tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54947679658420749712024-03-13T12:28:11.134-04:00ATR NYC, blog of displaced DOE staffThis blog is hosted on behalf of the ACR/ATR Chapter Committee, a group seeking ACR/ATR chapters in the UFT, advocating for ourselves and offering mutual support.
We welcome testimonials of your concerns and troubles as a displaced teacher, librarian, secretary, guidance counselor, social worker, psychologist, or speech or hearing therapist in rotation for the NYC DOE. Email to atrnyc@gmail.comATRshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08980651223972002550noreply@blogger.comBlogger135125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5494767965842074971.post-7972673061783113212023-12-01T23:26:00.001-05:002023-12-01T23:27:04.888-05:00Still rotating<b>Some are rotating still, albeit on a yearly basis.</b>
Are you one of these folks?
How do you get excessed?ATRshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08980651223972002550noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5494767965842074971.post-56251451314350851292023-05-14T12:21:00.005-04:002023-05-14T19:47:10.933-04:00NYC Retirees’ Struggle to Save Traditional Medicare is a National FightFrom Work-Bites, March 22, 2023:
<br>
<br>
Retirees that have tried Medicare Advantage are not happy with it, probably owing to the denials of service / coverage.<br>
<blockquote><i>Studies show disenrollments from Medicare Advantage plans are, indeed, on the rise — up from 10 percent in 2017 to 17 percent in 2021. The Kaiser Family Foundation [KFF] also finds that over two million prior authorization requests were denied that same year — with only 11 percent appealed.</i></blockquote>
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<br><br>
Read the entire post here on the betrayal of the New York City municipal retirees by their unions and elected officials of both parties. The article discusses how this attack on Medicare access is a national fight. The article focuses on struggles in New York, Vermont and Washington state. Many of the activists in the New York City area that you've heard of and experts that you may not have heard of.
<br><br>
<b><a href="https://www.work-bites.com/view-all/nf8wzro5qvtwghc800aotz5hcnzwl6" target="_blank">NYC Retirees’ Struggle to Save Traditional Medicare is a National Fight</a></b>
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Among the organizations and their activists cited: Cross-Union Retirees Organizing Committee [CROC], New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees [NYCOPSR]; and then, several in the Seattle, Puget Sound, Washington area.
<br><br>
Another important set of quotes and information on how this disaster of federally sanctioned denial of medical care --all for corporate profit-- worsened:
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<blockquote><i>At 90, Dr. Leonard Rodberg, professor emeritus of Urban Studies at Queens College in New York City is one of the fiercest opponents of Democratic Mayor Eric Adams’ relentless drive to Medicare Advantage. Nevertheless, the veteran academic says he’s willing to accept labor leaders supportive of the privatization scheme are “principled, honorable people” who simply believe “Medicare Advantage is good because Aetna tells them this is good as SeniorCare [Medicare].”
<br><br>
“It’s just a lie — and they bought it,” Dr. Rodberg says.
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Johnson maintains bigwigs from both the Republican and Democratic parties have been pushing healthcare for a long time, and that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has become a “revolving door for the insurance industry.”
<br><br>
He’s critical of Dr. Elizabeth Fowler — deputy administrator and director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation and former executive vice-president of programs at the Commonwealth Fund and vice-president for Global Health Policy at Johnson & Johnson — for her role in crafting the Senate version of the Affordable Care Act [ACA] while acting as Chief Health Counsel to Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus [D-MT].
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“She is largely responsible for the fact that we don’t have the ability to negotiate over prescription drugs; why there was not a public option within the ACA; and she has been in the insurance industry,” Johnson says.
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A “small, little paragraph” within the “humungous” ACA bill, Johnson points out, allows for “different forms of providing Medicare without Congressional approval.”
<br><br>
“That’s how ACO REACH or prior to that, Direct Contact under the Trump administration, came about,” Johnson says. “It was, ‘We’re gonna open up Medicare to Wall Street and Congress can’t take it away from us.’”</i></blockquote>ATRshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08980651223972002550noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5494767965842074971.post-61519443663882263502023-04-07T18:00:00.005-04:002023-04-07T23:54:17.418-04:00URGENT CALL TO ACTION! Rally For NYC Employees' Healthcare & Attend City Council Meeting Tuesday, 4/11 at 12 PM<b>URGENT CALL TO ACTION!</b><br><br>
<b>Rally For Our Healthcare & Attend City Council Meeting</b>, Tuesday, April 11th at 12 PM <br><br>
<b>*Retirees + Active City Workers*</b><br><br>
Educators, let’s unite with retirees and city workers.<br><br>
<a href="https://preview.mailerlite.io/emails/webview/341989/84806215527302435?fbclid=IwAR1271rGnXfJitxFbVm1_YoK6jS6pkMa3YHNfhlxect-c0KLiUqVY-BmfKI" target="_blank">Learn more here about this City Hall rally here.</a>
<br><br>AND:<br><br>
<a href="https://hcpetition.educators.nyc/" target="_blank">Please be sure to sign and circulate this petition to preserve our healthcare.</a>
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"Dear friend,
<br><br>
Our allies, <b>NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees</b> have put out this urgent call to action for a rally at City Hall this coming Tuesday, April 11, at 12 PM, to all city retirees and all active city workers:
<br><br>**************<br><br>
"This is a call to rally for us to be heard! Time is of the essence! <br><br>
Afterwards, we will be attending the City Council meeting & urging them to introduce our proposed bill!!<br><br>
Bring your loved ones. This affects them too! This rally is for retirees and retirees in training (in-service/active workers). <br><br>
This is your healthcare that the Municipal Labor Committee - dominated by the UFT and DC37, agreed to diminish. eliminating all our health plans and forcing us into Medicare Advantage. This is anti-labor and Un-American. <br><br>
Medicare is a public health benefit! Be there with us!"<br><br>
*************<br><br>
In light of the unilateral decisions to force retired civil servants and essential workers who dedicated their lives in service to New York City into a diminished healthcare network and the MLC's secret, undisclosed proposed changes to active worker healthcare, its time we galvanize together to tell the City, and those who represent us, that we stand UNITED FOR OUR PREMIUM-FREE, QUALITY HEALTHCARE. <br><br>
Make plans to attend this coming Tuesday. We need everyone there." <br><br>
Also,
<a href="https://actionnetwork.org/letters/pledge-to-support-nyc-retirees-proposed-health-care-bill" target="_blank">please sign this letter to the New York City Council.</a>ATRshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08980651223972002550noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5494767965842074971.post-2666517392533635082023-03-09T07:08:00.004-05:002023-03-09T07:08:40.747-05:00EMERGENCY MOBILIZATION: TODAY, 3/9, 11:30: 1 Bowling Green, NYC NO Medicare Dis-Advantage for New York City Municipal Retirees<b>EMERGENCY MOBILIZATION
<br><br>
NO Medicare Dis-Advantage for New York City Municipal Retirees</b>
<br><br>
New York City Municipal retirees have been fighting for almost three years to prevent the City from switching our excellent traditional public Medicare with a supplement to an inferior, privatized Medicare Advantage Plan. After a successful lawsuit challenge, the City tried doing an "end run" by lobbying the City Council to change a law that has protected our healthcare for decades-- Administrative Code 12-126. This change would not only have affected retirees but could have also diminished current city workers' health benefits.
<br><br>
<b>Retirees fought back and the City Council did not make this change.</b>
<br><br>
Now the Municipal Labor Committee (MLC) and the Mayor are on the verge of forcing us into a life threatening for-profit Aetna/CVS Medicare Advantage plan with the vote by the MLC taking place on March 9th.
