Another blog's overview of ATRs, their history and situation: "A Look Inside the ATR Purgatory"

A journalist's history and analysis of the displaced teacher situation in New York City:

Originally from NYC's Best, Brightest, and Worst, May 19, 2013 

Life in Limbo: A Look Inside the ATR Purgatory

Polo Colon, 63, is wearing a spiffy brown suit–accessories include suspenders and a matching fedora. He orders camarones fritos, aguacate, and maduros (fried shrimp, sliced up avocado, and fried plantains)–all in Spanish, of course. He points to the small park outside the diner window, and describes the diversity and convenience of his neighborhood – Bushwick. He grew up in the area, attended Bushwick High School, and raised a family of his own there. Bushwick is his stomping grounds, he said. 

Just last week, Colon– a teacher in the New York City public school system since 1971–was asked to sign in at the middle school he was teaching at for the week rather than slide his attendance card across the board. For someone outside of the public school system, different ways of clocking in may seem meaningless, but it is telling of the hierarchy within the school’s staff: teachers with a permanent job assignment at a school can merely slide their card into the “present” box, whereas visiting teachers must sign in. 

“I told her [the secretary] that I’m only doing this for her,” he said.

For Colon, someone who has been a teacher for over forty years, being asked to “sign in” isn’t customary. But as a teacher in the Absent Teacher Reserve pool, the practices he would normally be awarded are expired.

Colon is one of approximately 800 ATRs roaming the New York City public school system. These teachers are no longer treated with respect – not by the United Federation of Teachers, and not by the Department of Education. The ATR pool is comprised of fully licensed, fully certified teachers who have lost their permanent job positions, typically because of school closures. They find themselves roaming from school to school on a weekly basis, essentially being assigned the work of a substitute teacher.

These teachers, who have devoted years of their lives teaching students in New York City’s public school system, are treated as dispensable and are reminded of their expendability everyday.

*****

The absent teacher reserve serves as an intermediary between the guarantee of a permanent position and actually being laid off. Teachers in the ATR pool receive the same salary and benefits, but their new job description fits that of a substitute teacher. They are no longer employed by one public school, but are employed directly by the Department of Education, and float from school to school on a weekly basis.

In 2011, Mayor Bloomberg jeopardized the jobs of over 4000 teachers, with his contested policy of shutting down “failing” schools.” Through bargaining between the United Federation of Teachers and New York City’s Department of Education, the Absent Teacher Reserve was created in 2005, for teachers who found themselves in the “rubber room”– either unable to find a permanent job because of a closing school or because they were targeted for termination.

Sam, who chose to use a different name, has been a teacher in New York City for twelve years. One year after he transferred to a different middle school, it was shut down, and he became an ATR. “I’ve been an ATR for three years, and with this colocation situation, where the DOE uses one building for three to five schools, the original school loses teachers because it loses space for its students,” he said.

 Many of these ATRs are just like Colon, who has been a teacher for over forty years–teachers who have devoted years teaching, and are now unemployable.  This is because of the Department of Education’s “fair market funding formula,” [fair student funding or fair school funding] according to Norm Scott, a former New York City public school teacher. Scott, now retired, worked as a public school teacher from 1967 until he officially retired in 1997. Even after that, he continued to work in New York City public schools until 2005, coordinating robotics programs at schools in his district.

 “You could have a school full of $100,000 teachers, or full of $50,000 teachers. What Joel Klein (the former Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education) did was penalize schools by limiting the number of teachers with these salaries and put a penalty on schools that hired these people,” Scott said. [The NYC DOE replaced the teacher unit formula with Fair Student Funding in 2007.]

Sam described the ATR position as a way to “deprofessionalize the profession, to weaken job seniority, and job security,” with, what is often, “a humiliating rotation.”

***** 

Colon began his career as a teacher in 1971, as an assistant preschool teacher at a daycare program in Harlem. “I just enjoyed it,” he said. “As a musician, I could do music and art with them–I just love watching children develop and helping them to develop.”

Soon after, Colon got married and had two daughters. Because of his family, Colon decided to further pursue his career in education. He became certified in Early Childhood and Early Childhood Education (degrees for teaching in preschools and elementary schools) and he earned a Common Branches License for teaching core subjects. He even completed the School Administrative Supervision and School District Administrative licenses for principal certification.

 In 1989, Colon began working at P.S. 120 in Bushwick. After seventeen years of working there, in 2006, he launched an investigation against the school’s new principal, Liza Caraballo. He accused her of violating the No Child Left Behind Act and the New York City Health Code.

