VP for Junior High and Intermediate Schools

Richard Farkas is vice president for junior high and intermediate schools. Rich received his bachelor’s degree from Brooklyn College and his master’s from Queens College.

Rich grew up and was educated in Brooklyn public schools during the 1950s, graduating from Brooklyn Tech. Punchball, stickball, two–hand touch and visits to Ebbets Field spawned his love for sports while schoolyard politics cultivated his organizing skills.

In 1972, after completing basic training with the Army Reserves, Richard commenced his teaching career in his native Brooklyn. If it weren’t for the 1975 budget crisis, Rich probably would still be teaching at Intermediate School 218 in Brooklyn. As a result of excessing, he was placed in neighboring Junior High School 275, where he was elected chapter leader in a climate of low teacher morale.

The remnants of the decentralization battle were still evident and after several years of battling the administration on behalf of his colleagues he transferred to Intermediate School 61 in Queens. The first person he met was Richard Miller, that school’s chapter leader, who handed him a contract, a COPE card and asked him to serve on the school’s consultation committee. It was obvious that the work of the union was in his blood.

Rich succeeded Miller as IS 61’s chapter leader and also became a “U”-rating advocate and a pension advisor at the Queens UFT office. In 1995 he was elected as the District 24 representative and served in that capacity until June 2002. As the district rep he fought school board members who wanted to ban books, ban a curriculum of inclusion and multi-culturalism and hold school board meetings on Friday nights. In July 2002 he was elected a UFT vice president where he has championed special funding for middle schools and challenged the Department of Education on school overcrowding and reducing class size.