<br><br>
If this " nuclear option" is approved, retirees will no longer have the choices they have always had. They will be forced into the new Aetna Medicare Advantage plan and if they opt out they will lose all other NYC health benefits they and their dependents have always received: no Medigap coverage, no drug plan and no health coverage for family dependents.
<br><br>
<b>When: Thursday, March 9th, 2023 at 11:30am</b>
<br><br>
<b>Where: Gather at 11:30am by the steps of the Smithsonian Museum across from Battery Park (next to the Bowling Green 4 and 5 subway stop)</b>
<br><br>
<b>What: After brief remarks, we will march past the offices of the UFT, PSC, OLR and DC37 and end up in front of City Hall. There will be short statements at each location from various union members. Arrive at City Hall by 1pm</b>
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<br><br>
A Facebook page for retirees to follow: <br>
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100083564642341&paipv=0&eav=AfYR_0SkVeDGYNwiZsC9Ro76C_6drvyF3lTtjpO4ODURKnidxTHlxQ7CYc8rsCex8hs&_rdr">CROC</a>
<br><br>
An article on this fight, in 'Labor Notes' magazine, March 8, 2023:
<a href="https://labornotes.org/2023/03/new-york-city-retirees-fight-their-own-unions-stop-catastrophic-health-care-cuts?fbclid=IwAR2x-BnDVMuX7_pZQaCKBvIsiKVXQcUUi7dJ1bHgMBT2dFkQyamE4uSYHFE"><b>'New York City Retirees Fight Their Own Unions to Stop Catastrophic Health Care Cuts'</b></a>
ATRshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08980651223972002550noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5494767965842074971.post-404417521995380972022-04-03T20:29:00.003-04:002022-04-03T20:52:59.910-04:00DOE teachers: considering retirement?: It's not just the 20 years you want to pass; age an important considerationConsidering retirement?
The <a href="http://chaz11.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-passing-of-chaz-1951-2020-age-69.html">dearly departed Chaz, generous, resourceful, humorous</a>, <a href="http://iceuftblog.blogspot.com/2021/05/one-year-since-chaz-passing.html">long may his memory live and his lessons for us.</a><br><br><br>
--Especially also his financial tips. <br>Let us recall his tips. Some things to consider: be sure to read again his posts on pensions, the tiers and retirement.
<br><br>
Everyone says be sure to pass your 20 years in the NYC DOE, to improve your pension.
<br><br>
BUT, be sure to consider also age. The older you get, the better your payout, according to these charts on Tier IV and Tier VI.
<br><br>
From back in 2014: <a href="http://chaz11.blogspot.com/2014/12/a-simple-chart-to-determine-your-tier-4.html">"A Simple Chart To Determine Your Tier 4 Pension."</a>
<br>
Lots of factors to consider, as the above article indicates. <br>For example:<br>"Age Correction Factor:
No educator can receive a regular pension before the age of 55. Between 55 and 61 years of age, the pension is reduced by the age correction factor. However, if the educator is part of the 25/55 program or has completed 30 years of service, no age correction factor is used."
<br><br>
Source for these charts: Chaz School's Daze post, "Saturday, January 20, 2018
<a href="https://chaz11.blogspot.com/2018/01/two-simple-charts-that-coare-tier-iv.html" target="_blank">Two Simple Charts That Compare Tier IV and Tier VI Pension Plans."</a>
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<br><br>
Tier VI is an outrage. However, few ATRs are Tier VI.
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq3-SfrFIvIw9WDNNnMwUBuhgkTonb-1XZITiR6F0AR-H5j18_JdHwLAEoIGa9VQ4mZ2ew2TYxyAgXQcA3Q8mxM6V7DXBMjQN4bUmMxBYys2h5_W5jnMgmYBR_Ou1BRDEL8LZytFTiJONM1Li2zhW728kKGnAaCgE7YijTlp-If9P6pD3Ka6JnhHRIBA/s621/Capture%20-%20VI%20chart.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="621" data-original-width="461" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq3-SfrFIvIw9WDNNnMwUBuhgkTonb-1XZITiR6F0AR-H5j18_JdHwLAEoIGa9VQ4mZ2ew2TYxyAgXQcA3Q8mxM6V7DXBMjQN4bUmMxBYys2h5_W5jnMgmYBR_Ou1BRDEL8LZytFTiJONM1Li2zhW728kKGnAaCgE7YijTlp-If9P6pD3Ka6JnhHRIBA/s320/Capture%20-%20VI%20chart.PNG"/></a></div>
<br><br>
And a few months, later, a Chaze post on the Tier VI pension:
<a href="http://chaz11.blogspot.com/2018/03/the-tier-vi-teacher-retirement-game.html" target="_blank">"The Tier VI Teacher Retirement Game Is A Sucker's Game."</a>
<br><br>
Admirably, the New Action caucus started a petition (around 2019, assuming from when the following blogpost was) for helping the Tier VI employees.
From late November 2019: <a href="https://chaz11.blogspot.com/2019/11/comparing-tier-vi-to-tier-iv-pension.html" target="_blank">"Comparing Tier VI To Tier IV Pension"</a>
<br><br>
Here's the link to New Action's petition for Tier VI workers: <a href="https://www.change.org/p/new-york-city-council-pension-improvements-for-nyc-educators?recruiter=2417082&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook_messenger_web&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_message&recruited_by_id=49ded080-c4f4-0130-9110-3c764e04b838&share_bandit_exp=message-19074707-en-US&share_bandit_var=v1" target="_blank">"Pension Improvements for NYC Educators"</a>
<br><br>
From March 5, 2019, Chaz School Daze: <a href="http://chaz11.blogspot.com/2019/03/why-defined-pensions-are-great-for.html" target="_blank">"Why Defined Pensions Are Great For Teachers."</a>
ATRshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08980651223972002550noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5494767965842074971.post-39995208928765534942020-05-30T01:02:00.002-04:002020-05-30T01:03:33.313-04:00Another appreciation of the widely appreciated Eric ChasanoffThe passing of Eric Chasanoff (Chaz School Days) was a sobering event for myself and many NYC teachers. We relied on him for reporting accurate, timely, information about NYC education policy, incompetent and corrupt supervisors, and the Absent Teacher Reserve. He was one of a few bloggers that gave us a voice, when our union told us we "were lucky to have jobs".
I remember meeting him the first time more than ten years ago, while being an ATR on regular rotations.
Having been sent to a now defunct Queens HS, I was told to sit in the boiler room until I was called to cover a class. For a few days, I sat in glorious solitude beside the depression era boiler, until one morning I found an interloper had intruded my sanctuary....he event had the chutzpah to take my seat on the decrepit couch! He introduced himself only as Eric, an ATR earth science teacher. We began talking about our pariah status; he explained how "Fair Student Funding" was a major reason for the debacle, and how Bloomberg's "Leadership Academy" trained sapling pedagogues with no "institutional memory" to become cogs in the new business model. Our stories unfolded in similar fashion, as we were both science teachers from large community high schools in Queens.
I asked him if he read "Chaz School Days", as I found it informative; he laughed and said ""Read it? I'm Chaz!...I write the damn thing. Thanks for reading my blog!"
That was Eric, never grandstanding or grabbing headlines. In fact, I doubt most Principals even knew he was rotating through their school.
Rest in peace Eric, you have guided many of us...
WJPATRshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08980651223972002550noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5494767965842074971.post-33537179528574057882020-05-11T07:10:00.000-04:002020-05-30T01:00:31.906-04:00Rest in peace, Eric ChasanoffBaruch Dayan Emes ("G-d is the True Judge"). I am overwhelmed with grief at this terrible news. Eric was a caring and knowledgeable educator, whose talents were squandered by the irresponsible cretins at the DOE. Moreover, he was our Navigator, providing a steady hand and a guiding pathway through the dark waters of the criminal enterprise known as the DOE and its henchmen at the UFT. He comforted those newly accused of deeds they never did, statements they never made, and helped them formulate a survival plan. He had access to information from the DOE and UFT that others did not, and generously shared it with others in a clear and concise manner. Even after he retired, he continued to provide invaluable guidance about retirement and pensions. Eric's blog here was always my first stop in the morning, coffee in hand, learning the latest about how far the school system had fallen under the blundering aegis of first Bloomberg and then De Blasio and just shaking my head in disbelief and disgust.
Eric, you took upon yourself a tremendous responsibility in laying bare the lies of the DOE and UFT and you carried it off brilliantly. Yours will be a hard act indeed to follow. I hope that your family will derive comfort on their tremendous loss and that you rest in peace eternal.
Rest in peace, Eric Chasanoff, 1951-2020, teachers' advocate.ATRshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08980651223972002550noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5494767965842074971.post-44079321634647422942019-11-22T15:20:00.000-05:002019-11-25T07:58:36.265-05:00Official ATR meetings by the UFT Nov 22, 25, 26The UFT is holding its annual meetings for ATRs Friday, November 22, Monday 25, Tuesday 26 at its boro offices. All meetings are 4:30 pm to 6:00 pm.<br />
This is for DOE staff in excess; so this includes guidance counselors, social workers and librarians, in addition to teachers?<br />
<br />
<br />
But why so late this year? Was it waiting for some lag time after its double dues dipping from the October retro payment and member frustration subsided?<br />
<br />
<b>Friday, November 22:</b><br />
Brooklyn, 335 Adams Street (A & F -Jay Street)<br />
Staten Island, 4456 Amboy Road<br />
<br /><b>Monday, Nov. 25:<br />
Bronx</b>, 2500 Halsey Street (6 -Westchester Square)<br />
<b>Queens</b>, 97-77 Queens Boulevard (M & R -67th Avenue)<br />
<br /><b>Tuesday, Nov. 26:<br />
Manhattan</b>, 52 Broadway (4 & 5 -Wall Street; R & W -Rector Street)ATRshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08980651223972002550noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5494767965842074971.post-81915732112425160232019-10-10T23:04:00.000-04:002019-10-10T23:09:29.878-04:00Retro coming next week, & again UFT's double-dipping on the dues<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-74LYxUYhwCY/XZ_wO_vIfvI/AAAAAAAAANY/2hIKe8SEJrABnRHhmujPyF9NSL7aOcBIACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/uftcontract-noraise.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="430" data-original-width="963" height="179" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-74LYxUYhwCY/XZ_wO_vIfvI/AAAAAAAAANY/2hIKe8SEJrABnRHhmujPyF9NSL7aOcBIACLcBGAsYHQ/s400/uftcontract-noraise.png" width="400" /></a></div>
Just to remind folks: NYC held out against giving teachers a contract after Randi Weingarten's 2005 epic giveback contract. Costs of NYC living climbed in the years since that contract ran out, but the new 2014 contract stretched out the raise slowly. Plus, the retro pay, the raise we should have gotten was illogically spread out --to 2020!<br />
So, of course, yet again, the Tier VI teachers will scratch their heads and wonder what this retro talk is.<br />
<br />
Each time we have been given a retro payment the UFT has dipped in for dues once for the twice a month paycheck, and a second time for the giving us the retro. The union claims that this was for the work of negotiating the contract. But the UFT needs to be rewarded multiple times for this?<br />
<br />
Be forewarned: next week you will get a retro payment, your next to last retro payment. (The last will come in 2020.) But you will see dues taken out twice -yet again!<br />
<br />ATRshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08980651223972002550noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5494767965842074971.post-54546376588164804352019-08-22T13:07:00.001-04:002019-08-22T13:46:01.725-04:00NYCDOE & UFT up to same BS: job crumbs at best for ATRsSo, it's the end of the summer and the same thing has happened:<br />
<br />
Earlier in August the NYC Department of Education shut off the open market transfer for a few days and then reopened it. (The farce of the transfer system is addressed <a href="http://iceuftblog.blogspot.com/2017/07/how-open-is-open-market-transfer-system.html">here</a>.)<br />
<br />
The DOE has held a number of job fairs over the summer and it <b><i>has not</i></b> informed actually licensed and experienced teachers (teachers in the Absent Teacher Reserve - ATR) of these job fairs. The job fairs in the last weeks of the month have positions in the hard to staff schools and in the harder to fill licenses: science, special education.<br />
<br />
The DOE has the gall, once again, to hire inexperienced newbies over the ATRs who wish to actually teach as they had done for years, before Randi Weingarten gave up the seniority transfer in 2005 (referred to <a href="http://chaz11.blogspot.com/2018/07/atrs-are-pawnswhen-negotiating-new.html">here</a>) and the United Federation of Teachers got teachers to go along with this.<br />
<br />
The UFT challenges none of this; and it goes by the same script that it is up ATRs to get a job, when everyone knows that salary is what keeps them from being considered. Adding insult to injuries is that the UFT also crows about 3,000 new teachers being added to the teaching force. (Really, they are happy about adding 3,000 people who will pay dues; so the union actually has an incentive for the city to add newbies into jobs that experienced teachers could have.)<br />
<br />
Forget about the line that the NYCDOE/UFT uses: that ATRs won't factor into raising average teacher salary in the school budget. Admins are smart. They know that whatever good budget arrangement that exists this year could be turned around in a future contract. They know that the formula could change three years down the road and the school will have to pay for the more expensive teacher. So, the school administration plays it safe and continues to go for the new, inexperienced teacher. <b>This is why teachers with many years in the system will not get picked up by schools.</b><br />
<br />
Of course, there is an age factor here: the ATRs tend to be over 35 years of age; most: over 50 years old. The newer teachers are in their early or mid-20s.<br />
<br />
As to teachers in the reserve that will be placed into positions as opposed to just being assigned to schools in September: the DOE waits until the last possible moment, less than a week before school starts, to inform teachers of which school they will be assigned to. Furthermore, the notice omits information as to which topics they will be teaching. Memo to admins from people that actually teach in the classroom: different grades mean different curricula. Contrast this with other teachers who are informed at the end of June as to what their program will be. All of this means hastier preparation in the days before students return to the classroom.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>All of these practices under De Blasio and Carranza are no different from Bloomberg, Klein and Walcott.</b> Actually, some practices are worse under Carranza: giving insanely inflated raises to top administration. Several high level admins got raises ranging from 15 percent to 35 percent --compare this to the two to three percent salary raise in the last teachers contract. There was news last Saturday that <a href="https://nypost.com/2019/08/17/salaries-gone-wild-carranza-cronies-pocket-pay-hikes-as-high-as-35/">there are now 36 administrators earning over $200,000 per year, a greater than 50 percent increase over the number of DOE admins earning that kind of salary in the last fiscal year.</a> So, if the city has the money to give administration favorites, then why isn't this money given instead to the teachers <i>who are in the classrooms</i>? The NYCDOE/UFT cannot in good name continue to go by the script that there is no money for reverting to the teacher unit system (pre Fair School Funding) when it spends this kind of money.<br />
<br />
The UFT needs actually advocate for its members: it needs to press the city to go back to the system that worked in the past: valuing experience. The union needs to give preference to the ATRs, not to the inexperienced.<br />
<br />
<br />ATRshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08980651223972002550noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5494767965842074971.post-4550286800882583852018-10-15T07:51:00.000-04:002018-10-15T07:54:39.110-04:00UFT ATR meetings this week - Placement is the front and center issue<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
