4:31 Mulgrew calls us to order.

Two reasons for rescheduling—One was Janus, and the other was he knew we were close to parental leave agreement, wanted to bring it up for vote. UFT has agreement for up to six weeks at full pay.

National—Seems that President has reversed position on separating families. We will see if that holds out. Found out yesterday some of those children from Texas were shipped to NY. Juxtapose that with what we were doing today—giving parents time with children, and you see what is right and wrong with this country.

Thanks DA for being strong on this. Government hoping we only pay attention to worst stuff while they do other things. DeVos holds gun hearings and won’t talk about guns. Worried about outbreak of bear attacks instead.

In September, they will have new plan. Wanted to use billions for “choice” and vouchers. They will try again. We have to be diligent.

Then there is Janus. No decision, but could come tomorrow. Or Monday, or every day next week. 20 cases outstanding. We have had two NYSUT teachers who’ve sued against anti-Janus law in NY State. We knew this was coming. We kept it quiet so it wasn’t scuttled while negotiating it. Similar suits in  NJ, PA and others. We expect to win lawsuit but opponents have unlimited funds.

If Janus comes as we expect, we will continue all work we’ve been doing. Have been successful in conversations. People need to know it’s about them and their ability to protect family. If it’s worse, will call emergency DA.

NY State Legislature—bad news—Senate has not passed favored APPR bill. We want no strings attached. They’ve attached charter caps, back door vouchers for yeshivas. Good news is some Senators outside NYC met with NYSUT and said this bill will never affect our schools. Would only affect NYC. NYSUT Presidents said they would not screw NYC colleagues. First time every one of them has agreed.

Says let’s have a good old time w NYSUT colleagues at AFT convention. Session won’t be extended.

NY City—Negotiating team will work through summer. Cannot say more.

Wary of new chancellor, so far has been good on our policies. First major act was paid parental leave.

PPR—We said we would not let city fleece us. We have done our job quite well on that one. What will be required is nothing in next round of bargaining. One time requirement will be extension of 73 days—that’s it. Equals 30 million dollars and city will pay 51 million a year. We did our jobs well.
4,000 new family members among UFT every year. All of these things are now covered, birth, adoption, surrogate, etc., as long as kids are under age of six. You will get six full weeks of full pay. There is no 50, 75%, is six full weeks for anyone. Includes people who don’t work for DOE.

First day someone can take leave is September 4th, going forward. If you have child August 1st, you will qualify for two weeks. Spent a lot of time on “unicorns,” magical creature we will never see, but are covered. No matter what we do, someone will become more creative than we are.

For birth mothers, you may still use sick days and expand to 12, or 14 if you have C-section. Father gets six weeks, no six days. If you are married, child or multiple children equals six weeks of pay, not six each. Three weeks together, four and two okay. Father could take weeks and mom could use sick days if she wishes.

You must work for DOE for one year to qualify. While you’re on paid parental leave, you have to serve at least ten months. If you take a child care leave after paid parental leave, you still have all leave rights. You have to work ten months before you qualify for another. If you become pregnant right away and come back to work, you will not qualify.

What if you had a surrogate who was halfway through term and I got pregnant? You are covered under medical exception. If you have twins, you have six weeks of leave, not 12.

We will do a resolution in support of this deal. We tried to get this done for a few years. We had a mayor who said he wanted to do it, and it wasn’t getting done. Now it’s part of his legacy. If mayor or men in this room got pregnant it would’ve gotten done faster.

This is why it’s so important to have a union in the first place. People were frustrated because we didn’t have it. Grassroots pushed this up. If there’s momentum we can do it. That’s collective action. If we had to wait, it would be part of our next negotiation, and we would get worse deal.

City pays Welfare Fund, which will send money to members.

Governor working for education now, will only sign Assembly version. Is out there because of our collective activism. Think about these things when talking to members. No one gave us PPL. We had to fight for it. Will they try and take it away? Make us pay more? Of course.

We had a plan. Things came up and we used them to our advantage. We fought constitutional convention. We worked with state officials. State officials understand NY State must lead the way and they must protect public school system. We need to educate pols because lies will come after them.

We still have more to do and always will. We will face Janus, come up with plan and meet with negotiating team. Most important thing is we are members of the United Federation of Teachers.

Everyone who took part in this campaign should stand. Most do. Mulgrew thanks us. Mulgrew’s negotiators stand. Chapter leaders who had baby showers stand. Says we won, and it was nice. Scott Stringer said UFT got into a fight and won. Mayor turned to UFT, said it was hard fight, was good fight, and UFT won.

Remember when charters said only certain ones could certify their own teachers? They lost. We sued them, and they lost.

LeRoy Barr—Thanks spring conference attendees, members at Puerto Rican Day Parade, and Evelyn de Jesus. Sunday is Pride Parade 15th St. bet 7 and 8 at 2:30. Labor Day Parade Sept. 8, Mulgrew Grand Marshall.

Mulgrew mentions raise this week. Says it’s responsibility for every generation of the union to leave something. This generation will be known for paid parental leave.

Questions

Q—Single test in specialized HS—we demanded change, chancellor and mayor on board, how do we control narrative?

A—32 editorials against us. Chancellor took it on right away. Mayor previously silent. We have to help. Framing may not have been done well. Discovery program getting done, could’ve been done 4 years ago. We will help in Albany. What is fairest way to recognize excellence? We don’t believe it’s single test score. Multiple measures better. Barely got out of committee in Assembly. No way it would pass. We will have to lobby and educate.

Q—Welfare fund will distribute checks. What if they are not UFT members? Will they get checks?

A—Agency members get it. Only for UFT right now. Other unions not included.

Q—With PPR will there be impacts on retroactive payments

A—No.

Q—Says classes were large when I started, still are. Very sad we allow children to be packed in. Teachers complained about class size thirty years ago. Only NYC has these sizes. Bad for us and children. How do city, state, governor allow it? This is racism, disgraceful. Maybe we need to go to change.org like PPL supporters. Too many straws on camel’s back.

A—Didn’t call you out of order because you’re retiring. Thank you, and you never asked question.

Q—Been a lot in news about ATRs and cost. Can we change narrative?

A—Report from one org that never said anything good about union. ATR at 800, lowest it ever was at this point of year. Had between 3-500 for decades. I said 800 for 1700 schools, how many absences do you have? These people are funded by people who go after unions. Hope this is no longer a story soon. We have long term strategy. Want to know chancellor’s position. They can place everyone.

Q—Why haven’t we implemented courses in colleges for teachers to learn about unionism? Newcomers don’t get it.

A—The more we can do at earlier level the better. Some colleges do it. New hires saw us, we have over 800 signed union cards. We went, did what we needed to do. We need better teacher prep. Let’s just get them when they walk in, new law allows it.

Motions—

Woman with baby—CL from Staten Island—Moves to add motion on paid parental leave. Reads motion.

James Vasquez—Point of information—Who is Emily James?

Speaker says she is not Emily James, who started petition, but is grateful to her for doing so.

Passes to be placed on agenda.

Resolution on APPR—

Elizabeth Perez—Speaks in support. One test does not measure success or growth. Wants Senate to pass bill. Asks for support.

Vote passes.

Mulgrew—We will ask NYSUT to do early endorsement against candidate opposing Golden.

Resolution on Paid Parental Leave—Melody A.—CL, with CL in training. Quotes Nelson Mandela on how we treat children. Speaks of how undocumented families are treated now, we stand with children no matter how they come into our lives, no matter gender. We will fight to keep families together. We support our children and future students with this.

CL—Proposes amendment—strike first whereas, not important he didn’t give it to us for three years.

Peter Lamphere—Has amendment—Add additional resolved—that UFT continue to work to win benefits to care for sick family members, as other NY employees have. Thanks rank and file for signing petition and working for it. Our work on this issue not complete. Private sector laws are for caring for sick family members. Important we win that benefit as well.

Emma Mendez—opposes amendments. Have cared for sick parents. Respect position. Don’t want it lost in an amendment that speaks to one issue. Should have own space, own resolution. As for first, mayor did delay and we shouldn’t remove.

Dermot Myrie—Supports Lamphere. Also for teachers with sick children.

Joy Schwartz—Calls questions.

Second amendment fails—

First amendment fails

Resolution, unamended, passes unanimously.

Mulgrew—Asks retirees to stand. They are applauded. May call emergency DA.

We are adjourned. 5:38

I started a shitstorm (not my first) when I posted about the January UFT Delegate Assembly. This was the one when Dermot Myrie got up to propose a resolution to support Black Lives Matter and it was voted down by Unity. When I write about meetings, I mostly write whatever I see or hear without editorial content. I generally add a snarky headline, and the one I chose that night was "Black Lives May or May Not Matter."

This was then picked up by Lindsey Christ at NY1 and a few other outlets. It upset the hell out of the Unity Caucus, who wrote some particularly vicious things about the "not so loyal" opposition. I always read the nasty crap they write about us and think I could do it more effectively. On the other hand, I don't really do personal attack much anymore. I used to do it more frequently when I started the blog, but I use it less and less over time. It's not as effective as actual argument, which is my personal go-to.

One of the primary things that's reduced my use of ad hominem was doing real union work.  Being chapter leader of the largest school in Queens, the most overcrowded school in the city, is insane. Sometimes I tell people my job is insane and they think I'm complaining. Surprisingly, I'm not. I thrive on having an insane job. I wonder whether teaching is an insane job, if I  have an insane approach to it, or both. It doesn't much matter. I love what I do, and when I say how crazy it is, I'm fine with it. (That doesn't mean I don't like time off now and then.)

