforts, Advisory Board meetings, and other initiatives that have made this possible.  I am very proud of all of our members....
.....Joseph Del Grosso, NTU President

Don't believe it 'till the fat lady sings. Because Del Grosso also says:

It is my strong belief that based on the discussions I have had to this point, Cami Anderson will not be continuing as Superintendent of the Newark Public Schools. I have many other meetings to attend with other stakeholders who are interested in making her departure a reality.  

 I hope this is not magical thinking. But here's hoping Cami Anderson has to do a perp walk.

Dear Colleagues,

Over the past months, there have been numerous rumors of layoffs, school closings, and drastic cuts to the Newark Public Schools budget.  

In preparation for these events, the Newark Teachers Union requested a meeting with Acting Commissioner David Hespe, some six weeks ago.  The meeting took place last Monday afternoon in Trenton.  We went there prepared
with information regarding the misdeeds and mismanagement of funds by Superintendent Cami Anderson.  Acting Commissioner Hespe was very interested in the information that we provided, and says he intends to act on the information expeditiously.  I have been made aware that he or his designees are already in Newark today. 

We also requested meetings with various Assemblymen and Senators, especially those on the Educational Legislative Committees.  Senator Ronald Rice, co-chair of the Joint Committee on Public Schools, sent a detailed letter to
Commissioner Hespe regarding what he perceives as the illegalities and malfeasance that have been taking place at the Newark Public Schools.
 

Attached is a copy of that letter which is also going to the Attorney General and other law enforcement agencies.  

It is my strong belief that based on the discussions I have had to this point, Cami Anderson will not be continuing as Superintendent of the Newark Public Schools. I have many other meetings to attend with other stakeholders who are interested in making her departure a reality.  

I intend to fight for each and every member to retain their jobs and to restore positions such as attendance counselors, parent liaisons, teacher aides and clerks, as well as teachers to the positions that Newark so desperately needs.  We will continue to engage and support likeminded community, parent, and student organizations in this battle to not only end the layoffs and school closings, but to restore Newark to full local control.

Acting Commissioner Hespe has informed me that he intends to make a strong recommendation to the state board of education to return fiscal control to Newark's Board of Education by July 1st.  We must remain diligent in our fight to take back our schools and to restore order and a sense of learning to the educational community of Newark.  I will keep you informed of any new information that develops from my meetings with the Commissioner and
legislators as they transpire.

Cami Anderson will be leaving.  It is your efforts on Fight Back Fridays, our Mayoral Election efforts, Advisory Board meetings, and other initiatives that have made this possible.  I am very proud of all of our members.


In solidarity,

Joe                                     

Joseph Del Grosso                                        

President                                                         

Newark Teachers Union                               

Local 481, AFT/AFL-CIO

P: (973) 643-8430                                             

F: (973) 643-8435                                             

E: ntupres@ntuaft.com                               

NEW Caucus Report: Newark Students Spending the Night

UPDATE: NJ United Students ‏@NJStudents 18m

@rasjbaraka now coming in to see @NewarkStudents #ournewark pic.twitter.com/sYp2n5hnxk

This just in from NEW Caucus - a followup to our last post:

Video: Newark Student Union Conducts a Sit-in at The Newark Public Schools Board's Budget Meeting and Cami Walks Out Again!

As of 11:55 tonight, there are 10 members of the Newark Student Union spending the night at 2 Cedar Street in the room where the Advisory Board holds its business meetings.  

After our small but successful rally this afternoon, the students went upstairs, issued their demands and sat down in the floor in the front of the room.  The demands were:

1)  The immediate resignation of Cami Anderson

2)  An immediate halt to One-Newark

3)  Implementation of Newark Promise (the community driven report created over months and presented Saturday)

4)  A meeting with Anderson and NJ Commissioner of Education David Hespe.  

When they were offered the meeting with Anderson and Hespe, but had the other demands refused, they remained seated and refused to leave.  The meeting was ended, the adults all left, and the students controlled the room.  And they still control the room right now.

This is an INSPIRING example of what human beings can do when they show solidarity with each other and work together to fight injustice imposed by the wealthy and powerful!  A small group of students are literally putting their bodies on the gears of power, and stopping those gears from functioning!  

For we adults - often too afraid to take action even when our own profession, reputations, livelihoods and callings are under attack - this action should show us that it is not acceptable to bury our heads in the sand as public education is destroyed!  We hope this will be a call to action for the many adults who have thus far refused to stand up for themselves, their schools, and their students!

BUT, the students have not eaten much since 6 or 7 pm, and are hungry now.  And, they will be truly hungry in the morning.  AND, they need moral support.  So, if you are at all able and have time in the morning, please help and support these students in any way possible, either materially (food and beverages) or morally (going to 2 Cedar St to show support, or telling friends about their action).  

Please tell friends, family, and colleagues about their fight and their current situation.  They need all the support they can get.  

NEW Caucus stands in solidarity with the Newark Students Union!

