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Member Headlines
Governor Paterson Signs Day Care Notification Bill Promoted by CSA
NYS Governor David Paterson today signed the Day Care Notification Bill, promoted by the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators (CSA), despite longstanding opposition from the Bloomberg administration. The Bill (S-3601 and A-3065-E) will require the NYC Administration of Children’s Services (ACS) to inform parents at a city-funded day care center that there are plans to close the center. According to CSA, parents and advocates, the city was closing centers with alarming speed, at an alarming rate and without an adequate appeal process.
The City announced last spring said that it intended to close 16 more public day care centers in three boroughs, 124 additional classrooms in centers overall, and permanently eliminate 3,350 day care slots and layoff 725 day care employees across the city. The closures and layoffs were unnecessary because the City Council had authorized nearly $18...
CSA Endorses Cuomo, Duffy, DiNapoli & Many More
CSA supports candidates who have a history of standing up for issues that are of importance to CSA and its members. We urge you to support CSA endorsed candidates or any candidates you believe will strengthen our schools and communities.
Click HERE to view the list of CSA endorsed candidates.
New ELI Video Debuts! Watch to Learn More about ELI's Premier Professional Development
Watch the new Executive Leadership Institute video and learn more about the high-quality professional development opportunities available to New York City School Leaders.
Click HERE to watch the video.
Welcome Back! Preview CSA's Annual Subway Campaign
CSA's annual subway poster campaign will begin appearing on all subway lines Monday, Sept 6th and will run through Oct. 1st. This year's participants include Lydia Bassett Tyner, Principal, PS 119, Bronx; Moses Ojeda, Assistant Principal, Thomas A. Edison Career & Technical High School, Queens; Elena Jaffe, Day Care Director, Sumer Children's Center, Brooklyn; and Hiroyuki Yamada, District 75, Instructional Support Specialist, Office of Wellness Programs.
NYC Schools to Receive Upwards of $240 Million in Race to the Top Award
Today, at a press conference at City Hall, State and City officials celebrated NYS's selection and award of $700 million in the US Department of Education's Race to the Top Competition. This award will provide upwards of $240 million to NYC Schools to support the creation of a new teacher evaluation system, develop a more rigorous curriculum and State assessments based on the National Common Core Standards, and expand a range of proven reforms first introduced in NYC.
Joining in the festivities were State Chancellor Merryl Tisch, State Commissioner David Steiner, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Senate Majority Conference Leader John Sampson, State Senator Suzi Oppenheimer, NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn, NYC Councilmember Robert Jackson, UFT President Michael Mulgrew and CSA President Ernest Logan. State Assembly...
Mayor Announces Improvement Plan for School Attendance
On Thursday, August 19th, Mayor Bloomberg, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and many other stakeholders from various city agencies, announced a strategic plan to curb chronic absenteeism and truancy during the coming school year. The program, entitled “Every Student, Every Day, ” was developed by the Mayor’s Interagency Task Force and will be set up in a core group of 25 schools.
Click HERE to read the full press release.
Senate Approves $26 Billion in Aid to States and School Districts
On Thursday, August 5, the New York Times reported that the Senate approved $26 billion in aid to states and school districts in an effort to prevent thousands of teacher layoffs and help states who are struggling with budget deficits due to health care costs.
For the full NY Times article, click HERE.
New York State Adopts National Common Core Standards
On Tuesday, July 21, the NY Times reported that New York State has adopted the common measures developed through the Common Core State Standards Initiative to align what students across the nation are learning. Adoption of the standards does not bring immediate change in the classroom. Implementation will be a long-term process, as states rethink their teacher training, textbooks and testing.
In addition, New York State has released the Preliminary Draft of Teaching Standards for public review and comment.
Click HERE for more information.
Click HERE to read the full article from the NY Times.
New York State Will Make Standardized Exams More Difficult
On Tuesday, July 20, the New York Times reported that New York State will make standardized exams more difficult. Amid criticism that the state exams have become too easy over the past four years, state officials said they will recalibrate the scoring of exams for this spring.
For the full article from the NY Times, click HERE.
CSA Wins Lawsuit against NYC Conflicts of Interest Board
On Friday, July 2nd, the State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, 1st Department, decided in favor of the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators (CSA) in the matter of Rosenblum v NYC Conflicts of Interest Board (COIB), rendering a decision that protects all tenured NYC public school administrators from prosecution by the NYC. Furthermore, the decision protects all tenured public school teachers and other city employees who are entitled to disciplinary proceedings under state law.
