New York TeacherSeptember 7, 2023
UFT members started the 2023-24 school year with a new contract in place that provides more money and improves their working conditions. Now, they must exercise their new contractual rights and use their collective voice to speak out if the new contract is ever ignored.
Cover Story
Contract ratified by wide margin
The UFT’s new contract with the city Department of Education was ratified with 76% of the vote.
More than 96,000 UFT members cast ballots, the largest turnout in the union’s history. The independent American Arbitration Association did the count.
Among the 66,508 teachers who cast ballots, 75% voted to ratify their contract. Among the 19,871 paraprofessionals who voted, the approval rate was 72%. The contracts for school secretaries, school counselors and most of the union’s other DOE and city job titles were also approved by wide margins,…
Latest News
Update on DOE and TRS data breach
The DOE recently notified the approximately 130,000 in-service UFT members and 36,000 former employees whose confidential information might have been exposed in a large data breach in June.
The future is already here!
As part of its contract negotiations with the UFT, the DOE revised the 2023-24 school year calendar in late June to add four more days off for students and educators and issued calendars for the following two school years at the same time.
More in News Stories
Feature Stories
‘Revolutionary’ learning experience
The Harbor Defense Museum at Fort Hamilton, with its collections of weaponry, uniforms and memorabilia from the American Revolution to World War II, is an interesting destination for a class trip.
Cultivating gratitude
The garden at PS 146 in Howard Beach, Queens, is a place of learning and encourages gratitude, and therefore responsibility, for the natural world.
Member Spotlight
Kudos to Beverly Greene, PS 55, Bronx
As a math coach, Beverly Greene knows every problem has a solution. And that’s been her motto in her role as the chapter leader at PS 55 in the Bronx.
Nadhilis Rojas, bilingual school psychologist
As the psychologist at Gotham Collaborative HS in the Bronx, Nadhilis Rojas assesses students’ needs, refers them for services and tracks their progress. As a fluent English and Spanish speaker, she can more effectively serve her diverse school community.
Around the UFT
60th anniversary of the March on Washington
Eleven busloads of UFT members and school community members were among the tens of thousands of demonstrators who gathered at the Lincoln Memorial on Saturday, Aug. 26, to mark the 60th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
Harlem Week 2023
UFT members and staff handed out books, backpacks, school supplies and other goodies to students and their families at the Harlem Week Children’s Festival at Howard Bennett Playground on Aug. 20.
Staten Island supplies giveaway 2023
The UFT Staten Island partnered with local elected officials and organizations to provide backpacks and other supplies, food and fun for more than 400 families during its annual supplies giveaway on Aug. 2.
Dominican Day Parade 2023
UFT members, family and friends celebrated Dominican culture and community on Aug. 13 by marching up Sixth Avenue or waving from the UFT’s blue-and-white float in the Dominican Day Parade.
Your Rights and Benefits
Know Your Benefits
Transit programs
If you travel to work by public transportation, you can save money by taking part in the City of New York Commuter Benefits Program, which covers the city and the tri-state area. This city benefit enables UFT members to pay for allowable commuting costs with tax-free funds.
Know Your Rights
Absences for paraprofessionals
If you are a paraprofessional, the DOE-UFT contract establishes rights and obligations in terms of when you can be absent from work. Learn about how you accumulate and can use sick days and about excused absences.
Your Well-being
Healing from burnout
Burnout is a real risk for professionals in the helping professions, which include UFT members in education and health care. If you feel dread at the prospect of going to work, you may be suffering from this condition.
You Should Know
Grants, Awards & Freebies
Grants, Awards & Freebies
See our list of current opportunities for educators to receive funds and recognition for their hard work and dedication.
For Your Information
Catastrophic major medical insurance
The Catastrophe Major Medical Plan, sponsored by NYSUT Member Benefits, offers additional coverage for expenses that a basic health plan might not. In-service members may enroll between Sept. 8 and Oct. 13, 2023.
