Cara Matthews
New York Teacher Senior Editor/Reporter
Educational support team key to District 75 hydroponics lab
The hydroponics lab at P141K at IS 71, a District 75 site that serves students with profound learning challenges, allows students to participate in gardening activities year-round. The students have the opportunity to witness the plant life cycle from seed to fruit.
Schools to be closed on Dec. 23 for the winter holiday
Monday, Dec. 23, will now be a school holiday, thanks to union advocacy, parental support and a student petition backed by UFT members from across the city. UFT President Michael Mulgrew, New York City Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos and Mayor Eric Adams announced the agreement at a press conference on Oct. 30 at UFT headquarters.
UFT presses city to pay up
At an Oct. 3 press conference on the steps of City Hall, UFT President Michael Mulgrew and UFT Family Child Care Providers Chapter Leader Tammie Miller demanded that the city pay 47 child care providers who lost out on two months’ payments after the network that employed them went bankrupt and closed.
Next steps on class size
The UFT's new class size committee is mounting a member-driven campaign to educate school communities about the state law that limits class sizes, share success stories and provide school chapters with steps they can take to move the process forward.
Growing bilingual special ed ranks
With New York City facing a chronic shortage of bilingual special education teachers, the UFT was able to negotiate a new incentive program to encourage tenured special education teachers with a bilingual extension to combine those two specialties.
Retirees help turn out the vote
uFT retirees turned out in force this election cycle to make calls and knock on doors in support of Kamala Harris for president and other union-endorsed candidates down the ballot.
Trading lesson plans for shopping lists
Retiree Lorraine Castro has traded in lesson plans for shopping lists since joining forces with her daughter, an in-service teacher at DeWitt Clinton HS in the Bronx, to launch Flavor Bandits, a food truck business that serves up empanadas and other food at events north of New York City.
Medicare 101: All you need to know
Signing up for Medicare involves more than just checking a box on a form; there are multiple parts to Medicare, and rules and premiums vary.
UFT is dialed in for its candidates
UFT members hit the phone lines and fanned out from New York City to Philadelphia and Scranton, Pennsylvania, this fall to campaign for Kamala Harris for president, as well as other pro-union, pro-education candidates down the ballot on Nov. 5.
UFT members get on board
Energized UFT members paired up with their fellow union members from the Philadelphia Teachers Union and AFT Pennsylvania on Sept. 21 to get out the vote for Kamala Harris in the battleground state.