The top leadership of New York State United Teachers, the UFT’s state affiliate, changed at its annual Representative Assembly in Albany, but NYSUT’s objectives remain the same. Union leaders vowed to continue fighting to reduce standardized testing, address staffing shortages and strengthen pensions.

Melinda Person, the union’s executive director and political director, was elected to a three-year term as president at the annual event on April 28 and 29. She succeeds Andy Pallotta, a former UFT district representative in the Bronx who stepped down after six years as NYSUT’s president.

The convention honored UFT members with five of the 10 NYSUT awards of excellence. Marilyn Manley, who retired in 2022 as UFT District 27 representative, received the “Not for Ourselves Alone”: The Sandy Feldman Outstanding Leadership Award. Over her long career as an educator, Manley moved from paraprofessional to teacher and then librarian before becoming the first woman of color to be a UFT district representative in Queens.

The event also featured speeches by AFT President Randi Weingarten, national AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler and state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, among other labor and political leaders.

“Education isn’t just a job — it is a calling, and our union protects that calling,” Person said. The new NYSUT president said she wants to expand the union’s power, add new members, deal with school staffing issues, push for Tier 6 pension equity and restore local control of teacher evaluations.

Labor leaders and members thanked Pallotta, an educator for 37 years, for his successful stewardship of the nearly 700,000-member union of teachers, school-related professionals, health care workers and retirees.

“To Andy Pallotta, our brother and our good friend, we thank you for your years of service, and we love you,” UFT President Michael Mulgrew said.

Delegates elected UFT member Jaime Ciffone as NYSUT executive vice president. The former English as a new language teacher, instructional coach and UFT Teacher Center staffer will focus on professional development and educational research at NYSUT. She will also work on teacher recruitment and retention, she said, to “get our young people into the profession and have them stay and have them feel that joy and passion and love for teaching that I was afforded.”

Renee Freeman, a one-to-one para at the Academy for Medical Technology in Queens, received a School-Related Professional Member of the Year Award. Freeman, an advocate for professional development tailored to paras, was the interim acting first vice chair of the Paraprofessionals Chapter when she received the award.

Retired teacher Nina Tribble received a Retiree Member of the Year Award. The first Black chapter leader at JHS 190 in Forest Hills, Tribble continues her union advocacy as an active Retired Teachers Chapter member and volunteers for pro-union political candidates around the country.

Elvie Smith, a nurse educator at NYU Langone Hospital–Brooklyn, received a Health Care Professional Member of the Year Award.

Delegates also honored Billy Green, a dynamic chemistry teacher at A. Philip Randolph Campus HS in Harlem, who was named the 2023 New York State Teacher of the Year.