Jun 29, 2009 12:55 PM
There were wise old sayings circulating at the UFT’s 23rd annual School Secretaries of the Year Gala Awards Luncheon on June 6.
“You don’t mess with school secretaries,” UFT Brooklyn Borough Representative Howard Schoor said.
“Always make friends with the school secretary,” New York State Assemblywoman Joan L. Millman added.
And UFT Staten Island District 31 Representative Sean Rotkowitz put it like this: “Just talk to the school secretary if you really want the skinny on what’s happening in the building.”
Hundreds turned out at UFT headquarters to laud the school system’s masters of multi-tasking and celebrate the day’s honorees.
Winners of the Secretary of the Year Award were Patricia O’Reilly of Brooklyn’s Grady HS, Santy Colon of Manhattan’s PS 165, Linda Tessenholtz of Queens’ PS 184, Myrna Bornstein of Staten Island’s PS 32 and Dorothy Piontek of the Bronx’s PS 81.
Charlene Jones of Manhattan’s PS 133 won the esteemed Goldie Colodny Award for being a powerful advocate for secretaries’ rights. She has served for 10 years on the School Secretaries Chapter executive committee and as District 5 coordinator for 11 years.
Secretaries Chapter Chairperson Jackie Ervolina, described by guest speaker UFT Vice President Michael Mulgrew as “one of the strongest advocates for workers inside this union, ever,” welcomed the crowd and introduced the day’s honorees.
In her opening remarks, Ervolina was cheered when saying that, despite many high-tech changes in school offices, secretaries’ roles have not changed over time.
“We ensure every student is provided with a quality educational environment, provide core services, order supplies, monitor budgets, make sure everyone is paid, and do it all with phones ringing, questions being hurled at us and students crying!”
Mulgrew updated the audience about the union’s fight against budget cuts, adding that “secretaries know better than anyone about cuts to school budgets.”
Assemblywoman Millman regaled the crowd with a story of how the school secretary watched her back and set her straight when she was a rookie teacher years ago.
Colodny winner Jones said she felt “humbled and honored by the award,” loved her work and then going home to her “big loving family” at the end of the day.
O’Reilly, one of the Secretary of the Year winners, talked about working with “kids with tremendous problems yet who have the strength to come to school and confide in you. I don’t know if I had their troubles if I could get up in the morning.”
In her acceptance speech, Colon, another award winner, recalled the early days of being so worried whether she had done the paperwork for all those who relied on her for their paychecks that she would cry on her way to work. “Now I still have the questions, but I don’t cry anymore,” Colon said.
Winner Tessenholtz talked about needing “as many arms as an octopus, for kids, phones, letters, principals; the list goes on. But there’s a bright light: we belong to a very powerful union.”
To winner Bornstein, ATS, or Automate The Schools, really stands for Aggravate The Secretaries.
“If it wasn’t for the UFT, I wouldn’t be here,” Bornstein said. “I was under the radar for 20 years, but when I went to a new school there were so many problems that I needed the union.
“You know how Staten Island is often the forgotten borough?” Bornstein said. “Well school secretaries are often the forgotten people. The DOE is not always with us, but the UFT is always with us.”
Winner Piontek was unable to attend the ceremony. Accepting the award on her behalf was her principal, Melodie Mashel, who referred to Piontek as “friend, colleague and confidante,” then read Piontek’s words.
“The school system is a chameleon, always changing, and sometimes a school can be hell with fluorescent lights,” Piontek wrote, describing how secretaries rise above it and do their jobs with style.
“And we sure have come a long way from those days of nylons, red lipstick and using wite-out as nail polish.”