In Solidarity,

Newark Education Workers Caucus

(NEW Caucus)

BECOME A MEMBER! CLICK HERE

Facebook.com/NEWCaucus

Twitter.com/NEWCaucus

YouTube.com/user/NEWCaucus

Google Calendar: NewarkEducationWorkersCaucus@gmail.com

Video: Newark Student Union Conducts a Sit-in at The Newark Public Schools Board's Budget Meeting and Cami Walks Out Again!

Hey, Hey, Ho, Ho, Cami Anderson has got to go.

I hope some of you have been following events in Newark. Students are playing a role. Good thing since no one listens to teachers. How nice to see Cami Anderson walk out again. I think she walks out twice.

UPDATES, May 21, Media Links

Bob Braun's Ledger

Cami wanted disruption–and, last night, she got it - Newark’s school superintendent belongs to that tribe of self-proclaimed and irresponsible school reformers who contend public schools must be “disrupted” b... 

http://www.nj.com/essex/index.ssf/2014/05/student_protest_forces_school_board_meeting_to_end_early.html 

http://www.njspotlight.com/stories/14/05/20/high-school-students-disrupt-newark-school-advisory-board-meeting/ 

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Newark-Public-Schools-Sit-In-One-Newark-Promise-Cami-Anderson-260068351.html%23 

http://newjersey.news12.com/news/newark-community-rallies-against-superintendent-cami-anderson-and-one-newark-plan-1.8110194

VIDEO:
http://youtu.be/rBCi21i5tjs





Remember, Anderson tried to get a tenure waiver so she can fire any teacher whose shirt she doesn't like but was rebuffed.

The state union - which is NEA while Newark is AFT is going to court over Christie's putting up traffic cones around teacher pensions.

http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/05/njea_says_it_will_sue_to_block_christie_

from_cutting_pension_payments.html

Sally Lee on Resorative Justice

This comment from Sally deserves a post of its own. I was arguing in my original post that the contract is the only way to solidify and codify things so the current and future DOE can't as easily shirk issues like discipline. The Dignity in Schools Campaign is asking for full-time Restorative Justice Coordinators in 20 schools -- do you think this might be more useful that the money spend on PD? Guess what Carmen, do all the PD in the world. If there is no system of control in the schools it is like spitting in the wind. And let's look at it this way -- PD is not only about curriculum. It is about how a teacher can deal with a class beyond curriculum - and how to deal with some kids who are having difficulty in that environment. So let's look at a Restorative Justice coordinator as a variation of PD.


Sally Lee has left a new comment on your post "UFT Contract - What's Missing - How About Discipl...":

Thanks for the shout-out Norm! Just so your readers are clear: Teachers Unite is the only educator organization in the Dignity in Schools Campaign-New York (DSC-NY).

The DSC-NY, a youth-led coalition, has been meeting with DOE to discuss the need to mandate guidance interventions before suspensions, provide trainings to staff, and end suspensions for defying or disobeying authority—a minor misbehavior that is the second most common reason for suspensions and, as you can imagine, results in an alarming disproportionate punishment of Black and Latino students as well as those with disabilities.

TU’s presence in those meetings has been consistent, but always in a supporting role to young people of color. Dozens of our members, all UFT members, have participated in the campaign’s planning as well as the campaign’s discussions with DOE and UFT staff. I say this to be clear that “Sally and the gang” doesn’t really sum it up! I actually have never been to these meetings with officials, not only because I like to rush home to my young sons at the end of the day, but because it’s important that UFT members are the ones voicing their support of DSC-NY demands—and imploring UFT staff, who are accountable to the membership, to come around on this issue as an authentic ally to the youth who are most impacted by the racial injustice of policing and harsh punishment.

Also, there is a campaign demand that is particularly close to Teachers Unite’s heart for the very reasons you mention in your post. DSC-NY is calling on the DOE to fully fund and support implementation of the following five key elements of school-wide restorative practices starting at 20 schools this September:

1. A Full-time Position of Restorative Coordinator, with the sole focus of coordinating a positive, restorative climate and approach to discipline at the school, including overseeing implementation of the other four key elements below (in the case of campus schools where multiple small schools share the same building, the budget should allow for one coordinator per school, not one per campus).

2. A School-wide Strategic Plan with participation of all school stakeholders that integrates pre-existing behavior-related strategies, such as Fairness Committees, conflict resolution, peer mediation and peer mentoring, into a restorative framework and set of values, and integrates that framework into existing school structures, such as advisory periods, town hall meetings, after school programs, and School Leadership Teams.

3. Ongoing Training for All Stakeholders, including faculty, counselors and other school employees, School Safety Agents, and a core group of student and parent leaders who can develop the skills to train their peers.

4. Youth and Parent Leadership in the process of planning and implementing restorative practices in school, such as forming Student Leadership Councils, engaging students and parents to be a part of trainings for school staff, and engaging students in producing videos, skits, posters and other materials to promote restorative approaches among their peers.

5. Systematic Collection and Monitoring of Data in collaboration with administrators, faculty, students and parents to develop a common set of indicators and protocols for collecting data to help understand the implementation and results of restorative practices in the pilot schools.

