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Issue #1 - Feb. 2015

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High School

VOICE

New York City High School Teachers Fight Back

High School Teachers Need a Voice

By Arthur Goldstein
Chapter Leader, Francis Lewis HS
UFT high school teachers were disenfranchised two
decades ago when the leadership removed the right to
elect our high school Vice President because a member
of an opposition group once won that post and the
leadership changed the rules. Everyone in the entire
UFT nurses, retirees, elementary and middle school
teachers, secretaries, etc. all vote for all UFT VPs,
including ours.
Thats like telling New York, We dont like the way
you choose a governor, and were going to let Texas
and Oklahoma vote in your elections. Its antidemocratic and against our interests.
We need our voices heard.
This is particularly important because we need to
choose who gets to negotiate for us. While we may have
voted for the last contract out of sheer desperation, its
unconscionable that we have to wait until 2020 for
money our brother and sister unionists in other unions
received back in 2010. While leadership said, The
cupboard is bare, that turns out not to have been the
case (see article in column to the right). Going forward,
our brothers and sisters in uniformed unions have
beaten the pattern we established, which was the lowest
in my living memory. (Cont. on back page)

The Quality Review: The word

quality is still a misnomer
Just because the Quality Review is now measured
through the lens of improvement, doesnt mean the
downward pressure on teachers is coming to an end.
Teachers still devote many extra hours preparing for
the visits. The stress levels inside schools still go
through the roof and everyone in the school community
(from the staff to students) still endure unnecessary
burdens. Worse, the QR still does not measure a
schools quality by how low class sizes are or by
whether or not your school offers students music or
after school programsa Queens HS teacher

Mulgrew/City Deceived Us into Accepting

Contract with Paltry Raises!
By James Eterno, 10-year HS Rep UFT Executive Bd
and Harris Lirtzman, former high school special
education teacher and NYS Deputy Comptroller 2003-07
The Independent Budget Office is out with a new report on
the city's finances. It makes UFT President Michael
Mulgrew's claim last May that the cupboard was bare as he
accepted a subpar city union pattern setting contract of 10%
over 7 years seem laughable.
Agreeing to make our contract a lengthy nine year deal that
won't end until 2018 (the two years of back pay are included
here in addition to the seven pattern setting years) doesn't look
like a smart move by our union. When our contract ends the
city will almost certainly be claiming the cupboard is bare
again (until we ratify the contract) and our leaders will sell
that to us again.
There is a consensus among even the most stingy number
crunchers that the city will be swimming in a surplus for the
next few years unless some outside event causes a downturn.
In fact, the IBO reports, "The city has general reserves of
$750 million a year and $1.8 billion remains in the Retiree
Health Benefits Trust." (Cont. on back page)

Student Disciplinary Issues

By Mike Schirtzer, Leon Goldstein, Delegate
One of the biggest problems in high schools is discipline.
Behavior issues and low attendance are factors in the closing
of some high schools. Millions of dollars are diverted to
Danielson, Common Core, MOSL, and administrators
working in networks or superintendents offices doing
goodness knows what for twice our salary. Where is the
funding for programs to improve the school culture, which
impacts test scores, the lives of our students, and the sanity of
our teachers? Teachers at some schools have taken it upon
themselves to change their culture for the better.
I visited a few schools, one a 300 student school that had 150
suspensions (some students suspended multiple times). They
dropped to 63 suspensions after they initiated a new
disciplinary program in 2012/13. Now in the second year of
implementation they have had only 2 principal's suspensions.
(cont. on back page)

Teachers need voice cont.