But it's easy to sit on the sidelines and bitch about the union. That's what I was doing before I got involved, though I didn't really know it at the time. I was particularly tough on Leo Casey, because he was the designated mouthpiece over at Edwize (UFT had a blog back in the day.), and frankly, he was pretty nasty to us too. As soon as I became chapter leader, I went on a mission to try to reverse our school's overcrowding. Leo Casey came to our school and set up a meeting at DOE. At this meeting we were able to come to an agreement that worked well for a few years.

So what can you think when a person you've said the most awful things about for months and months comes out and helps you? It's pretty awkward. You can't really just say that everyone in leadership sucks unreservedly, even though you've been saying that for years. It's a lot easier to talk like that if you're far away and play no part in union issues.

I have legitimate criticisms of leadership, though. There's class size, which was placed in the contract over a half-century ago. You'd hope we'd have moved forward since then. There are the excessive observations. There's the junk science. There's our wildly undemocratic process. There's the ATR, which was and still is a huge error that needs fixing.

My Executive Board buddy Mike Schirtzer wrote this a while back, and I guess it's time I say it too--I don't remotely suspect Unity Caucus of racism, bigotry, or anything of the sort. I think they made an error not endorsing Black Lives Matter, but I certainly don't believe they feel black lives don't matter either.

They called it a splinter issue. They're right that by endorsing BLM you're liable to lose the Trump/ racist contingent (assuming that isn't already a done deal). Make no mistake, there is that contingent in UFT. I saw it very much on display on UFT's Facebook page preceding the Staten Island march protesting the Garner shooting. I had not planned to attend that march, but I was so thoroughly disgusted by remarks from my fellow union members that I changed my plans.

More recently, it appears to me Hillary lost the election (among other reasons) because she failed to stand up. Hillary didn't support universal health care, a living wage, or affordable college. The guy who ran her campaign was no friend of ours. Like Obama, who proved to be a terrible education president, we endorsed Hillary unconditionally. I'm not privy to high-level negotiations, but why on earth are we giving our support to people who lecture us about "public charter schools," whatever they may be, at the AFT Convention, of all places? It was easy for me to vote for Hillary against Trump, but she didn't look good alone (or compared to Sanders, who I believe would've defeated the Donald).

To my mind, this is the same thought process that kept us from endorsing BLM. I know Trump voters who are just not going to pay union dues. Why should they? People like me will pay. Trump wouldn't pay. He'd make us do it, and indeed we pay millions for all his golf junkets and military parades and whatnot. I don't think Trump voters are the ones who will save our union. Trump voters would ruin the union just as eagerly as they're ruining these United States.

MORE isn't perfect either. MORE"s handling of the Garner march was embarrassing. I understand there was a meeting in which they tried to retroactively support it, which was even more ridiculous. Hey, you were there, or you were not there. I've been at more than one meeting in which a bunch of white people sat around and pondered how to attract more educators of color.  I wondered, why are you asking me?

Off the top of my head, I'd say that educators of all colors and sizes want to be treated with respect. They want better pay, less stupid paperwork, fewer pointless mandates and fewer lunatic administrators. They want better, not worse working conditions. They want to work with confidence, not live in fear. One thing MORE has right is that our working conditions are student learning conditions.

Maybe we should all get together and improve those conditions. I'm ready. Alternatively, we can all run around and insinuate nasty shit about one another.

I was going to react to the entire DA (and I will), but I found this missive on a seat, and I can't resist. Of course, like every propaganda pamphlet, it starts by telling how wonderful those responsible, the Unity Caucus in this case, happen to be. This is not hard for them, since they generally take credit for everything positive and responsibility for nothing negative.

I love that they boast of "fair funding for our schools" first, since the so-called Fair Student Funding is nothing of the sort, with schools getting only a percentage of what they're promised. It's also a huge discouraging factor for hiring experienced teachers, and likely is the reason for many being stuck in the ATR.

I'm also fond of the "equity, access and opportunity for all students" because UFT Unity has done absolutely nothing to lower class sizes in over half a century. They boast of sacrifices they made to place class size in the contract and fail to mention that most of them were toddlers or not even born when this monumental sacrifice was made.

The main thrust of this handout, though, is "We respect honest dialogue BUT..." I had a Shakespeare teacher in college who told us, "Whenever anyone says "but," you may disregard everything that preceded it. I share that with my students sometimes. When your girlfriend tells you she really loves you but, it's probably time to look for a new girlfriend. She's marrying your best friend, or taking a world cruise with some guy she just met, or something, but she's gone for sure.

Unity doesn't actually say "but." Instead, they say "yet," which means "but."

Yet within the Union's ranks, there are some in other caucuses seeking to capitalize on these differences for the purpose of advancing their political agenda above the decision of the Delegate Assembly.

That's what you call a strawman. In fact, I didn't write what happened to advance my political agenda. I wrote what happened because I paint what I see. I revealed that UFT had voted down the BLM resolution, gave their rationale, and offered my take in it. Unity can't see it that way, and the anonymous genius who writes for them goes on:

That is why recent actions by some of the "not so loyal" opposition are especially disturbing.

So, based on an outright fabrication in the form of a strawman, they are especially disturbed. I guess if I were to make stuff up and force myself to believe it, I'd be especially disturbed as well.

By enabling the press with misinformation, they embolden those whose goal it is to see our Union, and the entire labor movement, go up in flames.

So now, according to the great mind who wrote this, I am a liar. Of course, there are no examples. There is no evidence whatsoever for this. Here are the facts--a resolution to support Black Lives Matter was offered. At the urging of a Unity representative, it was defeated. A journalist read about it, and decided to write about it.

I defy any member of Unity Caucus to provide me with evidence that I lied. Absent such evidence, it is they who lied.

Last year I brought a class size resolution to the UFT Executive Board. Of course they voted it down, because it's overkill. Of course the contract says there are 34 students per high school class, and 50 years ago they gave up something or other to have it enshrined in writing. That ought to be good enough for anyone.

The only issue, as far as I can see, is that the DOE has no respect whatsoever for the contract. There are oversized classes all over the city. UFT leadership seems not to perceive that as a flaw. After all, it says, right there in black and white, that we have limits. So what's the big deal?

Of course, there are exceptions. If you teach PE or music, you could have up to 50. And if you work in a school like mine you might have not five, but ten classes. You see, the geniuses in Albany have decreed that it's OK to give PE every other day. So there you are, with 500 students, and some AP demanding you differentiate instruction even though it's largely impossible for a standard human to even learn the students' names.

That's OK, isn't it? No? Well, it isn't really fair of me to imply that leadership is doing nothing about it. When I complained about it, they pointed out that they had started a committee, with the DOE, where they, you know, talk about stuff. And they made it a point to let me know that my school, which has been in violation of class size rules forever, was one of the schools they talk about.

What exactly they say I don't know. After all, I'm just a lowly chapter leader and member of the Executive Board representing city high schools. Why would they include me in discussions involving my high school? They're talking about it with someone, somewhere, and that should be good enough for me. But it isn't. Last year I placed an article in the Daily News about how some genius arbitrator had decided that relieving teachers of their C6 assignment one day a week was sufficient to compensate for class size issues.

Of course, now that there was a UFT committee sitting around talking about something, somewhere, with someone, everything would be completely different. In fact, for the second half of last year, the "action plan" entailed placing a licensed teacher in each oversized class to help the teacher and students out. This was not perfect, but made a lot of sense to me.

However, last month I went back, and what do you think the learned arbitrator suggested? He suggested that any teacher in our school with an oversized class would be relieved from the C6 assignment one day a week. That's absurd. Oversized classes are very tough to deal with. In fact, 34 is already the highest class size in the state. Going beyond that is unconscionable. We're moving backward rather than forward, and there are no viable consequences for violating the contract.

It's nice that a bunch of people from UFT and DOE are sitting around somewhere drinking coffee. But from the perspective of a chapter leader and class size advocate, it's clear to me that the committee has had no effect whatsoever on class size issues.

It's kind of remarkable that a city that claims to place children first, always, thinks that providing children with less tutoring will somehow make up for their utter disrespect for one thing we know to be effective--reasonable class sizes.

Mulgrew asks for moment of silence for former Francis Lewis High School Chapter Leader Mark Shaffer.

Calls DA governing body of UFT.

Praises commercial that’s running. Says it shows what we do well. Runs it. Says many people are upset about it and brings up people from commercial, all teachers.

Says we are part of statewide coalition fighting Constitutional Convention. Says Conservative Party head is his new ally.


Tough to keep up with craziness. Heading toward budget sessions. At state and city levels there’s no sense of what Feds are about. Cuts in insurance, for example, influence governors. Feds want to get rid of CHIP, children’s health program. States may replace funds but it will come out of state budget. NY State already looking at 4 billion dollar hole. Could affect city. Feds can make it worse. If state has to fill double this hole, we won’t do well with the city.

Mayor and Governor unable to do budget with this uncertainly.

Education cut to the bone in other states. Working conditions awful for teachers in states without sufficient budgets. Having all this instability at national level will affect us.

Thanks us for disaster relief work. We were there in Houston, FL, and PR. Now looking toward California and affected islands. Says Puerto Rican teacher building used for delivering supplies. Remembers many people helped us during Sandy, and we return favor.


SUNY charter institute can certify teachers with no experience. UFT is suing. Says this makes negative statement about teaching. Charters at fault for not being able to keep teachers. 40% overall, Moskowitz Academies over 50%. Says we are professionals, not people who walk off the street. We don’t need scripted lessons and teachers treated like dirt.