<div style="line-height: 15.6px; margin-bottom: 0.1in;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Official UFT ATR meetings where </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the UFT will discuss </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 15.6px; margin-bottom: 0.1in;">
<span style="font-size: large;">placements and </span><span style="font-size: large;">evaluation </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 15.6px; margin-bottom: 0.1in;">
<span style="font-size: large;">and other questions we ma</span><span style="font-size: large;">y have.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Which plan for observations will be put under? The one for probationers?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">How can we can the DOE place us </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">without getting proper Danielson training and new technology practice?</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 15.6px; margin-bottom: 0.1in;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">We'll be compared against teachers who entered the system after Danielson was introduced. To add insult to injury, we often did coverages for teachers who were out if the classroom for such training.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Will principal's have a say, and will we be Funded from the central budget?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">And will the UFT allow the DOE to cynically hire new people during the summer, as they do every year? The new contract says nothing about eliminating Fair School Funding which incentivizes against hiring experienced teachers.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 15.6px; margin-bottom: 0.1in;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Watch ATRs mainly get placed in schools that were unable to find anyone before Labor Day, unintroduced to their their program or room. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 15.6px; margin-bottom: 0.1in;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 15.6px; margin-bottom: 0.1in;">
All times are 4 pm, at the UFT boro offices.</div>
<div style="line-height: 15.6px; margin-bottom: 0.1in;">
Mon., October 15: Queens, 97-77 Queens Blvd</div>
<div style="line-height: 15.6px; margin-bottom: 0.1in;">
Tue, October 16: Bronx, 2600 Halsey Street</div>
<div style="line-height: 15.6px; margin-bottom: 0.1in;">
Fri, October 19, Staten Island, 4456 Amboy Road</div>
<div style="line-height: 15.6px; margin-bottom: 0.1in;">
Mon., October 22, Brooklyn, 335 Adams Street</div>
<div style="line-height: 15.6px; margin-bottom: 0.1in;">
Fri., November 2, Manhattan, 52 Broadway</div>
</div>
ATRshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08980651223972002550noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5494767965842074971.post-82908589528408124952018-09-21T21:38:00.000-04:002018-09-22T09:46:58.938-04:00Come help bring ATR issues to the plate for the next contract<b>Come to the MORE Caucus (UFT) meeting, tomorrow, Saturday, Sep. 22, 12-3 pm, at the CUNY Graduate Center, rm. 5414.</b><br />
<br />
Bring concerns, whether they be how the fair funding formula feeds into school closure, ageism, teacher displacement --displacement of veteran teachers by less experienced, lower paid staff (strikebreaking by another name). <br />
<br />
In interim assignments, more often we are shunned as outsiders, and worse, sometimes bullied instead of being welcomed as new colleagues.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>For things to change we need to come together and act.</b>ATRshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08980651223972002550noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5494767965842074971.post-39857273419143210962018-09-01T09:19:00.000-04:002018-09-22T09:48:11.003-04:00DOE excess system starting out new year with glitchesNew York City's Department of Education is starting out the new 2018-2019 with problems already.<br />
<br />
Standard ATR assignment procedure has the ATRs getting their assignments by Thursday afternoon, evening if the system is running late. Not this year. Just a few hard their assignments by Thursday evening. And many ATRs did not get their assignment by 5 pm Friday. Many were finally sent out over the next hour and a half.<br />
Why the delay? The DOE has been handling this assignment task for a few years now.<br />
Maybe the problem is due to a big influx of new ATRs. Mayor Bill De Blasio shut many schools last year. And in the case of Renewal Schools without great clout the teachers were turned out of their jobs, being told to get new position assignments at other schools or wait and see what rotation would bring. (As always, Fair Student Funding means that new hires will get preference in filling the vacancies at new schools or those Renewal Schools which turned out their veterans.) The big mystery is how many new ATRs or excessed staff are there, scores? Hundreds?<br />
<br />
Another thing: is part of the DOE algorithm for assigning teachers to work as far as possible from where they live? Teachers had years back applied to work not too deep into a borough next to their own borough. For example, a teacher living in the Bronx might seek a teaching job in Harlem. But we're seeing in the rotation era teachers being assigned to the furthest end of the borough, creating commutes in excess of one and a half hours, so, in the case of the above Bronx residing teacher, he'd be assigned to the far south end of Manhattan.<br />
Surely, these are hardship commutes.<br />
<br />
AND, there are some excessed employees in good standing, as of Labor Day, still with no assignment!<br />
<br />ATRshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08980651223972002550noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5494767965842074971.post-88194446722750764292018-05-24T19:00:00.000-04:002018-05-26T11:44:07.468-04:00The teachers shot dead at Santa Fe were substitutes. Carranza and DeBlasio's DOE still denies keys to many ATRs.The two staff member dying in last week's latest mass school shooting were substitutes. Let that sink in. Time magazine gets it. Why doesn't the NYC DOE or the UFT for that matter?<br />
Where is Michael Mulgrew loudly declaring action to ensure our safety.<br />
<br />
Time magazine wrote, <a href="http://time.com/5290476/substitute-teachers-school-shootings-santa-fe/">"‘They’re Really on Their Own.’ Santa Fe Reveals the Danger of Being a Substitute Teacher in Era of School Shootings,"</a> pointing out the obvious safety hazards that substitute teachers face. Technically, we're not subs. But let's face it, when it comes to security, we ATRs treated that way: left out of getting all the safety materials such as colored cards for the possible lockdowns, and many of us are still left out on getting keys to lock classroom doors.<br />
<br />
Here's another clincher: we know that <a href="https://nypost.com/2018/05/19/pair-of-teachers-among-victims-of-santa-fe-school-shooting/">three of the slain students were in the art class that substitute teacher Cynthia Tisdale was covering</a>. One wonders: did Santa Fe substitutes lack keys as many ATRs do? Let that weigh on the conscience. Will DOE refusal to "arm" ATRs with keys lead to a situation in which students die because the school was uncooperative with getting keys to an ATR?<br />
<br />
Neither the DOE nor the UFT have given you special tips from the perspective of the perspective of a substitutting teacher --perhaps because it's been so long since any UFT leader was a substitute teacher. Here are some useful comments in the Time article.<br />
<blockquote>
In Briscoe’s [one surviving substitute] case, he told the students to cover their mouths based off of what he had heard occurred at other school shootings in the past. “That was something I never learned in training,” Briscoe, who earned around $12 an hour substitute teaching at Santa Fe High School, said. . . .
This fight-or-flight mentality applies to all teachers thrust into these terrifying situations — whether they had gone through training or were familiar with the space or not, Briscoe said. But with two mass-casualty school shootings this year thus far, the layout of a classroom and lockdown procedures are on the top of the minds for some substitute teachers at each new gig.
<br />
“We’re expected to go in there and do the same job,” said Ginger Swanson, a 44-year-old substitute teacher based in Ohio. “We should have access to the same tools and information.” . . . .</blockquote>
<blockquote>
Any time Swanson walks into a new classroom now, she thinks: Is there more than one exit? What’s this building’s floor plan? Can I open that window? Can the kids fit out the window? Can I? Where does the window lead to? What could I use to barricade the door? “You can’t just read your lesson plan and have a day with the kids,” Swanson said. “You have to keep [the potential for a shooting] in the back of your mind now.”
<br />
Swanson didn’t have these thoughts back when she began substitute teaching in 2012. She now wants schools in her counties to host orientations for substitute teachers so they can have a better sense of its protocols, lockdown procedures, layout and more.