 After the incident, Colon was assigned to a rubber room in downtown Brooklyn. He explained that the rubber room was full of teachers who had been charged with various things and were on their way to termination, but were still employed by the DOE.

The room was set up like a cafeteria, with long, six-person tables. Teachers could spend weeks or months there, but in many cases they were stuck in the rubber room for years. Since there were no students to teach, and no assignments to do, teachers would sit at the tables and either linger and waste time, or try their best to be productive.

“People wrote books–actual books,” said Colon. One woman, he explained, got a PHD, allowing her to get another teaching license.

Colon spent three years in the rubber room, seeing his colleagues come and go. He is finally able to work in schools again, and as an ATR, he is given weekly assignments,  never in one school for too long.

*****

Marc Epstein taught history at Jamaica High School in Queens for 16 years, and in the 2011-2012 school year, he received a letter from the Department of Education informing him that he–along with half of his fellow teachers at Jamaica–were now a part of the Absent Teacher Reserve pool.

Epstein, who has continually written about violence in public schools, wrote a piece called “New York City Ronin Teacher,” which, after being published in the Huffington Post, found its way onto the blogs of ATRs, ATR community pages, and the websites of education reformers.

“At the end of the day the teacher-ronin [ATRs] are expendable. After all, when you go to the movies and buy popcorn, does it matter who puts the popcorn in the box, or if there is a new person behind the counter every three weeks?” Epstein wrote.

Sam recalled when he was told he would become an ATR. “It was a really curt debriefing. ‘Okay, we’ve lost some numbers, we had to let some people go,’ – that’s how it went,” he said. “it was a debriefing but it was a little too curt for my taste.

Feeling like a substitute teacher is inevitable for an ATR. Teachers aren’t even able to make their own classroom lesson plans.

“100k a year to do nothing,” said Colon. But he remains optimistic because he loves his students.  “I see myself as a specialist that comes in. I have to impress on [students] that I’m not just a sub.”

One of Colon’s greatest concerns as an ATR is that he finds the DOE takes no issue in violating its own health and safety codes. For the last few weeks, he has been teaching in middle schools, for which he does not have his license. He has reached out to the DOE and UFT in regards to the matter. All of his complaints have been ignored.

“We often get put into things that are outside of our licensed area,” said Sam, in reference to his weekly rotations. “We’re either doing the best we can under challenging curriculum if we’re working outside of our licensed area, or we’re bringing lessons that have been made up already for the grade level.”

However, ATRs also face struggles outside of the classroom.

“A lot of us struggle with the idea of being a substitute. Substitutes don’t have multiple years of experience, and aren’t entirely certified unless they’ve retired already,” said Sam. “But students don’t really refer to us as that–staff does. So we take that as a professional slight.”

[The NYE DOE and the UFT agreed on rotation in late June 2011. Guidance counselors and social workers began rotation in Fall 2012.]

*****

Since the implementation of the ATR policy, forums and blogs have popped up all over the internet, not only criticizing the creation of the absent teacher reserve pool, but condemning Bloomberg’s idea of education reform. NYC ATR and NYC Rubber Room are two of the more well known blogs that cover news from the absent teacher reserve pool, and allow teachers in the pool to communicate with their fellow co-workers in the same situation.

Teachers in the absent teacher reserve pool do not have their own classroom, their own students, or their own community. And they have resorted to the internet to–a majority of the time–anonymously sending in accounts of their struggles in their new positions, just to cope.

Colon is not bitter despite what he has been through in his final years as a teacher. He is optimistic and is looking forward to finally retiring in Spring 2013, so he finally has time to pursue his musical interests.

However, the future for other ATRs remains bleak. The DOE recently implemented more teacher evaluations, especially for ATRs, which the UFT has supported. Norm Scott, who has worked alongside ATRs, explained the tension within teachers in schools.

“You walked into a school [as an ATR] and you were branded as being a loser,” he said. “They created this ATR system for teachers who could not get jobs and they vilified them. Each year it was a competition with the next round of ATRs, so people are being attacked as incompetent teachers.”

New York City’s Department of Education has hosted several job fairs, advertising them specifically to the ATR community. However, the job fairs are not only for ATRs, but for anyone interested in a teaching position. Sam, who is still stuck in the system, emphasized the union’s failure to support teachers in his situation.

 “We go to these job fairs and its really a show. What goes on is that they hire quite openly and are very solicitous towards the people who are just finishing up their education studies and they literally give a cold shoulder and left handshake who have fifteen and twenty years in the school system,” said Sam.

