While I agree that this is a ploy on the part of Leadership principals, I would never want Jill as my UFT president. This is the same Jill who agreed to take away tenure--A MAJOR MISTAKE.
However, I do see parallels between SOME things these members demand and those of us who want Unity ousted. The following is from the letter to Levy:
"This ineffectiveness is …
a result of the members' voice not being heard – Our voices as APs and Principals are neither solicited nor heard on matters of major decision making, policy or expenditure.
There are poorly publicized meetings characterized by low attendance.
There is no regular survey taken of members' opinions.
CSA is preparing to file motions against the Empowerment Initiative without seeking input from over 300 principals who have joined the initiative.
There are no Principals at the bargaining table.
CSA does not detail annual expenditures to its members by posting its public / federal annual financial filing on its website.
CSA does not inform the membership of the sticking points of the contract negotiations..."
Any of this sound familiar??????
Remember it was Levy who I saw on TV ads telling New Yorkers to vote for Mayor Mike.
Of course if you go on to read the rest of the letter, you will see the real reason behind it--ousting APs.
No doubt many principals would rather hire "friends" or "fiends". I am sure principals hate the fact that many APs have the respect of both teachers and parents when they do not.
Both CSA and UFT need strong leadership and a stonger rank and file. Right now our newer teachers are weakening our rights and Randi is licking her lips over this.
I thought I read somewhere that those who graduate from the leadership academy are not in the CSA union. Any know if this is true?
There is probably no better argument against mayoral control of schools than his own words quoted here. To think we could put the interests of teachers last and still have any semblence of success in the schools is utter nonsense. What remains then, is for teachers and parents to ask their elected representatives in the State government to reduce the Mayor's authority. Maybe too many of use were seduced by the idea that a benevolent plutocrat could solve all our problems but clearly that's not the case.
Principals who opted for Empowerment signed a contract that negates any CSA protections. However, we have seen when Leadership principals make major mistakes, the DoE finds no fault.
I am sure those who are not Leadership, but still opted for Empowerment have somewhat the same deal because they "signed on" to be Klein's puppets.
Randi should seize the moment and join forces with Levy. They should make APs part of the UFT and cut the principals loose. One strong union working together instead of two tearing each other apart.
APs could get back to running the schools, rather than being up our tails. We could get back to teaching rather than worry about LIFs and obserevations.
Dear Just A Cog,
Randi already did that when she agreed to "Lead Teachers". That was another ploy of Klein's that Randi gave him in an effort to rid APs of their jobs.
This thing with the APs has never been a secret. In fact when Klein first got the job, he told principals that they should have the power to choose their APs and also made references AP jobs were unnecessary.
Jill Levy did not do right by her people when she agreed to give up tenure. If anything, the CSA and UFT should merge or at least work together so that teachers will no longer be stuck with dictators instead of instructional leaders. But, both unions would need strong leaders and not the two backstabbers that are on top now.
Mayoral control comes up for renewal in 2009. Mayor Moneybags will still be around then and as his quote above shows, he's staking his "legacy" on it. What are the chances that an reinvigorated and empowered democratic party in Albany clips Mikey's wings a little bit and gives some power to somebody other than Kleinberg? Where does Spitzer stand on the issue?
Any smart administrator should realize that happy workers make better workers. Bloomberg must realize this because people that work for his private enterprises have many fringe benefits, including all meals (and the coffee beats h.s. cafeteria coffee). But, teachers are not making him wealthier. Putting the needs of teachers last does not make them do their jobs better. In fact, it tends to create a hostile atmosphere. Instead of doing more, teachers will begin to do less. Treating teachers better is in the best interest of our students. Human nature--we tend to treat others as we are treated.
Good point. Bloomberg treats teachers like garbage. But so does the UFT, really.
I'm not suggesting JL be UFT Prez. I didn't know she'd supported Bloomie. But that puts her pretty much in the same boat with the current UFT Prez, who was snookered into supporting mayoral control.
It's true that their givebacks were awful, but I think they led the way to ours--Of course that might not be the case if Randi hadn't gone to PERB.
Klein is clearly trying to break their union, and I've no doubt whatsoever that we're next.
From where I'm sitting I can see that Klein has already broken our union. He couldn't do it with an 8 page contract, but he's doing it through the back door. You take away seniority rights and retention, and then you restructure a school. You then fill new positions with teachers who are fresh out of college or teaching fellows. Next, you place the excessed senior teachers in the ATR pool, doing subbing and menial chores. Meanwhile, the union takes credit for a wonderful contract that saved our jobs and salaries.
It doesn't take much to restructure a school. We were just a few percentage points off with ELL scores which I'm sure could have been resolved differently. This is just a heads-up to all of you in schools with some borderline scores. That's all it takes.
An administrator could have just changed them all, for example.
That, apparently, merits a promotion.
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