You can read more about how we outline this kind of whole school support, and examples of it in action, in our case study found here: http://www.dignityinschools.org/files/DSC-NY_CaseStudy_2013.pdf

We are promoting and supporting the philosophy and practice of restorative justice school by school, because we know while it’s important to have support for these shifts come from the top—nothing’s going to work unless the rank-and-file educators, parents and students are making changes from the ground up. I invite your readers who are UFT members to join us at TU in order to augment the voices of educators speaking out against the damaging and racist impact of punitive discipline policies.

UFT Contract: The "VOTE NO" Caucus Says .......

They're flying in from all over the place. I'm assuming you're reading the great stuff over at the MORE blog.

We are better off with the old contract until we can get a better one. Vote NO on the UFT Contract Offer!!

Have you noticed that every new contract that has been imposed on us UFT members over the past two decades has more give-backs than improvements. This contract is no exception. Moreover, the top brass of the union continually manages to shove the new contracts down our throats with no discussion either in the chapters or even in the Delegates Assembly. Now we are being told that if we reject this rotten offer we will only make things worse because we can’t get anything better and we will have to “go to the end of the line” of unions negotiating with the City. However, the real truth is that things will get worse if we approve this deal. While it is true that a few people may get a few crumbs from this contract, for the vast majority it is a lose-lose deal. Here are three good reasons to VOTE NO:

1. The back pay totalling $3.4 million will be paid for by health care cuts that must be accepted all city workers. !  “If the other unions agree to similar health care savings, the spending cuts realized would total $3.4 billion, officials said — the same amount as the teachers’ union’s back pay.”

2. If this contract is approved teachers and staff of TWO HUNDRED (200) schools will find that they will NOT be covered by certain contract provisions and protections that the rest of us have.! “And in an effort to encourage innovation in areas like hiring and scheduling, 200 schools would be eligible to apply for exemptions from city and union regulations.”

3. The Department of Education wants to get rid of senior teachers and create a system of new teachers, who are paid less and can be forced to do anything, i.e., grovel, to keep their job, because they will have no tenure rights  The UFT--”our” union--has gone along with this plan. The first major move against job protection happened two contracts ago with the elimination of seniority transfer rights  originally established, not to give senior teachers privileges over junior teachers but to protect teachers and staff from arbitrariness and favoritism on the part of the principals so we didn’t have to grovel for our positions and could function with dignity. With this gone, senior teachers are targeted for “U” ratings so as to get rid of them because they cost more than a newer teacher.

Another consequence of getting rid of seniority transfer rights has been the creation of ATRs, the Absent Teachers Reserve. Most of the 1,500 ATRs are senior teachers who were not “selected” for rehiring by principals when some of the more than 160 schools were closed and new, smaller schools took their place. These senior teachers were not selected because they cost more than newer teachers, a consideration that has become critical since school principals now have their own, limited budget, a change implemented at the same time that seniority transfer rights were eliminated. These teachers are left with no permanent assignment. The DOE (and the UFT officials) evidently anticipate that that ATR’s will become demoralized and disgusted and quit--”disappear.”  But many have not given up.

Therefore, this new contract will open a new offensive to get rid of these teachers. Principals would be asked to fill vacancies with teachers from the [ATR] pool, but they could dismiss them as soon as one day into the job.  This is a gross violation of all that we have won in the way of protections of our rights and jobs against arbitrary or mean-spirited principals since the union was organized. Under the proposed agreement, schools would be asked to hire those teachers for vacancies starting in October, but principals would be given the power to remove the teachers if they performed poorly. If a teacher were twice rejected, the city would be allowed to begin the firing process.

We must say NO to this “streamlined” firing scheme!!

DO YOU NEED OTHER REASONS TO VOTE NO???

Then here are the reasons to vote NO raised by the MORE Caucus in the  UFT:

“The raises do not keep up with the cost of living. 18% over 9 years is less than the rate of

inflation. In short, our real earnings will be less at the end of this contract than they

were at the beginning.

• We don’t get the original 8% raises until 2018 and we won’t get all the retro pay until

2020. Other city workers got their two 4% raises already and continue to earn them

each year. We will get them only in small increments beginning in 2015.  

• Only minor changes to the teacher evaluation system: We are still being evaluated

based on student standardized test scores.  

• This contract does not include reductions in class size.

• The contract introduces individual merit pay. The creation of Ambassador, Model, and

Master teacher categories will divide our members and encourage us to compete

against each other rather than collaborate with each other.

Tell the UFT officials to go back and get a good contract for us, one that strengthens our power and improves our living standard and protects us from nasty principals and not one that weakens our power and lessens our protections.”

Vote NO !!!!!

The “VOTE NO!!” Caucus

Video: Carmen Farina at CEC 2 Town Hall

I was asked to tape this event at the brand new building housing PS 59 and HS of Music and Art - by CEC 2 head, the always amazing Shino Tawikawa - see the wonderful well-deserved tribute to Shino at the end. [Something went wrong with my camera and I didn't get Carmen's opening speech - but the entire 45 minute Q&A is here.]

It was certainly insightful to see an adoring public gush over Carmen, who was part of the fabric of District 2 for so many years.