Board of Regents considering new accountability for charters. Thinks they should be accountable for students they lose. NYC has 76% grad rate. Charters can say 100%. But there are 18 kids in class now. Were 78 when they began.

Our system is at 76%. That’s all the kids. What if we didn’t have to count 20%? We’d be at 96%. Wrote editorial that charters can’t do math. We’ve been saying this for years. We don’t lose kids—they go to other schools.

Charters set targets for ELL, special ed., etc. If they try, place an ad, whatever, that’s good enough. They don’t actually have to take the kids. We are at all time high. We passed 76%, you lost that much. Happy with Regents right now.

Talks election. Have you reached out? Are we talking to colleagues? Do you have magnets? Says we have magnets, asks to bring them up. They are passed out.

Cites 57th anniversary of first UFT strike, Nov. 7th. That’s why we need to get word out.

Talks mayor’s race. Says even our enemies say school  system is doing better. Says would be better if we had better local management.

Says he spent time where student was murdered last month. Very young staff, very difficult. Says he’s never faced anything like that. Gives them credit for keeping school going. DOE ignored warning signs. Surveys noted bullying. Says Tweed could do better. There are ten schools with similar scenarios. DOE claims to have plan, but we don’t know what it is.

No con con magnets are passed out. Mulgrew says magnet is not for the refrigerator. It’s for the car. He promises they will stick, and hopefully not take off paint. Says UFT not legally liable should that occur.

Main focus is to pass info for all consultations as required by contract. Thanks those who have uploaded them. Getting to know when things aren’t being solved and bringing to superintendents. We have to build pressure that we are looking at everything. If principals aren’t nice, things now go out of building. Every consultation Mulgrew holds will be brought to superintendents.

Asks that class sizes are brought up until they are solved. Says superintendents have instructed that they be solved. Says class size grievances aren’t being resolved. The need to know people are watching.


Good results with paperwork complaints. They go directly to district and then central. Already we hear about five page unit plans, curriculum maps, and we have the power to stop it. Principals cannot order teachers to do same thing all the time, must be an exception. If you don’t agree with programs or changes, you can file for conciliation online.


Most payments went out last week. They paid money at first arbitration but didn’t fix system. Based on frustration we won another. Seems to work much better, are hoping to fix last few things. If teachers have issues, there is SESIS inquiry on website.

Lump sum payments out this week. There are different payroll banks, but everyone should get it by next week. Subject to tax, social security and union dues.


MOSLs picked for next year. Hope you picked multiple measures. First year we got to use matrix. We used to get 300 U ratings, got 214 I ratings this year. Says some people want to go back to old way. Says principals and superintendents say we are usurping from them.

Thanks people for emails urging us to end early for Yankee game.

Speaks of what teachers did this weekend. Raised over a million dollars for Strides. Thanks Serbia Silva. Asks that organizers come inside. DA applauds.

CTLE—We are working and have asked DOE to partner with us. They want to do it themselves, and don’t do it correctly. Principals incorrect if they say PD is CTLE. Must be certified. Needs record of attendance and certificate. Asking since last September. Can’t get it done. Hoping that what happened this weekend will help because they now say they will work with us.
We have PD in the contract. We should be using that time. We have schools that have worked with us and their PD does count. Absurd that union has to build data system to track this. We keep records of everything.

Saturday, second annual ELL conference. Closed registration because 740 people registered. 1200 people showed up. Handled well by Evelyn de Jesus and her team. Chancellor, Board of Regents were here, praised how it was done. May cause breakthrough. Pushing to do this. Some superintendents asking UFT for help.

Teacher union day November 5th. City calls us 1% for not paying premiums on health care. Mulgrew says we paid not to pay. We did 1.4 million prescriptions with Welfare Fund. Praises Artie Pepper for steering us, says we’ve never denied anyone a pill no matter how much it cost. Will award Artie Pepper at union day.

UFT Welcome Center open downstairs. Water, coffee, reduced price movie tickets available.

Janus—Will be ugly, brutal, and we will be “Right to Work” country. Small number of folks financed this. They have a plan. Built ALEC, came up with cases that go to Supreme Court and are changing laws how they wish. Janus not even top 5 of really horrible things. Want to pass a law to weaken unions, under guise of freedom of speech.

They will say not paying union dues will be a raise, but longterm will hurt people for lack of union. We are largest local in country, will be targeted. We have to educate people. Welfare fund alone worth more than dues. If unions weakened, they will take your rights and benefits.

People getting there is something wrong with this case but people not sure members will pay. After constitutional convention we want to visit members at home and talk about this. Some visits will be tough. Some won’t. Because of what we’ve committed our lives to, we have to try to do this. We will need people trained in how to do this work. We know where everyone lives.

We are planning. This weekend we will train people and roll this out a little bit. We have to try this. I believe best way is face to face. Everyone thinks you can just send out emails and texts, but there is too much at risk. I ask people in this room because you are the leaders of this union.

We did this upstate earlier this year. NYC is a little different. We want to give two days of training. Then there will be knocking in geographic areas. We need only a few for this weekend. We will do social media, but in the end, this union was built on people talking face to face. We have to return to that, keep it simple and have honest conversation.

LeRoy Barr

At NYSUT they knocked on 35K doors, spoke with 9K people, used 50 people. We believe we can knock on 110-120K doors. We will engage them and hear from them. We will update database. This is the most difficult we’ve had, probably since the formation of the union. We need you to step up.

First training this weekend. Once you’re trained, we need three sessions per week for 18 sessions. Raise your hand if you might want to do this. Barr happy with number of hands, asks people to sign up today. It’s not just for this weekend—there will be three sessions. Thanks people before they sign up.

Reminds us of phone banks. When you cast ballot, turn it over and check no on proposition 1. Anniversary of 1960 strike. Same day people want to take rights we won away. Phone banks in every borough. Asks for people to commit.

Thanksgiving winter clothing drive. Also for next DA. CL weekend October 28-29. CL job evolving. CL with 5 years or more can come again. Next DA Nov. 8.

Mulgrew

Negotiating session passed—moving in right direction but they haven’t seen it yet. Hopefully they will see the light.

5600 new members hired this year. Mid October will be meetings.


Q—Admin strongly suggesting teachers upload lesson plans on Google Docs? What to we do?

M—File paperwork complaint. Is routinized collection. Principal playing game. Tech is better now, and many schools embrace it. This is crossing a line. Unless school does SBO you can’t let that happen.

Q—With governor looking to be president, we should march on Albany and say it’s a disgrace what he’s doing to quality of ed. in NYS. If we allow charters to do training, how will that affect colleges?

M—A lot. SUNY charter institute did this, not the governor. I agree he should step in. People unhappy we filed lawsuit next day. I said I would do this. I did what I said I would. Governor trying to establish he’s voice of Democratic Party standing for working people. He’s been speaking against feds. Wants to take back GOP seats from Congress. GOP screwed NY State with horrendous deal. We will go after them. We’re looking for common ground.

Class size—many unions would not sacrifice raises for class size numbers. With recession, many districts saw class sizes explode. Thank God people did that or think of what Bloomberg would’ve done.

Q—Been said our pension fund would be used for affordable housing. True? How are we protected?

M—True. We make investments, our trustees vote, and we get return required so pension is safe. We invest in many things. Thankful that we have independent trustees who vote on our needs.

Q—Advisory ratings distributed for ELA and math scores. How can we guarantee they not be used against teachers

M—We monitor it, always. We are in good shape.

Q—We know responsibilities as mandated reporters. What if colleagues harassed.

M—Not mandated, but you have OEO.

Q—Our school has to write teacher goals each year. Some teachers chose to abstain. Teachers who wrote goals have been directed to revise. Can teachers be held accountable? Can I see answer in writing?

M—No to all. Did you bring it up in consultation? Did you post notes (yes)? Asks Debbie Poulos to flag this.

Q—Other city agencies get Veteran’s Day. Why don’t we?

M—Policy is if it falls on Saturday, they don’t give it on Friday. Not our idea. We only have two snow days this year.


No motions.

Evelyn de Jesus—Fight Trump admin in eliminating DACA. Must fight threat of deportation. Dreamers in classrooms, schools, hospitals. For five years they lived out of shadows. Could drive and pay in state tuition. Feds have their personal info and that of their families. Repeal is betrayal of trust. Asks for support.

Michael Freeman, CL—School has so many immigrants, they come to my school. I know they will be wonderful citizens. Students are happy to be better treated here. This is future of America. We’re betraying these people, I stand in support.

Dave Pecoraro—proposes amendment—UFT opposes the efforts of assembly member Nichole Maliotakis to reveal info on DACA members. Could reveal NYCID info.

Resolution as amended passes unanimously

Karen Allford—Supports resolution to aid hurricane and wildfire victims. Praises nurses.

Passes unanimously.

Janella Hinds—Motivates resolution to support NYC march for climate justice. We need to speak out against Trump’s terrible policies.

Passes unanimously

We are adjourned.

Right now Donald Trump and the froglike creature who heads the GOP in the Senate are trying to take healthcare away from tens of millions of Americans so that they can give a tax break to the very richest people in the country. This is a game we've been playing in this country for decades. It's not really something we invented, but we're taking the ball and running with it.

I'm a Democrat. I used to be a Democrat because I thought we stood for working people. Now I'm a Democrat so I can vote in the primaries now and then. Hillary Clinton is a Democrat who told us we would never, ever get single payer health care, a Democrat who criticized Bernie Sanders' idea of free college for all. This is a philosophy that resulted in her spectacular defeat at the teeny-tiny hands of Donald Trump.

