David Kazansky has been reelected to serve his third three-year term as one of three teacher trustees on the board of the Teachers’ Retirement System.

“It’s been an honor to serve in this role for six years and also an honor to have the support of the members to serve three more,” he said. “I’ll do my best, working with the other two teacher members, to make sure our members’ pensions are protected so they can retire in comfort and with dignity.”

Kazansky started working in union pension matters at 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.

He 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. As the 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.

In the spring of 2015, Kazansky was elected as a teacher member of the board. He was reelected in 2018.

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.