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Majority call for halt to paperwork overload
Jan 31, 2008 2:02 PM
Resolutions
Three resolutions passed overwhelmingly at a fired-up Jan. 16 Delegate Assembly.
Responding to the storm of paperwork that accompanied the new high-stakes assessments this year, Vice President for Elementary Schools Michelle Bodden motivated a resolution on “Assessment-Related Paperwork and Data Collection,” blasting the Department of Education for a situation in which “teachers are being asked to do paperwork any time during the day; it shouldn’t be done at home or during free or prep time, because this is work.”
The resolution called on the DOE to “eliminate repetitive paperwork by requiring only those tests and assessments that federal or state regulations mandate, or, based on teacher input, support student achievement.”
It also called on the DOE to provide time during the school day for collecting useful data and offering professional development that helps teachers understand and use the data, and provide access to all necessary technology.
The resolution also charged UFT chapters with working with principals on reviewing schedules and prioritizing tasks.
PS 68, the Bronx, Chapter Leader Jeff Povalitis spoke for the resolution and against “the flurry of paperwork and testing” burdening his members. “They’re fed up with this redundant paperwork that sits in a corner and nobody uses.”
Lisa North, chapter leader at PS 3 in Brooklyn, also supported the resolution, but asked what could be effectively done in the short run to end it. Weingarten offered up a tactic gleaned from the experiences of school secretaries, guidance counselors, social workers and school psychologists. “They went to their principals, saying, ‘You’re the boss. You prioritize. Don’t tell us it’s all got to be done or else.’ They shifted the burden back onto the principals.”
Weingarten also said the DOE has said that it is willing to work on this, “but until I see it in writing, I don’t trust it. Assuming the DOE does what it has committed to, we can then use it in the field to stop principals from asking for redundant paperwork.”
A resolution on school leadership teams introduced by Vice President Aminda Gentile called on the DOE to follow state laws and its own rules in operating SLTs by providing training on school governance and asked members to report on those schools in which SLTs are malfunctioning.
An amendment by James Eterno, chapter leader at Jamaica HS, resolved that the UFT join in a class-action complaint initiated by Queens CEC member Marie Pollicino to the state DOE seeking to reverse a chancellor’s December 2007 regulation giving the principal the final determination on the school’s education plan and budget. He also urged that the UFT mobilize to pressure the education commissioner to direct the chancellor to offer a new regulation deleting mention of the principal being empowered to make final CEP and budget decisions, “and instead calls for shared decision-making authority as mandated by state law.”
Leo Casey, vice president for high schools, strongly seconded Eterno’s amendment.
Both the amendment and the resolution carried overwhelmingly.
Speaking in favor of a resolution opposing the city’s efforts to reduce parking for teachers, Vice President for Career and Technical High Schools Michael Mulgrew said he “was not happy to be bringing this resolution before this body because once again we are being disrespected” by the city. He noted that the people blocking traffic “are not the teachers of New York City,” few of whom even have parking permits and those who do are restricted to parking by their school during school hours.
Mulgrew said that whenever the UFT has approached the city to ask for additional permits, the response has been “it’s an economic bargaining issue. Well, if we can’t bargain for more parking, how can they take it away without bargaining?” he asked. The resolution called on the union to urge the mayor and chancellor to “maintain educator parking permits” as well as to “look for ways to increase the number of both parking permits and parking spaces for educators.” The resolution passed unanimously.
