Happy Hours + Karen Lewis in NYC, Julie and Brian at NYCORE Too

There are 2 chances to meet Karen Lewis this weekend. Tonight at the UFT she will be on a panel with Mulgrew and others. I pre-registered for that. And then tomorrow morning she is the keynote speaker at the NYCORE conference, which is still open despite over 650 people registered as of yesterday. I will be taping and attending all day where there is a fabulous collection of workshops.

MORE will be doing one headlined by Julie, Jack and Brian. I'll tape that too. MORE tee-shirts will be available for sale to help raise money for the MORE election campaign.

Here is the announcement from MORE with a list of upcoming Happy Hours, including 2 this afternoon, from 3-5PM in District 19 in East NY and 5-7 in south Nassau.

Want to learn MORE about MORE?

Meet some of the candidates running in the UFT election?

Meet other educators in the area?

Build a stronger chapter?

Help us win the UFT election?

Need a drink before Spring Break?

Please join us:

Friday, March 15 

BROOKLYN/QUEENS BORDER / District 19:

3 – 5 PM:

Boulder Creek Steakhouse

355 Gateway Drive, Brooklyn,

Exit 15 off the Belt Parkway

Friday, March 15 

SOUTH NASSAU

5 – 7 PM:

Cannon’s Blackthorn 
2 for 1 drinks and a free buffet
49 N. Village Road, Rockville Centre
one block north of Sunrise Highway, next to the LIRR station

And if you can't make any of these events, check out the MORE Happy Hour next Thurs, Mar. 21.
 

Thursday, March 21st 

Manhattan

5-7 Pm

La Nacional Tapas Bar

reservation made for back of bar

(239 West 14th Street between 7th & 8th Ave)

This Saturday 3/16 is the NYCORE Conference 

Featuring Chicago Teacher’s Union President Karen Lewis of the CORE caucus Pres. Lewis is an authority on social justice unionism and public education.

Our own UFT Presidential Candidate Julie Cavanagh will be hosting a workshop with many MORE of our candidates.

This conference is the premiere NYC event on education and social justice with incredible guest speakers.

Check out the line-up, there’s still time to register for all the amazing workshops

http://www.nycore.org/conference/conference-workshops/

Unity Caucus Will Never Apologize...

... for bragging about closing rubber rooms when they didn't. Someone sent a graphic of a Unity button. Rubber room prisoner of war Francesco Portelos took the idea and ran with it. (Maybe if the Unity leadership can get him out of the rubber room they brag about closing down in their ads, he wouldn't have as much time to do these projects.

I'm not sure it this is an officially approved MORE ad but feel free to use it as you want. 

==============
The opinions expressed on EdNotesOnline are solely those of Norm Scott and are not to be taken as official positions (though Unity Caucus/New Action slugs will try to paint them that way) of any of the groups or organizations Norm works with: ICE, GEM, MORE, Change the Stakes, NYCORE, FIRST Lego League NYC, Rockaway Theatre Co., Active Aging, The Wave, Aliens on Earth, etc.

Principal Brian De Vale in Valentine's Day Message Praises Staff, Smashes Ed Deformers

Dear Staff, You're doing an amazing job. Too bad the union busting mayor and all his acolytes don't get it.

Having cast of the manacles of the Quality Review rubric, the framework for effective teaching... the NYS standards and every other guide, I have relied on my 27 years as a teacher, dean, supervisor and principal to conduct this formal observation... I use my many years in education as my guide.... I know a good school when I see it... Brian De Vale

Readers of this blog already know of Brian and his passionate defense of teacher and union rights that puts the Unity/UFT to shame. In this 3 page spread appearing in the March 2013 CSA News, he reports on his visits to teachers not with a "gotcha" mentality, but with heartfelt  and total support. It is not often I post an article from the CSA, but when they take a stand on issues that are in the interests of supervisors and teachers while the NY Teacher spends more time defending ed deform crap than defending their members......

Here is Brian's full 3 page spread. And do I love that Brian mentioned Kindergarten teacher Maria Carrigan who was my tech partner in crime for 5 years when we worked at the District 14 media center. And yes, for those few people out there who think I won't listen to a woman, I did everything Maria told me to do.

http://csa-nyc.org/press/csa-news/dear-staff-you%E2%80%99re-doing-amazing-job

Video: Julie Debates E4E on Seniority...

UPDATED:

...and presents a defense of seniority and LIFO Mulgrew and the UFT don't seem to want to touch in this March 3, 2011 TV debate, a fine birthday present for me. Julie makes the point that seniority is still the fairest method and adamantly defends the idea that experience really counts. The E4E person says teachers don't get better after 5 years. Watch her try to dance when the moderator talks about TFAers who leave after 2 or 3 years.

Julie's key point in this debate and in our movie is that tenure gives teachers the protection they need to advocate for their children. And since all levels above teachers are a much greater threat to children's interests and benefits, this makes total sense.

Then when the layoff question comes up and the moderator says some schools may lose a good chunk of their young staff, Julie points to the policies that give principals incentives to hire younger, cheaper teachers. And her defense of ATRs too. All of what Julie did here 2 years ago, when she was relatively new to union activism, is an impressive performance and gave many teachers out there hope that here was a voice that talks for them.

Meanwhile, E4E is left with bragging that Syndey got a quote in the Gotham piece on UFT retirees voting, another outrage by Gotham, going to these slugs for a quote (maybe funding is contingent on this?) instead of calling MORE for an opinion.

https://vimeo.com/61814925

The Ultimate Sellout: New Action Election Flyer Doesn't Report That Mulgrew Heads Ticket

They tell you what they oppose in Unity policy without telling you that Mulgrew is running on the New Action and Unity line and that 10 of their candidates are running for the Exec Bd on the Unity line in addition to New Action, which guarantees them those seats. So if Unity said NO to the New Action claims, why are they running Mulgrew as their presidential candidate?

