General News
William C. Thompson Jr. to be honored at Spring Conference
Apr 24, 2008 4:10 PM
William C. Thompson Jr.
New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr., a former president of the New York City Board of Education, will receive the union’s most prestigious honor at its annual Spring Education Conference this year.
Thompson will be presented the John Dewey Award for Excellence in Education on Saturday, May 10, at the New York Hilton for his efforts to make a difference in the lives of New York City school children. Tickets are $30 each and can be obtained by mailing in the coupon on page 25. The deadline to get tickets is Monday, April 28.
The theme for the Spring Education Conference is “Education Is a Community Value.” In addition to the Dewey presentation, the event will feature a morning program, an exhibit fair, and Career and Technical Education program displays.
Thompson was appointed to the New York City Board of Education in 1994. Two years later, he began the first of five consecutive terms as its president. During that period, Thompson led a reform agenda that resulted in improved student achievement and greater public accountability.
“For as long as I’ve known him, Bill Thompson has been a fierce advocate for public education,” UFT President Randi Weingarten said. “He has often stood alongside us to demand improvements in the schools, promoting such things as increased safety, more accurate reporting of incidents by principals, expansion of CTE programs, better funding for public schools and, most important, greater participation by the public in decisions that affect the school system.”
As city comptroller, Thompson has used the powers of his office to aggressively safeguard the city’s finances, seeking out savings and rooting out waste. His audits of city agencies have uncovered more than $193.6 million in savings, including more than $22 million in Medicaid reimbursements unclaimed by the Department of Education and almost $4 million in fines uncollected by the Taxi and Limousine Commission. Also, under Thompson’s watch, the amount of money collected for damage done to city property rose dramatically.
A lifelong resident of Brooklyn, Thompson is the son of a judge and a public school teacher, and is a product of the New York City public school system — Brooklyn’s PS 161, IS 240 (the Andries Hudde School) and Midwood HS.
Thompson joins an impressive list of Dewey Award winners that includes Martin Luther King Jr., Eleanor Roosevelt, Thurgood Marshall, Norman Thomas and former President Bill Clinton.
Attendees will have the opportunity of networking and receiving professional development at various workshops and panel discussions.
The conference begins at 7:30 a.m. with breakfast and concludes at 3:30 p.m. Members will also hear from Weingarten. More than 2,300 attended last year’s event.
A registration form appears on page 9.