I voted for Bernie Sanders in the primary, but for Hillary in the general. She wasn't really what I was looking for, but unlike Fernando Cabrera, she looked fabulous next to Donald Trump. Trump's a despicable bigot, and I have little regard for such people.  He also snookered a lot of Americans into believing that he cared about them. The policies he pushes clearly favor the privileged at the expense of working people like teachers.

So I was sorely disappointed when union leadership saw fit to endorse Cabrera. Cabrera seems to have great regard for governments that pass anti-gay laws. He seems to believe that religion has a place in government. In a city as diverse as New York, that's particularly disturbing. I have no idea what religion Cabrera is, or whether he properly represents it. Nonetheless, I don't want to live by the tenets of any religion that endorses bigotry, and a whole lot of New Yorkers agree with me.

Recently, Cabrera went and outdid himself. He expressed the sentiment that it was harder to be rich than poor. Evidently, with all that money comes a whole lot of pressure. Poor Donald Trump is so boxed in by that pressure that he needs to take a golf vacation at our expense just about every weekend. Bill Gates has things so tough that he needs to impose his worthless ideas on the entire nation's education system. The Koch Brothers have to spend all their energy just making sure they don't have to fritter away any of their billions on nonsense like paying taxes toward a living wage for Americans. I could go on.

I'm not exactly sure why Cabrera is a Democrat. Democrats are supposed to at least pretend to care about the poor. Cabrera suggests that people who aren't rich just can't take the pressure. After all, it's a walk in the park to support your family on two or three minimum wage jobs. All you have to worry about is paying the rent, buying the food, or getting a little sleep here and there. You don't need to fret over your trust fund or portfolio.

There's a great Steinbeck novella called The Pearl. I teach it sometimes.  In it, the priest tells the churchgoers that God has a castle, and we all have positions in God's castle. Those who are meant to be rich are rich, and those who are meant to be poor are poor. Those who question these positions are heretics, in defiance of God.

It's hard for me to see how Cabrera is different from that character, and harder for me to see why UFT leadership sees fit to endorse him. Jonathan Halabi spoke forcefully against this endorsement at both the Executive Board and the DA, but leadership said he wasn't that bad. The thing is, he is that bad and worse. He's reprehensible. I'm proud to have opposed him.

In fact, the biggest problem with our country is that people like Cabrera are in charge. People who don't respect the poor want them to stay that way. They therefore oppose their organizing. They oppose unions and that's why we're likely to become a "Right to Work" nation.

It boggles my mind that we support politicians who think like that.

I agree with Mulgrew that the state ought to keep out of NYC business. While Mulgrew spoke of this in terms of mayoral control, I'd argue it extends to a few other areas. I recall when our good buddy Senator Flanagan was pushing the Bloomberg dream bill that would kill seniority rights for NYC teachers only. It was amazing this guy had the audacity to back this bill, which wouldn't have affected his district at all.

Another example of the state pushing its unwelcome nose into NYC issues was when it insisted that NYC pay for charter rent whether or not it wanted said charters. Back when reformy Mike Bloomberg was mayor, he could do any damn thing he wanted, When NYC chose a leader who openly opposed charters, the state needed to supersede the voters. School choice, actually, means you choose to support and enrich the reformies. When you choose otherwise, screw you and the horse-carriage you rode around Central Park in.

I don't, however, support mayoral control. I agree with Mulgrew that the current form is awful, but I have not been altogether impressed with the central DOE. I'd like to see a form of governance that had community voice beyond the ability to get up at PEP and be ignored by all. James Eterno suggests, without mayoral control, we might see that. For my money, mayoral control has been a disaster, resulting in the breakup of many community schools and a weakening of union citywide. I have no idea what it's good for, other than weakening community. Diane Ravitch wrote Gates and other reformies love it, because they don't have to go through all that messy democracy stuff. Patrick Sullivan would shed no tears for its demise.

Of course I'm not happy with the ATR severance package. I'd like to see ATR teachers be, you know, teachers, rather than individuals condemned to wander the DOE desert. I know that if my school were closed it would be very tough for me to find a job, and my observation reports are not bad at all. Yet I'm at top salary, and I'm confident my principal would offer little protest if I were to refer to myself as a pain in the ass. We have known for decades that it was tough for seasoned teachers to transfer into higher-paying Long Island districts. The 2005 contract made it just as difficult for us to move within our own district.

There was quite an interesting comment from an elementary chapter leader who's been excessed after 16 years. Her principal had been told to max out the classes and get rid of everyone she no longer needed. She asked about class size reduction, which would save her job. Mulgrew said UFT was on the case, and I hope he's right. However, at an Executive Board meeting where we pushed class size as a priority, we were told the union sacrificed to place class size in the contract. It wasn't mentioned that it happened 50 years ago, and judging from the excessed chapter leader, it has worked in a less than optimal fashion. Mulgrew, who generally pops in to say a few words and leaves, wasn't even there. Class size needs to be much more of a priority than it is now. There are multiple reasons for this, but if we want to be selfish and look only at how it benefits teachers, that chapter leader is a case in point.

Jonathan Halabi got up and objected to the endorsement of Fernando Cabrera. Cabrera's beliefs, according to this piece, and the included video, are less than praiseworthy, to me at least.

"Godly people are in government," Mr. Cabrera said, referring to Uganda's leadership. "Gay marriage is not accepted in this country. Even when the United States of America has put pressure and has told Uganda, 'We’re not going to fund you anymore unless you allow gay marriage.' And they have stood in their place. Why? Because the Christians have assumed the place of decision-making for the nation."

Mr. Cabrera goes on to praise the nation's socially conservative positions for an alleged rapid decline in the country’s AIDS rate, and says the infusion of religion into government has helped the country's financial outlook.

I can only suppose that I'm not Mr. Cabrera's kind of people. I'd certainly hope that UFT leadership weren't either. A Unity member got up and asserted that what Jonathan said wasn't true, with no evidence as to why not. It's pretty clear to me that Jonathan was absolutely right, and that Cabrera's ties to the so-called alt-right indicate he's not to be trusted.

Peter Lamphere got up and asked for support for FMPR. I went to the Dark Horse pub afterward and listened to FMPR President Mercedes Martinez. I left completely assured she is a badass advocate for Puerto Rican teachers, students and people, willing to go the extra mile for them. They did, however, disaffiliate themselves from AFT at some point, and there's a lot of bad blood. I'd argue FMPR, in its current form, is kind of a union opposition caucus on steroids. Of course, I think there is a need for such organizations.

A big hanging question mark is Janus. I had hoped Mulgrew would elaborate on what the state might do to counter it. Instead I heard that it will depend on what the specific ruling is, and I can't argue with that. It's funny to be a chapter leader, contemplating what to do with people who choose not to pay union dues. It's pretty sad that we live in a country so ignorant of what union means for working people.

Maybe we should move to make the American union movement a bigger part of what we teach in history classes. When I was in high school, I heard not one single word about it. I hear it gets covered somewhat, but I think its importance is not well understood, even within our union. I have issues with UFT leadership, and I may have referred to them here or there on this little blog. But I know exactly where we stand without union, and it's no place I want to be. It's no place I want for my kid or my students either.

Announcements

Mulgrew welcomes us to final DA school year. Discusses PD survey and large response. Says 61% have curriculum. 67% aligned with PD. Little support for ESL teachers. Special education marginally better. Insufficient CTLE PD. 72% have PD committee, up from 50. PD committee, 66% has meaningful input. 12% say superintendent determines PD.

President’s Report

speaks of VA shooting. Says we cannot accept hate at any time, as rationale for violence.

National—believes Senate will pass a version of health care. Says we will not have an issue in NY because we have great Senators, but perhaps they will pass something as they leave for July 4th holiday. Negotiations at night in secrecy. Says person occupying White House now calls House bill mean, but says Senate bill is full of heart and passion.

Betsy DeVos—says he thinks she should be on TV every day. Let her talk. This would be a great campaign. Let people see what Sec. of Ed. stands for. Once again, she keeps saying it’s up to state whether they want to recognize civil rights. It’s actually illegal, and he hopes people recognize.

Janus fast tracked. We assume US will become Right to Work country, and we think it may happen early 2018.

State—Mayoral control—introduced bill for charter accountability and transparency. Press only wants to talk about mayoral control. Mulgrew would trade nothing for mayoral control. Says he doesn’t support this version of mayoral control, but supports mayoral control. Says 40 school boards preclude great education and proper funding.

Heastie says every year there are “self-governing” issues all over the state. They are all passed by Assembly, which supports local control of local governments. When they ask what we are doing Mulgrew said this is a bunch of crap, because we’re the only county that doesn’t get our local control issues. Rest of state works by different set of rules, has to pay price for what it wants. No longer about mayoral control, but rather precedent that NYC has to pay for its local control issues.

Speaker has said he is now not passing any other local issues. If mayoral control sunsets, next May it will go back to school boards. This will be big fight. Doesn’t matter what version of mayoral control because it appears nothing will get done. If they don’t respect NYC autonomy, Assembly won’t respect other local autonomy. If we don’t get something done there will be 40 school board elections and charters will also be active.

Our position is NYC should be treated as all other municipalities.

Regents—We will go from three to two days of testing in grades 3-8. Consultants lost. Pushed back on standards. Board of Regents directs education, and wants work done on ELLs, preK, and special ed. It is a lot of work, due to our advocacy.