“We have gestations of being sold out not just by the city, but by the union,” he said. “What they should be doing is respecting the contract.”

The ATR World According to Arundell, Pt. II, Reports from the outer boroughs

In October the UFT had official meetings for the ACRs and ATRs. Amy Arundell set out her spin, but it contrasted with how displaced teachers see things.

The Guidelines for employees in rotation
Displaced teachers' reality: There have been guidelines for the ATRs but lots of the guidelines get violated. Where is the union on the systematic violations?
Arundell's line: The guidelines are suggestions. You have to stand up for yourselves.

Rotation

Arundell's line: Rotation has been great. Supervisors were not placing people before there was rotation.

Short and medium term assignments
Arundell's line: Emphasized that high school appointees can be placed anywhere in their borough to cover leave, long term absence (LTA), or vacancy; must accept placement. Elementary and middle school only forced to accept in license in their district. For a week or two you may have to teach out of license.
Displaced teachers: Could the city put ATRs in classes as mentor teachers?
Arundell's line: (Did not respond well to the suggestion.)

Letters in the file
Displaced teachers' reality: Supervisors are saying that we are going to put letters in your file.
Arundell's line: There are lots of things that they are doing.

Lesson plans
Displaced teachers' reality Students expect assignments in the class that they are covering.
Many newer schools have abandoned the traditional routine of storing timely teacher-assigned lesson plans, even in the age of email. Students protest against covering teachers' own lessons in subjects that they are not scheduled for.
Arundell's line: Teachers are to do demo lessons. “Field supervisors and I will tell you that you have to have lesson plans in your area.”

Mandated lesson plan formats
Displaced teachers' report: At one of the meetings a displaced member reported that principals are mandating that regular teachers adhere to specific lesson plan formats spelled out in templates.
Arundell's line: She interrupted and said that was school specific.

Short and medium term assignments
Arundell's line Emphasized that high school appointees can be placed anywhere in their borough to cover leave, LTA, or vacancy; must accept placement. Elementary and middle school only forced to accept in license in their district. For a week or two you may have to teach out of license.

Displaced teacher: Could the city put ATRs in classes as mentor teachers?
Arundell's line: Did not respond well to the suggestion.

Status of displaced teachers
Displaced teachers' reality: Teachers do not have regular assignments, so they are not really appointed
Arundell's line: Displaced teachers and other staff have all the contractual rights as other staff. This is thinking along the way that the DOE is thinking. The DOE is trying separate people into different categories. We are protecting you from that.

Rebuttal many displaced teachers say to this: Displaced teachers lose out on per session opportunities. The UFT sold out teachers with the 2005 contract. It did not fight the city when the city began using the Fair School Funding formula. This has prevented principals from assigning (permanently appointing) teachers and counselors to their schools. As the vast majority of displaced staff are over 45 this amounts to age discrimination.

Numbers of displaced staff
Currently [10/8/13] there are about 1700 ATRs city-wide, of which 600 are in the Bronx.
(The numbers are now much higher. See Chaz blog http://chaz11.blogspot.com/2013/11/how-union-and-new-mayor-can-solve-atr.html )

Buy-outs
No clear response. [From previous reports: There was a large gap between what the city would offer and what the union wanted. So now buy-out would happen.]

Democratic representation
Displaced teacher:  If you were an ATR wouldn't you want to have an elected representative?
Arundell's line: (After some delay) No.

Displaced ACRs, ATRs appealed to Arundell, Mulgrew - no response

This letter was sent on June 26, 2013 with no response from Amy Arundell or from Michael Mulgrew, to whom the article was CC'ed.  These issues remain unresolved. Our group is now 50 percent larger.  Our class of displaced teacher, guidance counselor, social worker, psychologist, librarian, secretary is now nearing 2,000.

The union has a pattern of non-response to its members in other urgent situations. This following quote is a taste of the neglect on the part of the union that will go public:

Students fight, threaten, use table legs as weapons, throw rocks, candy, and pens at me while I work with students, etc. I have been documenting and reporting these incidents DAILY to both my school administration and the UFT, with little to no response.

Amy Arundell,

Special Representative

United Federation of Teachers

52 Broadway

New York, NY 10004

Dear Amy:

We are writing on behalf of over 100 ACRs and ATRs. We would like to appeal for declarative action on the UFT's part to ensure that the DOE and the UFT protect our interests, our dignity and our professional status in remedying these patterns which we have been finding systemic in our members' experience. Most of these patterns are in clear violation of the guidelines for excessed employees that the UFT distributed at the meetings last fall.

