New York Teacher

Highlights from the May 6 issue of New York Teacher:

The controversial Temporary Reassignment Centers, dubbed rubber rooms, will close on June 30 thanks to an intensive effort by the UFT and the city. At a press conference on April 15, UFT President Michael Mulgrew, Mayor Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein announced an agreement that will see the rooms closed for good. “The rubber rooms are a symptom of a disciplinary process that has not worked for anyone — not the kids, not the schools, and not the teachers,” Mulgrew said.

At an April 22 state legislative hearing in lower Manhattan to examine the business practices and record of the charter school industry in New York, UFT President Michael Mulgrew testified that charter schools, like other public schools which take public money, need to be transparent and accountable.

The scene outside 250 Broadway — opposite City Hall — on April 22 was a testament to the dream of 18th-century New York free speech pioneers John Peter Zenger and Francis Makemie, as opposing sides on the charter school debate took to the sidewalks and handed out their pamphlets just blocks from Thomas Paine Park.

UFT President Michael Mulgrew and state AFL-CIO President Denis Hughes wrote to labor leaders across the state on April 26 asking them to withhold all financial and political support from two state legislators from New York City who introduced a bill at the Department of Education’s behest that would empower principals to choose on the basis of “merit” who goes and who stays in the event of teacher layoffs.

It’s been nearly five years since the cataclysmic Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in one of the deadliest and most destructive events in our nation’s history. With some $2,000 still available in the UFT Disaster Relief Fund, “We wanted to make sure that money — earmarked for New Orleans — made its way to New Orleans public schools, to help them rebuild,” said UFT Vice President Karen Alford, who is chair of the union’s disaster relief fund.

Calling the Albany budget crisis and its threat to rob city schools of as much as $600 million in state aid “the most dangerous thing this union has faced in 30 years,” UFT President Michael Mulgrew told the April 21 Delegate Assembly that members had to redouble their efforts to get the message out to elected officials that “children can’t be made to pay for the mistakes of Wall Street.”

More than 150 of the UFT’s newest members arrived at an April 15 reception at union headquarters expressing excitement about working with children and their new careers. On hand were representatives from the union’s myriad departments who were able to share knowledge and materials on the wraparound services offered to members.

“We’re making history for our school. We’re paving the way for people who come after us to commit fully to both the institution and the students who attend it.” That is how Lissette Velazquez, a first-year English teacher and member of the teachers organizing committee at the New York Charter HS for Architecture, Engineering and Construction Industries in the Bronx, described her colleagues’ recent victory in their fight for union recognition.

Tagged: AFL-CIO, budget cuts, demonstrations, Hurricane Katrina, layoffs, organizing, rubber rooms