New Action was an enthusiastic supporter of the UFT charter school -- except for current MORE candidate for UFT Exec Bd James Eterno, who when he was with NA on the Exec Bd was the only one to vote against the UFT charter, for which he got yelled at by Randi.

PEP Videos: Support for Moratorium on School Closings

I have a lot to say about the Panel for Educational Policy "close every school you can" March 11 meeting other than to say that many MOREs spoke, some UFT/Unity honchos were present. There were some pretty good feelings between MORE and Unity that night. Other than the fact that the UFT charter helped cause the closing of one school - my alma mater - and is joining its elementary charter by taking 21 rooms from JHS 292, whose parents and students and teachers protested vociferously. I interviewed the PTA president and will do a separate piece on that issue.

But let's focus on the love boat between MORE and the few Unity people who were there.

Below are the first batch of videos.

Friday: MORE Downtown Happy Hour, 5PM

Movement of Rank and File Educators (MORE)

Downtown Happy Hour

 

Want to learn MORE about MORE?

Meet some of the candidates running in the UFT election?

Meet other teachers in the area?

Build a stronger chapter?

Need a drink before Spring Break?

 

Join MORE at our first Downtown Happy Hour!

Thursday, March 21st @ 5PM

La Nacional Tapas Bar

(reservation made for back of bar)

(239 West 14th Street between 7th & 8th Ave)

Thurs, 11AM Press Conf on inBloom Threat to Student Privacy

The operating system for inBloom is being built by Wireless, now renamed Amplify, a subsidiary of NewsCorp owned by Rupert Murdoch and run by Joel Klein. [Note Randi Weingarten on Board of inBloom]

Leonie Haimson and crew to hold press conference Thurs, 11AM.

1.    This Thursday, March 14 at 11:15 AM we will be holding a press conference with public school parents concerned about the imminent threat to student privacy from the actions of NYS and NYC DOE. 

When: Thursday March 14 at 11:15 AM at Tweed.

As reported in Reuters, a company called inBloom Inc. is collecting the most private, sensitive, and personally identifiable student data from New York and other states,  storing it on a vulnerable “data cloud” and making it available to commercial vendors:

 “In operation just three months, the database already holds files on millions of children identified by name, address and sometimes social security number. Learning disabilities are documented, test scores recorded, attendance noted. In some cases, the database tracks student hobbies, career goals, attitudes toward school - even homework completion.

As the article makes clear, this company plans to share this information “with private companies selling educational products and services.  Entrepreneurs can't wait.”   We learned from a press release that one of these for-profit companies that the state has signed up to use this data is called Escholar. 

The operating system for inBloom is being built by Wireless, now renamed Amplify, a subsidiary of NewsCorp owned by Rupert Murdoch and run by Joel Klein.   I was quoted about Amplify’s new tablet on NPR four days ago.

Thousands of parents have emailed the State Education Department and DOE to protest this arrangement; hundreds have sent opt-out letters without response.  One parent was told by a staffer at SED that they were too busy collecting and transmitting the data to inBloom to respond to parent concerns. My question is this:  if this is really for the benefit of public schoolchildren, why do they refuse to notify their parents or ask for their consent?

Please let us know if you can attend our press conference, or would like to speak at it, by emailing us off list ASAP at info@classsizematters.org

 

2.     Last week a new national organization called the Network for Public Education, headed by Diane Ravitch was announced, and I will be serving on its board. We will be working hard to preserve and strengthen public education from the onslaught of privatizers and profiteers that are out to plunder and dismantle it.  Please become a member, and/or subscribe to our newsletter on our website.  Some articles about this exciting new organization here and here.

And please forward this message to others who care.

Thanks, Leonie

Storm of Reform: Carol Burris on Common Core

With every passing day education giants like Carol Burris expose the Common Core. Wouldst our own quasi union leaders do the same.

Someone (preferably some honest person in Unity Caucus) must ask a fundamental question: WHAT IS STOPPING THEM? Instead Leo Casey attacked Burris for defending teachers from the evils of a junk science evaluation system.

The Burris piece is a follow-up to my earlier post: Randi on Board of inBloom: AFT dues-paying members, how much will you stand for?

And therein lies the roots of conspiracy theory.

And for those who might find a Mulgrew or Weingarten quote here and there questioning some aspect of the program so they can say one day when it all comes crashing down "see, were were against but just wanted a seat at the table," watch what they do, not what they say.

This is part 2 where Carol does a beautiful analogy between hurricane Sandy and the potential pitfalls of the Common Core. Click the links to read part 1.

You can see the exclusive interview I did with Carol last May here.

[I'm heading out to the PEP meeting at Brooklyn Tech tonight and will try to tweet in the midst of taping.]

‘Storm of reform’ — principal details damage done

Posted by Valerie Strauss on March 11, 2013 at 5:00 am

(Naval Research Laboratory)

Principal Carol Burris’ recent post on why she is no longer a fan of the Common Core stirred wide interest and lively debate — enough that Carol decided to follow up with a piece that addresses some of the questions voiced in the comments following the piece, as well as in the emails she received after its posting. Burris, principal of South Side High School in New York, was named the 2010 New York State Outstanding Educator by the School Administrators Association of New York State. She is one of the co-authors of the principals’ letter against evaluating teachers by student test scores, which has been signed by 1,535 New York principals. Here’s her first post.