The indignities we face are:

·      Principals and chapter leaders not introducing themselves

·      Scheduling staff referring to us as substitutes in front of students, staff citing “sub policies” when referring to procedures they lay out for us

·      Staff or administration directing excessed staff to sign in or punch in, in violation of the contract

·      Lack of compliance with standard contractual schedules, such as being assigned to four classes in a row or not being assigned two preps & lunch at secondary school level

·      Contractually dubious assignments such as clerical duties or hall assignments, sometimes for a full day

·      Observations in out-of-license settings, with students we do not know, and/or without knowing the class's place in a course sequence

·      Denial of contractually standard observation protocols, such as pre-observation conferences

·      Little or no access to computers for professional development, lacking passwords we are usually forced to log in as students

·      Students directing sexually vulgar remarks to teachers, throwing objects at teachers (sometimes heavy things like dense plastic bottles) and otherwise harassing teachers, being met with minimal disciplining cooperation from administration (and teachers often criticized by administration for defending themselves against physical attacks or threats thereof)

·      Lack of proper bathroom and elevator access (keys should be directly dispensed to excessed staff upon entry to schools, for the day or for the week).   *** On this latter point, principals have denied elevator keys to teachers that use canes

·      No secure (locked to students) place where teachers may store their belongings

·      Denial of access to staff refrigerators

·      Parking space for the handicapped not being offered

·      Failure to make religious allowances (since assigned schedules vary by the day, there is no opportunity for ATRs to make up time to the school by covering other periods during the week, if they have to leave early for the Sabbath on Friday)

·      School assignment notices do not carry the school hours or reporting times, in contrast to the announcements during the 2011 to 2012 year

Aside from issues of on-the-job dignity, we are quite concerned that our efforts to secure Common Core, Danielson Framework and Smart Board training, in order to be fully commensurate with our in-class peers, are stymied.

Another problem is that the only workshops administered by the Danielson Group in Walcott's list of Danielson workshops are scheduled on Saturdays; this is a flagrant denial of access to observant Jews and Seventh Day Adventists. The same is true for the first series of the UFT Summer Institute. One session is on July 10, the first day of Ramadan, hence an issue for observant Muslims.

In closing, we would like to re-state for the record that we pay dues yet are denied true representation. Alone among our peers outside of the excess pool, we do not have elected representatives.  We are again formally requesting that we have elected chapter leaders, by borough.

If we do not get binding commitments in a written, signed statement of committing to rectify these issues, within five business days of the mailing date of this letter, we will be forced to go further public on these long un-remedied grievances.

Sincerely yours,

An ATR -How tough it is trying to leave the Pool

I am frustrated by our union. I will not give up and I will put my boots on the ground and I will have others join me in holding OUR UNION accountable. As a teacher in the traveling pool since the start of the School Year 2011-12, I have not only been frustrated, but have felt alone because the union refuses to address me or others in the pool respectfully.

Nowhere is there any accountability to those of us in the ATR pool. There is no mention of us in the New York Teacher newspaper, in fact, I dare the union, the UFT, OUR UNION to have a page called “The Traveling Teachers”. It would be great to have an ATR Bill of Rights that addresses all of our concerns, as we travel from school to school–there should be a list of the schools with the go-to persons, telephone numbers, ways of getting to the school, what kind of school it is–A, B, C,D, F, phasing out or closing..kids out of control, respectful and kind students, good or bad administrators, in a good neighborhood or bad, who the union rep is..name and extension, time we start and end the day. It would be nice to have the Union hire out a Hall for us to celebrate us for all the hard and arduous work we do and the humiliations we endure each day in our rotating schools. It would be wonderful to have a union chapter chair in each borough to meet our needs, a go-to person to help us with any issues we face in our schools.

As a teacher in the Pool, I can’t find a job. When I apply for a job, I’m either not called or called, and then never called again. In the very limited times that I have been called back, I go into an interview room and sit and listen to all of the “re-purposed jargon”, Common Core buzz words, Danielson, ad nauseum. In two school years, I have been sent to over 15 mandated interviews–I have done four demo lessons. In one the AP counted the time down, by shouting from the back of the room..45 minutes, 40 minutes and so on (shouted out loud to me in the front of the classroom), in another one, I was to teach an ESL class –It was an ELL class, I was put into a special educaton class without knowing it, and my last demo went awry when their computer failed, and when I was given another one, they kept the passcode on the computer, which timed the computer out every 10 -15 minutes. I have been to two or three hiring halls, I have had little to no P.D., and now, I have no real prospects for a “real job”. Everyone knows what I’m talking about, when I say a “real job”. I don’t want a babysitting position. I really don’t!