City

CTLE—will be summer training. DOE now approved vendor, but not doing it yet. We’re doing a summer training, will increase number of instructors. Also for paras.

One more day to enroll for catastrophic insurance. Over 8,000 enrolled. Recommended by Welfare Fund.

DOE diversity plan—happy it’s recognized, but plan will not be very helpful. We will have further discussion.

ATR severance package—we have contractual provision, we are always trying to negotiate and have got it done. Have sent out to ATRs. Believe it should be quite helpful. 900 eligible of 1100. Not easy, DOE didn’t want to do it. Believes there will be significant changes in this pool by this time next year. Severance is not pensionable, but if you retire you still get retro.

Mulgrew suggests we all have a party with beer. Is greeted with great enthusiasm, but no one follows up.

Decided not to focus on pursuing skirmishes school to school, and rather to look at systemwide improvements.  We will continue individual fights but we want to picket superintendents. We agree with the mayor that schools should strive for supportive, respectful and safe environments. We need to hold supes responsible for doing jobs with principals. City not doing job.

We have anecdotal evidence but at this time of year we have data, had conversations with field staff. Picked one superintendency in Brooklyn. Supe contracted UFT borough rep, had horrible meeting. Lack of info between supe and team. At next meeting borough rep got everything she asked for. Supe acted differently as chancellor was in room. Data was irrefutable. Created team with chapter leaders to meet as advisory committee.

Tenure decisions come this year. What is criteria? Is it about whether supe likes principal or not? Have said there was evidence of that and will move forward. Said supe behavior has clearly been modified and we have ways of fixing things if they move back. We can always picket again, but we want to first implement agreement. High schools there no longer mandated to use balanced literacy.

We had data and an irrefutable case. This gave us ability to make change. We used DOE data. They denied it and we told them it was their own. We hope to move everything this way next year.

Year Roundup—Says it started election day. Was a wake up. Doesn’t know if we would’ve accomplished our goals but election day showed we are now at forefront of fighting for public ed. Not perceived but real threat. Says it’s time to get over depression. Everyone here figured it out and started moving. Participated in women’s march. We then got introduced to Betsy DeVos, made inroads in her hearing. Most well-known Sec. of Ed. in US. We will continue to battle with her.

DeVos budget horrendous. Showed at state level what we were facing. We brought in folks from Michigan, who presented to legislature of NYS. Budget showed protection of public ed. NYS said this is what you do with public ed.

We introduced chapter advocacy program, and pushed paperwork process. We had 313 complaints. 93% were resolved in our favor. Whoever used it knows no principal wants supe to know what happens in their school. Those resolved centrally were not good for those below. Thanks Debbie Poulos.

APPR complaints successful.
Teachers got 4.5% increase in May.

Constitutional Convention vote coming next year.

City Council budget—presented to them on teacher’s choice. Asked for 20 million, and got 20.1 million.  Number should be in excess of $200 per person.

Community learning schools—results are off the charts. We got 2 mil from state and 1.5 from City Council. Proves solving poverty means coming to UFT.

15 PLC schools. Changed culture, trained everyone. Custodians, cafe staff, everyone comes. Changing culture reduces suspensions.

Next year Constitutional Convention, Janus. Will see what comes from feds. Student achievement and grad rate higher than ever.  We want city and state to protect us and allow us to thrive, and we have achieved our goals. We will still have fights. We will still have to modify behavior of those in middle management.


Staff Director’s Report—LeRoy Barr—

Endorses beer idea. Thanks counselors. Eid recognized, schools closed June 26. Reminds us to set up committees, complete SBOs. Mentions catastrophic insurance. Mentions Hometown Heroes, collaborative event to commemorate educators. Asks for nominations. Says you can nominate principal if you have great working relationship. Wishes happy summer to all.

Mulgrew—Says MLC had to figure out health care savings. Says there was a lot of debate here. Says things we utilize most will drop in price. Says we are only work force that doesn’t pay for health care and we have officially reached our requirement. 5:28


Questions—

CL—Just got excessed with four others there for over 16 years. Last year, principal said was drop in enrollment. Has dropped by half. Had thought they were safe. Excessed because of salary increase from raises, said principal. Says her budget office told her she had to max out every classroom and everyone else had to go. At some point in future, can we achieve goal of lowering class size? Can we put lowering class size back on table?

Mulgrew—already on table. We want and tell NYC we have to lower class sizes. That principal told you that means I have to hear from superintendent what she thinks of that. We will look at budget and find things that need to be cut.  Class size piece always front and center. We have this some places because of gentrification. We have to deal with this. Lots of teachers are embracing mobility. If we are going to have drastic changes, major drop in population, we may need a different system for mobility. Other districts exploding. May have to look at more flexible transfers.

CL—Praises Mulgrew. Summative conferences happening, but many teachers haven’t gotten all observations. What is recourse if principal didn’t do job and rating not good?

Mulgrew—Have to document. Next year is first year of matrix. Matrix is our friend. Waiting to see results. If you haven’t had required number of observations, you have to document it. This is why committees are mandated. 60% of schools in one superintendency didn’t do required applications. CL should report to DRs.

CL—If Janus goes as we expect, what happens to benefits, grievances, will I check list when people ask for help?

Mulgrew—Depends a lot on decisions. What you get in benefits from Welfare Fund is more than you get in dues. What if benefits are withheld? Will depend on SCOTUS.

Q—Many staff members receiving D, not happy. What is their right, what is UFT doing to help?

Mulgrew—District 3 has precious superintendent. We are pulling data. Want to see what else is going on in school, in this district. One member has developing because he couldn’t service ELL kids in his care, but his class had so many different levels it would meet educational neglect level. Asking principal and supe what they are doing.


Motions

James Eterno—Resolution for vote on ATR agreement, meetings and votes for ATRs. Reads, cannot motivate as it is for this month.

Voted down.

Endorsements—Paul Egan—various city council candidates.

Passes.

Jonathan Halabi—New Action—Given what happened in November, people have been strategizing on preventing Trump agenda. We need to be at forefront locally. One candidate, Fernando Cabrera, doesn’t share our values on hate. Key funding from far right orgs. They know who’s most open to those suggestions. On charters, not clear, open to funding things we’d oppose. Open to funding private schools. Boasts he is social conservative, and district is conservative. Worst is he is a homophobe. Believes, preaches, and came back from Uganda, praised jailing gays and lesbians. Not good enough when we know what is in his heart. We know there is real danger of hate, not because he voted wrong, but because he is not with us.

Marjorie Stamberg—When endorsements come up, we have to stop thinking in terms of individuals and think in terms of class. Democrats can’t fight Trump. We need union movement.

Eliu Lara—Disagrees with Jonathan, says he’s not homophobe. Says he spent 18 years as counselor. Says he approves.

Halabi—Point of order—asks for separate vote on Cabrera.

Mulgrew—denies.

Questions called.

Resolution passed.

Contingency Resolution—Paul Egan—Asks for Exec. Board to endorse during summer.

Passed.

Solidarity with AMPR—Evelyn de Jesus—Puerto Rico suffering. Hedge funds want money. Board wants to get paid first, worry about island later. Says AMPR, sole bargaining unit, has reached out for support. Asks for support.

Peter Lamphere—Moves to amend—asks to insert FMPR. Evelyn correct AMPR bargaining agent. Is more than one agent. FMPR led strike, and is reason PR doesn’t have charters. Entire leadership was fired. DA voted in solidarity with them, would like to extend this solidarity.

LeRoy Barr—Rises in support of resolution, against amendment. Says we support all workers. PR under devastation, and all need our support. We have only endorsed this group because they came to us via AFT. National level comes via AFT. This group worked with AFT and disaffiliated. Group does not have right to bargain for PR teachers right now. We’re gonna fight on behalf of injustice. Asking we do not allow res to be amended by something that violates our own process. Let them go back to AFT and get approval.

Question called.

Amendment fails.

Resolution passes.

President’s Report

National—Says Comey had just requested additional funds for Russia investigation. Speaks of DeVos, says she is only in very secure settings, cannot answer question she hasn’t heard in advance. DeVos said if we started from scratch we would treat all methods, even untested, as viable options. Says we should not continue to support a system that has completely failed.

Says he loves NY compared to what’s happening in other states. Says next shutdown of federal government will be next Sept., must be loud and proud at all times. Says other states are having success with it despite long odds. Facing people who hate us funding everything, AZ, NM have all sorts of privatization. Texas fighting vouchers but dues deduction may be illegal. Kansas is disaster, though their supreme court declared their funding illegal and insufficient. Rolled back tax cuts to pay but governor vetoed.

However they say public school proud is working somehow. Things not good, massive budget deficits around country, big issue in Illinois where they have trouble funding pensions. We have to fight Constitutional Convention.

Plays video of bald piano guy singing about public school teacher v. US Ed. Secretary requirements.

Says now national report doesn’t seem so bad.

Paul Ryan visited Moskowitz Academy yesterday. Says Eva still trying to act like Democrat who cares about city kids.

State

Great Regents meeting. Preliminary regs came out. Says we had to explain to ed. Dept. It was 80% test scores. We have board that understands this stuff and now we are looking at multiple measure system, where we look at growth. Still more work to do, but ESSA regs more reflective of our values. Someone named Ian with NY Education Trust very upset. When Ian yells, we’re happy.

ESSA regs good because whatever happens nationally those regs will ID schools who are struggling. We always have best growth in NYC. Remember I said this to you.

We have preliminary new regs for CTE. Should make it much easier to get programs certified.