By Carol Burris

My recent blog post, which was critical of the Common Core, surprised some of my friends and critics. I still hold the ideal of the Common Core—to prepare all students for college and career—as my goal as a principal.  But I have concluded that the standards, as they are being implemented, are potentially harmful to students.  The best way that I can explain my trepidation is with the following analogy.
Hurricane Sandy hit the shores of New York and New Jersey at high tide when there was a full moon, a time when tides were 20% higher. It was a Category One hurricane of no great fury—its winds were “only” about 74 miles per hour.  However, Sandy became a super storm due to a Canadian cold front, which wrapped around the hurricane, making the storm larger and more ferocious.
Think of the Common Core standards as the high tide—the tide intended to lift all boats. Testing is the hurricane—a strong storm that blows through each year and affects our every action as educators.  Now add the cold front, the ever-increasing high stakes, wrapping around the tests. Those high stakes—school closings, grade level retentions, and the evaluation of teachers by student scores—have given the hurricane additional fury and strength.  High tide, which in and of itself is benign, now becomes a destructive force.
As a New Yorker who saw the tide of a nearby bay fill four feet of our home, I have new respect for what occurs when strong forces converge.  Like the high tide that rushed through our neighborhood, the standards are not merely seeping into Grade 2 and rising through the upper grades as our students progress. Instead, they are rushing in all at once, throughout all K-12 classrooms. And because the testing is immediate, with high stakes for individual teachers and higher demands for student learning, districts are buying materials without time for full review, and frantic test prep is occurring.

Randi on Board of inBloom: AFT dues-paying members, how much will you stand for?

This is the question Susan Ohanian asks. Let the Unity slugs tell us how Randi is gone and MulGarten reigns while all of them go to AFT conventions and do whatever Randi wants. And they will push common core down your throats until you choke. How Vichy-like is Randi's being on this board?

Is this the crew you want running our union? But read on:

http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=443

About inBloom Inc.

inBloom Inc. is a nonprofit organization established to carry forward the mission of the Shared Learning Collaborative, which is to work to make personalized learning a reality for every U.S. student. inBloom provides technology services that allow states and public school districts to better integrate student data and learning applications to support sustainable, cost-effective personalized learning. inBloom is funded with initial philanthropic support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Carnegie Corporation of New York. For more information about inBloom, visit www.inBloom.org.

Old Secretaries of Ed just keep getting consulting gigs. Margaret Spellings is on the board of directors of the new inBloom enterprise. Here are the rest.

Take a look at the Governance and Organization Technical Advisory Group:

In addition to seeking advice from more than 100 education, technology and business advisors, inBloom benefited from a six-member governance advisory group with a range of expertise. This former group committed significant time to help design and set up the long term governance and organizational structure for inBloom, Inc.:

Michael Horn, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Education, Innosight Institute

Michael Lomax, President and CEO, United Negro College Fund

David Riley, President, Alembic Foundation

Andrew Rotherham, Co-Founder and Partner, Bellwether Education Partners

Cheryl Vedoe, President and CEO, Apex Learning

Randi Weingarten, President, American Federation of Teachers

AFT dues-paying members, how much will you stand for?

inBloom is nonprofit. All its providers are for-profits. inBloom Providers are the usual suspects.

If you can stand the horror, an inBloom white paper on standards alignment, providing chapter and verse of how they sequence learning.

This whole package provides a bit more information about what the Common Core Gates Standards are really up to.

You can see a small excerpt in Gates Foundation Anal-Retentive, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Strikes Again.

Here's an excerpt from an inBloom white paper Learning Standard Alignment in inBloom Technology, page 20. Copyright 2012 inBloom, Inc. and its affiliates. They want all the skill duckies in neat little rows. No one seems willing to put a name on this document. I don't think there's a human name in the whole paper. The paper describes:

Objective assessment results provide an important measure of student fulfillment of learning objectives. Again, for inBloom compatible applications to analyze student objective achievement, assessment results must be provided to the inBloom Data store. But assessment metadata, indicating standard alignment, must also be included in the inBloom Data store; assessment maintainers, vendors and educators will need to provide this alignment information.

 Oh, Susan, lay it on them.

http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=443

Weekend at Normies: Robotics, Rockway Theatre Company's Joseph and Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and MORE

RTC "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat", March 9, 2013

It's been Another busy few days with the full day FIRST LEGO League robotics at Javits Convention Center Saturday (missed the MORE gen meeting)  -- I was there from 7AM until 4:30. And oh what a day with 80 NYC teams from public, private, charter schools, community, parent and business oriented groups. We started with around 160 teams and after the borough qualifiers these were the finalists. The winner today is going on to the world championship in St. Louis next month.

I've been volunteering with NYCFIRST since I retired in 2002 and it's been a fruitful decade. I don't do much anymore -- just work as a liaison between the teachers and the organizers of the events -- and the work is seasonal. Intense in late summer through November when the borough organizers take over. We've had problems in Staten Island the past few years getting the event organized, so this year with Francesco Portelos forcibly removed from coaching the IS 49 team (this was the first year they did not make the finals) I recruited him to run the entire SI event and I was talking to some of the SI coaches yesterday who were totally impressed with the job he did. One said he was wowed by the creative use of technology Francesco used.

Many coaches and parents stopped by who said they appreciated my Norms Robotics blog (which you should touch base with if interested in having your school involved next year) which keeps them informed of local FLL events and updates. I feel guilty for not paying enough attention to it. Parents stopped by to find out how to start a team in their school -- and some who could not get their school to do it -- and budget/testing cost crunch has really reduced participation of many public schools. One public school coach in an upscale area told me the school had to now charge parents to cover the costs, including the teacher salary -- how interesting. She now gets paid to run an after school program with private funds. Remember the great Randi victory of getting after school DOE money pensionable, now so hollow to those being shifted to private funding?