Once I was in the Pool and I had my first problem, I was told to call, Amy Arundell, who is supposed to be our go-to person. She has a very stand-offish manner. When talking to you, she is rude most of the time. She talks at you most of the time. She then tells you, if you call her, that you need to speak to “your rep”, the person in charge of your school district. For example, I had a problem my first year in the Pool, where I was told to sharpen over one hundred pencils. When I called her to tell her what was happening, now she knows me by now, she says in a very infantilizing manner “Clare? You know that you’re not supposed to be sharpening pencils. I knew that, but I needed her to be nice and say, “I’m sorry that they are doing this to you, I will personally call the school now and put an end to this practice.” All I want is for her to do her job in a very, kind and thoughtful manner. After all, I am a union dues-paying member. Is that too much to ask?

Also, this summer, many of us in the Pool who have not had any PD had little to no opportunity to sign up for summer workshops. Many of these workshops required the principal to select you. So, what if you are in the Pool and don’t have a home school? Good question? Well, I called Amy. She told me that she would sign me up and to have other members, from the Pool, to call her and have her sign them up. I thought that was what she told me. I had called her about signing me up. She said that she did.

Then, a Traveler must have called her, and she told me that she didn’t tell me that she would sign up the ATRs. She told me ” I told you that I would do this as a courtesy to you.” Well, I called the UFT Teacher Center and guess what? I was told that I was not on any workshop lists. I called her back, she sounded annoyed that I had told her that my name was not on any workshop list. She then asked me which workshops I was interested in, I told her and then she called and signed me up. Just as an aside, the Teacher Center only allows you to take one workshop over the summer. So, even if you have had no PD all year, you can only register for one. Amazing!

As a person in the Pool, especially for teachers whose schools have phased out or closed, WE need all of the help that we can get. So, I would suggest for all of us to put her to work starting now. Call her as many times as you need to. Call her when you are being disrespected in a school–not given a bathroom key or elevator key, put in a stairwell to watch a locked door for periods at a time, be careful in the SAVE Room–I have had bad luck..I was assaulted in the SAVE Room…what did the union do? Nothing. Did I report it and put it on the UFT site? Yes. Did they call me or ask me how I was feeling? No! Instead, I got an e-mail telling me that my complaint was received. Wow! So nice to know that my union cares about me.

One more thing..to date, I have been attempting to get a Comprehensive Injury Report signed by the HS Superintendent’s Office. I was assaulted in December of 2011. The days were coded as medical. I was injured and needed medical assistance and rest. Guess what? The days were taken out of my CAR. To this day, the days are coded as medical despite ALL attempts to get the Superintendent’s signature. Where is MY UNION? Why do I feel like no one is listening? It’s been almost two years since the assault and it feels like I’m being assaulted every time I call the union for assistance.

The next time you see an ATR, say hello and introduce yourself. Ask how they’re doing. Tell them who the union rep is and where to find him/her, what their extension is. Tell them where the bathroom is, where the elevator is located, which side of the building (if it’s a big building) they belong on, where the nearest exit is to the subway or bus, where a good place to eat is located, if there is PD while they are there, tell them if there is a position opening up in your school…and anything else you think is important for them to know while they are in your building for the week. They would do it for you, so now you have the chance to make good on what it is to be a good colleague.

I believe in “boots on the ground”! I believe that OUR UNION should work for us and be kind and considerate, and thoughtful. I am like this naturally, and so I expect MY UNION to treat me well, all the time. I do care about my well-being and the well-being of all teachers, in particular, the one’s without a voice right now, the women and men who find themselves in the ATR Pool, through no fault of their own. Like me.

In closing, I’d like to say that we in the pool feel defeated, neglected and we worry about our jobs all the time. We want to work in a school of our own, we want a group of our own students we can teach and call our own, we want to be in the classroom! We want to bond with our colleagues! Don’t let others tell you any differently. We need the UFT, OUR UNION, to show us respect, to show us some kindness, and to have the gumption to get us back into our own classrooms. NOW!

ACRs/ATRs, Do Not Allow Yourselves to Be Borrowed

ACRs/ATRs-

There is a new insidious misuse of ATRs. It is something that has been called "borrowing." Remember the UFT's advisory, that we should take no assignment that is not centrally assigned from the DOE. Thus, an ACR/ATR's agreeing to being used in the borrowing fashion is putting oneself at risk with being AWOL in DOE central's eyes.