Leonie Haimson -- the 2nd speaker - didn't gush but instead asked some hard questions about class size. 

What was clear was a genuine delight in the new tone at Tweed - throughout the meeting people talked about how open and cooperative the new DOE was with parents.

So how ironic to see Deputy Chancellor Kathleen Grimm, the Grim Reaper of Closing Schools under Bloomberg, sitting there grinning like a Cheshire Cat as her years of work were in essence being trashed. Some symbol of change. I have so much video of her staring - grimly - as students, parents and teachers pleaded to keep their schools open while she justified every single despicable act of the BloomKleinCott administrations.

But other than that note, there is no question that for some parents the change from Bloomberg is astounding -- and this is a caveat -- District 2 is wealthy and engaged - as is District 15 in Brooklyn.

It was a shlep for me to leave lovely Rockaway and take the subway to get up to 56th Street - on the night of the Rangers game - but I got back in time to see the 3rd period - and I've been such bad luck over the years - it is best if I don't watch it all. (My pals banned me from watching the 7th game Stanley Cup victory game with them 20 years ago.) But if Shino asked me to climb Mt. Everest I would - well, maybe not that one.

Upon leaving the meeting I caught the elevator and there was Carmen with her crew going up. It was a slow elevator so I had time to negotiate a new version of the contract with Carmen on the way up -- class sizes of 20, ATRs permanently assigned to schools, mechanisms for teachers to deal with abusive principals, and a few more bucks.

https://vimeo.com/95847737



Here is an excerpt of Leonie on class size and Carmen's response.

http://youtu.be/kGuRBrtgqYI

UFT Contract: Comments on Contract/SBO's - Is There a UFT/DOE Conspiracy?

Many teachers are concerned that SBO's are not being approved for anything that does not keep teachers at school until 3:45 on Monday and 3:35 on Tuesday, effectively eliminating any after school programs for kids (and per session pay for teachers) two days a week.

The only thing the UFT and City will say is "all SBO's will be considered" but that does not mean approved... Ms Farina is adamant that "the teachers want the pd"..

No they don't, they are burnt out at 3:00PM and many want to go home, God forbid.

This is not coming from a teacher.

UFT Contract - What's Missing - How About Discipline?

The amount of short-sighted "trust" the UFT/Unity crowd is giving this administration is astounding. We have learned from almost 50 years in the UFT - if it's not in the contract, there are no guarantees -- even if it's in the contract, many have learned that the loose language and loopholes allows the DOE to drive truck bigger than Godzilla through.

Fariña said that she wanted to see schools reform their discipline policies to focus on restorative justice, not suspension.--NY Daily News, NY Post ....Chalkbeat

I cheer Farina for this initiative. BUT.....The contract with a golden chance to encode some permanent solutions on the discipline issue failed to address any recourse that would protect teachers and children for the day Carmen is not there anymore. Or de Blasio either.

Or even while they are there we have so many principals that blame the teachers for everything and provide no support, there is a need in the contract to protect teachers.

Read Laurel Sturt's "Davonte's Inferno" for a horror story of 4 principals over 8 years not lifting a finger. Here was the opportunity to give teachers some control over the piece of crap principal -- how about a contract item that if a certain percentage of the staff signs a petition on discipline issues in a school the DOE will send in people to monitor?

I'm not talking about harsh discipline but a system to manage discipline. [I was saved in my early days by an amazing AP named Norman Jehrenberg -- a hard ass guy who once he thought you were really trying provides support by removing any child I needed removed for a cooling off period - and it worked - for me. He would show up within 10 minutes - and once he did a few times I didn't have to use him again.]

The amount of short-sighted "trust" the UFT/Unity crowd is giving this administration is astounding. We have learned from almost 50 years in the UFT - if it's not in the contract, there are no guarantees -- even if it's in the contract, many have learned that the loose language and loopholes allows the DOE to drive truck bigger than Godzilla through.

One of the biggest complaints you hear from teachers is around the discipline issue - a lot of it about lack of support from administrators. On the other end we hear about the other end of the stick - harsh no excuses from the charter schools.

I have always opposed suspending students and never once asked a supervisor to do so. I felt that was a defeat. Since the kid always was coming back I knew I had to have a permanent solution - and I usually found one. But let's leave that for another time.

The articles in the Post and News doesn't give Restorative Justice its due. I instinctually used some of the concepts in my classes to resolve things. I taught in a high poverty area and I was lucky - discipline was easy for me. But the administrations I had were supportive - except in my 3rd year of teaching when we had a fairly new principal who didn't have a clue -- and I left that school partially because I didn't feel he supported teachers on discipline.

I hope that Farina works with the Teachers Unite crew on this initiative. Sally Lee and the gang have been doing fabulous work on restorative justice and the DOE should consider funding them to expand their work. [I am very proud to have been one of the first 5 people to join TU].