Rockaway Theatre Company Rocks Howard Beach

I raced home to get a bite before heading over to Howard Beach to tape the amazing, amazing, Rockaway Theatre Company production of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat." This was supposed to be at the RTC theater in Fort Tilden in December but some dumb storm hit and the theater cannot be used. So they went to a church in Howard Beach and wowed an entire new neighborhood. One woman asked me if these are paid performers she was so impressed. She had never heard of RTC and the professional level of the productions with a mixture of pros, semi-pros and amateurs. One of the chorus gals who was a Pigeon Sister when I was in the Odd Couple is a science teacher and her acting, singing and dancing is at such a level that I believe she could be a pro. The director is Chazmond J. Peacock, an actor, singer, dancer and now a director of the highest quality. So despite a very long day, the performance was exhilerating as usual. Copyright laws prevent us from putting up shows online but we tape to make dvds for the performers. But we are allowed to use some segments and here I put up the closing "take your bows" piece done in the usual unique RTC style.




Well, it's off to see Talley's Folly - yes I do have to pay my wife back for letting me do all this crap and tomorrow after the reconstruction crew shows up we will be heading over to more plumbing and lighting supply places before I head into the city to meet with Ray Frankel and reps from the other caucuses to draw lots for ballot positions in the UFT election. How much fun will it be to be in the same room with Mike Shulman from New Action and some Unity rep?

You don't know who Ray Frankel is? She is an original Shankerite who we know from the 70s and is still working for the UFT. My pals from the old days bristle at the mention of her name. She will defend Unity policy tooth and nail though we don't go there when I see her about the election. When people ask about whether we can trust the UFT on elections I do trust Ray.

I don't want to guess her age and she needs a walker to help her get around but she is still amazingly sharp and knows everything there is to know about the process. We used to fight a lot in the 70s but I have learned to appreciate her intelligence and knowledge and one of the few pleasures of the tedious election process is getting to deal with Ray. May she be doing this work for another 20 years.

Well, after the drawing it will be off to Brooklyn Tech for the MORE rally at 5 followed by the PEP.

I think I'll take Tuesday off.

Randi Really Does Want to Steal Your Lessons at "Share My Lesson"

With respect to all Content you post on the Service, you grant SML a royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive and fully sub-licensable right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display such Content --- Terms and Conditions, AFT Share My Lesson

In short, I sell my soul to RW and the AFT for what?!?!? a brief mention about how hard I work. Think of this when there is a ”Share My Lesson“ based book or curricula being published and sold as ”AFT developed.“ --- teacher on ICE-mail.

A few days ago I wrote a semi-serious piece about this Share My Lesson crap from the AFT (Does Randi Want to Steal Your Work?). I can't find it now but Susan Ohanian also did a riff on this. Think of it for a second. The AFT/UFT has sat by as the schools are corporatized and teachers are set against each other and in that climate is promoting a sharing approach. Context, context, context. Let's share with fellow test resisters and batters for public ed.

(And on a sidebar -- ICE and MORE mail have been loaded recently with the absolute contract violations on lesson plan formatting and forcing people to plan units -- I can see the "5-year plan ahead" coming with the UFT claiming it got it cut from 10.)

One of our ICE-mail pals did some digging and Randi DOES want to make money on your back.

Hello, 

Although I am already predisposed to not trusting RW, I decided to take up the Share My Lesson offer.

However, like a good teacher and student, I read the Terms and Conditions on the website before signing up. (I wish more of us did that in the last election and contract).

They read:

Rights In Posted Content

With respect to all Content you post on the Service, you grant SML a royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive and fully sub-licensable right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display such Content (in whole or part) worldwide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed. With respect to all Content you post to the Service, you hereby waive any moral rights you have in the Content. You agree to perform all further acts necessary to perfect any of the above rights granted by you to SML, including the execution of deeds and documents, at our request. SML does not acquire any title or ownership rights in the Content that you submit and/or make available. After you submit, post, email, display, transmit or otherwise make available any such Content, you continue to retain any such rights that you may have in such Content, subject to the rights, licenses and privileges granted herein.

In short, I sell my soul to RW and the AFT for what?!?!? a brief mention about how hard I work. Think of this when there is a ”Share My Lesson“ based book or curricula being published and sold as ”AFT developed.“

This is not a good thing. I am not joining Share My Lesson and am advising all UFT/AFT members not to either. Our union falls woefully short in it's understanding of rights and responsibilities in the “digital era.“

 

 

Join MORE Monday to Protest School Closings at the PEP

James Eterno is reporting on the ICE blog that the UFT does not seem to be organizing around the closing school PEP meeting, holding its regular Executive Board meeting instead. (MORE WILL PROTEST & ATTEND MONDAY' S SCHOOL CLOSING PEP; UFT EXECUTIVE BOARD APPARENTLY HAS MORE IMPORTANT BUSINESS!) James knows from closing schools.

Maybe the entire UFT board -- including the 8 New Action members, will grab their dinner and head on over to Brooklyn Tech munching on their dinner roles.

But maybe not.

In Chicago, Karen Lewis (the keynote speaker at the NYCORE conference next Saturday) issued a call to all Chicago teachers to attend these closing school hearings and meetings even it their protest falls on deaf ears as a way to build public support for growing the resistance.  (School Closings: Chicago Union Mobilizes Entire Teaching Corps) where she urges every Chicago teacher to pledge to attend a closing school hearing.
Here is Karen's message at http://youtu.be/ZcwsLPj1Zuk.



MORE will NOT be at the UFT Executive Board meeting.

On Monday March 11th the Panel for Educational Policy (PEP) will meet at Brooklyn Technical High School at 6 PM to vote on the closure of 26 schools.
They will also vote to replace and co-locate many of the schools with charters schools.

Join members of the Movement of Rank and File Educators (MORE), students, parents, and community members.

Rally and Action

5:00 pm Protest Against Senseless School Closings and Rally In Support of our Fellow Teachers, Faculty, Students, Parents, and Communities

6:00pm PEP meeting

Join the rally, stay for the hearing to speak against school closings and co-locations!

