This Week's Focus

Submit session time SBOs and all other SBOs by June 10

The UFT is asking chapter leaders to complete the SBO process — including the ratification vote and submission of the SBO certification and ratification form — for all SBOs by Monday, June 10. The DOE deadline for submitting DOE-approved extended-time SBOs that affect student arrivals and dismissals and changes to the 155 minutes in single-session schools is June 10 as well.

Since all SBOs sunset every year, with the exception of the 7/8 period day SBOs in elementary schools, all SBOs implemented during the 2019–20 school year must follow the SB0 process, which includes a chapter meeting, chapter survey, consultation with the principal, and approval of the SBO ballot by your district representative prior to conducting any SBO vote. Single-session schools can use the SBO process if they want to vary their session time from a standard 6-hour and 20-minute day followed by 80 minutes of professional development on Mondays and a 75-minute block of Parent Engagement and Other Professional Work time on Tuesdays. Multi-session schools, District 75 and District 79 have a 6-hour and 50-minute school day but may also use the SBO process to create time for professional development, parent engagement and Other Professional Work (OPW).

As chapter leader, you are not required to conduct an SBO that your chapter does not want. SBOs should be conducted only if there is a willingness among your staff to modify the contract. While an SBO requires the support of 55 percent of voting members for ratification, you should not put to a vote an SBO that does not have the near unanimous support of your membership.

Keep your district representative informed at every stage of the SBO process and alert your rep to any problems. Your district representative should review and approve your SBO ballot before your members vote and will provide the link to the online SBO certification and ratification form after approval of the vote. Please use the following resources to assist you with the SBO process: the UFT’s SBO Manual, SBO PowerPoint and sample SBO ballots. For more information on the 2019–20 session time guidance, see the DOE memo on Session Time Reporting for the 2019-20 School Year. Your principal should have received this memo on Tuesday, May 21.

Listen to Michael Mulgrew discuss the journey to elected office with three women lawmakers

Ever consider running for public office? Many UFT members have the skills our communities need, but they need a nudge to “stand up and run!” Listen to the latest edition of “On the Record with Michael Mulgrew” as the UFT president asks three dynamic members of the New York State Assembly — Alicia Hyndman, Jaime Williams and Carmen De La Rosa — to share their journeys to elected office and the challenges they surmounted. “On The Record with Michael Mulgrew” is available on the UFT website, iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Join us at the Puerto Rican Day Parade on June 9

UFT members are welcome to join the union’s contingent at the annual Puerto Rican Day Parade on Sunday, June 9, as we march along Fifth Avenue in celebration of Puerto Rican heritage. We will assemble at 8:30 a.m. on West 45th Street between 5th and 6th avenues. Singer Ricky Martin will serve as the parade’s Grand Marshal. Composer, musician, producer and educator Bobby Sanabria will serve as the parade’s Padrino. Singer La India will serve as the parade's Madrina. Singer and songwriter José Feliciano will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award for Music. For more information, see the Puerto Rican Day Parade flier. To sign up, please use our online form.

You made our Spring Education Conference a success

We want to express our appreciation to you for helping to turn out nearly 1,800 educators and parents at this year’s UFT Spring Education Conference on May 18. Participants enjoyed a great day featuring informative workshops, a mariachi performance by Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza and a surprise appearance by U.S. Sen. Kristen Gillibrand, who encouraged women to get involved politically at the local and national levels. In the morning town hall, UFT President Michael Mulgrew talked with three State Assemblywomen about what it takes to run for elected office. Again this year, scores of UFT members shared their tweets and photos on social media. See photos from the event on the UFT website and check out the #UFTspring tweets that capture the spirit of the day.

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Your Chapter Leader Checklist

• New Guidance for June 11 clerical day: If you work in an elementary, middle or District 75 school, please assure your school secretaries and other members that the clerical day scheduled for Tuesday, June 11, remains a day for clerical work. This year, there is prekindergarten and no pre-K professional learning scheduled on the clerical day. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact your district representative.

