‘It’s good to know you’re not alone’

UFT family child care providers (from left) Jacqueline Comerie, Pat Williams and N’se Obut participate in a group exercise during training for the provider chapter’s executive board members.

District 32 Representative Kathy Sharko (left) and District 27 Rep Marilyn Manley lead a workshop on chapter leaders’ roles and responsibilities.

New chapter leader Dwayne Wellington (left) of Brooklyn Lab HS chats with UFT President Michael Mulgrew.

New chapter leaders learned the fundamentals of their job as the union’s frontline representatives over the Oct. 23-24 weekend.

Claude Atkinson, the new chapter leader at Brooklyn’s Erasmus HS, was among those gathered in Rye, N.Y., for the first installment of this year’s three-part chapter leader training series. He said he was inspired by the spirit of camaraderie among the chapter leaders present.

“It’s good to know you’re not alone,” Atkinson said.

This was especially true for leaders of the UFT family child care providers, the union’s newest chapter, who participated in chapter leader training for the first time.

 “The inclusion of providers at this important training demonstrates our union’s commitment to the success of this newest group of union members,” Chapter Chair Tammie Miller said.

The event was, by all accounts, a success. Chapter leaders learned about school safety, the tools available on the UFT’s new website, how to create a consultation committee and other key topics, including grievances, investigations, collaborative team teaching and Individualized Education Programs.

They also heard a presentation on the “State of the Union” by UFT President Michael Mulgrew, who welcomed them to the “fraternity of chapter leaders” and discussed with them how to organize at their schools.

“When you are in the middle of a fight at your school, you cannot forget why we entered this profession: we want to make a meaningful difference in children’s lives,” the union leader said. “If you want to organize your teachers, you have to make it about kids and education.”

Matthew Sarkowicz, the new chapter leader and chair of the English department at Brooklyn’s W.E.B. Dubois HS, said he was impressed by “the authority of the position and amount of information I can use as ammunition against an out-of-control administration.”

For eight years, Sarkowicz said, teachers at Dubois have tried to establish a SAVE room in the school to teach disruptive students ejected from class, but their principal has insisted that it is not mandated in the law and has refused to create one.

“I’ve learned we’re mandated to have a SAVE room. They showed me where to find it in the regulations,” the new chapter leader said. “The stuff I’m taking away is all going to help my students and staff.”