Here is the text of the MORE leaflet

From Chicago, to Philadelphia, to right here in New York City the fight against senseless school closings has reached a fever pitch. The communities are coming out by the masses and standing together as one against the corporate “reform” forces. Everyone now knows the truth, closing schools is not about helping our children nor is about better serving our communities; it’s about privatizing education and turning our children into profits. Closing schools is meant to make wealthy individuals wealthier while having no consideration for our children. We are calling on all educators, parents, students, and community members to join us and protest further harm to our students, our city, and our future. The puppet panels making these decisions have no regard for the city they supposedly serve. A mayor, who has no mandate, received less then 55% percent of the vote, appointed these members. He is serving an illegal third term after the the citizens of New York voted for term limits, with less than a year left in his term he has no right to close our schools. The time is now to halt this process, which has not resulted in better schools for our city. Many of the schools that will be closed will be replaced by charter schools where a CEO makes millions, while low paid, in many cases non-union teachers have tremendous turn-over rates. Children in charter schools are routinely exposed to less experienced teachers and there is no substantial evidence that there is any improvement in their education. Instead of filling the pockets of private individuals with public funds, let’s reinvest that money where it should be, with our children in our public schools.

The governor in speeches through-out the state has spoken of wrap-around services, we say why wait? Let’s offer this immediately and not a second later to all the schools that have been targeted for “reutilization”. Let’s provide our children more after-school programs, more one to one services, and offer them a real chance to succeed by giving them the full resources of the state and city.There are excessed teachers and guidance counselors who are shuttled from school to school each week, we demand that these highly trained and experienced professionals be placed in schools targeted for closing immediately. This will allow class sizes to be reduced and students to receive more services. This is reform, this is helping our students, and this is truly serving the community.

The Mayor, DOE, and puppet panels must come out and say the truth, closing schools is racist policy. As our candidate for UFT treasurer Camille Eterno stated "there are never schools that have significant white populations that are targeted for closure but rather it is in places like Southeast Queens, a mostly African American neighborhood and in other predominantly African American or Latino areas where schools are closed." The government must have a full examination of this policy. In a city as diverse as New York the people deserve an answer as to why only schools in communities with African-Americans, Latinos, and immigrant communities are continuously closed. Until we have answers there must be a moratorium on school closings.

The DOE under chancellor Walcott must put aside it’s anti-teacher campaign and work with our union to empower our communities. Let’s work together to rebuild the schools by sitting down with parents, students, and the educators of targeted schools to find real solutions to real issues. The answer is not to bring in consultants that cost millions with ideas they pretended to read in some education journal, the answer is to use those funds to better serve our students by adding classes, staff, and services that directly affect pupils.

The School Leadership Teams (SLT) which are voted in and represent all constituents of the school; parents,staff, and students need to be given power in this process. They should be consulted in any decision that affects the school. Bring in new administrators that are chosen by a procedure that best serves the interests of the entire community, not a superintendent or network leader sitting in an office that has never visited the school. The current C-30 process is a fraud and is for show only. The parents and staff have no voice and they know it. This must change, the people in charge of a school have a real impact and the process for choosing them must seek to be as democratic as possible to ensure students are getting the right person for the job. If the C-30 and SLT have been turned into shams how can we expect the schools to succeed. This was all done on purpose so that the mayor and patronage lackeys could close down schools and bring in their millionaire friends to steal from our public funds. Let's change this now instead of closing schools, let's empower the members of our schools to make changes that best serve everyone.

MORE demands an immediate end to closing schools; we will not rest until this demand is met. We stand in solidarity with all community members everywhere that are fighting to preserve public education against forces of reform that seek to fatten their bank accounts NOT serve our community. Join us this Monday, join every school closing hearing, every PEP, to have your voice heard, and most importantly to protect our children's future.

Portelos Asks the UFT "Why" (Once Again)

UFT advice to teachers under assault

Over the last few weeks a young teacher was in touch - I don't know him or know why he touched base with me -- but he was asking for advice. Last week he informed me he was quitting the next day and would never teach again. Why? It was not the kids but his principal and administration. "All I wanted to do was teach kids the joy of science," he said.

Unity slugs have been whining over at the MORE blog about it is not their fault there are so many bad principals. I disagree. They bear major responsibility: for not raising hell in every quarter and using they supposedly vaunted political capital to try to kill the Leadership Academy who were producing Nazis. Or exposing these people in every way possible. Or going after the CSA. Or providing a rigorous defense of teachers under assault.

Tomorrow is the FIRST LEGO League tournament at the Javits Convention center. That is where I met Francesco Portelos a year ago when he gave up a Sunday to bring his IS 49 team. His school will not be amongst the 80 teams there. Neither will the kids he taught. A few weeks later he was in the rubber room for bogus reasons. He's still there with no charges. A scandal under any circumstances. But silence from the UFT.

Francisco Portelos is not quitting or going anywhere, except taking as many of these bad apples down as he can. See them in court. And how does the Staten Island UFT treat him? Well they sneak around trying to brand him as an outlier and a nut -- a "nut" elected as Chapter leader while sitting in the rubber room. In MORE he has found a supportive community. And MORE is lucky to have him. What a skill set he brings to the table. The kids' and his school's loss. Both the DOE and UFT don't want people who rock boats. Take your medicine and walk the plank.

Every time my wife and I get the NY Teacher Newspaper, at home, I place $100 on the kitchen table. I bet her that amount that from cover to cover there will be no articles or mentions of real stories of attacks on educators. No stories on the existence of Rubber Rooms. ATRs or abusive administrators. The NY Teacher circulated an article that the number of ATRs dropped to 831 last April. The latest numbers are 1475, yet no story on that increase.

I sit in a Rubber Room, for over 300 days, with no charges. I'm under investigation for over 400 days with no charges. I'm sent 20 miles away from my school and not a word. Where is my union? Where is my union paper? Where is the story? 