• New Consult with your principal on your school’s budget: Now that school budgets have been released to principals by the DOE, you should seek an immediate consultation with your principal to review it. Remember that Article 8C of the DOE-UFT contract gives the chapter leader, along with the UFT consultation committee, the right to review as well as provide input into your school’s spending decisions. Chancellor’s Regulation A-655 also grants School Leadership Teams the ability to ensure that the school budget is aligned to the school’s Comprehensive Educational Plan. The union has a Guide for School Budget Consultation to explain how the budget consultation process works and to provide you and your chapter with tools to understand the various components comprising the school budget.

• UPDATED — Use caution when considering special education SBOs: Given the Department of Education’s continuing difficulty in meeting students’ IEP needs and ongoing special education teacher shortages, chapter leaders should exercise caution when considering out-of-classroom special education positions. The SBO process should not be used to create or to continue out-of-classroom special education positions if your school has special education teacher/provider vacancies for SETSS, ICT or special (self-contained) classes; student IEPs are not fully served; or the creation of the position would result in oversize classes or teacher caseloads. If any of these conditions are present, the UFT will not approve the SBO. Out-of-classroom positions cannot take precedence over the provision of instructional services necessary to meet students’ IEP needs and mandates. With this information in mind, if a UFT chapter is considering creating a locally funded out-of-classroom IEP teacher position, subject to the SBO process, the UFT will only approve positions that replicate the centrally funded IEP/Intervention Teacher posting and where the DOE has committed funding for the teacher to receive the required training. Other out-of-classroom special education positions will be reviewed and approved on a case-by-case basis. To avoid confusion, such positions should not use “IEP” in the title. These other positions may be used to help with compliance with special education regulations, lead professional learning and/or participate in special education liaison meetings and activities. Keep in mind that teachers and related service providers should not be writing IEPs for students they do not personally serve unless the IEPs are for students newly referred or new to the building. Make sure that the creation of these other types of special education positions is discussed with your district representative and the SBO ballot is approved prior to holding a vote. For more information about the SBO process, see the SBO page of the UFT website. If you have any questions, please contact MaryJo Ginese, the UFT vice president for special education, at Mginese [at] uft [dot] org (Mginese[at]uft[dot]org) or 212-598-7706.

• UFT certificates for graduates: The UFT’s officers and the chairpersons of the Professional Committees have a long tradition of supporting and rewarding our schools’ graduates by awarding certificates for excellence in academic achievement. Certificates may be presented to the most deserving students in each subject area. Download the certificates of excellence in academic achievement from the chapter leader section of the UFT website (you must be logged in to gain access). For more information, you can contact the Office of UFT Professional Committees at 212-598-7772.

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Share with Your Members

New Classroom Café Podcast Series for New Members flier

School Secretaries of the Year Awards Luncheon flier

Labor History Month 2019 poster of events

UFT Pride Committee Daniel Dromm Scholarship Brunch flier

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You Should Know

Functional Chapters

UFT luncheon to honor School Secretaries: School secretaries are encouraged to attend the 33rd annual UFT School Secretaries of the Year Awards Luncheon on Saturday, June 15, from noon to 4 p.m. at UFT headquarters, 52 Broadway, 2nd floor. Register online.

Health and Safety

New Guidelines for the use of EpiPens: The DOE has a comprehensive plan to identify and treat students who have food allergy emergencies. All school nurses must have training on the use of an EpiPen to administer epinephrine to any student having an anaphylactic reaction. In a school where a student has a medical order on file for the use of an EpiPen, the principal is responsible for ensuring that at least two non-nursing school staff members are trained to use it. A student may also carry an EpiPen if they have been determined able to self-administer medication. For more information, see the Chancellor’s Regulation regarding use of EpiPens. For details on EpiPen safety and to report an injury, see the OSHA FAQ, the DOE pamphlet and the DOE injury report.

