School secretaries sharpen skills at UFT seminar

Pat Arnow

Maria Perrone (center) of Brooklyn’s PS 132 makes a point at one of the seminar’s afternoon workshops.

Pat Arnow

Participants listen to UFT Welfare Fund Executive Director Arthur Pepper’s plenary on time management.

Pat Arnow “It’s a day of networking together,” says Secretaries Chapter Leader Mona Gonzalez.

Jeanne Chin, a school secretary who likes to know her rights, keep updated and network with colleagues, was one of some 100 who came out for the School Secretaries Seminar on Dec. 10 at the union’s Manhattan headquarters.

“I come here every year,” said Chin, who works at the HS of Fashion Industries in Manhattan. “It gives us information about our rights as union members, about the hiring market and the latest information that’s tremendously helpful.”

The day kicked off with opening remarks from Secretaries Chapter Leader Mona Gonzalez, who welcomed her colleagues and introduced members of her executive board and several union leaders. 

Gonzalez reported that she was one of the functional chapter leaders who gave a presentation at a December training weekend for general school chapter leaders, educating them on the secretaries’ contract.

“Now chapter leaders, who are usually most familiar with the teachers’ contract, can get more involved when a secretary comes to them with a problem. They know to speak with me so we can work closely together for our members,” she said to loud applause.

Gonzalez addressed a major concern when she spoke about what needed to be done at the school level when out-of-title personnel do secretarial work. 

UFT President Michael Mulgrew updated participants on the outlook for school funding next year.

Mulgrew also thanked the secretaries for the hard work that they do and for their crucial role in the everyday life of a school.

Participants applauded when UFT Vice President Sterling Roberson, who also gave greetings, said that over the summer he had taken the two courses that secretaries need to complete their licenses so he could better understand the requirements and make any needed recommendations for improvement.

The morning plenary session, presented by UFT Welfare Fund Executive Director Arthur Pepper, covered a hot topic for school secretaries: time management.

“Time management is what we do,” Gonzalez told the New York Teacher, “and this was about not only using time well in our jobs but in our lives so we can have time to enjoy them.”

The afternoon session featured workshops on payroll, personnel and pupil accounting.

This year Chin chose to attend the personnel workshop, led by UFT Special Representative Amy Arundell.

“One of the best things about the workshop is hearing the questions others ask and listening to the answers. So much information arises out of that,” Chin said.

Marlene Delgado, in her fifth year as a payroll secretary at Murray Bertraum HS in Manhattan, said she likes to keep updated, gain new computer knowledge and make sure to meet a new secretary every year and ask how she’s doing.

“We all have the same issues,” Delgado said. “I don’t feel so alone. That’s most important. This is our day, for us, together, to reunite and learn all the changes going on. I can go back to work feeling all pumped up.”