WHEREAS, New York City public school educators have endured 20 years of attacks from former city mayors Michael Bloomberg and Rudy Giuliani; and

WHEREAS, Gov. Cuomo has now taken up the mantle of chief attacker of public schools and public school educators in New York State; and

WHEREAS, regardless of the distortions and misleading information put forward by the governor and others who want to undermine public education, UFT members in the city’s public schools continue day in and day out to do amazing work educating 1.1 million schoolchildren in the largest and most diverse school district in the nation; and

WHEREAS, UFT members are also engaging in creative and bold new initiatives that are helping us to take public education in our city to the next level; and

WHEREAS, these initiatives include our establishment of master and model teacher positions to help enhance collaboration and teacher-led decision-making at the school level; PROSE (Progressive Redesign Opportunity Schools for Excellence); and the expanding Community Learning Schools program; and

WHEREAS, our members have also both deepened and broadened our partnerships with parents and the larger school communities, moving everyone involved closer to the shared goal of seeing every student succeed; and

WHEREAS, while we must stay vigilant against dangerous politically motivated attacks on public schools, we should not let these distract us from acknowledging the success and progress that we make possible for our students and our schools every day; therefore be it

RESOLVED, that the United Federation of Teachers affirms the need to celebrate and honor the great achievements occurring on a daily basis in New York City schools due to the talent, dedication and hard work of UFT members together with their school communities; and be it further

RESOLVED, that the UFT together further affirms that the success of our schools and students is owing to the work of all UFT members, together with their school communities, in every position in the school system, who all work together for the good of our students: including classroom teachers, paraprofessionals, guidance counselors, social workers, psychologists, speech teachers, school secretaries, occupational and physical therapists, school nurses, hearing education services members, vision education services members, teachers assigned, education officers and analysts, audiologists, lab specialists, attendance teachers,  home instruction teachers, hospital school teachers, LYFE program members, school medical inspectors, sign language interpreters and school security supervisors.