For Immediate Release
Nov 4, 2007 8:38 PM
The UFT’s recognition of successful school partnerships between principals and educators at Teacher Union Day on Nov. 4 was made even sweeter as the union celebrated its unprecedented and historic growth to represent 201,486 people, making it the largest union local in the nation.
“Today is truly cause for celebration,” UFT President Randi Weingarten told a cheering crowd of 1,200 educators at the union’s annual Teacher Union Day ceremony.
The event marked the first presentation of the UFT School Partnership Awards recognizing schools where professional partnerships have been formed between administrators and educators.
"Teachers and principals are not always on the same page, but when both parties work together in a spirit of true cooperation and collaboration, there’s no end to what we can accomplish for the children we serve and their families,” Weingarten said. “We also celebrate the vibrancy and strength of the labor movement in New York City now that we are 200,000 strong, making us the largest union local in America!”
The UFT represents 118,000 in-service educators and 54,000 retired teachers, thousands of private sector nurses and United Cerebral Palsy of New York City care givers, and many others including faculty members at Katharine Gibbs School, the Lorge School, several private and charter schools and administrative law judges at various city agencies.
In October, 28,280 home day care providers voted to join the union, sending the UFT's total representation well past the 200,000 mark.
The winners of the union's Partnership Awards are:
· Intermediate School 235 in Queens, also known as the Academy for New Americans, which opened in the late 1990s to help serve students new to the United States.
· PS 721 in Staten Island, which won an award from the U. S. Department of Education for its collaborative efforts to build a stronger educational community.
· CS 92 in the Bronx, where educators and the principal make a special effort to meet the needs of all of its students.
· Westinghouse High School in Brooklyn, a formerly struggling school that is now a top school for career and technical education.
· PS 126 in Manhattan, a pre-kindergarten through Grade 8 school on the border of the Lower East Side and Chinatown whose students come from a variety of backgrounds and cultures.
· Curtis High School in Staten Island, where the principal regularly consults with teachers and implements their ideas and proposals.
“These schools serve as models of how genuine collaboration at the school level has the power to create a quality educational climate that maximizes opportunities for all children to learn,” Weingarten said.