I'm not alone though.There are 17 of us in my building and an estimated 400 across the city. Most have no idea why they are there with almost no contact from their union. Most are veteran educators and minorities. Almost all are career changers. Are educators who were in another field first more likely to perform misconduct or are they more likely to speak up and get targeted?

Forget about us though. We still only account for about half of percent. A bigger issue is the thousands of educators attacked while they are still in school. I receive emails from many of them. They feel helpless and can't speak up about issues for fear of retaliation. The students suffer.

I'm just saying these are stories that are real and relevant to many rank and file members. They are not covered.

Where is Callahan? 

-Francesco Portelos mrportelos@gmail.com protectportelos.org
Parent
Educator
UFT Chapter Leader IS 49
“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” -Martin Luther King Jr.
*sent from my Galaxy S3. Please pardon any typos

Unity Election Lit Causes Laugh Riot

Given Unity people seem so edgy lately regarding the elections, I thought I would help them out by publishing their election stuff. Really, you gotta laugh. As our friend DOENuts has written,

Did Unity 'Jump the Shark' Somewhere Along the Way?

Paul Hogan Battles DOE (and UFT/Unity) Over Paperwork

Exposing the Unity leadership's poor response on an issue affecting every teachers, Paul is a retiree running on the MORE slate and has been a stalwart attendee at MORE meetings. I knew of him through ICE mail where he consistently raised the paperwork issue and the lack of UFT willingness (or ability) to fight this. Here Paul exposes how he went through the "process" with the UFT and where it got him. Paul doesn't name names -- Now watch the Unity slugs claim he and I made it all up.

Paper(work)-thin: I Thought We Were Supposed to be *Teaching*

http://paulvhogan.wordpress.com/2013/02/21/paperwork-thin-i-thought-we-were-supposed-to-be-teaching/

Like death and taxes, certain things  will  be with us forever. Teaching will always involve paperwork . But , just as certainly, teaching is not only paperwork. At least it ought not to be.

Our union (UFT)  seemed to “get”  this at one point;  even successfully  pushing for  a safety-valve mechanism  in the 2007 contract to guard against paperwork excess and abuse. (And that’s as it should be. They,  our union leaders, were teachers at one point.  I think. Weren’t they? )  So… what happened?

I lobbied for *years* to get a  ”paperwork reduction” committee established (as per Art 8-I, Sect. 1. of the NYC UFT contract. BTW, people should actually READ THE LANGUAGE of these  things. They’re chock-full of surprises.) in my district only to be repeatedly stonewalled by the unelected UFT  District Representative  then in charge. When I approached him face to face at the Delegate Assembly… after a number of emails on the topic went unacknowledged…. it was like I was speaking a language other than English.: “PaperWHICH?” “ReductionWHAT?” “CommitteeWHO?!?”

After the initial shock, ( Someone was actually calling him out about something important !)  he quickly gathered his wits. We didn’t NEED a paperwork reduction committee, he explained. His eyes which darted nervously around the room at first , almost bird-like, now met mine with a dead-on earnestness . The UFT had everything under control. There was a lawsuit making it’s way thru the courts… the outcome of which  would surely end “excessive paperwork” as we then ( This was about 3 years ago, I’d say.) knew it.

I went home that night and googled every possible phraseology and word-combination  that I thought might elicit a reference to the UFT being involved in  a law suit  —  the subject or object of which was paperwork reduction. Coming up empty, I emailed DR ( “Flash”;  I decided that this one needed a name.) again. No response. ( Don’t these folks know how to click the “reply” button ?)  Metamessage: “Leave me the fuck alone.”

So I left Flash alone.  Maybe I’ll need him someday for something *vital*, I reasoned, not unreasonably. For something URGENT. Better not antagonize him.  Instead, I  continued… as did everyone else in the district…. to spend hour after unnecessary hour  dutifully producing meaningless, superfluous and redundant paperwork for the nightmarishly dysfunctional bureaucratic swamp   that increasingly IS the New York City Department of Education in the second decade of the twenty-first century; the hideous offspring produced by the marriage of two distinct, nominally antagonistic yet depressingly similar first cousins).

 Then… around March 2011…. my writing hand beginning to throb, the fingers on BOTH hands seeming to strike the keyboard with increasing inaccuracy, ( Is this what early carpal tunnel feels like? I fretted uselessly.) I decided to pick-up the paperwork gauntlet once again.; give the swamp people one more try. I wrote to the UFT  VP  with jurisdiction over Flash in March of 2011  as follows:

“I’m a Special Ed teacher … and a UFT Delegate.  We are DROWNING in paperwork.  I am told by administrators to anticipate that it will get worse. 
Our contract with the DOE reads as follows:
‘Committees composed equally of representatives of the Board and the Union shall be established at the central , district and division levels to review and reduce unnecessary paperwork required of employees.’ (ARTICLE 8, SECTION I; # 1) 
Is there, in fact, a committee  established ( in my district) as described? If so, when does it meet? Where does it meet? Does it issue minutes or summary reports for public consumption? 
Can I  participate in the activities of the committee(s) ? 
Our District (Rep.) … has not responded to emails pertaining to this topic.
 Again, we are DROWNING in paperwork.
Can you help us?”

The Veep’s reply was a bit indirect but the upshot was : yes, all districts, including mine, are supposed to have paperwork reduction committees and she would see to it that the District Rep ( i.e. Flash) would take the necessary steps to get this going. 
“About time”, I muttered to myself. The date on the contract is October 2007. We were now in March 2011. But, grateful for the confirmation that I *wasn’t* crazy after all, and that there was at least ONE person in the union hierarchy with whom I could profitably communicate, I looked forward to the chance to participate in a process that promised to free-up more time for the teachers I represented. So that they’d have at least SOME time to actually, you know, *teach*.