We still have to work on preliminary new standards. Three areas they have not tackled. special ed, ELLs, early childhood. Says teachers have had a lot of input in standards. We still have work to do.

Governor Cuomo had very good week. Signed education bill in NYC public school, in LIC. He thanked city teachers and union. Says union has always stood for public ed., that he couldn’t be a teacher because job was too hard, but we know other reasons. Big deal he wanted to do it in NYC public school. Two days later signed bill that NY State union dues are tax deductible.

City

Getting parking permits back. Not because de Blasio wants your vote, but rather result of arbitration. We still have work at city council because we need to create more spots. Some admin has not been collaborative. Now if you get there first, take their spot. Principal can’t show up at 11 and get a spot.

Mayoral control heating up, told mayor and everyone we don’t believe in your form of mayoral control. Senate GOP wants to tie this to charter cap. We say do neither.

Conciliation—Had a joint training, have joint conciliators, have had soft rollout for process, Article 24. Want to do a few before end of school year. Sure that principals will thoroughly enjoy explaining rationale to outsiders.

Informed city we will picket superintendent offices. If supe has a number of cases in district they are not working in best interests. Supporting a principal who needs to show he or she is in charge is not the way to go. Clear that after chancellor says she wants collaboration and they don’t do it, we will make noise.

Spring conference Saturday. Rev. Barber will receive Dewey Award. Has defended teachers and public ed. Has done so all over country.

Last night was Women in Need fundraiser. Always hear horror stories but over 70% of homeless are women with children. Difficult working with city agencies, says we’ve been supplying tutoring, GED, and help. We helped with prom dresses for 600 kids from homeless shelters. Sending to each borough, will do here and for middle schools.

Next week’s paycheck will have 4.5% raise. October will be 12.5% lump sum. Says no one gave us a penny. We earned every penny, fought for it and it’s ours.

National Educators and Health Care Workers week. All news about it gone because of Comey.

Says we do a great job, it is not simple what goes on inside a school. No one truly understands what it takes except those who do it. Cannot thank us enough.

Staff Director’s Report—LeRoy Barr

April 28, HS awards, thanks Janella Hinds, May 6 5K run, Secretaries luncheon, Parent conference same day May 6.

Coming up Sat. Spring Conference, in Bronx immigration clinic, Monday Immigration Forum here. Prom boutique May 25, over 3K dresses, suits. Wishes happy mother’s day.

Questions

When is Betsy DeVos visiting a school?

Mulgrew says he invited her, will talk to anyone. Says sooner or later we will get her into NYC public school. Met with student and teacher from school in Ohio she went to. Said very little. So they shipped her to Utah and gave her a prepared speech. Her family invested millions in online ed. and she says we need to invest in it.

We can bring her in, show her, take pictures with her near a child. What would she do with 40% living in homeless shelter. I consider myself a mild mannered easy going person. People say I’m direct.

Could you imagine if we take her to Riker’s? How’s your choice now, Betsy?

Delegate—On March 22 we passed res on grading in home schools. Where are we?

They were already set for this year. Takes five months for DOE to get anything right. We want this change. Waste of time and money. Members say they like it. Have to continue to work on it. Would be so much easier to follow state model. Believe there will be better treatment at sites as result of res.

CL—Updates on child care or SESIS money?

“Getting the runs” from city now on SESIS. We shouldn’t work on SESIS at home but it’s sometimes impossible. Workload impossible for members. Some now do other work at home and SESIS in school. We want everyone to get compensation. Tough question.

Talked to Office of Labor Relations, says they’re stalling on maternity leave. Says he will go public they want to make money on people having kids. Mayor spoke two years ago and not single union has benefit. Says he knows mayor wants it.

CL—Minutes say number of certified delegates—why don’t we get percentage of delegates attending?

We can change it. Next month we will have number.

CL—City has surplus—can we get lump sum payments early?

Issue is our lump sum is so large, other unions were much smaller, city made them pay to get it on time. Some unions gave up Welfare Fund payments. Sorry, can’t be early.

Motions

Delegate—Proposes that we defend anti-racist, anti sexist, anti xenophobic and other activism. Wants it to be part of Public School Proud campaign. Speaks of history of communism and teacher unions, how capitalism needs racism and segregation like we need air. Says saying we’re proud without saying we’re not proud of segregation is problematic.

Sterling Roberson—Speaks against. Highlighted particular school, we engage school community. Our CBE doesn’t say attorney reps at OSI. Issue is free speech and political speech, fine line, but this res does not speak to that issue. We have issues with chancellor’s regs, not new. We have history of anti racism, xenophobia, policing in schools. Urges vote against.

Point of info—What is special disciplinary case?

Only principal charged, not UFT member. My answer would be speculation. Say she’s active communist recruiting children. She denies. No such categorization for us.

Point of info—Are you aware that in public court hearing, OCI people…

No I am not.

Motion does not carry.

Mulgrew—Issue of how OSI is being used is something UFT will pay close attention to. Like what DC does.OSI under direct control of chancellor. Have to gather facts before accusation.

Resolutions—

Janella Hinds—Janus resolution—Standard has been people repped by union pay. Last year was Friedrichs. Wanted to carve away agency fee pay. Abood 40 years ago said folks covered had to pay fair share. We want to insure our members understand we don’t take membership lightly, but unions need to be able to do jobs. Asks for support.

Peter Lamphere—rises to amend—asks we do campaign to get people to stay union, and ask them to pledge to stay before Janus. Says we should not wait, that we start in September. Asks we amend

LeRoy Barr—Rises to amend amendment. Says instead of stay union, we stay public school proud. Says we should strike combatting abusive principals. Says continue the campaign instead of initiate, strike the pledge.

Says Public School Proud is our campaign and everything should be channeled through it. Says it involves Constitutional Convention also. Says we already mobilize members to combat abusive administrators. Says this is about Janus. Says we muddy waters by throwing everything in. Says we will go to supe and raise heck. Says CC is first.

Mulgrew asks whether Janus is Public School Proud or Union Loud and Proud.

Hinds—Important for us to go back for sake of other unions.

Barr—Says it’s Union Loud and Proud, not Public School Proud.

Stuart Kaplan—says some stuff about Public School Proud.

Delegate—Opposes amendment to amendment. Says it’s good if we don’t complicate issues, important how we are going to organize. Not complicated, but simple. Union loud and proud is cross-union. We want to mobilize members more. This is what it’s about. Problem because there aren’t enough UFT officials to go to every school, but it says UFT members. Everyone in union should be organizer.

Bernie Schwimmer—calls all questions.
Barr’s amendment passes, and that will be amendment.

Vote on resolution as amended. Passes.

CL—point of order—

Mulgrew says second amendment is voted on and passed.

Resolution as amended passes.

Move to extend for endorsement resolution. Passes.

Paul Egan—We have many endorsements. Agenda item number two all incumbents, all endorsed.

Mulgrew—interviewed in borough offices, recommended.

Egan—moves for as written.

Endorsements pass.

James Vasquez—Townsend Harris CL wants to speak.

Reads statement about Jahoda. Describes abusive behavior. Thanks Queens UFT for support. Thanks VPs. Says there is no foolproof formula, but important all stakeholders participate. Pays tribute to fellow teachers. Says we need to stay together. Thanks leadership. Invites Mulgrew to visit.

Mulgrew gives credit for keeping staff together, says he will visit.

We are adjourned.

President’s Report

Mulgrew welcomes us.

Says last DA wasn’t happy.

National

Says we did hell of a job at state level.

Randi taking DeVos to a school. Says it’s good. Says he invited her here. Is going to Ohio district that voted 80% for Trump. She proposes to cut their budget. Best thing nationally.

Many budget cuts on horizon. Calls it circus. Who’s got worse haircut, guy in Korea or US? People who think a lot about themselves walk around with hair like that.

Everything is cuts, going after workers, new SCOTUS justice. We will prepare, but when all you see is ed. cuts, and we know Janus, new Friedrichs coming later this year, we have a clear path on what we have to do. What Randi is doing is important. Public school proud important, but Texas is outdoing us. They have sustained statewide campaign. Fought vouchers.

We in NY need to work with other teachers across country to protect and support our schools. Do they want to fight every PTA in US? We will see they do that. PTAs not red or blue. Not political—people love their kids, their kids’ schools, and will protect them.

We have to remain focused here.

State

Good news—was talking about eliminating charter cap and removing geographic cap. Wanted to change regs on use of public school space. Wanted to unfreeze tuition. Went to Albany to educate people that charters asked for freeze. Used to be three year lag. We faced cuts in recession. Charters got increases because they had a three year lag. When it was their turn to get cuts, they froze their tuition. Charters felt they were owed money. Not understood by media.

Also wanted to get rid of millionaire tax. Media was focused on DC. We beat them at every turn. Caps in place. Space regs unchanged. We didn’t unfreeze, and also got rid of their lag. We should get more per student because we have all the challenging students. They can be expensive. Very proud of work of this union. Always Senate GOP opposing us. We asked local GOP to stop voting for this. Visited them, made it happen.

We have 1.1 billion increase for ed. NYC 4.7% increase. Foundation formula helps. Millionaire tax extended two years. 40% increase for NYC Teacher Center. Union dues tax deduction for state of NY. Next challenge is Constitutional Convention. Vote no.

AFL-CIO hired campaign manager for Constitutional Convention. Will not be easy fight. Really bad people working against us. First goal is approval, will say anything to anyone to get it. Will be real fight. From now until end of summer, it’s engage members.

We think it’s important that state keep deals with working people. We will remain diligent. Please remind everyone. Will be heavy push in September.