UFT Contract: Firemen/Sanitation/Cops Trash UFT - "We want UFT off MLC"

We'll never take the deal the teachers got.
They got less pension then us, look we didn't take that.
We'll go to PERB before we ever sign up for shit like this.
If you have to pay for healthcare, or GHI goes shitty you can thank the UFT.
Uft and mulgrew are trying to sell us all out, he may do it your wives (reference to the fact many guys have teachers as wives) but he won't do it to us.
We told the UFT we not going to stand with them on pattern bargaining.
We have our money, they'll get it in 2020.
Our raises will be the same as transit
We want UFT off MLC (supposedly sanitation said this).

From two firemen who had meetings with the UFA reps and one cop. All 3 reports are the same in 3 different places, 2 firehouses, 1 precinct.

UFT Contract: An Attack on Women

The contract proposal is an attack on feminism. 75% of UFT members are woman. The leadership expects the contract to pass because they anticipate that woman are willing and deserve to accept much lower pay in creases than they deserve.... Comment on Ed Notes
 
After the UFT Brooklyn borough contract meeting, a pregnant teacher came up to ask [Borough Rep] Howie Schoor if anything was added to the contract to help pregnant members and members needing to stay home to take care of their newborns.  Howie had nothing to say...besides trying to make it sound as if the current contract was good enough... report from a teacher present

Is Unity saying "screw you?"

I am not up on how a woman taking time off to take care of her baby will be affected but feel free to enlighten me. 

In the 1995 contract rejection, the raising of maximum salary from 20 to 25 years caused a firestorm, especially from women who had lost years staying home to take care of children. When the contract was rejected, the new number was down to 22 years. Funny, but many looked at that as a gain - down from 25, but in reality it was a loss - up from 20 in the  old contract.

And so it goes with the Unity Caucus shysters running the UFT for the past 64 years -- for those of you who think somehow WeinGrew have led the union astray, believe me it was no different in 1970 when I first became active in the union.

Showing Desperation, Unity Comment Red-Baits and Compares MORE to KKK

“Members deserve more details than we have,” said Peter Lamphere, a math teacher at Gregorio Luperon High School in Manhattan.

“They want it passed, and they want it passed immediately,” said Francis Lewis High School ESL teacher Arthur Goldstein. “I can’t believe the things they get away with.” ... Daily News

Comments section:

The Daily News once again is stirring the pot. The Memorandum of Agreement tells everything. All employees will get retro pay for the time worked. Of someone is on leave, they will still get retro pay for the time they actually worked.
The teachers you quote, and the lady in red in your photo, are members of the Socialist and Communist led MORE caucus. To quote THEM and their views is like quoting the KKK on Christianity... Meow Meister,

Who are you kidding? Most NYC teachers have been far left leaning since the days of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, and one of them even adopted their kids... James Smith

But the teachers quoted in this article are beyond the far left. They are actual communist party members who want to overthrow the union leadership (who they feel are too right-leaning). They do NOT reflect the views of a vast majority of UFT members. At every UFT delegate assembly meeting, they stand outside on the sidewalk trying to throw the socialist newspapers in our faces. They try to disrupt meetings with their tripe The lady in red is always screaming nonsense at the meetings and has to be ruled out of order by Mulgrew. Once again, these people are to the UFT what the KKK is to Christianity.... Meow Meister 

 Comments on Daily News article on contract.

Lauren Cohen (center), Registered Republican Mike Schirtzer (right)

Lauren Cohen spent years in a school/gulag with an abusive principal while UFT/Unity did nothing. She was booed at NYSUT for mentioning Unity loyalty oath. See video: NYSUT Update: MORE's Lauren Cohen Stands Up to Bully Unity Slugs...

Next time you see Arthur Goldstein, chapter leader of Francis Lewis HS with almost 300 UFT members who elect him, ask him to show you his Communist Party membership card.

Do you think their loyalty oath reads the same as Unity's?

UFT Contract: A Play in One Act

Special Rep: I should probably schedule some time to come to your school and talk to your members

CL: na, that's alright

Special Rep: well. What's the general feeling over there?

CL: yeah, we're pretty much against it

Special Rep: oh then I really should come down and speak to members

CL: na, that's alright. Thanks though.

--the borough rep is now coming with the Spec rep and is staying here for four hours. They dropped the notice on our mailboxes. Looks like they're hitting 'no' schools.
----------Report from the field

Layoffs in Newark and Jaisal Noor: Video on Ras Baraka Election in Newark

A mayoral election in Newark becomes a battle for the soul of the city...

Jaisal Noor, The Real News, delivers - as usual.

Newark may be a future model for the NYC school system despite the Baraka win, who in the New Yorker article admitted he was for a bunch of ed deform - like ending tenure. Who knows what is really where he stands?

But also note the message from the Newark Teachers Union regarding upcoming layoffs.

http://youtu.be/NqPh2feNiGs

Bob Braun's Ledger

Cami cuts 500 jobs - State-appointed Newark schools superintendent Cami Anderson is cutting some 500 jobs, including 200 teaching positions, 200 central office employees, and...