In the lawsuit, argued by CSA attorneys Bruce Bryant, David Grandwetter and Charity Guerra, the court held that "the exclusive avenue to discipline" a tenured educator is state education law 3020-a, and it would violate that law to allow COIB to independently prosecute a tenured administrator.
“This is an important victory not only for our own union members but for tenured teachers and for all city...
Judge Decides in Favor of CSA in Parking Permits Dispute
On June 29th, New York State Supreme Court Judge Joan A. Madden upheld an arbitrator’s decision in favor of restoring all parking permits that had been taken away from CSA members in August 2008 and required the DOE to negotiate with the CSA before attempting to make any future changes to the number of parking permits allotted to the union’s members.
Click HERE to read the press release.
CSA President Supports Senate & Assembly Effort to Restore School Aid
On Monday, June 28th, CSA President Ernest A. Logan made a statement in support of the NYS Senate and Assembly for working to restore education funds.
Click HERE to read the press release.
CSA President Ernest Logan Supports Chancellor’s Decision in Columbia High School Tragedy
Ernest A. Logan, President of the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, today made the following statement in support of Chancellor Joel I. Klein’s disciplinary decision related to the Columbia Secondary School of Math, Science and Engineering:
“As Special Commissioner Richard Condon issues his report on the tragic drowning of Nicole Suriel from Columbia High School, and as Chancellor Klein issues his decision on what action he will take, we again extend our deepest sympathy to Nicole’s family and include them in our prayers. They have suffered the greatest sorrow. We understand that the Chancellor has a responsibility to discipline any educator who does not follow DOE procedures and we support his decision in this situation.”
CSA President Ernest Logan Travels to Washington with Mayor Bloomberg
On Wednesday, June 23, CSA President Ernest Logan joined Mayor Michael Bloomberg and UFT President Michael Mulgrew on a whirlwind trip to Washington, DC to visit key legislators about procuring emergency funds for the state and city. .
To read the full press release, click HERE.
CSA President Ernest Logan Travels to Albany with Mayor Bloomberg & Chancellor Klein
Today, Wednesday, June 9th, CSA President Ernest Logan will travel to Albany with Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and UFT President Michael Mulgrew to meet with the Governor and other key law makers in hopes of restoring major cuts to education aid.
To read the full press release, click HERE.
CSA President Ernest Logan Responds to the Senate's Resolution to Accept Governor's $1.4 Billion Cuts to School Aid
“It is unconscionable that the New York State Senate is even contemplating passing a resolution accepting Governor Paterson’s proposed $1.4 billion in education cuts. It is an outrage that Albany has not yet learned that education must be the top priority of our cities, states and nation, because education is the very foundation of democracy, national security and economic prosperity.
“Our school leaders and our teachers know that – no matter how dedicated and ingenious they are as educators in hard times – cutting the education budget always does incalculable harm to children near or below the poverty line.
“Wealthy families can raise funds and use their own savings to make sure their children get the tutoring and counseling, the cultural education and physical fitness and wellness programs they need to...
CSA President Ernest Logan Responds to Mayor's Proposal to Avoid Teacher Layoffs
CSA applauds the Mayor for stepping forward to prevent chaos in our schools when they reopen in the fall. He is making a sincere effort to avoid untenable education conditions for our children and their educators.
We have not consented to his proposal to eliminate raises for the next two years and we have yet to sit down at the bargaining table. As I told the Mayor this morning, I look forward to collective bargaining discussions.
In addition, we are eager to accompany the Mayor and the Chancellor to Albany and Washington D.C. to seek additional funds for public education.
Put Children First in Charter School Debate
By Ernest Logan
The charter school conversation that intelligent adults were having has turned into a shouting match that doesn’t put children first. It’s time to modulate our voices and communicate as grown-ups. We have some anti-charter people screaming about how charter school advocates are profiteers who want to leech all the money from traditional public schools, bust unions and privatize all education. We have some pro-charter people crowing that charter schools are a panacea for all our educational woes and have a divine right to run roughshod over traditional public schools.