Observations Are Based on Nothing
Theres an apocryphal Chinese curse, May you live in
interesting times. Like it or not, these are certainly
interesting times. Were working under constant pressure and
being observed ceaselessly via ever-evolving rubrics.
Supporters of this system contend the rubrics are fair. If you
think they cant be manipulated by a determined supervisor, I
have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.
The second part of your observation, the so-called
objective portion, is so complicated virtually no one
understands it. One thing we do understand, though, is there
is no validity whatsoever to it. Renowned education expert
Diane Ravitch calls it junk science. AFT President Randi
Weingarten has declared, VAM is a sham.
Our Leaders Dont Support Public Education
Our union leadership refused to support teacher-friendly
Zephyr Teachout in the Working Families Party primary,
going so far as to threaten to withhold support of the party
altogether if we did so. They further refused to support her in
the primary against Andrew Cuomo. To thank us for our
neutrality, Governor Cuomo is now demanding a new
statewide rating system, and Regent Chancellor Merryl Tisch
is talking about making 40% dependent on state test scores.
Ms. Tisch favors a system under which anyone with an
ineffective VAM rating (value added measures in our test
based evaluations) could be rated ineffective overall, even
with a highly effective rating from local administration.

We can no longer sit by and hope that our union leadership

will take action. In fact, our union leadership not only took
part in writing the statewide evaluation law, but also agreed
to deem a great supporter of reform, John King, as an
impartial arbitrator. You may recall John King canceling a
speaking tour because parents and teachers, who he deemed
special interests, had the audacity to question his Common
Core program that labeled 70% of our children failures.
We believe, like former US Assistant Secretary of Education
Diane Ravitch, that Common Core is a failure. We believe
evaluations based on test scores are junk science. We believe
mayoral control, school closures, and the Absent Teacher
Reserve were mistakes. We think teachers belong in
classrooms. We believe corporate charter schools are a
frontal attack on our profession, and we find it unacceptable
that public schools are displaced and programs are lost to
accommodate them. We are shocked our that union
leadership has enabled and supported all of the above. We
think that strong public schools are what our students and
children need.
We are high school teachers and we ask you to join us. Its
time to let union leadership know its not our job to represent
them. They get paid to represent us, but well represent
ourselves if need be. Email us: nychighschools@gmail.com

IBO report cont.

Two increases of 4% for us for the years former Mayor
Bloomberg refused to give the UFT the city pattern
that most other city unions (NYPD, DC37, Sanitation)
received around six years ago and then 2% a year for
the following years is what the IBO projected as
plausible. Needless to say, this scenario didn't happen.
We didn't even come close. Those two 4% arrears
payments for us will be spread out through 2020 and
that 8% total won't be fully added to our pay until
2018. Right now UFT members are earning a
whopping 2% more than we made back in 2008.
Your leadership failed you. You were told that the
contract you approved was the best that could be
negotiated. You were told that the City couldn't pay for
a "fair contract," much less finish paying you the
retroactive salary you earned until the beginning of the
next decade. You were told that if you didn't approve
the contract put in front of you that the UFT would
have to get in the back of the line behind 150 other
locals trying to negotiate contracts with the City. None
of this proved to be true. We think that our leadership
should have done its most important job and done it
intelligently, which was to negotiate a collective
bargaining agreement that protected the interests of its
members. And we still haven't talked about the
healthcare savings we will be subjected to in the
future.

Discipline, continued
What changed?
They did away with the traditional homeroom class,
transforming it into advisory. The class meets every
day and students get to know one another and the
teacher. The students told me they "loved this class",
where they get advice, tell everyone about my
successes and problems. Students learn to listen and
understand each other, ultimately leading to more
friendships and "a real community". The students are
happier, the teachers are happier, and it is a lot more
productive than waste of time homerooms.
Next came peer mediation programs. Two students,
who engaged in a verbal or physical fight, meet in a
room, sit across from each other, and each one has a
student representative trained in meditation. Both
students tell their side of the stories, the objective
being to get both sides to understand the other, discuss
calmly how they could have handled the situation
differently and come to a compromise agreement on
what will happen now. Most mediations end in the two
students hugging and becoming friends. This has
resulted in zero recurring fights, which has led to a
better school.