New Air conditioning guidelines and complaints: During the 2019 official air-conditioning season, which runs from Wednesday, May 29, to Tuesday, Sept. 24, school room temperatures should be no lower than 78 degrees. There is no regulation mandating an upper temperature limit, only comfort guidelines. The UFT will address temperature complaints on a case-by-case basis with the DOE Division of School Facilities. Members who want to file a complaint should keep a log of the room temperature and also provide specific information including: Are the rooms in question interior rooms whose only source of air is provided by a mechanical ventilation system? If so, is the mechanical ventilation system working? Are the rooms overcrowded? Are the rooms occupied by special needs students? What are the room temperatures? For more information, read the City of New York Cooling Season Guidelines 2019 and the UFT Guidance for Schools without Air Conditioning 2019.

Opportunities

New PRIDE parades in Queens and Brooklyn: UFT members are invited to march with their union in the Queens Pride Parade on Sunday, June 2, and the Brooklyn Pride Parade at twilight on Saturday, June 8. In Queens, on June 2, a UFT liaison will greet people at the corner of 90th Street and 37th Avenue in Jackson Heights and direct you to the UFT delegation. Please arrive by 11 a.m. The Queens parade kicks off at noon. In Brooklyn, on June 8, a UFT liaison will greet participants at the corner of Sterling Place and 5th Avenue in Park Slope and direct you to the UFT delegation. Please arrive by 6 p.m. The parade kicks off at 7 p.m. Use this UFT online form to sign up for one or both parades.

African American Museum weekend in August: UFT members are invited to attend a three-day excursion to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., from Friday through Sunday, Aug. 16-18. The price, which ranges from $368 to $569 (please add $1 for handling), includes round-trip luxury motor coach; hotel accommodations for two nights; two breakfast buffets; two dinners (Phillips Seafood and Gadsby’s Tavern Restaurant); two-day museum admission; a guided bus tour of Washington, D.C.; mall and casino visits; and all taxes and tips. Reservations are first come, first served, so book your seats early. For more information and to register, download the mail-in coupon.

Political Action

Take Action Keep our students’ contact information safe from charter schools! Our students’ private contact information is shared with charter schools. Tell Mayor Bill de Blasio to stop divulging our students’ confidential information. This practice started when, to help the charter school industry expand, former Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his schools chancellor, Joel Klein, made the information available to charter schools. Charter schools then marketed their schools directly to public school families. Please send an email to Mayor de Blasio and tell him it’s time to stop giving a leg up to charter school chains at the expense of our traditional public schools.

Take Action Make your voice heard in the 2020 election: The American Federation of Teachers, the UFT’s national affiliate, announced a new endorsement process for 2020 presidential candidates. The process is designed to ensure member input and engagement with respect to who receives the AFT’s support. Ask your members to complete the AFT’s Presidential Endorsement Survey to tell the AFT which issues they want the presidential candidates to discuss. AFT President Randi Weingarten is calling on members to help elect a president who supports living wages, public education, higher education and health care as rights, not as privileges.

Educate members about the Patient Protection Act: The UFT is part of a coalition of labor, consumer, health and business organizations working to contain excessive “out-of-network” emergency hospital charges. When insurers pay exorbitant out-of-network costs, patients usually pay higher rates the following year. Government employers, including New York City agencies, must absorb this cost, which means less money for raises in the next contract talks. That’s why the UFT urges state lawmakers to pass the Patient Protection Act (A.264-A) this legislative session ending in late June. The bill would extend the independent — and successful — arbitration process that has curbed “out-of-network” emergency doctors’ bills in New York since 2014 and apply the same process to comparable sky-high emergency room charges by hospitals. We need to end this price gouging by hospitals. Read UFT President Michael Mulgrew’s op ed, “Stop sky’s-the-limit hospital bills,” in Crain’s New York Business and spend five minutes of your next chapter meeting talking about this bill with your members.