Neither of these extreme views are helpful. Voices have risen to a hysterical pitch as states compete for Race to the Top funds. But in NYS, we have a thoughtful Board of Regents Chancellor, Merryl Tisch, who advocates raising the charter school cap even though New York has more than any other state. On the federal level, we...
President Logan Congratulates School Leaders on Graduation Rates and Sets Agenda for Closing Gap
Delivered at Mayor Bloomberg’s March 9 press conference on graduation rates.
First and foremost, I would like to applaud our Principals and Assistant Principals for their full-out efforts to keep our students in school through graduation day. Without our school leaders, the gains that the Mayor and Chancellor are announcing today wouldn’t be possible. CSA’s members should be very proud.
And these gains wouldn’t be possible without the hard work of our students, their teachers and parents. They are all unsung heroes. The Chancellor, the Mayor and their staffs have also worked hard to provide the resources to help our schools make these gains. Congratulations to all of you as well.
With all my heart, I wish that these graduation rates were as high for our children of color. But the gap has not closed...
CSA Responds to Charter School Senate Bill
Monday, May 3rd: The New York State Senate passed a bill that would raise the cap on charter schools. The bill would also require charter schools to enroll more special education students and those students still learning English. While CSA welcomes charter schools, which are publicly funded but privately run, as a supplement to traditional public schools, CSA also believes that the state needs to more carefully evaluate charter schools as well as hold them more accountable than it has in past years.
Click HERE to read the Memorandum of Opposition in its entirety.
CSA Applauds the House of Representatives for Passing Historic Health Care Reform Bill
On Sunday, March 21, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the health insurance reform bill, which will dramatically overhaul the American health care system. CSA congratulates President Barack Obama and the members of Congress who heroically supported this historic reform. We also applaud the steadfast effort of union members and leaders all across the nation who sent e-mails, made phone calls, wrote letters and paid personal visits urging their representatives to pass this health insurance reform bill. We are one step closer to becoming a nation in which health coverage is recognized a right of all citizens rather than a luxury for some.
New York State AFL-CIO Blasts State Senate for Unfair Charter School Legislation
Due to concerns about recent actions taken in the New York State Senate, the New York State AFL-CIO has embarked on a statewide campaign to educate its membership about specific irresponsible Senate actions. Paramount among these is the Senate’s passage of a charter school bill that fails to take into consideration more effective oversight for charter school operations and fair worker protections for charter school educators. CSA has publicly pointed out these and other concerns related to charter schools, including a funding formula that puts unfair burdens on charters. We will evaluate endorsements of individual senators based on their history of working with the union on education matters and support for other issues important to our members and organized labor. The voting records of individual State Senators are particularly significant because all...
CSA Files Complaint Regarding Day Care Contract Negotiations
CSA has filed an unfair labor practice complaint with the NYS Employment Relations Board concerning the stalled Day Care contract negotiations. The complaint was filed on Dec 2 and the union has filed charges against the city and the Day Care Council.
At the crux of the complaint is that the city is the true employer of CSA’s Day Care Directors and Assistant Day Care Directors because the city provides the funding to those centers and is in charge of contract negotiations. The Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Labor Relations, and not the Day Care Council, also handle the talks, as anyone who has been present during talks can see and hear.
In the complaint, CSA summarizes the problem: “DCC has engaged in surface bargaining with CSA under the premise that they have no control over the funding for the contract. The City, as the “funding partner” with...
CSA President Speaks Out on the Need to Reform Day Care
From the April 2010 CSA News
Our early childhood education system is a crazy quilt of separate providers, of various sizes, shapes and quality, stitched together by different state and city agencies. We need to grab hold of this irregular hodge-podge, shake it out and turn it into something all of one piece and of the highest quality. As President Obama advocates, we must create “a seamless and comprehensive set of [educational] systems and supports for children, from birth to age five.” And until that is done, we must keep the programs we have as safe and sound as possible for our tiniest citizens.
CSA’s long-term interest is focused on the well-being of all pre-school children; our immediate interest is on those in our city-funded Day Care system whose capable Directors and Assistant Directors we represent. City-funded Day Care is just one piece of the quilt that includes, among...