</blockquote>
(Of course, the 2012 reference is to the Sandy Hook massacre, the largest school shooting to date.)<br />
Where is the Ginger Swanson in the UFT, advocating for our safety? We need reforms now, or we could become statistics, like <a href="https://www.thelily.com/as-substitute-teachers-the-women-who-died-in-the-texas-school-shooting-were-unsung-heroes/">Glenda Ann Perkins and Cynthia Tisdale</a> in Santa Fe, Texas.ATRshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08980651223972002550noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5494767965842074971.post-25722977674252238222018-03-07T06:45:00.000-05:002018-03-07T06:45:30.946-05:00Hey DOE, are 35 lives worth less than the cost of a classroom key?Recent weekend copies of AMNY reported that De Blasio wants active shooter drills for the schools by March 15. The major question looms: will ATRs and other itinerant teachers (traveling "specials" teachers or per diem substitutes) be supplied classroom keys in time? Or will the DOE continue to ignore the safety gap for ATRs?<br />
<br />
<b>Where is the UFT?</b><br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
ATRs have long had the indignity of being told that since they were not staying at a school for a long time they were not eligible for bathroom keys, elevator keys, teachers lounge keys and yes classroom keys. Across NYC certified teachers, professionals with experience have had to telegraph their need to use the restroom by requesting to borrow keys. If lucky they are able to get a colleague to lend them the key to make a quick copy. When it comes to elevators, and classroom keys they are so routinely denied that it has become an inside joke to ATRs. Teachers tell colleagues entering into the ATR pool not to return their elevator keys at the end of the year so that they will have them in other locations. </div>
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<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
Teachers have had to make a nuisance of themselves to get a basic thing. Classroom keys are the most necessary item that is routinely denied. Teachers end up having to rush to catch an outgoing teacher or hope that a passing pedagogue will pity them and pretty please open the door. Teachers in the ATR pool report being reprimanded for having kids standing in the hall, when they had no keys. </div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
Lockdown drills have taken a whole new meaning now. With the seedy safety situation in schools having been revealed as subpar, it is clear that active shooter drills and lockdowns will continue to be a part of school cultures. But what about the kids being taught by an ATR denied keys? How much time is wasted because the DOE insists on treating these pedagogues as pariahs? Should kids just go to another classroom in an emergency? Should an ATR on a prep not be able to seek shelter with a classroom key? And the same can be said for substitutes and often for specials teachers lacking the specific room keys.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
The DOE should immediately review all the lockdown procedures in schools, ascertain the problems with locks, master keys and solve them so that every DOE staffperson in a school building is equipped with keys for every room that she or he would be in during the course of a day.<br />
<br />
Once assigned to a school, an ATR should receive keys, should get a mailbox, a school email and a teacher manual with all procedures and protocols. The safety of our students should not be put at risk because a whole set of teachers is being bullied by the DOE. If the school leaders cannot commit to these things, how can they honestly guarantee that a tragedy does not happen to DOE students and staff?</div>
ATRshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08980651223972002550noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5494767965842074971.post-7015285386947170812018-02-21T17:37:00.000-05:002018-02-21T20:06:27.078-05:00Why in the era of Newtown and Parkland are ATRs denied keys for locking their room?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BB-rBnQ3xCI/Wo30MIkC9xI/AAAAAAAAALQ/-nklteVzTCY8jVWnuuzXMdLdfpKDTrV-gCLcBGAs/s1600/ATRs%2Bare%2Bwithout%2Blocks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BB-rBnQ3xCI/Wo30MIkC9xI/AAAAAAAAALQ/-nklteVzTCY8jVWnuuzXMdLdfpKDTrV-gCLcBGAs/s400/ATRs%2Bare%2Bwithout%2Blocks.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
Last week 17 people, students and staff, have lost their lives to gun violence on campus.<br />
<br />
One key way that teachers helped many students to survive in the Sandy Hook school in Newtown, Connecticut and the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida was to lock the classroom doors.<br />
<br />
A lesser well known ugly truth is that in members of the Absent Teacher Reserve are often not given keys that allow them to lock the classroom doors. ATRs know why this is done. ATRs are treated as pariahs. Neglecting the needs to equip with them with the essential tools to do their job is another way to ostracize and demoralize them.
However, declining to give ATRs classroom keys is a serious safety problem.
The NYC Department of Education has done a cruel thing in failing to see that ATRs are fully equipped. The DOE and the UFT have known that this is an ongoing problem. They are both failing in a duty of leadership and rectifying this.ATRshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08980651223972002550noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5494767965842074971.post-86221762983494830392018-02-16T05:07:00.000-05:002018-02-22T20:48:33.825-05:00Deadline of ATR class action suit against the NYC DOE extended to end of monthThe deadline for joining the class action suit of ATRs against the New York City Department of Education has been extended to Friday, February 28, 2018.<br />
<br />
See <a href="https://atrnyc.blogspot.com/2018/02/atrs-are-suing-doe.html">the post from last week</a> for details on the excessed teachers' lawsuit.ATRshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08980651223972002550noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5494767965842074971.post-33191259344614193412018-02-07T06:45:00.000-05:002018-02-07T06:45:39.214-05:00Class action vs NYC DOE extendedThe deadline for joining the class action suit of ATRs against the DOE has been extended to Friday, Feburary 9, 2018.<br />
<br />
See <a href="https://atrnyc.blogspot.com/2018/02/atrs-are-suing-doe.html">the post from last week</a> for details on the excessed teachers' lawsuit.ATRshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08980651223972002550noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5494767965842074971.post-12705112377789263312018-02-01T07:06:00.001-05:002018-02-11T00:59:18.684-05:00ATRs are suing the DOE!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-A8vXcv9XXwo/WnMCrAusK3I/AAAAAAAAAK0/RzjWhF0d47Uv8nH68BrvD9RY8X0sK-i2gCLcBGAs/s1600/shutterstock_215430139-700x467.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="467" data-original-width="700" height="213" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-A8vXcv9XXwo/WnMCrAusK3I/AAAAAAAAAK0/RzjWhF0d47Uv8nH68BrvD9RY8X0sK-i2gCLcBGAs/s320/shutterstock_215430139-700x467.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
EDIT: The class action joining deadline is moved forward.<br />
It's finally happening: New York City ATRs are suing the city Department of Education.
<br />
<br />
Members of the Absent Teacher Reserve, or ATRs, are getting fed up: fed up with the field supervisors doing bogus observations in classrooms teachers just encountered, principals run amuk, writing up veteran teachers for petty things so that the DOE can quickly lower salary costs and relieve a teacher of full pension, fed up with the blatant age discrimination, and OF COURSE, fed up with the union (the UFT) for saying the DOE's line that teachers could get real assignments, if only they polished their resumes and had modern skills.
<br />
<br />
The law firm of Glass and Krakower (<a href="http://www.ghnylaw.com/">www.ghnylaw.com</a>) is taking up a class action lawsuit on the case. They are an established practice with successes in challenging cases of teacher abuse.
As part of the case, the legal team is looking into ways that teachers that teachers have been abused in their particular cases.
<br />
<br />
Here is the link. T<b>here is a deadline of February 9.
