David Kazansky has been re-elected to serve a second three-year term as one of three teacher trustees on the board of the Teachers’ Retirement System.
David Kazansky
“I will continue to do my utmost each day to safeguard teacher pensions so, at the end of their careers, every member can retire in comfort and with dignity,” he said.
Kazansky’s interest and expertise in pension matters began in the UFT’s Bronx borough office, where he worked part-time as a pension consultant providing preliminary and final consultations to UFT members preparing for retirement.
Kazansky became a union activist during his years as a junior high school teacher. First, he served on his school’s union consultation committee and then was elected a union delegate and later chapter leader.
In 2006, Kazansky began to work full-time for the UFT as a coordinator of the Victim Support Program and a special representative in the Bronx. During his two years as director of school safety, from 2011 to 2013, he organized the union’s Be Brave against Bullying campaign and crisis hotline. He was then promoted to director of the UFT’s Safety and Health Department.
Kazansky joins Tom Brown and Debra Penny as the three teacher representatives on the seven-member TRS board. The city comptroller and the schools chancellor each have a seat, and the mayor appoints the two other members of the board.