We are pushing back on ESSA and value added scores. We believe in May we will see changes in CTE regs.

City

Our political action coordinators working hard, need meetings with city council people. City in good shape right now, but everyone keeps talking about what feds will do to us. Many contingency plans. Many potential cuts. State also worried about cuts. Told pols you can’t cut schools once you set up school years. We are at highest funding level. NY State setting up to be anti-Trump place. Rejects idea of rejecting safety net.

Says people tell him governor should burn in hell. Says NY Post in 11th circle of hell. But we talk to them when they call. Look at budget this year, protecting schools. He had a part in it and we helped him get there.

With city budget teachers choice, positive learning and many issues, but wants us to engage. We need to know if our locals will stand with public schools when feds come to destroy us. Worked with city to change lead in water protocol.

We can’t be outdone by Texas. Want to do a lot of grassroots events. School and borough based. We need to make big loud noise in September. Will do UFT van and celebrate. Asks we engage. Asks we engage in Public School Proud.

On May 1st 4.5% pay raise. Will be reflected on May 15 paycheck. Asks we make it clear at workplaces. Ends report 5:02.

Staff Director’s Report

Howard Schoor stands in place of LeRoy Barr. HS awards April 28th, 5:30 PM. May 6, 5K run. May 13th spring conference, Rev. Barber. May 15th, immigration meeting 4-6. Will give advice.

Mulgrew says first Dreamer has been deported.

Questions

CL—On lead in water—PS 289 had high level—worse than Flint—what are our procedures?

Once spigots identified, they are turned off. Schools are informed. Staff should be told. Recommends you see doctor. Asks you be tested. Refer parents to principal.

CL—Now that ELA finished, math coming, teachers told they won’t receive preps that day.

Tell DR they must contact superintendent, if that doesn’t work, contact me. We have rules and laws. There’s a law that says you can go to bathroom, in fact. This is not an emergency. They knew two months ahead of time.

CL—Student led parent teacher conferences—Some teachers volunteered, was flagged in principal’s PPO that not all teachers did it. How do we go forward?

You need SBO, cannot be mandated. That means superintendent is an idiot, doesn’t understand that she has to work with people. We have schools who SBO them. They like them. Cannot be mandated.

CL—After election of Trump many members ushered in Prez. Now they see what we’ve been talking about and feel union pride. How can we keep that going?

Our strategy is to take pride in what we do. Tactic we need is to embrace schools and have communities feel the same. We will deal with Janus. We will attack them on anti-union stuff. Asks they do Public School Proud piece.

CL—mayoral control will come up. Heard you say you are for it with changes. Can you tell me what those changes are? Chancellor not accountable to parents, abusive principals problems.

We are on record. We have a resolution. We want mayor to lose control of PEP panel. We want CEC approval on spaces. NY is only one form of mayoral control. We have most stringent. Doesn’t matter who mayor is, they think if you change it it won’t be control. We decided our form better than school boards. Were not good old days. Funding and nepotism issues. We didn’t get our form, don’t know when it will get done. Union has official position, has been voted on by this DA.

Delegate—NYSUT catastrophic insurance—are we communicating this to members?

Plan hasn’t been open for almost six years. Open period for first time. Gives you additional medical coverage. Has saved a lot of union families. Will put out a blast on this because it’s very important. You don’t know you need it until you do and then it’s too late.

Motions

Paul Egan—DA endorses for Brooklyn DA and Manhattan DA—this month.

Delegate moves for resolution for next month—in support of CPE 1.

CPE 1, wonderful school and community, thrown into turmoil by abusive principal. Targets teachers, families, children. First LIF last Feb., second last Feb, reassigned quickly. All vet teachers under investigation. One found unsubstantiated but SCI wouldn’t use word. Parents working tirelessly to protect teachers, children, culture and school community. Chancellor unresponsive. Teachers need help of union. You said we will bring 800 pound gorilla down, please move this for next month.

Howard Schoor—Asks if it’s same as EB, told no. Says similar resolution came to EB. Voted to table it. Asks you vote against it, not that we disagree. If we pass this we shut down all communication with DOE. We would have to do all these things. LeRoy Barr was there at SLT. We had 15 people there. Names people giving support. Says it is DOE problem to resolve.

Motion defeated.
Mulgrew says we are having conversations. Says it’s nasty situation. We are trying to resolve it. Thinks we’re getting there. Says it was tabled. We’re asking DOE to stop playing games. Says you can write this on your blogs. Says we are standing and doing all we need to do.

Special Order of Business

Parliamentary inquiry—James Eterno—Last two meetings I was out of order. Told last month I could not move to amend resolution. Says he could have.

Mulgrew—will check

Eterno—five speakers in favor of de Blasio, one against, chair should alternate.

Mulgrew asks for inquiry.

Eterno—Says you should alternate with opposition.

Mulgrew says he’s out of order.

Eterno—Can you respect order of inquiry, or taking turns?

Mulgrew—We will continue to select everyone. You don’t think people have right to express opinions.

Support of Andrew Hevesi’s Proposal—Paul Egan asks for support of home stability. Help resolve homeless situation in NY State. 150K homeless kids right now. More than 80K NYC facilities on brink. Would help with rent and keep them in homes instead of shelters. Will save state and city millions. Will save 151 million in NYC in one year. Feds will pick up cost for five years.


Point of info—What is difference between this program and Bloomberg’s program to put homeless into apartments? Present mayor eliminating that program.

Egan—Provides families with income to stay in their own place until they are stabilized.

Speaker stands in agreement. Has two kids in class in shelters. Parents have to bring kids from Brooklyn to Bronx. Asks for support.

Health Care for All—Ellen Driesen—Saw show in DC when they decided to repeal and replace, was great entertainment, but many people are at risk. DC crew wants to eliminate health care for 24 million. Unacceptable. We need to push for single payer. We need to get word out and lobby hard.

Mike Schirtzer—MORE--Motion to amend—additional resolved at end—Resolved that the UFT will not support any political candidate who is against the affordable care act or single-payer system.

Says in Unity there is strength. Says this is no brainer. Says IDC parades as Dems. We ought not to support pols who don’t support us.
Dave Pecoraro—Moves to divide resolved with ACA and single payer.

Says we have reality, fighting to keep ACA alive. Maybe in 2021 we can debate single payer. Says eventually there will be two separate votes.

Mel Aaronson—against both amendments—would make UFT one issue organization. Says we wouldn’t be able to support people who otherwise support us, would make us irrelevant.

question called on all matters by UFT special rep.

First resolved defeated.

Second resolved defeated.

Original resolution passes.

Chair asks if endorsements are timely. No, says Egan.

Initiative on Voter Registration—Janella Hinds—42% of Americans didn’t vote. 6th congressional district engaged people. NYS requires HS students to study government participation. This resolution says we will work with community based organizations and help students to vote. Asks for support.

CL—Rises in support. Was involved in school registration drive in middle school. Says voting discussions very rich.

Passes unanimously.

Paul Egan asks for extension, 6 PM, Mulgrew grants it without vote. For Gonzalez Brooklyn and Vance Bronx.

Gregg Lundahl—calls question.

Endorsements pass.

Mulgrew does raffle. Speaks of raise.

We are finished.

• Announcements

Mulgrew thanks us for being here.  Moment of silence for UFT members who’ve passed.

President’s report—Michael Mulgrew

National—Says we’ve set out a strategy and now have to adjust to changes. We can now officially get rid of Friedrichs and say Janus, out of Illinois. On schedule for fall docket of SCOTUS.

Said our strategy has to be to protect NY from DC. Says he will call President 45. Plan to repeal Obamacare will be voted on tomorrow. Congressman Collins from Buffalo bribed for his vote. Still has to go to Senate, but if it passes Congress, it’s now shifted a huge cost, 2.4 billion, to NY State. Until we extend or expand millionaire’s tax, we already have 3.5 billion deficit.

We’re within 12 days of budget. If we have to put plan for additional 2.4 billion, it’s a big problem. Mayor and governor working together. NYC reps understand this. Points to Andrew Pallotta from NYSUT, says he’s working with us.

We are in constant attack politically, besides challenges in workplaces. Won’t be easy. How many times can we say Public School Proud and we have to do this and that. Says we are the leadership and we have to keep pushing or they will win.

If NY pols want to screw NY worse than anyone else, they will hear from us. Says he wants to show John Oliver but language is too bad.

Likes that we can use Trump’s ed. budget to say we told you so. ESSA is still the law. Once you pass a law, it’s then up to the agency, which sets regs. Law remains and regs give guidance. ESSA regs have been rescinded. Looks like they will leave ESSA rescind regs, and thereby enable budget.

Additional funds for Title one, without regs, can be a billion dollar voucher program. Title 2A is teacher PD, Saturday, after, summer school. Trump’s person said nothing proves after school or feeding children makes them do better in school.

They want to defund, destabilize public ed. and say it doesn’t work. Want more money for charters, no transparency or accountability. Says pols are either for local public school or against it. Says we now have the most famous Secretary of Ed. in US, for wealth and incompetence.

Says this relates to Lobby Day and we will tell state officials. Education and health care are biggest pots of money and we are working together. Thanks Paul Egan for reorganizing after blizzard. We need to say Feds want to destroy public ed. and ask if they are with us or against us.

Talks snow day. Says some people have to report. It is not contractual that you report. City makes decision school based personnel have to report. Mulgrew asks why others don’t, and is told they have to take personal days. Union didn’t and wouldn’t agree to this. We have no more snow days. If we get another blizzard day added on at end of school year. Next year’s calendar has two snow days. In my heart I stand with people who say St. Patrick’s should be holiday, but torn as union leader.

