UFT Weekly Update

To the staff of QHST:

As a chapter leader, I receive weekly updates which provide information regarding the UFT and your rights. I have reprinted that article for your review. In addition, we will be scheduling a Consultative Meeting shortly, and if you have any issues or topics that I can place on the agenda, please write to me at the following address: miky@worldnet.att.net.

Also, the UFT office will be in room 519, which will also be utilized for Mandated Counseling.
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Mentoring Alert!
Please help ensure that our newest teachers receive appropriate mentoring. Every school should have a New Teacher Induction Committee that designs the school-based mentoring program. The chapter leader (or designee) should be a part of the committee. Mentoring plans with matches were due on Sept. 21. The Principal’s Guidelines for School Based Mentoring and related documents are available online.

Please e-mail UFT Vice President Aminda Gentile at agentile@uft.org if you know of new teachers that are not yet being mentored, or if non-DOE employees (i.e. consultants) are being used as mentors.

Thank you for reporting your oversized classes
Thank you for all your diligence in informing your district rep about the number of over-sized classes in your school. On Thursday, the UFT filed 4,303 grievances – down from 6,243 the previous year -- to get class size in line with contractual obligations. They believe the drop is due to the multi-year lobbying effort by elected officials, parent groups and the UFT that resulted in additional funding both to reduce class size and build more schools. Please read the full story at the UFT Web site.

Back to school; back to basics
The beginning of the year is a great time to educate your newest members -- and refresh the memories of your veterans -- about their rights under the contract. Consider holding a meeting with your chapter to discuss some of their rights. For ideas on what to focus on, see the A-Z listings on subjects as mundane as bulletin boards or as serious as arrest in the UFT’s “Know Your Rights” manual, which is online. Go to www.uft.org and under “Do You Know...” click the link to “Know Your Rights”. And share the link with your members, so they can continue some genuinely useful professional development.

Home-buying opportunities seminars in all 5 boroughs
The UFT, in partnership with the community group ACORN and the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), has created a program to offer affordable housing opportunities in the five boroughs to UFT members, whether they are looking to rent an apartment or buy a house, co-op or condo. Please get the word out to your members.

ACORN Housing periodically holds Home-buying Opportunities Seminars in the evening in UFT borough offices to introduce people to the spectrum of offerings [see dates below]. After attending the two-hour information session, each member is assigned a loan counselor who gives one-on-one support tailored to the individual’s needs, income, savings and credit. Both the seminars and the counseling sessions are free. These seminars will be comprehensive and cover all aspects of how to buy a home and get a mortgage. They are open to all interested UFT members. Pre-registration is required.

Upcoming introductory seminars:
Manhattan: Sept. 27, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., UFT headquarters, 52 Broadway, 6th floor conference room

Brooklyn: Oct. 3, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., UFT Borough Office, 335 Adams Street, 24th Floor, Room 1-4

Bronx: Oct. 4, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., UFT Borough Office, room will be posted in the lobby area

Queens : Oct. 11, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., UFT Borough Office, 97-77 Queens Blvd., 8th Floor, Room G

Staten Island: Oct. 18, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., UFT Borough Office, 4456 Amboy Road, 2nd Floor, Room ABC

To register for a seminar, call 1-718-246-8080 and identify yourself as a UFT member.

edwize is multimedia this week
On one page of the union blog, you can hear Randi Weingarten on WNYC Radio's Brian Lehrer Show set the tone for a year of cooperation and engagement with principals in school governance, and then you can scroll down to click on a video clip of Comedy Central’s Colbert Report for a rare sight, the lighter side of Chancellor Joel Klein.


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To Do:
Tell your Congress Member to fix NCLB now. With the federal No Child Left Behind law up for reauthorization this fall, the debate is in full swing in the U.S. Congress about how best to amend the law. While some of the proposed reforms are helpful, others – such as mandating the use of student test scores to evaluate teachers or to award performance pay – are misguided and should be rejected. Please encourage members to join our fax campaign. Go to Action Alert! at www.uft.org and click on “Tell your Congress Member to fix NCLB now” and then follow the directions to send a fax. Make sure to send a fax yourself, too.
Address changes: Remind members that they must notify the Department of Education, the union and the Teachers Retirement System (TRS) when they change their address, name, telephone number or marital status. They can get forms from the payroll secretary to notify the DOE. To notify the UFT, members who are already enrolled in the UFT Welfare Fund can use the new online change of status process to: 1) make changes to your name; 2) update your mailing address, and 3) update your family profile including dependents and beneficiaries. Members may also continue to use the blue “Change of Status” packets that are available through your chapter leader or by calling the UFT Welfare Fund forms hotline at 212-539-0539. If you have not previously enrolled, please click this UFT Welfare Fund Enrollment link.
All new chapter leaders and new delegates MUST send in their election certification to the UFT Membership Department or they will not receive mailings that directly affect their positions.
Establish a school safety committee in your school to meet monthly during the school year. The first item should be a review of the school safety plan. See our Safety Plan Check List as a preliminary guide. Make sure that all teachers, parents and students in your school have received the Discipline Code and proper training with respect to the code.
Make sure that your school has a SAVE Room and a removal process as part of the Safety Plan. (Chancellor's Reg A443 1.05MB). Please contact your borough safety liaisons and district reps for technical assistance.

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For your information:
UFT Dental Plan transfer period: Members can transfer their dental plan during the month of September through Oct. 15, and the new plan becomes effective in November. Forms and information are available on the Fund Web site or by calling the Fund Forms Hotline at 212-539-0539.

New York City health benefits program transfer period: Remind in-service members that they may transfer their health plan, add or drop Rider coverage, or add or drop dependents during the transfer period, which runs from Nov. 1 through Nov. 30. The new plan becomes effective in January 2008. The application (ERB form) is available through your payroll person.

UFT Welfare Fund updates: Members can now enroll or file a Change of Status form online at www.uftwf.org.

Buy-Out Waiver Program: The Health Benefits Buy-Out Waiver Program allows eligible employees who can obtain non-City group health benefits to waive their New York City health benefits in return for an annual cash incentive. The Medical Spending Conversion Enrollment/Change Form is available from your payroll person and must be submitted along with a completed ERB form by Nov. 16. Members can access a full description of the program at www.nyc.gov/olr. (Click the left listing, “Health Benefits Program,” and then “Flex Spending Programs.”)

Ready to quit smoking? The UFT, in partnership with the Department of Health, is offering a smoking cessation program to UFT members. Come by the Safety and Health Department on the 15th floor of UFT Headquarters at 52 Broadway in Manhattan between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. on school days and get confidential assistance. You can get free nicotine patches. Do something for your lungs today! For more information, call the smoking cessation helpline at 212-598-7763.


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In the News:
Recruitment malpractice charged: Military recruiters coming into New York City public Schools are often using class time to recruit, in violation of Department of Education guidelines, according to a report released by the New York Civil Liberties Union and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer. The report enumerates several other problems with recruiting in the schools. “Teachers, parents and students have complained of recruiters’ heavy-handed tactics, harassment and privacy violations,” said Stringer.

As goes Arkansas… A study done of teachers leaving the profession in Arkansas found that those most likely to quit are, as in many other places around the nation, math and science teachers, as well as computer science teachers. Aside from family or personal reasons, teachers who left quoted a number of complaints that might sound familiar – low salaries and benefits, poor student discipline, and lack of administrator support. See Survey: Math, science, computer teachers most likely to quit for other jobs.