Trachtenberg Award
The UFT celebrates the accomplishments of its chapters, the heart and soul of the UFT, by bestowing Trachtenberg awards at Teacher Union Day.
About the honorees for the 2019-20 school year
Each November, the UFT hosts Teacher Union Day to commemorate the anniversary of the union’s strike in 1960 to gain collective bargaining rights and to honor the union activists of today. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the UFT had to postponed its regular celebration but held a special virtual ceremony on Jan. 14 to recognize 28 chapter leaders who exemplify how the union can empower and organize members to use their professional voices to advocate for our students, for the safety of our school communities, and for public education.
Congratulations to the winners:
Elementary Schools
| School | Chapter leader |
|---|---|
| PS 185M | Kaitlyn Somerville |
| PS 124K | Edmund Flickinger |
| PS 91K | Veronica Antoine |
| PS 328K | Tyona Marrimon |
| PS 217K | Celeste Kurland |
| PS 160Q | Barbara Reill |
| PS 253Q | Diana Fiore-Vosswinkel |
| PS 91X | Tracey Ball Eliason |
Junior High/Middle Schools
| School | Chapter leader |
|---|---|
| IS 109Q | Melissa Wall |
| IS 238Q | Elizabeth Leder |
| MS 442K | Damian Jones |
| JHS 352K | Andrea Orr |
| IS 364K | Mashantuck Bell |
| Evergreen MS for Urban Exploration (K562) |
Erin Oates |
| IS 151X | Maritza Ford |
| IS 180X | Demetrios Tsoulos |
| MS 254X | Telita Vilpin |
| MS 424X | Richard Sellati |
High Schools
| School | Chapter leader |
|---|---|
| Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis HS (M) | Hector Colon |
| The Urban Assembly School of Emergency Management HS (M) | Elise Ritter |
| Progress High School for Professional Careers (K) | Ricardo Alexander |
| Victory Collegiate HS (K) | Amy Miller |
| The Urban Assembly School for Applied Math and Science (X) |
Ross Chodan |
| High School of World Cultures (X) | Aladji Sow |
| Antonia Pantoja Preparatory Academy: A College Board School (X) | Carmen Santiago |
District 75
| School | Chapter leader |
|---|---|
| PS 721 Stephen McSweeney School (X) |
Lauren DiChiara |
Functional Chapters
| Chapter | Chapter leader |
|---|---|
| Social Workers, School Psychologists Chapter |
Raul Garcia |
| OT/PT Chapter | Thomas Ayrovainen |
About the Trachtenberg award
Ely Trachtenberg emerged as a teacher leader in a time in New York City when workers regularly engaged in fierce political debates centered around trade unionism. Founding members and others around in the early years, said Trachtenberg’s theoretical acumen, coupled with first-rate organizing skills, made him a force for our union. What he recognized from the start was the importance of creating and nurturing unionism at its most basic level: the school chapter.
He had been an auto worker and noted how relationships that developed on the shop floor became the seedbed of cooperation and solidarity. Later, as a teacher unionist, Trachtenberg stressed the active participation of the rank-and-file through frequent chapter meetings, newsletters and social activities — any activity that brought people together. Sadly, because of his untimely death at age 40, he never lived to see the fruit of his efforts bloom into the network of communications that chapters and the UFT have today. The chapters being honored today carry on the tradition he began and the future he envisioned.