Faza Khalid, the chapter leader at PS 36 in Harlem, used the consultation process to get some unwelcome guests kicked off school grounds this year: a troop of rowdy raccoons.

When PS 315, the East Village Community School, moves on Sept. 8 into the First Avenue building that houses PS 19, the chapter leaders for the two Manhattan schools can take a bow for their work in ensuring a smooth merger that meets the needs of both chapters.


Emma Gomez, a new chapter leader job at PS 206 in Rego Park, Queens, organized an action every single weekday in March 2020 as part of the Queens borough office’s March Madness initiative in schools to help boost morale and build strong chapters. 

A shoutout to Jason Bentsen, the first-year chapter leader at IS 72 on Staten Island, for solving the safety issue of doors at the school that had no locks and sometimes even no doorknobs.

Christopher Arroyo, the new chapter leader at the Brooklyn School for Math and Research in Bushwick, created the high school’s first-ever consultation committee in the fall, which immediately led to improvements in school safety and compensation for remote work.

Alaa Yousef was elected chapter leader at Park Slope Collegiate in Brooklyn this October, and in her first action in that role, she used the operational issues complaint process to get her members paid for instructional lunch periods. When those payments stopped, she resumed her fight.