Subject: To All Members: Layoff and Position Cuts

Colleagues,

Today, Newark Teachers Union leadership met with the district and other union leaders to discuss potential position cuts and layoffs.  While nothing was finalized, we were given "worst case scenario" numbers.  Understand that these numbers are positions, they are not necessarily actual physical staff that will be terminated.  There are vacancies that the district will not be filling, including staff who are retiring.  It is important to note that ALL LAYOFFS WILL BE DONE FOLLOWING TENURE AND SENIORITY LAWS!

The district has said that they may be cutting up to 93 non-instructional (aide and clerk) positions. 

`This plan MUST be approved by Civil Service, and senority will be followed in any layoffs. The time line is as follows:

- The district will submit a layoff plan on approximately May 20^th to Civil Service. Civil Service typically responds within 30 days. 

- The district will send out "45 day notice" letters to impacted staff on approximately June 24.

- The layoffs would go into effect August 15.

In addition, the district has said there may be up to 200 cuts to Instructional positions.  This includes 104 non-tenured staff who have already received non-reoffering letters.  This number also includes vacancies the district will not be filling, including staff who are retiring.  Again, any cuts to instructional positions will be done following tenure and seniority laws.

As we get more information about specific titles or positions that may be cut, we will reach out to those groups to discuss actions that will be taken.  As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to call us at 973-643-8430 or email Mike Maillaro at mmaillaro@ntuaft.com

In solidarity,

John M Abeigon
Director of Organization

Newark Teachers Union,
Local 481, A.F.T., AFL-CIO

And note the New Caucus event:

NEW Caucus invited you to

Rally to Stop One Newark Plan

Tue, May 20, 2014 at 04:00 PM

Where:
Broad St & Raymond Blvd

Rockaway Theatre Company: “Buffalo” Leaves Them Laughing

Memo from the RTC: “Buffalo” Leaves Them Laughing

By Norm Scott

I attended the final dress rehearsal of the current Rockaway Theatre Company production of Ken Ludwig’s “Moon Over Buffalo” the night before it opened. Aside from the directors, Leslie Ross and Alan Rosenfeld, there were two of us in the audience watching the impeccable timing and perfect delivery of lines that hit right on the money despite there not being an audience present to feed off. Not that we didn’t try to do our bit. But it is strange sitting in an almost empty theater watching a very funny comedy and trying to control yourself a bit so your laughter doesn’t sound too strange.  The next night, opening night, there were crescendos of laughs as every line found their targets. Lesson learned: the very same performance takes on a life of its own when the actors get a responsive audience. And last Friday, there was one hell of a responsive audience.

The cast cannot be more perfect in their execution of the choreography required for multiple entries and exits on cue as one door slams and another opens. (I was praying none of the door knobs would come off since I was responsible for installing them.) Thomas Kane (playing George Hay), an RTC vet, plays the lead with a flawless performance – especially since he is drunk for much of it. Just watch as he wrestles with Steve Ryan (Paul) as he tries to get Tom into his pants in time for a performance. There were howls from the audience as the choreography played out. Kim Simek (Rosalind) plays the balcony scene to such comic  effect in Private Lives when her “husband” doesn’t quite make it out on stage, the laughs practically drowned her out. Oh, the look on her face. Jodee Tampone (Charlotte Hay) is stunning in the role created on stage by Carol Burnett as she has two guys chasing after her and we get why they want her. Susan Corning is perfection itself playing Charlotte’s deaf mother. And the 3 supporting actors – Lauren Susan (Eileen), Kevin Abernathy (Howard) and Jeffrey Gedacht (Richard) deliver excellent performances.

This is not a full review but a call for every Rockaway resident who can get to the Post Theater in Fort Tilden this weekend and next (Fri/Sat night shows at 8PM, Sunday Matinee on May 18 at 2PM.)

Get tickets at: http://www.rockawaytheatrecompany.org 

Big Rally Today at City Hall - Taking Back OUR Schools

I'm going with video camera in hand. Make sure to smile when you see me. And come along to the post rally happy hour afterwards - though I don't know where it is.

Taking Back OUR Schools Rally & March – NYC Metro

May 17 @ 2:00 pm - 5:00 pm

NYC Metro

“Declaration, Protest, Successes, and Call to Action”

Calling all NYC Metro Area community activists, the “voices of resistance”, families, students, civil rights advocates, voters, immigrant families, policymakers and legislators, union members, teachers, faith leaders, and all communities that believe in a good public education for all!

Join us in a march and rally seeking to create & sustain a public school system that provides a fully funded, equitable, community-based education for every child. This means that decisions about our children’s schooling would be made democratically by families and professional educators, free of corporate and political intervention.

Featuring a Message from Diane Ravitch

Speaking will be: Mark Naison, Brian Jones, Carol Burris, Jeannette Deutermann, Leonie Haimson, Joe Rella, Jose Vilson, NYC student “J”,  Marla Kilfoyle, Melissa Tomlinson, Monty Neill, Dao Tran, Ken Mitchell, Daiyu Suzuki, Akinlabi Mackall, Muba Yarofulani, Rosie Frascella, Stephanie Rivera, Bianca Tanis,  Lisa Winter.

Entertaining will be: Terry Moore and Friends, Raging Grannies, Jeremy Dudley, and The Rude Mechanical Orchesta.