Rights and Grievances

Preference sheets for next year’s assignments: By now, all teachers should have received their preference sheets for next year, according to the DOE-UFT contract. The contract also spells out the options UFT-represented teachers have in choosing positions. Probationary teachers should ask for assignments in their license area when they fill out their preference sheets for next year because teaching out of license might result in an extension of probation, delaying their tenure. Read the Know Your Rights column on program preferences and professional activities. Special education teacher programs may look different in some schools based on the DOE Flexible Program Guide and special education reform, but the contractual language covering teacher programs has not changed. For a review of the contractual language as it pertains to preference sheets and a link to the DOE Flexible Program Guide, read about program preference and special education in the students with disabilities section of the UFT website.

Salary and Personnel

Take Action Ask members denied student loan forgiveness to fill out the AFT survey: If you’re a UFT member who participated in the Federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program for more than 10 years and were denied loan forgiveness, the AFT wants to hear from you. The AFT will use the survey results to inform its actions to help people struggling with student loan debt. Specifically, the AFT is looking for members whose applications for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program have been denied. Such members must meet the following criteria: made 120 payments on federal student loans; worked in a public or private school, for the government, or for a nonprofit organization for at least 10 years; and applied for and were denied public service loan forgiveness. If you fit this description, please participate in the AFT’s quick survey. The AFT may then reach out to you to learn more about your experience. Any information you share is strictly confidential unless you give your express permission.

Errors in school calendar in the New York Teacher: The school calendar that ran in the May 2 issue of the New York Teacher had several mistakes including the day that teachers must report. As is customary, teachers return the day after Labor Day and have two days to prepare for the start of school. They report on Tuesday, Sept. 3, not Wednesday, Sept. 4. See the corrected calendar.

Earn CAR time for per-session work: Members who coach or do other per-session activities can earn Cumulative Absence Reserve (CAR) time for this work. If you work in the same per-session activity between September and June, you can accrue per-session sick-leave hours after every 20 consecutive sessions. For per-session athletic coaches with verified schedules: The hours at the end of 20 consecutive sessions, regardless of the number of hours in each session, add up to the total hours worked in the 20-session period. The total is then divided by 20 to arrive at the average length of a session for sick leave to be transferred. All other teachers earn one session of sick leave for each 20 sessions worked after 20 consecutive sessions. At the end of the activity, the payroll secretary completes the Per-Session Unused Sick Time Transfer Form documenting the accrued per-session sick time for transfer to your regular CAR bank. The payroll secretary, the head of the activity and the member must sign this form, certifying the time is accurate. Members should receive a copy. More detailed information on per-session rights and CAR time is found on the UFT website.

Special Education

New Update on 2019-20 IEP/Intervention Teacher job postings: According to the May 14, 2019, issue of the Principals’ Weekly, schools that received a centrally funded IEP/Intervention Teacher position for this school year should only post the position for the 2019-20 school year if they have or anticipate having a vacancy for the upcoming school year. As reflected in the current posting, the IEP/Intervention Teacher position is a four-year position only for teachers who started in the 2016-17 school year. Newly hired IEP/Intervention Teachers will continue to be on a three-year cycle. The allocation of IEP/Intervention Teacher positions will be reassessed next year to ensure that the DOE is accounting for enrollment trends, school openings and closings, and other factors. If you have any question about your school’s eligibility for an IEP/Intervention Teacher position, see the DOE’s Fiscal Year 2018 School Allocation Memo.

Teaching and Learning

Clarification on lesson plans: Chancellor Richard Carranza and UFT President Michael Mulgrew issued a joint letter to clarify a mutual position on the importance of lesson planning and how it relates to teachers’ professional voice and choice in writing lesson plans. Please carefully review the lesson plan letter for clarification on member rights and responsibilities. For more information, see the lesson plan page of the UFT website.

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This Week in Education and Labor News

Democratic hopefuls band with Fight for $15 strikers: Striking McDonald’s workers on May 23 were joined by a handful of Democratic presidential candidates in their push to unionize and raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, reports ABC News. The strike coincides with McDonald’s annual shareholder meeting in Dallas, Texas. McDonald’s cooks and cashiers are striking in major cities around the country. 2020 Democrats, including Mayor Bill de Blasio and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro, marched with the workers at various strike sites.