Q&A on the Issues
Money included in the new contract
The DOE-UFT contract, ratified on July 10, includes a ratification bonus and new annual retention bonuses in addition to regular across-the-board wage increases. It also boosts reimbursement payments for medical expenses related to an injury on the job and loss of personal property. Here’s what you need to know about these new pocketbook provisions.
Secure Your Future
It’s a good time to review your pension
The start of a new school year is a good opportunity to review the basics of membership in the Teachers’ Retirement System or the Board of Education Retirement System.
Opinions
President's Perspective
Putting our contract into action
Contract enforcement all starts with understanding what the new agreement entails. Everyone should read the new contract — it’s the most important living document we as UFT members have.
VPerspective
Changing how we teach kids to read
UFT Vice President for Education Mary Vaccaro writes that the DOE will require the use of one of three evidence-based literacy programs grounded in phonics in all elementary schools by September 2024. The UFT Teacher Center is committed to doing everything it can to support educators as they make the transition.
Editorials
Fight’s not over
On Aug. 28, 1963, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. captivated an audience of 250,000 people at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom with his soaring “I Have a Dream” speech. Sixty years later, the dreams invoked that day by these civil rights icons have not been fully realized.
Editorials
Honor class-size law
Lowering class sizes in New York City is not an experiment, a wish list item, an “unfunded mandate” or just another expenditure competing for city Department of Education funding. It’s the law.
Editorial Cartoons
George Altomare is here!
UFT founder George Altomare, who died in August 2023, is greeted by fellow UFT members in heaven.
Teaching Resources
Learning Curve
Attaining National Board certification
Officially known as the second differential (C6 + PD), most members achieve the salary differential with the highest pay scale by taking 30 course credits beyond their bachelor’s and master’s degrees. But a lesser-known path to the top differential is to receive certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.
Linking to Learning
Mindfulness digital resources abound
Between the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of social media, many students are dealing with anxiety, lack of focus, tumultuous emotions or depression. There’s a proven strategy that can help: mindfulness. Here are some digital resources that can help teachers bring mindfulness practices into the classroom.
Teacher to Teacher
Building relationships with your students
I have developed five simple strategies for building genuine and affectionate relationships with my students quickly and efficiently early in the school year.
Building Your Career
Building Your Career
Inside my classroom
Second-grade teacher Candace LeDoux has her students write a daily affirmation each morning. She believes this small investment in positive thinking can have a big impact on her students’ well-being.
New Teacher Articles
Creating a welcoming classroom
Having a warm and inviting learning environment will help you connect with your students, especially those who are new to the school or even the country. Here are some suggestions for how to make your students feel welcome in your classroom from the start of the new school year.
New Teacher Profiles
Fostering pride in creativity
Jennifer Figueroa believes that anyone can be an artist. And the Bronx native, now in her third year of teaching art at PS 178 in Co-op City, knows that an expansive definition of "artist" helps kids take pride in all kinds of creativity.
Retired Teachers News
Bringing retired paras into the UFT fold
The UFT has initiated an outreach program to determine how the union can best support retired paraprofessionals. The Retired Teachers Chapter includes approximately 7,600 paraprofessionals.
Shelvy Young-Abrams, the former Paraprofessionals Chapter leader and a new retiree herself, is thrilled that the UFT is connecting with retired paras who may have felt overlooked by their union. “Our outreach will help these members understand that the union is a valuable resource for them,” she said. “Even when you retire, you are still part of the UFT.”
Retired UFT vice president Carmen Alvarez, who is leading the initiative, believes that the UFT can fill pressing needs, both practical and social, for retired paraprofessionals. “We know that our paras were hit hard in the pandemic, and we want to make sure that they know the union is there to support them whether they’re in-service or retired,…
Happy and busy ‘new year’
Over the summer, RTC members helped their teachers union colleagues in Florida reach new state-mandated union enrollment thresholds and helped the United Farm Workers union organize migrant farmworkers in New York State.
Former Queens teacher spends retirement on the run
Retired special education teacher Patricia Garone took her athleticism to a whole new level after she retired in 2016 at age 59. Since then, she has completed eight Half Ironman triathlons, two Full Ironman triathlons and dozens of other races.