Tonight there is a PEP panel closing schools. You will hear a lot about Renewal Program in mayor’s race. Third doing well, third stable, and third moving down. Tonight they are voting on 145 in the Bronx. If no supports are offered we need to tell the tale. We have reformers saying public schools are failing, will use closing schools as examples. If nothing is being done by DOE behooves them to change what’s going on. I go to Banana Kelly which is all of a sudden in better place and see a happy staff with collaborative leadership.

Teachers. counselors and secretaries have bosses. We follow directions. Administrators also have bosses, superintendents responsible to chancellor. Fault rises up when there is failing leadership. If we don’t move all of our schools reformers us this against us.

Proud of mayor for saying ICE won’t enter schools without warrant, as students were fearful. You can’t tell us our job is to protect children and ask us to step aside when people come into our buildings. ICE said we will not enter buildings except under exigent students. We don’t know what that means but we’ll see. Parents have said they are fearful.

Despite all that Public School Proud working well, will push after budgets. Will report next month.

Vouchers and tax credits across country are unprecedented. Outside NYS people are disgusted. Fewer people in ed. schools. This isn’t helpful. Still we need to educate children.

Feds no longer fund community learning schools. Teacher choice, dial a teacher and BRAVE we will push.

OPW under teacher discretion. Exception when principal mandates something, Part of arbitration.

Speaks of success in paperwork complaints.

Says principals are departmentalizing everything, including kindergarten. From K-3 departmentalization requires SBO.

4-6 ELA and math are posted positions but preference sheets must go out before decision. Departmentalizing anything else is SBO.

DOE is now approved CTLE vendor. We worked to help them because was in member interest. We can’t do their work for them. They have to do paperwork to be approved. They also have to get approved instructors. We have quite a few approved, but Monday PD is not approved because NYSED wants to know how DOE will be sure it meets criteria.

We started last June but putting CTLE together took a lot of work. DOE doesn’t work as fast as we do.

We have to stick to our plan, insulate NY, push people on public ed., renew coalitions. Saturday this place was full of guidance counselors. Thanks chapter. Saturday PM 1100 paras celebrated. Previous Sat. early childhood. College and career fair last week. Thanks Janella Hinds.

Says this is righteous fight. We’re right, they’re wrong. We’re good they’re bad. Says we take fight to them, support friends, we win. 5:10

Staff Director’s Report—LeRoy Barr

College and careers called future in focus 460 students, 26 unions, made sure children are college and career ready. Thanks Janella Hinds. Early childhood conference, guidance conference, para luncheon, March 25th, Men in Education Forum starting at 9. CL weekend. Please call and fax and thank those who participate. PEP meeting tonight, asks people to leave and show support for this school. Rich Mantel there now. We have resolution there. Go to Tweed and show support for school, against Moskowitz Academy. Enjoy break.

Questions

CL—DOE hired Randy Asher. Is DOE really trying to help ATRs or will he try to fire them?

We try to protect ATRs. We went five years with no contract and didn’t sell them out. Would have made us at will employees. Have spoken with Asher, willing to work with him. You could utilize existing agreements. I don’t know their intent. We’ll see where it goes.

CL—How can we coordinate with other unions against constitutional convention?

We are coordinating. We’ve done more school visits and may be ahead of curve. They say we only care about our pensions. Of course we’re concerned about them. Shows they don’t understand constitution. Pension is agreement. We pay this, you pay that, and this is what we get when I meet conditions for retirement. Reason is that many people didn’t get what was promised. NY State said agreement was agreement. Pols used to protect working people.

You will see this amp up after budget is settled. Great piece in New Yorker about reclusivee billionaire, donates to Trump, and a lot of money for constitutional convention.

CL—Charters—original concept was collaboration, laboratory, been eroded and made negative. Can we put forward Shanker’s view instead of DeVos’?

This was not Shanker’s idea. He changed position when he realized it was about privatization. No one remembers that. We have many examples of good ideas being mutated into bad ones. DeVos thing led us to good place with state officials. If charters solve problems, fine. If they make money or don’t take all kids we don’t want them.

History of vouchers was to avoid segregation. Some in south closed public schools and gave vouchers. Deprived African American students of school. This history will be told again. You don’t have choice if voucher covers pittance or if you’re cut out. No choice when you destroy public ed.

CL—Members worried about TRS letters saying they are at a deficit. They are receiving lump sum based on retroactivity, Pension contributions problematic.

Don’t freak out. Retro can’t be included in final pension, but is part of pay that must be included in pension. Ask Tom Brown and we will help.

Delegate—CTLE hours. Paras concerned. Having hard time getting to UFT. Issue is it’s good idea but it’s coming so much during our time. Paras don’t get paid on our level and teachers not paid on level of being constantly certified. Police laugh at us. We are giving away a lot of time. can we do this during school hours?

One of the reasons why we helped DOE become CTLE certified is this. We have four more years to get 100 hours. We will develop more in regular day.

Motions

Paul Egan—UFT supports proposal to keep people in homes and save people millions. Home stability. Passes.

Peter Lamphere—MORE—Supports JHS 145 and DA adjourning to join PEP in solidarity. Defeated

Political Endorsements—Paul Egan—Recommends endorsement of Stringer for Comptroller. Record as great advocate of our union. Stands up for our pensions and NYC fiduciary responsibility.

Michael Freedman—CL—Says he defeated Moskowitz for Manhattan borough prez.

Marjorie Stamberg—opposes Democrats and Republicans. 40% of people prefer socialist.

Question called.

Endorsement passes.

Egan—Recommends Laticia James—Didn’t defeat Moskowitz but has great track record in NYC.

Question called.

Passes

57th Anniversary UFT—Resolution—Mel Aaronson—In 1960 UFT formed through merger, and many other groups joined. Teachers all over America benefited from our work in becoming first local in country to have collective bargaining. Took a lot of work including three strikes, but this thanks those who came before us. Pledges our continued fight for what we look forward to, better ed., civil and labor rights.  Further supports fact we will support each other in safe and healthy workplace. Urges everyone to support.

Dave Pecoraro—calls question

Mulgrew asks veterans from 1960 to stand. Much applause. Standing ovation.

Regents Grading

Janella Hinds—This resolution covers scoring for Regents exams. Says what happens in January and June is waste of time and resources. We seek better system. We would like tests moved and people to remain in their schools. Asks for support.


Arthur Goldstein—MORE—For the last few years, midyear Regents exams have been a mess at my school and others. One year the principal decided that we would proctor school midterms that week. It was a disaster, as no one remembered that ESL students also take tests, and administration for students with special needs was virtually impossible at this volume. We had a new and improved plan this year that also did not work with members, who had a ton of mandated projects and no time to grade them.

This will also save the city a ton of money, which could be used for a whole slew of purposes more worthy than correcting tests. The state raises cut levels to make us look bad, and lowers them to make politicians look good. I understand that they might therefore assume we are as corrupt as they are. I’d argue there’s no reason we shouldn’t grade our own students, but since regulations rule that out, I’ll argue there’s no reason we shouldn’t grade other students from our schools. In fact, smaller districts all over the state do just that. Honestly if we aren’t honest or capable enough to grade papers, i have no idea why they even hired us.

But since they did, I urge you to vote for this resolution and restore some small degree of teacher autonomy.

CL Bryant Georgia ?—speaks against, says this is opportunity to meet other colleagues, says principals will pressure teachers, and there’s good per session.

Retired teacher—Says if tests are changed and moved, doesn’t believe principal of one school will ask you change tests for other schools. Saves money and makes sense.

Question called.

Passes

Carmen Alvarez—Support of Immigrant New Yorkers—Speaks of undocumented and fears. Federal threats chill our young people and their families. Asks we support them.

Marjorie Stamberg—Wants to amend. Would like to add to stop broken windows arrests, which undercut claim NYC is sanctuary city. Would like to not permit ICE or other immigration officials in our schools, will stop deportations.

Stuart Kaplan—opposes amendment—says resolution speaks to supporting immigrants. Says it supports families. Amendment would take away from nature of what resolution is written to do. Says we should stand with what DOE says.

Retired teacher—Understands amendment is illegal. If ICE has subpoena they can come in.

Speaker supports reso opposes changes. Compliments Stamberg. Says reso says to city you are doing right thing.

Question on amendment called.

Amendment defeated.

CL—Asks to close all matters.

Resolution passes. 5:55

Karen Allford—Supports Juvenile justice reform. Our goal is to make sure all kids read by third grade. We’ve seen coaches, libraries, after school programs but with 1.1. million kids some may be incarcerated. We don’t want 16 and 17 year olds with adults. They are children and we must support them to raise the age. Only NY and NC do this. Please support.

Question called.

Passes unanimously. 5:57

LeRoy Barr—Supports Resolution in support of JHS 145. Spoke about this a lot. Don’t want it replaced with Moskowitz Academy. We should attend tonight and make DOE do their job. A school that wants to succeed needs opportunity to do so. Please support.

Delegate from Adult ed.—Was heartbreaking to see students, former students and teachers say what they had not had. DOE sat there and said it was done deal. Moskowitz has already advertised she has space. Didn’t make a difference. Time to become rowdy.

Dave Pecoraro calls question.

James Eterno calls to amend—

Mulgrew says it is a courtesy—after back and forth rules Eterno out of order—doesn’t allow him to speak.

We are adjourned.

Update: Here is Eterno's proposed amendment.