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October 12, 2008  

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Category Archive

Salary

Your salary is calculated based on your level of education and your years of service. The Department of Education/UFT contract for your title contains a listing of salary schedules that take effect with each negotiated pay increase.

A safe and healthy workplace

From the air you breathe in your school to whether there are a sufficient number of bathrooms and cleared pathways to fire exits, you have a right to a safe and healthy work environment.

Per-session summer work for social workers and psychologists

For school psychologists and social workers, Article 7 of the Department of Education contract covers, among other things, the rules governing the selection and retention of all per-session assignments, including after-school, weekend and summer work.

If at first you don't succeed...

They say you can’t blame a guy for trying. But when it comes to contract negotiations, a deal is a deal.

Excessing

There are times when a school reduces the size of its faculty, such as when it experiences an unexpected drop in student enrollment, loses a budget line or, pursuant to state or federal law, is being closed, redesigned or phased out. This is called “excessing.”

School-based options

It’s time for your school to review and discuss school-based options — contract modifications that your school might want to create, renew or rescind. But before you do, check out the Know Your Rights column.

Teacher programs

Each spring (or each term in some high schools), you may request an assignment for the following school year (or term) on a preference sheet that your principal will hand out.

TRS offers new ways for you to invest

Teachers’ Retirement System investment choices are designed to provide a fiducially sound group of options intended to complement and supplement the defined benefit Qualified Pension Plan.

Transfers

The open period for applying to transfer from your current school to a different one begins on April 15.

Professional activities

Each spring, following the timetable for indicating program preferences, teachers must select their preferred professional activity from a menu of options.

Letter in the file

Like employers in other workplaces, the Department of Education maintains a personnel file for each of its employees.

Disciplinary action and false accusations

State education law provides for the discipline or termination of a tenured teacher for specific charges, such as incompetence, insubordination, corporal punishment or sexual misconduct.

Attendance

Here's all you'll need to know about your Cumulative Absence Reserve, commonly known as your “sick bank.”

Moving? Notify the UFT of your change of address

If your mailing address changes, it’s important to notify the Department of Education AND the UFT.

Protecting yourself from bloodborne diseases

Accidents, playground scrapes, bloody noses, fights, athletic injuries and violent episodes all have the potential for exposure to a bloodborne pathogen, a microorganism in blood that can cause disease if it enters your bloodstream.

Handling disruptive students

What can teachers do when a child’s misbehavior interferes with their ability to teach?

Maternity and child care leaves

Are you pregnant or planning to start a family? You should know that you have the right to take an unpaid leave of absence at any time during your pregnancy or during your baby’s first years.

School safety plans

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. That’s why the UFT demands that the Department of Education mandate that every school have a comprehensive safety plan.

Per-session activities

The life of a school extends past regular classroom hours.

Reporting safety incidents — and receiving support

In this issue, we look at the rights of members to report incidents and to receive various kinds of support if they are victims of assaults or are involved in other types of incidents.

Instructional materials

While teachers are the only professionals to routinely spend their own money to assist those they serve, this fact doesn’t excuse the Department of Education from its basic supply responsibility.

Tenure

Tenure is a status that appointed pedagogues achieve after completing a probationary period with satisfactory service.

Classroom observations

Classroom observations, when done properly and for the right reason, can help teachers become aware of their strengths and weaknesses, sharpen their skills and develop professional self-confidence. When observations are done in good faith, and criticisms are balanced and constructive, they can and should support pedagogical growth.

Know your rights: Service and pension credit

Forget about MasterCard and Visa! There’s a different kind of credit you may be eligible for — credit that can reduce your probation period or improve your pension.

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