 But we weren’t out of the woods yet. ( Are we ever?) If the DOE’s wheels grind notoriously slowly, waiting for the UFT to implement its OWN part of the deal is “like watching (educational) paint dry.” April came and went. As did May. Instinct ( and experience) told me it was time to act.

In June I wrote the UFT Veep as follows:

“It’s been a long time — over two years — since I asked this question originally: ‘Is there an actual paperwork reduction committee in (my district) as described by the contract?’” (Yes, I was back to square one. But at least I was somewhere again.)

The VP replied the same day. It was as if we were communicating for the first time. “I have copied ……. (“Flash”; alas, still my DR); he will give you the updates to the status of the …. paperwork committee.”

June passed. As did July. Still no sign of life from Flash. On August 21, I wrote the Unity Veep as follows:

“Still haven’t heard from (Flash). In fact, I’ve *never* heard from (Flash), despite the fact that I began asking him about this… at polite but regular intervals … over two years ago.”
(Was there something going on here that no one was telling me? My mind raced. Did Flash even exist? “Getta hold of yourself, pops. You saw him yourself at the DA two years ago. Remember?” )

I talked myself  down but I was getting tired of playing this game. I know in the DOE cultural taboo-hierarchy, going over someone’s head is *way* up there on the gravity scale.  It is… second only perhaps to going public…  the penultimate transgression.” Bette Davis, comes to mind all of a sudden: “Men have been hanged for less!” , she screams in All About Eve.

Screw it. I was getting too tired to care anymore.
After not hearing back from UFT Veep regarding the apparent disappearance of Flash, I wrote President Mulgrew on Sept 7, 2011 as follows: 
“Perhaps at this point you should intervene. I’ve been trying to get a simple answer to what I thought was a simple question for about three years. The contract says there are “paperwork reduction” committees established at the district level. I’m in District ____. I’d like info re. my committee:

1. When does it meet?
2. Are there minutes from these meetings and can I access same?
3. How can I participate?
Michael, we are  drowning in paperwork. Please help.”

The next day, I received my first email ever from my new ‘best friend forever’, Flash. 
Hey, guess what?  We’re  setting up a  joint  UFT/DOE paperwork reduction committee. Would I be interested in participating?

MORE General Meeting Sat and Happy Hour in Upper Manhattan and Da Bronx This Friday, March 8

REMINDER: Happy Hours today:

-->

MORE: Movement of Rank and File Educators

invites you to

EXPECT MORE FROM YOUR UNION!

When: Friday, March 8^th

      4:30 – 6:30

Where: Noche Mexicano

       (842 Amsterdam & 102)

We Promise - food, fun, drinks, and interesting conversation!

All Teachers, Counselors, Paras, School Staff are welcome.

Please bring all your friends and forward this email

Hosted by Nicole Riley

 

We Promise - food, fun, drinks, great conversation, and good times!

Are you:

ü  Nervous about a pending teacher evaluation deal?
ü  Wondering what a more democratic, member led union could look like?
ü  Sick of the onslaught of paperwork, Danielson, Common Core, Test Prep, Unfair Evaluations?

Come meet MORE's candidates. We will have election literature to distribute at your school

We are a new rank and file organized caucus of the UFT, we are running in the April ’13 elections as a positive alternative to the current leadership

All Teachers, Counselors, Paras, School Staff  and Friends are welcome.

Please bring all your friends and forward this email

Fri, March 8^th4:30 – 6:30 Uptown Manhattan

Noche Mexicano

842 Amsterdam Ave at West 102nd St

Fri. March 8th 4-7pm Bronx

The Clock Bar

112 Lincoln Ave. btwn Bruckner Blvd and 134th St

Sat. March 9th 12-3pm General Meeting  Midtown-Manhattan
Our campaign and get out the vote effort will be in full swing. Help us brainstorm and implement ideas to build our movement.
224 West 29th Street, 14 floor New York City
https://www.facebook.com/events/380286228745924/

 =======

From South Bronx School

This Friday 3/8/13 Night MORE Happy Hour in the Bronx!!!!

Come one, come all to the first MORE Happy Hour in the Beautiful Bronx this Friday night, March 8, 2013.

Come with an open mind and hear what we have to say. There will be no hard sell, no commitments asked. But. I guarantee you after you hear the shit I have been through and my colleagues have you will go MORE.

Tell the guys at The Clock Bar Frank Sinatra Jr sent you and get a free glass of wine. j/k

MORE Bronx Happy Hour
Friday, March 8th 4 - 7pm

The Clock Bar, 112 Lincoln Ave., btwn Bruckner Blvd. and 134th St. Just take the 6 train to 138th St-3rd Ave and walk down to Lincoln Ave or hop the Bx15 which stops in front of the bar!
www.morecaucusnyc.org

The UFT Elections are just around the corner, and the Movement of Rank and File Educators (MORE) is running in the elections!  We aim to to build a fighting, democratic union that vigorously defends public education.  Our current leadership squanders our union dues on bloated officer salaries, double pensions, and more.  They depend on back room dealing and compromises which have steadily eroded our working conditions and our students' learning conditions.  Instead we will funnel these squandered resources to mobilize the rank and file fight for a fair contract, against evaluations based on standardized test scores and for quality public education for all students.

Come join us for a discussion about the elections and how to build for MORE.MORE Bronx Happy Hour
Friday, March 8th 4 - 7pm

The Clock Bar, 112 Lincoln Ave., btwn Bruckner Blvd. and 134th St. Just take the 6 train to 138th St-3rd Ave and walk down to Lincoln Ave or hop the Bx15 which stops in front of the bar!

Chicago Teacher Union PRES. At NYCoRE conf Sat. March 16th

And MORE and Change the Stakes too. I'm so excited. Given that Sat all day is tied up with FIRST LEGO League robotics at Javits (come on down - free and open to public) and next Sat with NYCORE, and since we still have one car and my wife won't be able to go to the gym, I expect to be living in the reconstruction zone of my house by St. Patrick's Day.