Mayor Announces Major Cuts to Education
On May 6, Mayor Bloomberg announced the city's proposed budget for fiscal year 2011, which is based on the state's proposed budget cuts, including cuts in education funding. The Mayor's proposal calls for eliminating 6,400 teaching positions resulting in an increase in class size of approximately three or four students. The Chancellor issued a related statement that mentioned a great deal about teachers and very little about school leaders. Within the next few weeks, much more will be known about the proposed budget and how it is likely to affect school administrators. The Chancellor's Office has developed an interactive Web cast about the budget situation, which is scheduled to go live at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, May 12. Call-in information is available by clicking on http://www.learningtimes.net/chancellor.
CSA will continue...
Alternative Teaching Programs Gaining Momentum
According to the NY Times, the New York State Board of Regents will vote on whether to greatly expand the role of the alternative organizations by allowing them to create their own master’s degree programs. Click HERE to read the full story from the NY Times.
CSA President Responds to Transformation School Announcement
The Department of Education has indicated that 11 of the 34 schools listed as persistently lowest achieving will be chosen for the transformation model. CSA President Ernest Logan released the following statement in response to the proposal:
“Each school on this list has a different story. Some have Bs on their school report cards; some have Principals with strong Principal Performance Reviews; at least one is on the list of Newsweek Magazine’s best public schools of the year. All things considered, it makes no sense to suggest removing the Principals of these schools while retaining teachers. It is foolish to assume that the Principals of these schools bear sole responsibility for their presence on NYS’s list of 'persistently lowest achieving schools'. If the Chancellor removed these Principals and retained the teachers, he would be participating in a transparent political shell...
Paterson to Withhold Millions in Payments to Schools
Sunday, December 13, the NY Times reported that Governor Paterson would unilaterally withhold $750 million in scheduled payments to schools and local governments making good on a threat he issued late last month to act on his own if the Legislature did not make enough cuts to address a $3.2 billion state budget deficit. To read the full article from the NY Times, click HERE.
State Supreme Court Approves 20-Year Pension Settlement
The Supreme Court of the State of New York has approved the settlement in the UFT vs. TRS class action lawsuit concerning the miscalculation of a specific portion of the benefits of Tier I/II members. We have recently been informed that TRS has amended the target date and checks will be mailed in early February 2010.
CSA members affected by this should have received information earlier this year. More detailed information about the lawsuit was provided in the June 2009 CSA News, which can be accessed HERE.
Payments will be made as follows:
- Active and inactive class members will receive the payments as one-time special credit to their ITHP accounts (Increased-Take-Home-Pay).
- Retiree class members will receive a direct payment unless the retired member...
CSA Questions Methods Behind School Closings
CSA embraces accountability and believes that schools should be closed if they have failed over a period of three or more years, despite receiving full support from the DoE. We abhor the propagation of failure. But in the case of several of these proposed closures, we must ask if some of the schools are being held accountable while the apparatus that supports and sustains them is not.
Click HERE for the full statement.
"We Don't Negotiate in Public," Says President Logan
Earlier today, Mayor Bloomberg gave his budget address in which he proposes a reduction in raises for teachers and supervisors. CSA President Ernest Logan had the following response:
“CSA was shocked to learn that Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein have decided to unilaterally dictate raises for supervisors and teachers rather than negotiate these increases with the respective unions.
“This proposal came to us with no advance notice, consultation or negotiations. While Mr. Bloomberg may have changed his negotiating strategy, we have not. CSA does not negotiate in public. The appropriate place for this discussion, and all other contractual changes, is during contract negotiations. The salary package for my members will not be independently announced by the mayor or the chancellor; it will be reached at the bargaining table with the CSA.
“Even in these terrible...
NY State Passes Legislation on Charter Schools & Educator Evaluations
As the deadline to apply for Race to the Top federal grants winds down, the New York State legislature passed two bills that will increase New York’s chance of qualifying for a grant. On Friday, May 28th, the state legislature passed a bill that could double the number of charter schools in the state. The measure will raise the maximum number of charter schools to 460 from 200 and will be phased in over the next four years. In addition, the legislature also passed a bill that will implement a comprehensive evaluation system for school districts designed to measure teacher and principal effectiveness based on performance, including measures of student achievement.
Click HERE to read the full charter school legislation...
Despite Veto Threat, House Passes Edujobs With Race to the Top Cut
The U.S. House of Representatives approved legislation late Thursday night to help prevent teacher layoffs, despite opposition from the Obama administration, which threatened to veto the measure if it includes $800 million in cuts to its key K-12 initiatives.
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