Schools in Michigan — Betsy DeVos’ home state — continue to flounder: Michigan schools continue to perform poorly for every major group of students, according to the Detroit News. A 2019 annual report examining the state’s schools says Michigan ranked 35th in 4th-grade reading and 33rd in 8th-grade math in 2017. The state ranks in the bottom third in early literacy and among the bottom for every major group of students: African-American, Latino, white, low-income and higher-income students. Experts say Michigan must focus on improving equitable access to early childhood education, provide better professional development for teachers, and revamp its funding system.

Bernie Sanders would double federal school funding: Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders on May 17 released a K-12 education platform that would triple Title 1 funding and increase special education funding, according to the LA School Report. Sanders’ Thurgood Marshall Plan for Public Education, which would more than double the current federal education expenditure, touches nearly every aspect of public education and calls for $3.7 billion for career and technical programs and $3.8 billion for after-school and summer programs. Other proposals would limit charter schools and protect LGBT students.

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Events Calendar

Featured

Saturday, June 1: The second annual UFT Pride Committee Daniel Dromm Scholarship Brunch takes place at UFT headquarters, 52 Broadway, 2nd floor, from noon to 3 p.m. The registration fee is $75. For more information and to download the mail-in coupon, see the Daniel Dromm Scholarship Brunch flier.

This Week

Thursday, May 30: Queens-based members are invited to a paid parental leave workshop from 4:30 to 6 p.m. at the UFT’s Queens borough office, 97-77 Queens Blvd., 8th floor, Rego Park. Register for this workshop.

Friday, May 31: REGISTRATION CLOSED — Bronx-based high school students and their families are invited to the UFT/DOE Pathways to Career Excellence Fair from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the UFT Bronx borough office, 2500 Halsey St.

Upcoming LearnUFT workshops

LearnUFT, the UFT’s professional development institute, offers an array of affordable workshops and professional learning opportunities for UFT members. The cost to register, unless otherwise indicated, is $30 for teachers seeking CTLE hours and $15 without CTLE hours. The cost for all paraprofessionals is $15. Participants will earn two CTLE hours for each workshop, unless otherwise specified.

These workshops will take place at UFT borough offices, unless otherwise indicated:

See LearnUFT courses in the Bronx »
See LearnUFT courses in Brooklyn »
See LearnUFT courses in Manhattan »
See LearnUFT courses in Queens »
See Learn UFT courses on Staten Island »

For a full listing of upcoming LearnUFT workshops, see the LearnUFT page on the UFT website.

For more events, go to uft.org/calendar.

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In Case You Missed It

Photo Gallery: Albert Shanker Scholarship Awards 2019

Photo Gallery: District 24 Scholarship Dinner Dance 2019

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Professional Committees

UFT Professional Committees offer a wide range of workshops, presentations and exchanges, enabling all members to take an active part in their professional growth. Unless indicated, meetings are at UFT headquarters, 52 Broadway, Manhattan. Check in the lobby for exact locations. For further information, contact us at 212-598-7772 or visit us online.

Capably Disabled

• Thursday, May 30, from 4:15 to 6 p.m., Caregiver Support. For more information, see the Caregiver Support flier.

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Editor: Peter O’Donnell

Executive Editor: Bernadette Weeks

Contributors include: Karen Alford, George Altomare, Amy Arundell, LeRoy Barr, Jackie Bennett, Hannah Brown, Rashad Brown, Emelina Camacho-Mendez, David Campbell, Doreen Berrios-Castillo, Evelyn DeJesus, Crystal Deoraj, Alison Gendar, MaryJo Ginese, Anthony Harmon, Sarah Herman, Janella Hinds, Jennifer Long, Joe LoVerde, Samantha Mark, Deidre McFadyen, Michael Murphy, Gabriel Nott, Suzanne Popadin, Debra Poulos, Jeff Povalitis, Cassie Prugh, Nadine Reis, Chris Santoro, Michael Sill, Anne Silverstein and Liz Truly.