Hi all,

Next sat, March 16th, is the NYCoRE annual. Its an amazing conference with great workshops (list here). 

But ALSO....Karen Lewis, the dynamic president of the Chicago Teacher's Union is the keynote. This is an opportunity you should not miss. 

     

There will also be many of MORE's top candidates for UFT leadership in attendance and MORE has a workshop and a table where you can learn more about the movement to transform the UFT.

Please register on line by following the link below.

Here are some links to MORE related videos.

MORE website: here

MORE campaign video (only 4 minutes) here

Julie Cavanagh, MORE presidential candidate, speaking this week at Murray Bergtraum HS here

A UFT Election Primer as MORE Petition Campaign Ends

Penny gives paw of approval

With the deadline to turn in petitions to get on the UFT ballot ending at 5PM yesterday (March 6) Joan Seedorf and I for MORE turned in all petitions two days early on Monday, March 4, the first caucus to do so. We assume that Unity and New Action got theirs in yesterday, so expect 3 caucuses on the ballot (there will be a drawing for the ballot order on Friday) but only 2 candidates for president as New Action tries to maintain the fiction that they are independent despite endorsing Mulgrew.

Penny signing petitions

As retirees, Ellen Fox and I, with the help of Penny, took charge of the petitioning. While Ellen controlled the collection data for the 185 MORE candidates and Penny checked out work, we devised a petition gathering strategy, making some good and some so-so decisions along the way and driving the MOREs to distraction with calls to work harder. At times I felt like the slave driver in Les Mis. We made a very good recovery after losing an important Saturday to a snow storm.

Petitioning is time consuming as teachers go around their schools asking people to sign packs of petitions so MORE could get on the ballot. Officers need 900 signatures to get on the ballot and all their names are put on one petition. All other candidates need 100 signatures each. With so many people wanting to run with MORE (we could have had a whole batch more but we didn't have the time to do all that paperwork) even as late as this past weekend, we had a strategy to cover people who decided to run too late to get their own petitions signed by holding mass signing parties where 120 people agreed to sign 200 petitions. For the officers, we had everyone in MORE carry their petitions so we could gather the 900. The campaign was so successful we got over 2000 before we told people to stop.

For the divisions we developed another strategy, asking our 11 elementary, 5 middle school and 7 high school people to carry a pack of petitions for all the others running with them in their category. This worked out extremely well and we were basically covered about 2 weeks ago.

If one wanted to take the temperature of the potential strength of MORE, viewing it solely through the lens of how the petitioning went (and the ease of recruiting people to run), and given that I played a similar role in every UFT election since 2004, this time was a relative breeze with a lot more people involved.

Will this translate into votes? 

In locations where we have people it will. A UFT election is a ground game and building that ground game is one of the benefits of the petition process and from my narrow perch, this was the most successful petitioning effort I have been part of. Over the next 6 weeks with ballots having to be returned no later than April 24, it is about getting out the vote and hitting as many schools as possible with another MORE leaflet.

The election process explained
Now we are into less than a month of campaigning before the ballots go out on April 3. So it is time to explain the process.

Let me say that I tried to do this a number of times at MORE meetings and no one seems to get my explanation. So you are excused if you don't but feel free to ask questions.

Everyone in the union gets to vote for the 12 officers, 48 at-large members of the Executive Board and over 700 delegates to the AFT/NYSUT conventions. These are termed "at-large." This is where the retiree vote becomes important as 23,500 will count this time and with over 40% of the retirees returning ballots and 85-90% voting Unity (most retirees don't feel the pain of working in the schools), before we start counting the score will roughly be: Unity around 19,000 with MORE and New Action, which still has some retirees who always voted opposition still believing NA did not sell out, splitting the rest. (Mulgrew was recently spotted in Florida retiree environs trolling for votes.)

Adding the officers to the Ex Bd and the 42 divisional positions described below makes the total EB 101 members. Understanding the voting process gives you a clue to how Unity manages to assure control of the Ex Bd and the union. In essence, only 23 of these 101 positions are elected by working teachers in the school divisions. Thus, if MORE were to win even an overwhelming vote in the schools they would get only 23 out of 101 seats on the board -- the only positions retirees do not get to vote for. Let me explain.

Different groups of teachers vote for certain sets of divisional executive board candidates. There are 4 different, color-coded ballots sent to the members, depending on which division they are in: elementary teachers get to vote for 11, middle school teachers 5 and high school teachers 7 executive candidates specific to their division. Thus the total of 23. Any non teacher in the schools (secretaries, social workers, paras, psychologists, etc are lumped all together along with retirees into a massive-sized "functional" chapter and get an entirely different ballot with 19 candidates for executive board which are in essence at-large given the retiree vote, thus stacking the executive board with 78 members who the retirees get to vote for.

All the at-large candidates appear the same way on all the ballots.

In a more perfect democratic union, the teachers in the schools, who total 70-80,000 would get the majority of seats on the board. And instead of one functional chapter lumping everyone else together, each group -- social workers, secretaries, paras, retirees would elect their own members, not as one lump sum.

But we live in a far from perfect union. Which is why I'm still trying to form a more perfect union for the last 43 years.

Afterburn
Well, just as Joan and I were turning in the petitions, Ellen was taking off for a 3 week jaunt in Spain. Ellen is our rep on the election committee so now this falls to me and I keep forgetting stuff. This past Saturday a small group of MOREs gathered at Gloria Brandman's (MORE candidate for VP for special ed) to collate and organize the petitions and 3 hours later we had tidy bundles. Thanks to Julie Woodward for coming down to lend her invaluable help and also to Pat and David Dobosz' daughter, a future member of MORE, for helping. Joan Seedorf was there as usual as she has been throughout the formation of MORE.