Participating groups:

Alliance for Quality Education – BATS – Black New Yorkers for Educational Excellence (BNYEE) - Change The Stakes – Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats  -  Children Are More Than Test Scores – Class Size Matters – The Coalition for Educational Justice CEJ - Coalition for Public Education-Communities United New Jersey -Connie Hogarth Center for Social Action at Manhattanville College – EDU4 – FairTest- iCOPE–Hudson Valley Against Common Core -Lace to the Top - Lambda Independent Democrats of Brooklyn– LI Opt Out - MORE –NAACP MID Manhattan-Network for Public Education-Newark Students Union-New Caucus of Newark- New Jersey Education Association (NJEA)- New York Allies for Public Education – NY PRINCIPALS .ORG – NY Student Union –NYCORE – Parents Across America –    Parent Leadership Project-Parent Voices NY- Parents to Improve School Transportation – Port Jeff Station Teachers Association– Radical Women -Reclaiming the Conversation on Education – Save Our Schools (SOS) – Save Our Schools-NJ –S.E.E.D.S. (SEEDSWORK) - Stop Common Core in New York State - Students Not Scores LI –Students United for Public Education (SUPE) – Teachers United – Time Out from Testing-UFT-United Opt Out National-Ya Ya Network-

UFT Contract: Harsh Greetings at Some Schools for UFT/Unity Crew Selling Contract

Hey Norm - check out how desperate UFT leaders getting telling CL's to send out to staff.....an ed notes contact -- see Unity spin below the fold

I have a bunch of anecdotals about UFT reps getting a not so nice greeting. Or turning off what was not at first a hostile crowd. I heard at the MORE happy hour this afternoon -- that attracted over 40 people from many different schools to talk about the contract -- about a District Rep who went to a large high school to lay down the crap. The teachers did not start out negative but the refusal to answer questions honestly and the disparaging of certain issues raised turned the crowd. Many more people left the meeting thinking NO than walked in. That is why they moved up the vote I believe - some schools got the ballots today - because what they viewed as a slam dunk which would be enforced by their own people is not going so well.

One thing I believe -- pieces of the contract that start falling off - like health care - won't happen until AFTER the March 2016 UFT elections to protect Mulgrew. In fact take a look at the contract in the context of time frame of those elections.

Buffalo Teacher Exposes Phil Rumore and NYSUT Sham Militancy

[Buffalo Teachers Fed president] Phil Rumore manned up courageously and strode into #45 with a roll of BTF stickers handing them with bravado to all the teachers and enjoining them to affix them to their raiment as a fierce show of unity, solidarity and power in the face of the evil doers....Phil thinks we should all cover ourselves in them to scare away the woman married to the Loew's hardware heir....The very people we shouldn't be taking shit from, the ones who are paid well to advocate for us and have our backs seem to be working against us more than they are for or with us. This shit needs to stop. I can only hope this post pisses off a few of them half as much as their lameass version of unionism is pissing many of us off. Member driven union on the march, my arse.....B-LoEdScene

AFT/NYSUT/UFT: Driving Members Off the Cliff

As we predicted from Day 1 of the Battle For NYSUT, the noise-makers were just making militant-sounding noises for public consumption. Now they have to deliver some show events but as revealed by Sean (and others), when pushed they go wimping away. In a few months Iannuzzi will look like he was a revolutionary compared the the current crew (I don't have the time and patience to give you the dozens of links I put up with the back story -- if you are new - look through the archives since January for NYSUT stories -- and if you have time to write a book, hop to it.)

This is so good I an cross-posting because I don't want you to miss one precious word. Remember how Rumore puffed out his chest and attacked Iannuzzi and Stronger Together for not being tough enough and then backed the MulGarten total takeover of NYSUT Regurgitate slate.

Note how WeinGrew and crew are now re-branding themselves from Solutions Driven Unionism to the MORE/CORE -social justice "member driven Unionism."
Just another phony attempt to co-opt the growing movement against them, as expressed so well by the B-Lo blog.

MulGarten's got it backwards given that what they are really doing is driving the membership off the cliff.

Some relevant posts I put up before you go on to Sean's full piece.

[And by the way - Stronger Together is meeting soon - hopefully they will include plans to put a dagger to some people's hearts. Rumore wouldn't be a bad place to start the ball rolling - and work themselves up from there.]

A Parent Exposes New NYSUT (Revive) Pro-Cuomo Lead...

Rallies Scare Cuomo into Meeting with Stronger Tog...

NYUST and BTF Are Too Chicken to Protest a Visit from Scary Meryl

Regent Bennett Appears to be Battling Flatulence Again. Madame Tisch Appears to Be Suffering from Tartive Dyskinesia while ASSemblyman Ryan is Simply a Politician and a Wanker. 