</b><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.ghnylaw.com/atrsuit">www.ghnylaw.com/atrsuit</a><br />
<br />
And a form, associated with the suit to fill out:
<a href="http://teacherslawyer.blogspot.com/2017/12/asking-courts-if-fair-student-funding.html?m=1">http://teacherslawyer.blogspot.com/2017/12/asking-courts-if-fair-student-funding.html?m=1</a>ATRshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08980651223972002550noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5494767965842074971.post-67646012311649013112017-11-15T06:12:00.001-05:002017-11-15T07:06:41.444-05:00Your future if Scrooge Asher and Farina get their way and terminate youIn your 50s, 60s, 70s, or even 80s: living out of an RV, or a car, going from seasonal job to seasonable job, as the nomafic working elderly.<br />
<br />
Jessica Bruder three years ago wrote a breakthrough piece in 'Harper's' on the difficult life of older people with no pensions, formerly middle class, they were out of their luck.<br />
<br />
Play your cards write and fight unjust treatment and unfair observations.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.nextavenue.org/older-americans-nomadland/">A journalist spoke at length with her</a> about her new book, <a href="http://www.nextavenue.org/older-americans-nomadland/">'Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-first Century.'</a><br />
<br />
It's an important and sobering wake-up call about how weak out country's private pension system is.<br />
<br />
Yes, be thankful you will have a pension --or so it looks now. Those with 401K's were conned, <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/teresa-ghilarducci-why-the-401k-is-a-failed-experiment/">as scholar Teresa Ghilarducci has discussed.</a><br />
<br />
<blockquote>
The 401(k) … is one of the only products that Americans buy that they don’t know the price of it. It’s also one of the products that Americans buy that they don’t even know its quality or know how to judge its quality.
</blockquote>ATRshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08980651223972002550noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5494767965842074971.post-38339296768044910192017-10-25T04:20:00.000-04:002017-10-25T04:20:11.083-04:00'The Chief,' the paper of NYC labor, gives front page coverage to ATRs and their testimonies<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The teacher and counselor members of the New York City Absent Teacher reserve know first hand the ramifications of the reformers' attack on senior teachers, and the attack on the schools in underprivileged (and now gentrifying) neighborhoods. As the schools get shutdown, trimmed down or are given the "Renewal" treatment by Bloomberg/De Blasio, the teachers there get punished for serving the needier students: they become excessed into the DOE's ATR pool.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">While other so called labor papers talk the talk about representing teachers and supporting rank and file workers, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">'The Chief-Leader' actually walked the walk: it is the <b>ONLY labor paper</b> to print ATRs' story, allowing them to speak in more than sound bytes. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Pick up a copy of the paper with Crystal Lewis' <a href="http://thechiefleader.com/news/open_articles/preparing-for-return-to-classrooms-atr-teachers-lament-unfair-stigma/article_fef47402-ab83-11e7-b2b8-d74d0e10c1b3.html"><i>"Preparing for Return to Classroom, Teachers Lament Unfair Stigma."</i></a></span></div>
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<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://twitter.com/TheChiefLeader/status/922953601160396800&source=gmail&ust=1508995400754000&usg=AFQjCNHw1RARRtWbEe5Zf4NaY3DAfIghXw" href="https://twitter.com/TheChiefLeader/status/922953601160396800" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/<wbr></wbr>TheChiefLeader/status/<wbr></wbr>922953601160396800</a></div>
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<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://www.facebook.com/TheChiefLeader/posts/1853153928031482&source=gmail&ust=1508995400754000&usg=AFQjCNHyuL34PciljflTDZWP3vDvtbHHpg" href="https://www.facebook.com/TheChiefLeader/posts/1853153928031482" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/<wbr></wbr>TheChiefLeader/posts/<wbr></wbr>1853153928031482</a></div>
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ATRshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08980651223972002550noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5494767965842074971.post-48857730455506095752017-10-18T05:00:00.000-04:002017-10-18T07:38:29.798-04:00Weingarten defended ATRs' reputation - We need that todayWhen ATRs were disparged nine years by Joel Klein and the DOE, then president of the UFT Randi Weingarten defended ATRs' reputation:<br />
<blockquote>
"These are good teachers, mostly from closing schools. But rather than create a win-win situation, the system - despite repeated requests - refused to deal with these issues."</blockquote>
She recognized that the school funding system helped prejudice against the hiring of ATRs. The UFT argued that in creating the Fair Student Funding formula the DOE created a disincentive for principals to hire teachers. The UFT reported:<br />
<blockquote>
"The lawsuit argues that the DOE essentially shifted from an age-neutral system to one that has a disparate impact on older teachers."
</blockquote>
[Sources: 'The New York Teacher,' approximately April, 2008]<br />
Saturday the New York Times published a front page attack on ATRs. As the NYC Educator blog pointed out in <i><a href="http://nyceducator.com/2017/10/doing-to-times-what-times-does-to-atr.html">'Doing to the New York Times What the Times Does to ATR Teachers,'</a> </i>the Times engaged in broad stereotyping. The blog piece pointed out numerous instances of gross failures in professionalism in the Times' piece. While every professions has their bad apples, stereotyping a class of teachers is wrong. It is improper and unprofessional for the Times to engage in stereotyping.<br />
<br />
There was placement of ATRs in NYC schools up until the 2011 to 2012 academic year, with none of the concerted media attack we see today --something that the DOE and the UFT conveniently ignore today. There was no rotation, a fraudulent program whereby both the DOE and the UFT argued that this would help expose ATRs' skills to schools, enabling them to get picked up --when both entities knew that ATRs face slim chance of placement, given the financial incentive for administrators to go with inexperienced teachers. Rotation (jobs program of field suervisors for displaced CSA members) was a compromise that only came up because Bloomberg wanted to end Last In, First Out., similar to today: the media was running stories contending that veteran teachers were worse than newer ones, and were an impediment to ideal staffing. Again, <a href="http://time.com/3541200/randi-weingarten-time-cover/">Weingarten has argued at the national level that students do better with experienced teachers</a>.<br />
<br />
The treatment of ATRs was actually better under Joel Klein than under Carmen Farina. Oh, how new times create new thinking!<br />
<br />
The teachers and counselors in the New York City Department of Education Absent Teacher Reserve are waiting for the UFT leadership's response to the attack on the dignity and reputation of ATRs.<br />
<br />
ATRs, what would you write in response to the Times' calumny?ATRshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08980651223972002550noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5494767965842074971.post-37455065678712305292017-10-16T05:00:00.000-04:002017-10-16T05:00:14.108-04:00Do You REALLY Believe That? – In Which the Refurbished ATR Calls Bullsh** on all the Bullsh**<div style="line-height: 0.17in; margin-bottom: 0.19in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The
plan was to enjoy my summer, clean out the basement, and go on a few
college visits with my daughter. Yeah, storm clouds are brewing for
ATRs, but I made a solemn vow to stay above it all, not allow it to
claim any real estate in my head, and enjoy my time off. That worked
for a little while, but now the school year is in full swing and the
press in on the hunt for the next “bad teacher” story.</span></span></div>
<div align="left" style="line-height: 0.17in; margin-bottom: 0.19in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">So
the Times, the Post, and Chalkbeat started banging the drum against
ATRs. How we need to “find a job”. How we are “without full
time positions”. That there must be “reasons why (we) are not
hired”. Nicole Thomas even went so far as to voice her fear that
her child may actually be given an ATR for a teacher in her school,
and is “very concerned”. And of course, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/13/nyregion/troubled-teachers-back-in-classrooms-new-york.html">Kate Taylor at the Times had to join the party with this beauty of a hatchet job</a>,
and the Editorial Board of the NY Post us up in arms that we may
actually be teaching children soon (the horror – teachers TEACHING
children!), so now I’ve got to set the record straight.</span></div>
<div align="left" style="line-height: 0.17in; margin-bottom: 0.19in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I
feel you, Nicole and Kate. I do. I mean, WHY, ladies, would you want
a veteran teacher who has been working with children successfully for
YEARS, and who, you know, passed classes and exams and stuff, in
“high needs” schools? Much better to have a newbie 23 year old
with a sociology degree who wants to help the little brown children
by doing some “good in the “hood” before heading off to
becoming a charter school principal or investor at Goldman Sachs. And
they all look so alike (matching ponytails and sloppy buns,
sundresses, and flip flops) that they are virtually interchangeable!
