Chapter leaders this year have been called upon to be safety inspectors, counselors, advocates and experts on the blizzard of newly negotiated work rules. Marquis Harrison, the chapter leader at Frederick Douglass Academy in Harlem, energetically stepped into these new roles.

In June, Harrison organized a UFT Reimagined Committee of 10 staff volunteers who spent the summer devising plans for a safe reopening. Members of the committee went into the building and measured each room to determine how many students enrolled in the grade 6–12 school could be accommodated with six-foot distancing.

They followed up by programming classes so that each high school grade came in on a separate day with the middle school grades scheduled for Friday and special needs students on multiple days, all approved by the administration.

Now he is advocating to his administration that as many staff members as possible be granted the opportunity to work remotely. With 40 percent of the academy’s staff now working on site, he continues to meet with the principal to win approval for 15 members to do some of their work remotely in accordance with the Oct. 5 DOE-UFT agreement.

From the beginning, Harrison, a teacher of U.S. government and politics at Frederick Douglass for 13 years and the school’s chapter leader for 12 years, has reassured administration and his members that by working together, “We can do it.”

He spoke of the dual challenge of supporting members working at home who sometimes lack the resources they need and of supporting members at the school who are still anxious about their safety.

“I’m involved around the clock, trying to respond immediately to all emails and calls,” he said.

Tihira Haffoney, a special education teacher at Frederick Douglass Academy, said Harrison regularly calls her and other remote teachers to make sure “we have the resources we need and proper scheduling.”

Haffoney marvels at how Harrison can pull it off. “I don’t know how he does it,” she said. “He’s always there to make sure we’re safe, supported, comfortable and respected.”