Manhattan UFT parent-community meeting summary

Thank you to the many parents, education activists, grandparents who attended the meetings on Jan. 11. We had a great turnout, and as always we shared wonderful ideas, insights and exchanged information.

I will attempt to summarize key points, but we had a lot of information/handouts from the mini workshops. If you would like the PCB or safety handouts, contact me at fstreich@uft.org or 212-701-9464 and I can send them electronically.

Millionaire’s tax

We discussed the victory on getting the governor’s support in passing the extension of this tax which will bring in $600 million statewide, and we heard reports from Carlos Ruiz and Barbara Simmons on their AQE trip to Albany on Jan. 10. They reported that over 500 parents attended, and that they discussed allocating education funds to the neediest schools, and met with legislators on school closing issue (Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Kathy Nolan, the Education Chair were there).

Teacher evaluation and teacher supports

The newspapers have been portraying the union as the reason why the Race To The Top money will be lost. They are saying that the UFT doesn’t want teacher evaluations. We discussed the letter from UFT President Michael Mulgrew and heard from UFT Teacher Center representatives. The UFT has been working to develop and train staff on the new teacher evaluation that is being proposed. The holdup is that the DOE wants to use it as a punitive tool, and the UFT wants to make sure teachers receive feedback and support so that they can improve their skills. The UFT wants the final step to be an impartial arbitrator before a teacher is removed so that the principal can’t remove a teacher simply because they don’t like them. Irene Rabinowitz from the Teacher Center explained the importance, and cost effectiveness, of having a teacher center in a school to provide professional support to teachers, as opposed to other programs. With a teacher center the teachers can receive on going classroom support, modeling, and materials.

School closing campaign

We discussed the fact that this is not so much about the school records, but a political decision. We discussed the need to change the conversation and place the blame on Mayor Bloomberg for failing schools. It was suggested that we label him the 13% mayor as only 13% of black and Latino students graduate college- and career-ready. It was stated that some schools become overloaded with students with special needs, or students who are overage and under-credit, and then the schools don’t receive adequate supports, so are set up to fail. Juan Pagan from Legacy outlined the action plan that parents/students and CBOs citywide have discussed, and reported on a Legacy student action which took place called “occupy their ears.” Students called council members, PEP and 311 to lobby to keep their school open

School closing action plan overview

Parents reported the following:

• Feb. 1:CUNY, parents and students from closing schools, the Coalition for Educational Justice and other education advocates plan a rally at Union Square at 3 p.m. Then some will march to Legacy High School hearing two blocks away.
• Feb. 9: Parents and students plan a demonstration at Tweed and then everyone plans to go to the PEP.

Parents at the meeting suggested that we start lobbying city council candidates along with borough president and mayoral candidates to take a position against the Bloomberg closing school policy, as this is an election year.

It was also suggested that we phone bank (we may be able to use UFT) and send comments to PEP (check out website for panel for educational policy).

School safety overview highlights

Information on safety teams/plan are in Chancellor's Reg A-414

• School Safety Plans need to be completed by September in every school.
• It is the principal’s responsibility to ensure that there is a monthly meeting of the school safety team. At minimum the team should include the principal or designee of all programs in the building, the UFT chapter leader, custodial engineer or designee, in-house School Safety Agent/Level 3 designee, local law enforcement officials, PA president or designee, dietician designee, community members, local ambulance and emergency response agencies and a representative of the student body (when appropriate).
• There must be at least one annual meeting open to all parents in the school.
• All co-located schools, including charters, must participate in plan procedures, fire drills, etc.
• Agents are assigned to the building, not a particular school in multi-site “campus” schools
• All the agents do not need to be at front desk; they can be patrolling hallways or outside the building. It is up to the principal to assign. PARENTS SHOULD DISCUSS WITH PRINCIPAL IF THIS IS AN ISSUE.
• Schools that are screened because they have always been screened need not stay that way. It is a policy that should be discussed at the SLT, and parents can ask to change the policy if the school is safer than in the past.

For school incident statistics it was suggested that if you can’t get it from the school you can look on the state education department website.

Questions that came up that I will follow up on for next meeting if I don’t have answers here:

• Can we get booklet of agent responsibilities? It is being redone.
• What is the formula for how they are assigned? Based on number of incidents reported.
• Are school safety meetings under open meetings law? At least once a year must be open.
• Can parent coordinator be on team as parent rep? Only if PA president designates them as their rep.
• Can PCB removal be a mandated part of school safety plan?

PCBs in schools

Presented by NY Communities for Change (NYCC)

PCBs, a toxin, have been found in window caulking and in the fluorescent lights in many of the older schools which were tested. PCB exposure can cause learning problems, reproductive health problems etc. The DOE was fighting the removal/replacement of the lights but due to the advocacy of the UFT, the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest (NYLPI) and New York Communities for Change (NYCC) they have now agreed to removal. However, they want a ten-year timeline and NYCC says this is unacceptable.

NYCC will work with parents who want to test the caulk or demand quicker removal. They have petitions and a sample resolution schools can pass. They also have a website where you can look up information and see if your school should be tested at www.ABCsNotPCBs.com.

NYLPI has filed a lawsuit on this issue that is still in court and a city council bill was just passed requiring that parents receive info on whether or not there may be PCBs in their school (starting in April).

Other

It was suggested that the UFT set up a resource center for parents, where computers can be used, etc.