So much so that the kids won’t even know when one leaves after a
month and is replaced by another one! </span>
</span></div>
<div align="left" style="line-height: 0.17in; margin-bottom: 0.19in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I’m
going to let you in on a few ATR secrets, Ladies. Just between us.
Let’s get the easy stuff out of the way first. ATRs do not have
horns and tails. We do not eat young children for lunch (or dinner).
We are not the child molesters you see on TV or on flyers in your
local deli. We do not spend our evenings plotting how to milk the
system and avoid helping children. Sorry to ruin it for you, but we
do what other teachers do. We get up, fight traffic to get to work,
do our jobs, and fight more traffic to come home and take care or our
own families, get the car washed, pay the cable bill, and
occasionally go to dinner and a movie. Yet, you make claims that are
patently ABSURD about us. Given that I have a particular affection
for both theater of the absurd AND the absurdity of life, allow me to
point out the ridiculousness of the claims being made against ATRs. </span>
</span></div>
<div align="left" style="line-height: 0.17in; margin-bottom: 0.19in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Let’s
start with the common fallacy that ATRs “lost a job”. That’s
news to me and every other ATR I know. I’ve never been fired,
suspended, disciplined, or laid off. I’ve never been on
unemployment. I get up and I go to work every day. I am a tenured
Reading Specialist with the New York City Department of Education.
That is my job. I get paid from the NYC DOE twice a month because it
is my job. The fact is that the DOE does not ALLOW me to do the job
for which I was hired. My job is to teach children who struggle with
reading, to read. But, when I go to work every day, I am given a sub
schedule, or I cover teacher preps, or I am the second teacher in an
ICT class. So, to say I do not have a job is absurd. I have one. I am
just not permitted to do it. And that is not my problem. It is the
DOE’s.</span></div>
<div align="left" style="line-height: 0.17in; margin-bottom: 0.19in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It
is also said that ATR teachers are “without full time positions”.
Again, this is not true. We go to work daily and teach full
schedules. Five periods a day, every day. That is a FULL TIME
position. I get paid my FULL TIME salary because, Nicole and Kate, I
work FULL TIME. The fact that I am not being given work that
correlates with my job title is, again, not my problem and not under
my control. I cannot give myself classes or groups of students.
Administrators do that. </span>
</span></div>
<div align="left" style="line-height: 0.17in; margin-bottom: 0.19in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">My
dear ladies, you insinuate that ATRs are guilty of crimes but are
unable to be fired. That is an absurd statement. Any teacher who is
found guilty during a 3020a is NOT sent to the ATR. What happens to
them is called “FIRING”. Any teacher who is an ATR after a 3020a
is there because the 3020a did NOT find CAUSE for termination. You
know, it’s that whole guilty vs. not guilty thing. Like Law and
Order. But with real teachers, not actors. Before the ATR they would
be simply placed back in their classrooms. But the ATR now provides a
very nice dumping ground for teachers a principal wants to be rid of.
It’s brilliant, actually. Make some sh** up about the teacher, and
even if they win the 3020a because the principal lied her behind off,
you STILL have that teacher out of your hair (and off your payroll)
because they will be dumped into the ATR. Never mind that many
principals want to be rid of certain teachers because they have
issues. Issues like, oh, let’s see…. maybe being in a position
that the principal has earmarked for a crony, or maybe the principal
has a bunch of sorority sisters she has promised jobs, or maybe the
teacher is making too much money coupled with too much seniority,
which makes it impossible to just excess the teacher. Maybe this
teacher knows her contractual rights and insists on abiding by them.
Maybe she tells other teachers what their rights are and calls
bullsh** when she see it. Or this teacher may even be planning to run
against the chapter leader you have in your pocket and may actually
win, messing up your ability to ignore the contract. Any of those
reasons are enough to get a principal to trump up bogus charges
against a teacher. You see, my dears, principals can be vindictive,
power drunk dictators who will stop at nothing to create a staff of
syncophants. But you’d never know that from reading Chalkbeat, the
New York Post, or the Times, because, according to these
publications, all principals are above reproach, all the time, and
want nothing more than to run schools where rainbow unicorns run the
halls, and everyone emits rose scented farts.</span></div>
<div align="left" style="line-height: 0.17in; margin-bottom: 0.19in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Now,
I’m sure your StudentsFirstNY friends, you’re The74 buddies, and
your Families for Excellent Schools pals will disagree. Because when
you are taking Gates and Walmart money and cozy up to Betsy DeVos,
things get filtered through the prism of cash. But my dear ladies,
have no fear. If your child is given an ATR teacher this September,
she or he will be in good hands, regardless of who his or her parent
is. We’ve been doing this a long time, and believe it or not, we’ve
got this.</span></span></div>
<div align="left" style="line-height: 0.17in; margin-bottom: 0.19in;">
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</div>
ATRshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08980651223972002550noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5494767965842074971.post-79831969374630878642017-10-13T06:16:00.002-04:002017-10-13T20:25:45.588-04:00Come to an ACRs and ATRs workshop, this Saturday, 10/14<div>
<div>
As you know, we are under attack this year as never before. We need to strategize on surviving this year. <br />
<div>
<h3 class="m_-6188968399570182942gmail-post-title m_-6188968399570182942entry-title">
<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://chaz11.blogspot.com/2017/07/feww-atrs-will-be-rated-effective-by.html&source=gmail&ust=1507975992640000&usg=AFQjCNGJ70RfyrWvwTn4Y9fmI0wpCTHwrw" href="http://chaz11.blogspot.com/2017/07/feww-atrs-will-be-rated-effective-by.html" target="_blank">'Few ATRs Will Be Rated Effective By Principals Under The New DOE Policy' (<i>from the Chaz blog</i>)</a></h3>
</div>
Come to an ACRs (absent counselor reserve -guidance counselors, social workers, psychologists) and ATRs workshop,</div>
this <b>Saturday, 10/14</b>, 10:15 am to 12:15 pm at PS 58, 330 Smith Street, Brooklyn. Two blocks north of the Carroll Street station G train --<i>this weekend on a construction reroute: the D train as it replaces the F train in Brooklyn, including at the station.</i> <b>See the map below the following event flier.</b></div>
Sponsored by the More Caucus-UFT.<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/--sEO6UvNfR0/WeCWwA_kaOI/AAAAAAAAAJ4/Cl3YkQ8M1UUOHjkXz7Q2jkrs5UUUqU2xACLcBGAs/s1600/MORE%2BDay%2B2%2Btag10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="570" data-original-width="862" height="211" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/--sEO6UvNfR0/WeCWwA_kaOI/AAAAAAAAAJ4/Cl3YkQ8M1UUOHjkXz7Q2jkrs5UUUqU2xACLcBGAs/s320/MORE%2BDay%2B2%2Btag10.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
The pertinent lines this weekend:<br />
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ATRshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08980651223972002550noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5494767965842074971.post-65976505119195558472017-10-04T18:27:00.001-04:002017-10-07T21:55:20.643-04:00Why won't the UFT fight for the ATRs? & other questions that ATRs should pose at the official UFT meetingsNew York City is poised to do a multi-barrelled assault on
teachers: ATRs are being put into the classroom at inappropriate time
(mid-October) –holding some teaching positions as vacancies until then is wrong for the kids, as they will have to endure the rocky transition from one teacher to another, a little more than a month into the term. And ATRs are being placed without proper training in Danielson or
the Common Core standards.<br />
<br />
Secondly, Carmen Farina and Randy Asher (the new chief supervisor of ATRs) have openly declared that the city is aiming to
drastically thin the herd, by possibly 50 percent. Sure, this is wrapped in language of "reducing" the pool; but ATRs have heard too many stories of able ATRs being harassed out of their positions. The "reduction" plan smells to the ATRs like a liquidation plan.<br />
<br />
The buzz in the newspapers just seems too coincidental. Most of
the city non-TV media outlets, including most of the daily newspapers, were running stories about problem teachers
returning to the classroom. The one after another pacing of the stories suggests that the DOE might have ignited this with a
press release of talking points. This is virtually designed to
create a base of hostile parents resenting “those teachers teaching
