Kudos to Catrina Como, PS 376, Brooklyn
When Catrina Como became chapter leader at PS 376 in Brooklyn, she faced a tricky situation: The principal was demanding, and staff did not know their rights and were reluctant to speak up for themselves. “I work with a lot of amazing teachers who...
Federation of Nurses/UFT wins another short-staffing case against NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn
Arbitrator James A. Brown found the hospital violated contractual staffing ratios and ruled that the nurses who worked these understaffed shifts were entitled to split the average wage of the missing nurses.
UFT nurses’ arbitration victory
Federation of Nurses/UFT members employed by NYU Langone Hospital–Brooklyn won a significant victory in their long-running battle with the Sunset Park hospital over short staffing when an independent arbitrator on Dec. 1 sided with the union and...
Noteworthy Graduate: Heather Simms, Broadway actor
Actor Heather Simms is playing Missy Judson in the current Broadway revival of Purlie Victorious. She made her stage debut in 2nd grade at PS 243 in Crown Heights, hamming it up as the mother in “Hansel and Gretel.”
Kudos to Sonja Hill at PS 41, Brooklyn
The UFT’s COPE — Committee on Public Education — program is one of the benchmarks of Sonja Hill’s chapter leadership.
Hill, a 5th-grade teacher in her 31st year at PS 41 in Brownsville, Brooklyn — and the school’s chapter leader for more than half of...
Teacher Union Day 2023
About 1,500 UFT members, family and friends gathered at the New York Hilton Midtown on Oct. 29 to honor the brave educators who put everything on the line in the 1960 strike that forged the union and the UFT activists who follow in their footsteps. This year, Teacher Union Day was dedicated to the Contract Action Teams.
Kudos to Dan Wever, Sunset Park HS, Brooklyn
Art teacher Dan Wever said he ran for chapter leader at Sunset Park HS in Brooklyn in 2021 knowing that at some point the union chapter would have to organize to demand the removal of the school’s longtime principal, Victoria Antonini.
Less than two...
‘Revolutionary’ learning experience
The Harbor Defense Museum at Fort Hamilton, with its collections of weaponry, uniforms and memorabilia from the American Revolution to World War II, is an interesting destination for a class trip.
On a roll
There was no foot-dragging on the way to PS 372 in Brooklyn on May 3. That morning, pre-K through 5th-graders enthusiastically pedaled and scooted their way to the Gowanus school on National Bike & Roll to School Day.
Kudos to Kristin Golat-Defendis, MS 51, Brooklyn
Kristin Golat-Defendis, the chapter leader at MS 51 in Park Slope, Brooklyn, stood up to an abusive principal. On Jan. 30, 2023, the principal was transferred out of the school.