August 26, 2006

To the staff of The Queens High School of Teaching:

I want to wish everyone a warm welcome back from your summer vacation and to the UFT blog. I also want to thank the staff for their support in getting this position. I will certainly do the best I can to represent you in the next three years. Before a discussion of my personal view regarding my philosophy of a strong chapter leader, I want to thank Cathy Lafergola for her services for the past three years. She has offered to assist me, and I will make use of her experience and knowledge. In addition, I have asked staff members to be a part of the UFT consultative team to represent each of the communities: Martin Metzger will be representing the Emerson Community; Laurie Kucic, the Montessori community, Patrick Kehoe, the Freire Community, and Kathleen Krantz, the Gardener Community. Iris Zevin will continue to work as a Delegate.

Before the semester even began, I was asked to represent the staff regarding a decision about alleviating the confusion of the new time schedules for the students of QHST. On August 7th a proposal was given to me that teachers could meet with their advisory students on September 1, 2006 and distribute the students' new schedules. As many of you know, teachers do not meet with the students until September 5th, but I was asked if this would be permissible. Because the administration needed time to send out letters informing students that they should come in on that date, I was asked to make a decision by that Friday – August 11th. I was scheduled to fly to Florida on August 11th to visit my father, and so I wanted to make the decision by Thursday.

My primary concern as a UFT Chapter Chair is to preserve the integrity of the contract, to see that it is followed as closely as possible and to keep you the staff of QHST informed. I know that our school is “different by design” and that the contract can be open to various interpretations, so I decided to write to Rona Freiser and ask her advice. She told me "that day is for PD and for teachers to have time to set up their rooms." The proposal given to me was not contractual. When I reported Rona’s reaction to the administration, it was suggested that I could poll the staff using e-mail, and use that as a way to guide my decision. That is something that I would be willing to discuss with you during a UFT meeting, but clearly I did not have enough time for that.

After receiving e-mail from Rona and talking to her on the phone, I decided to adhere to her interpretation of the contract and to use those days for professional development and allot time to teachers to prepare their classrooms. During the year, when these kinds of decisions need to be made, I will consult with the UFT team first, use the advice of the district representative and possibly make use of a polling system of the entire staff using e-mail. But whatever method I use to form a decision, my primary objective will remain constant – to represent in the best way I can the staff of QHST.

Before closing the blog, I want to inform you that I will not be in school September 1 and September 2 because I must attend to a family matter with my son. As a result, I will not be able to meet with you during those days. Note that Reorganization grievances -- which are grievances regarding preference sheets and class assignments have a limited time of only two days from knowledge to file. If you need to file a grievance Martin Metzger will assist you. I spoke to Rona Freiser and she also offered her assistance.

In addition, I want to thank everyone for their condolences. I was very fortunate to visit my dad shortly before his death, and in fact we discussed this first decision I made as a UFT chapter chair. My dad, who was a rather successful attorney and very sharp at the age of 89, said, “sounds like the right decision.”


Fraternally,

Michael Lieber