my child," which is sure to set up teachers for trouble in an already challenging assignment, being force placed in October.<br />
<br />
The UFT totally failed the ATRs by letting this media smear campaign go on
without an equally loud union campaign defending the ATRs. The union should have pointed out
that the teachers in the pool that had faced charges (usually around one-fourth of the Absent Teacher Reserve pool) have been
exonerated. The city’s placing “problem marks” on teachers is double
jeopardy (a subsequent attempt to try and punish someone that has already been cleared of charges, something that is illegal in the United States to impose on the accused). Those ATRs that had been accused have been found as not
deserving to be fired. The UFT needs to make the point that not all accusations against
teachers are true and that the bar for getting teachers charged with
something under Bloomberg was dropped really low. And, the UFT needs to acknowledge and publicize the fact that the majority of ATRs are from schools that had closed down or had lost numbers of teaching positions.<br />
<br />
Randy Asher's own problematic history needs to be brought up. He was "managing" Brooklyn Tech High School while he was slow and inept to work on some creepy teachers that we were in need of punitive action. New York magazine reported his history in <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/01/brooklyn-tech-student-sues-over-creepy-teacher.html">"Brooklyn Tech Student Sues City Over Creepy, Cross-dressing Teacher."</a> Yet, the city cooperates with the principals union in making sure that truly problem administrators will always find a new job. So, instead of firing Asher or demoting him to an AP position or a classroom position, he is empowered with drastically "thinning the herd" of ATRs. This is very hypocritical for someone with such poor professional judgment in his prior DOE administration job.<br />
<br />
In fact, now with Farina’s new get extremely tougher campaign the DOE is taking a very hostile tone by putting letters in files
against teachers that <a href="http://southbronxschool.blogspot.com/2017/09/teacher-bathroom-behavior-charges.html">have had bathroom challenges</a>. This case involves the DOE actually penalizing a teacher that has bowel difficulties. It's bad enough having embarassing toilet "accidents;" but this penality is additionally humiliating. The bar has dropped even lower than the Bloomberg era.<br />
<br />
Then, we have the issue of ATRs and supervision. How is it that ATRs are going to have double supervision (the UFT is cooperating with extension of the field supervisor pursuit of ATRs, even while they have been assigned for a half year or nearly a whole year to a regular assignment in a school). ATRs are going to be supervised by principals and by field supervisors. It is unfair in relation to regularly assigned teachers who do not have to essentially face two principals. And common sense will say that
however the principal feels is how the Field Supervisor will treat the teacher.
This is not neutral. The principal & Field Sup plan is a tag teaming and the UFT is expecting the
ATRs to be gullible for falling for this.<br />
<br />
The DOE and the UFT have had the side agreement in the works for assignment and supervision of ATRs settled for a few months now. Why did the union allow months to elapse before properly briefing us on the new changes? The union's very unprofessional procrastination on a very important task is irresponsible and is leaving ATRs vulnerable to a weak transition back to regular classroom assignments.<br />
<br />
Here are just some of the other questions that ATRs should pose to the UFT's ATR liasions next week:<br />
<br />
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
*Why did the union agree to these conditions of working under Danielson, Advance and Common Core, when we were often denied the professional development on these topics? To boot, we were often assigned to cover teachers that were getting training in these skill areas.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
*When is the union or the DOE going to hold training sessions --on paid time-- on learning all the different evaluation related terms, such as MOSLs, baseline assessments; and preliminary evaluation interviews with principals? The UFT is setting us up to failure if it fails to train us on these very essential questions.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
*Why doesn’t UFT
stand up for ATRs when they are getting smeared in the media? The DOE talking point is "unwanted" teachers; yet, until the UFT gave up seniority transfers with the 2005 contract, forced placement was the rule. Read <a href="http://iceuftblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/uft-officers-agree-not-to-reopen.html">here</a> and <a href="http://release/">here</a>. In fact, until Bloomberg/Walcott began rotation in the 2011-2012 year, ATRs were placed or "forced" on principals. The UFT forgets institutional history and allows the DOE and the media to frame the narrative. The UFT's reticence helps keep alive the DOE's and the media's myth that we can't get hired if we try.<br />
<br />
*When will the UFT step up to bat on our getting seniority for job openings? The city hires new teachers when experienced ATRs are available.<br />
<br />
*Why won't the UFT give us straight answers about how many ATR pool members get truly hired or picked up by schools? They dodge and refer to ATRs as being assigned. They always promote sending our resume around or shining in our performance. But ATRs know many of their own kind and no of hardly any that ever get picked up.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
*Why is the UFT always holding these "informational meetings" at 4:00 on days when we're required to stay at schools until some time between 3:35 or 3:50? (And why was one almost held right before a major religious holiday?)</div>
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<br /></div>
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*The city is openly
saying that Asher’s task is to thin the herd. Why isn’t the
union challenging this?</div>
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*Why is the union
still tolerating no guarantee of equal bathroom access and elevator
key access as is given to any other staff in the schools?</div>
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*When will the union
fight for ending the fair funding formula?</div>
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It is unacceptable
that the UFT repeats the same myth as the city, that the only reason
why principals won’t hire ATRs is because they are not fresh
enough. The truth is that it’s the ATRs’ salaries that keeps principals from considering ATRs, and plenty of principals will
openly admit it. The Chaz blogger has laid out some very good proposals for ensuring principals will follow requirements to truly hire us. Of course, the essential change is that the UFT must return to funding for the whole school on the teacher unit principal. <a href="https://newaction.org/2015/06/04/school-budgets-return-to-unit-costing/">See this quick, clear explanation of teacher units</a> that Bloomberg/Klein ended. The <a href="http://schools.nyc.gov/Documents/FSF/FSF-Public-Overview-6.11_FINAL.pdf">2007 creation of the fair student funding</a> is a huge incentive to hire the cheaper teachers and avoid experienced teachers. As such, it is an attack on seniority.</div>
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The Bronx and Staten Island UFT informational meetings for ATRs have happened. Here are the remaining meetings, all held from 4:00 to 6:00 pm at UFT boro offices: </div>
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<span style="color: #070707; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 700;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1507153404543_8546" style="color: #070707; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 700;">Manhattan</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #070707; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">, 52 Broadway</span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1507153404543_8545" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; background-color: white; color: #070707; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px;">
Tuesday, Oct. 10</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1507153404543_8544" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; background-color: white; color: #070707; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px;">
<span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1507153404543_8556" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-weight: 700;">Queens</span>, 97-77 Queens Blvd.<br />
Tuesday, Oct. 10</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1507153404543_8557" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; background-color: white; color: #070707; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-weight: 700;">Brooklyn, </span>335 Adams St.<br />
Wednesday, Oct. 11</div>
ATRshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08980651223972002550noreply@blogger.com2