There are small schools in two separate buildings that had traditionally housed single high schools, that are occasionally pulling a stunt. If a principal of one school needs an ATR, he or she have their secretaries call up another small school on the same school campus. They ''borrow'' us like we are chattel, to be traded. I don't mean that they ''exchange'' or swap ATRs. They borrow an ATR for the day, and use them usually in the new "secondary schools" which are grades 6-12 combined. Amy Arundell says they are NOT allowed to borrow ATRs from other schools on the same campus. Arundell suggests that one should tell the local UFT rep from your current small school, and report it. ATRs should also stand up for themselves and REFUSE to be ''borrowed'' and tell the secretary or administrator who asks or tells you this that you ARE NOT DOING THAT.

It should also be pointed out that there are legalities if one gets hurt at a school that you were not assigned to, in writing.... You stay at the small school to which you were assigned.

The ATR World According to Amy Arundell, Pt. I

MANHATTAN, UFT Headquarters, October 1 
   UFT special representative Amy Arundell's statements; and she routinely interrupted ATR members' questions:

Italics are quotes or paraphrases of Amy's statements.

On the prospects of having an ATR's page in New York Teacher:

Arundell: It's not going to happen.

Publicization of the meeting; Guidelines for rotation

[As a matter of interest, most of the people at the meeting only happened to get information about the meeting by word of mouth. Most ATRs have not learned of the meeting through a direct email from the UFT or from the chapter leader at their rotation assignment. The UFT is still producing a guidelines for the use of ACRs/ATRs that lacks DOE and UFT logos and letterheads.]

Representation:

Member: No one knows how long we will remain unappointed. Until everyone is appointed, we need our own chapter and a representative on the committee that is deciding our fate. [Arundell and her new aide, Mike Sill, an ATR, are the two UFT representatives on the four member DOE-UFT committee on ATRs.]
Arundell: There is no need for ATRs to have their own chapter leaders, because they already have representation. [This is as far as some at the UFT claim she spoke.  ATRs recall differently, that she said to an ATR's point that we have no representation, No you don't! I am your representative!]

Positions:

Arundell: All the excessed teachers, guidance counselors, social workers, are appointed, and have all the rights that every other member has.

[Arundell spoke at length on her view that displaced staff have the same rights as other staff. She did not accept the term, “unassigned,” as applying to the displaced teachers, guidance counselors, social workers, librarians, secretaries without permanent school assignments. A number of members described Arundell's position as hair-splitting, and said that the displaced teachers who she says are appointed remain in rotation with no continuing assignment at a particular school.]

[Member asked where is our file when the school has closed down?]

Arundell: Your file remains at the physical building of where the school was where you were last working [i.e., where regularly assigned].

Funding, schools, getting placed permanently:

[Members pointed to the issue of Fair School Funding, a 2007 DOE school funding change which gives schools set budgets based on numbers of students and types of students, and how it creates incentives for principals to hire newer, cheaper staff]

Arundell [Interrupting the member, who hadn't finished her question]: The union has never supported Fair School Funding. The union is on the record as being against Fair School Funding.

Member: You'll hold the next mayor to eliminating Fair School Funding?

Arundell: No

On working assignments and conditions for displaced teachers (and guidance counselors . . . ) in rotation:

Arundell: You need to be pro-active, assertive; you need to be an advocate for your rights on the job.

Guidance counselors: I suggest that you think of things you can reasonably do at a school, such as, “here are 5 things I can offer you for the week.”

[Members recited assignments that violate the DOE-UFT guidelines.]

Arundell: Guidance counselors should not be alone in the classroom; guidance counselors should not cover in the SAVE room.

Parking:

Displaced staff can apply for parking pool like anyone else there.

Wifi access:
Member asked about wifi access in schools.
Arundell: Ordering things on Amazon, that you should not do at school. But, if it's for gathering material to prepare for a lesson, that's acceptable.

Injuries:

The meeting wound down with Arundell's initial hedge of a response to a question on line of duty injuries (LODIs), with excuse that it was 6:00. Yet, no horde was packing up or racing to the door.

The following revision of guidelines for displaced, rotating staff was given by UFT staff at the door. As the 2012 version, it lacks a NYCDOE or UFT logo. It is attached to a list of district representatives for Manhattan schools and their emails. It does not provide school chapter leaders' names.