UFT High School Vice Presidents – with some narrative

George Altomare, who passed earlier this fall, was the first UFT HS Vice President. Of course I did not meet George until years after he had retired. He was on the UFT Executive Board – I think for the entire 11 years when I served. He used to promote the New York Association of Social Studies Teachers conferences. (New York Council of Social Studies Teachers? Not sure of the right name). He also used to play on his guitar to close out conferences – which songs did he play? Was it Solidarity Forever? Yup, he played at every AFT convention I went to. George lost the vice presidency to Michael Shulman in 1985.

Michael Shulman represented an opposition caucus – New Action. In 1985 he beat George Altomare head to head for HS VP, fair and square. But the union’s leadership grouping, called Unity, sued to overturn the election (that they had conducted!) A second election was held. Shulman won again. George retired the day the result was confirmed. Shulman is the only Vice President in the UFT’s history not to come from Unity Caucus. More on that below. Shulman served one term, and was narrowly defeated by John Soldini. Mike returned to the classroom, I believe at Fort Hamilton High School.

John Soldini (Unity), Shulman and Altomare were the only three HS VPs to be elected directly by the members in the high schools. Unity, desperate never again to lose the position, converted all the VPs to Vice Presidents at Large. Up to that point, high school teachers elected the high school vice president. After two amendments, all UFT members – teachers, paras, secretaries, retirees – from high school, from middle school, from elementary school, from everywhere else the UFT represents people – all of them voted for the “Vice President at Large for High Schools.”

Soldini was high school VP for over a decade. Sometimes he would have been the choice of high school teachers – but usually he lost among high school teachers, but remained in his position. The change in rules ensured that with solid backing of elementary teachers and retirees, John never again had to worry about high school teachers choosing someone else.

Soldini was VP when I came to my first high school level meetings. They were raucous affairs – high school chapter leaders challenged him on many items, and he pushed back hard. I definitely remember a few shouting matches. I also remember packed meetings, and sandwiches (I didn’t come for the sandwiches). There was real discussion about real issues directly facing schools. Of course that was before the massive break up of the high schools… What were there? 100 high schools in the city? And most of them sent their chapter leaders to listen to or yell at John.

When Soldini retired, Unity chose Frank Volpicella to be the next HS VP. An aside, my District Rep, David Shulman, thought he was in line for the post, and retired when he was not tapped for it. He didn’t speak about it, but I think he remained bitter.

Frank was stepping into a mess, with the break-up of the large high schools in full swing. Unity, which had signed onto the plan, was now backing away (though without much real opposition – dropping the responsibility on each individual school to put up its own individual fight, and we watched loss, after loss, after loss). In any case, there was a swarm of activity, but I don’t remember much about what Frank did. He was regarded as a nice guy – in fact once he said something really insulting about me – but I spoke to him, and he quickly and graciously retracted it – not everyone has that same sense of decency. In any case, now I was going to high school level meetings regularly. And among other things I noticed, attendance started to fall.

Frank retired in 2007. The high school division almost died when he left. Frank’s successor was a supporter of school reform. One time he explained that breaking up the big schools and their lazy chapters would inevitably give rise to a new cohort of active chapter leaders in the small high schools. It seemed unlikely then, and history has born out how completely full of shit he was. The fights against closing schools were hamstrung by having a VP who wasn’t really opposed. On big politics, his role at AFT conventions – introducing one pro-war resolution after another, was sickening. And there was not even something personable about him that mitigated the other stuff; I once sat with him, one-on-one, as he offered me a job (that I did not take) and during those ten minutes that seemed like an hour not once did he make eye contact. As an ideologue and a boring speaker who did not really listen to anyone else, the high school meetings became dreary. Attendance, already dwindling, plummeted. I recall once sitting in the room, in his High School VP’s meeting, and realizing that me, Zulma and Sam, 3 chapter leaders from the Bronx, all from small schools, were the only chapter leaders in the room. Everyone else were DRs and paid staff.

When Janella Hinds was appointed/elected (by the Exec Board), it was a breath of fresh air. Let me back up – the Exec Board election was actually an election – October 2012. I was nominated by New Action – and lost, 67 – 7 (never figured out where the 7th vote came from, there were only 6 New Action exec board members. I do know that Michael Mendel scolded me for asking for the count.) In any case, Janella was open to conversation, and committed to rebuilding the meetings in the HS Division. Lots of damage had been done, but slowly the meetings built back up. Now, with all the mini-schools, and the four hundred something high schools, attendance is not like in Soldini’s day… but in Janella’s first year or two there were times when we wondered if they would ever come back – and they did. Now there are high school events, high school awards, and some sense of a living division.

The electoral history since Janella’s election is interesting. She won in 2013 – both by Unity’s rules, and among the high schools – New Action and Unity combined to give her almost 60% of the votes against MORE. But in 2016, while she won (it’s a VP at Large), high schools actually preferred James Eterno roughly 51% – 46%. In 2019 she won both the total vote, and with high schools, over 68%. And in the latest election I won most of the high school votes (56%), but Janella prevailed in the other divisions, and since this is now an at-large – retained the position, 66% – 34%.

I wrote a High School Vice President electoral timeline earlier this fall.