Action Day for School Secretaries

School Secretaries across the city were dressed in black on May 19. On their shirts they wore bright lime green stickers like the one at left. Pictures galore were snapped as the school secretaries explained to anyone who would listen that they are tired of being disrespected. We want a fair and decent contract and we want it now!

Honey Hendricks, and her colleagues, Lori and Carol from PS 12 in Queens, had a theme in mind in her picture about the city’s refusal to negotiate when she held a banana while her colleagues held signs that read, “Hear no $$$. See no $$$. Speak no $$$.” Others held a sign that read “We speak for the bunch of us.” 

But why the green stickers? Well, it seems that nearly everyone understands that teachers are important to students and that they work hard at teaching students. And, some people even believe that teachers deserve a raise for the work they do. But when it comes to school secretaries — well, the general public just doesn’t get it. Who are these school secretaries and just what do they do and why do they think they deserve a raise, too?

So, with that in mind, school secretaries decided to educate parents and visitors and even some of our colleagues about who we are and what we do for our students, parents, staff and administrators in our schools.

In many schools, other staff members in a show of solidarity with us, wore our green stickers, too. They stood together with us in testament to the hard work and vital service that school secretaries provide each and every day. One of the secretaries at Francis Lewis HS said it felt good to have a Secretaries Day of Respect and “We should have one every year.”

Sounds good!

	Iris Kupferstein (center, rear) and secretaries with other staff members at Manhattan Comprehensive Night and Day HS.
A bunch of secretaries from PS 12 in Queens wore bananas with signs that had widespread “appeel” in the school. The sign Carol Ober (left) wears reads: “The words we never HEAR are of a new contract being near.” Lori Catalan’s sign says: “We SEE our workload increasing and benefits decreasing.” And Honey Henricks’ sign reads: SPEECHLESS Honey says where’s the $$$, we are not monkeying around.”