DoE did not collaborate with UFT on calendar

The DoE released next year’s calendar – and they did not run it by the UFT first. Should the UFT leadership have been pissed? Of course.

Making matters worse, the DoE released the calendar at the end of the day on Friday (around 2PM?) so that there would not be time to engage before the weekend. Friday afternoon announcements are real weasel moves. UFT leadership was rightfully angry. Did they handle it well? Hmm. Read on.

The DoE did not work out the default schedules with the UFT in advance. We have nuisance time – non-instructional – “37½ minutes” – that each school has to decide how to use – and the DoE and UFT leadership decide in advance of the calendar coming out some ways that schools can break up that time without special authorization. Except this year the DoE skipped that step. And the UFT leadership is, rightfully, pissed.

As an aside, that non-instructional time – the infamous “37½ minutes” – we can blame that on the UFT leadership – they negotiated it as part of the deeply concessionary 2005 contract. Every Unity leader you know who was working in 2005 – they fought, personally, to get this contract passed. And it was closer than most – 60-40 among teachers – (probably rejected by high school teachers, though that does not count). So the leaders who are pissed – understandably – about the DoE cutting them out of the process – they should be made to think about how their lousy negotiating put us here in the first place. OK, point made.

Bottom line for today is the UFT leadership is rightfully pissed.

I start seeing calendar posts a little after 2PM. Several hours later, maybe around 7PM, they (I don’t believe Mulgrew writes the emails himself) wrote to members:

The Department of Education today released a 2023-24 school calendar without giving any notice to our union or completing negotiations on the pilot workday agreement.

For the past 10 years, it has been the responsibility of the DOE to come to an agreement with our union on a pilot workday to use the 155 minutes of extended time each week for professional development, parent engagement and Other Professional Work. This year, the DOE released a calendar as if an agreement had been reached but it had not.

At this moment, without the pilot workday agreement in place, the use of the extended time will automatically revert in September to the time configuration prior to 2014: 37.5 minutes on tutoring or small-group instruction after the regular workday, Monday through Thursday, in single-session schools.

Every school’s UFT consultation committee should meet with their school principal to discuss how their plans for next school year must change.

And now members are really, really worried.

What’s Missing?

When the DoE Calendar was released, that was Friday afternoon. The UFT leadership should have addressed members immediately:

“The Department of Education today released a 2023-24 school calendar without giving any notice to our union or completing negotiations on the pilot workday agreement. That is not right. It is not collaborative. There are issues that should have been worked out with the UFT before releasing the calendar. We are studying the issue, and will write to you over the weekend once we have determined our best course of action.“

(this is not what was written over Mulgrew’s signature)

Strong message. We just saw this. It’s not right. We are working on it. Hold tight, we will update you when we decide how to proceed. Instead, the leadership sat on the issue for 5 or so hours. Instead of reassurance from the leadership, members got silence.

Why? Our leadership never makes a mistake. Or at least never owns up to one. And our leadership never gets caught not knowing what to do. Or at least never owns up to not knowing. Better, in their minds, to leave teachers in the dark than to admit to being less than all-knowing.

By the way, this silence while the leadership was plotting? It also means that working teachers were not consulted about the plans.

This delays also means that while the DoE were horrible weasels for their Friday afternoon release, that the UFT leaders were actually worse, with emails arriving in members’ boxes 7, 8, 9PM on a Friday. Not good.

What Else is Missing?

There’s nothing in the email over Mulgrew’s signature about the calendar itself. This is certainly not the best calendar ever. Members think it’s pretty bad. I guess we can argue about fine details. But we certainly do not need to argue about snow days. The calendar does not need them. When schools don’t open teachers and students will Zoom. So why are there snow days in the calendar? Apparently that was not on the authors’ minds.

What Matters to Unity? What’s their strategy?

The DoE did not negotiate the workday options with the UFT. The leadership is pissed. And that’s what this email deals with.

It looks like they want Chapter Leaders (and committees) to push principals on this – with no UFT agreement there will be 4 days, 37½ minutes after school, and no other options. They want the UFT members to panic the principals. And they want the principals to lean on their superintendents to get this addressed.

Know What Else is Missing?

That’s the strategy. Go in to your principal. Make a fuss about 37½ minutes. Get the principal to make noise. Get the superintendents to ask the DoE to negotiate with UFT leadership. And get this fixed. But that’s not what the email says.

The email, sent after Friday’s happy hours were over, was written so that members think the 37½ minutes is done, that this is what will happen in September. Unity figures that teachers will engage with their principals with more passion if they think this is about to happen to them. Unity does not tell chapter leaders that this is a strategy. Unity does not trust members or chapter leaders, they do not draw members or chapter leaders into the decision-making process, and they do not share with members and chapter leaders what the actual strategy is.

Another Way?

Sure.

• Send an email at 3 – the calendar is out – they didn’t consult – we are not happy – snow days? there’s no reason – no pilot day bad.
• Think it over. Bring chapter leaders into a bigger conversation about how to respond.
• When ready, send a follow up email:

“The Department of Education today released a 2023-24 school calendar without giving any notice to our union or completing negotiations on the pilot workday agreement. That is not right. It is not collaborative. There are issues that should have been worked out with the UFT before releasing the calendar.

“1) There are too many days in this calendar – there is no need for snow days – we will attempt to address this directly with the Chancellor.

“2) There is no pilot day. The default would be the 37½ minutes – which we know many of our members, and many school communities do not want. We considered raising this directly with the Chancellor, but we are opting for a different approach.

“Every school’s UFT consultation committee should meet with their school principal to discuss the 37½ minutes – and how their plans for next school year would have to change. Your goal is to encourage your principal to contact their superintendent, looking for more options. We think this will lead the DoE to sit down and negotiate with us.

I continue to be amazed – I think Unity is wrong on many political issues – but why can’t they figure out how to communicate clearly and respectfully with Chapter Leaders and members?