We missed a good opportunity today to give Meryl Tisch a little of the Chuck Foreman treatment B-lo is infamous for providing its unwelcome guests. Not that we still have much snow lying around but imaginative folk that we are it seems a suitable substitute projectile could have easily been produced. Rumors began flying Tuesday that Assemblyman Sean Ryan was planning to escort the Dowager Chancellor into School #45 where she could observe all of the unseemly little brown, black and yellow foreigners there trying to NCLB their way into English fluency before the 3 year cut off. I am sure Empress Tisch kept her distance, after all, these weren't her gardeners, pool boys and cleaning ladies so she couldn't be sure they had all of their shots. It struck me and several like me that this would be a great opportunity for our dues collecting union leadership to take advantage of the fact that they are not obliged to be teaching in classrooms during the visit. Ergo maybe they could do a brother a solid and go holler at Tisch, hold up a correctly spelled sign and tell her Common Core blows and so do she and John King. O.k. choose your own pithy epigrams but that one's mine. 

MORE In the Media: Lupkin, Wainer and Cavanagh in The Chief

“While there were clear efforts made in this contract about improving communication and collaboration, too much has been left on the table,” Ms. Cavanagh said. “I stand up with my chapter as we continue to urge the UFT and the city to go back to that table.”

By DAN ROSENBLUM

A couple of days before about 2,000 delegates voted May 7 to recommend for ratification the United Federation of Teachers’s proposed labor contract, the specifics hadn’t yet filtered to a stretch of Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn.

Claims Teachers 'Let Down'

On Carroll Street, Dan Lupkin, a fourth- and fifth-grade special-education Teacher, was watching as kids streamed out of P.S. 58. He expected, correctly, that the UFT delegate assembly would approve the contract, but he wasn’t happy about it. He said Teachers were “let down” by their leaders and contested many parts of the deal as a step backwards, including delayed retroactive pay and few plans for creating smaller classrooms. As a UFT delegate, he said, he would vote against the tentative contract announced May 1.The package offers an 18-percent pay raise over nine years, dating back to 2009, with the two 4-percent raises for 2009-2011 to be implemented retroactively in installments from 2015 through 2020. The top-earning Teacher now making $100,049 would be earning $119,565 as of May 2018, according to the UFT.
“The money part of it is not great, but if we gave up the money for some real improvements in working conditions and improvements for the students, I would be willing to make that trade-off,” the nine-year Teacher said.Some rank-and-file members interviewed last week were still uncertain about various aspects of the bargain.

Dissidents Call UFT Terms Inadequate

MORE Caucus: Pact is Less of Same

1 imageThe Chief-Leader/Michel Friang

‘TALKING BEYOND THE DELEGATES’: Social studies Teacher Kit Wainer was one of several Movement of Rank and File Educators members protesting the May 7 vote by United Federation of Teachers delegates to recommend that members ratify a proposed contract. Ballots will be counted early next month.

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By DAN ROSENBLUM | Posted 3 days ago
It was a far smaller crowd than inside the New York Hilton ballroom, where thousands of United Federation of Teachers delegates voted to recommend that its members ratify a tentative Teachers’ contract, but a collection of disaffected members of an opposition caucus hoped their voices resonated with their colleagues.

After the May 7 vote, about 20 representatives of the Movement of Rank and File Educators caucus lined the Avenue of the Americas outside the hotel to list their objections to the deal.

Kit Wainer, a former UFT presidential candidate, objected to the proposed 18-percent raise spread over nine years, saying an average 2-percent annual pay increase would not keep up with the cost of living.

‘Disaffected, Disconnected’

“We’ve already got a membership that’s disaffected and disconnected, and now we have a union leadership that’s telling people that they should be thankful because by 2018, they will have raises that will almost catch up to inflation,” said Mr. Wainer, a UFT Chapter Leader at Leon M. Goldstein High School.

MORE, which bills itself as the social-justice caucus within the union, opposes an emphasis on standardized testing, teacher evaluations and the Common Core.

It wasn’t immediately clear when ballots would be mailed to the UFT’s membership, but the union projected it would have the results by early next month. MORE members said they had scheduled emergency meetings through that period.

‘A Missed Opportunity’

Julie Cavanagh, a Teacher at P.S. 15 in Brooklyn and also a former UFT presidential candidate, called the contract a “missed opportunity.” She listed a series of irritations with the accord that included extending retroactive payments two years beyond its lifespan and creating a two-tier teaching system by adding “Teacher Leadership Positions.” She said voting delegates had little time to read the full Memorandum of Agreement.

“While there were clear efforts made in this contract about improving communication and collaboration, too much has been left on the table,” Ms. Cavanagh said. “I stand up with my chapter as we continue to urge the UFT and the city to go back to that table.”

http://thechiefleader.com/news/news_of_the_week/more-caucus-pact-is-less-of-same/article_ea49f618-d9ee-11e3-a0c9-001a4bcf6878.html?TNNoMobile 
 

UFT Contract: When the Unity Spin Doesn't Play

My District Rep spun her shit at a school with surrounding schools attending – big crowd – listened to her avoid health issues and baited retro pay – lots of very mad people leaving the building bewildered – all voting NO – DR was like watching FOX News.... An Ed Notes Reader

Maybe the UFT is rushing to get the vote done before their hordes of people racing to the schools turn off even more people.