11/17/21 UFT Delegate Assembly Notes

Synopsis

November 17th’s Delegate Assembly(DA) was tense, powerful, and historic and hopefully, just the beginning of the tide change within the United Federation of Teachers. Prior to the start of the meeting a coalition of reform caucuses and opposition groups within the union announced that they'll be running against Michael Mulgrew and the Unity caucus as United For Change. MORE has joined the United For Change umbrella in order to challenge Mulgrew and the Unity caucus’ conservative ruling of the union.

Those who attended the DA witnessed the power of the united opposition to influence the direction of the DA through holding Mulgrew to parliamentary procedures, asking questions that speak to the interests of the rank and file, and submitting resolutions and amendments to resolutions that strengthen our contracts and push the UFT and make our schools safer for our communities. 

The first substantial item up for debate was a resolution that would mandate that any proposed changes to member healthcare would go to the full membership of the UFT for a vote before becoming official. This came on the heels of the recent change to retiree healthcare, moving retirees to a privatized Medicare Advantage plan, which has been deeply controversial. The debate over the resolution was polarized, with members from United For Change groups like MORE, Solidarity, and ICE-UFT arguing that members should have a vote on any proposed changes to member healthcare, and members from Mulgrew's Unity caucus arguing that members have never had that right and that it would be too cumbersome. On this item, Unity won. The proposal failed, with a slim majority voting against the proposal.

The next big item was about the UFT class size campaign. The resolution was popular, but a controversial proposed amendment led to lots of fruitful discussion. MORE member Ryan Bruckenthal proposed that, in addition to the legislative route, the UFT should prioritize winning smaller class sizes in the upcoming rounds of contract bargaining. Speakers argued that unions in Chicago and LA won class size reductions in their contract and that the contract is a more robust enforcement tool, pointing to existing state laws intended to shrink class sizes that have been ignored. Mulgrew's Unity caucus-mates argued that the legislative route was superior, prevented us from having to choose between raises and class size caps, and could potentially be quicker.The United For Change position won the vote with a slim majority and the DA voted to include class size caps as a priority in the upcoming contract bargaining rounds, despite the opposition from the union's current leadership. Voting to pass the resolution took a considerable effort because the chair of the DA, Mulgrew, was not prepared for a close vote and a vote-counting mechanism had to be invented on the fly. MORE members asked for an accurate recount which included members from the in-person DA physically standing up to cast their vote for or against. It has been reported that this is the first time Unity has lost a vote on an amendment to a resolution since the nineties. For MORE and members of United for Change this is a big win but the wins don’t stop there. 

The next big win came when a MORE member submitted an amendment to a resolution to amend City Council bill Intro 2211, a city council law regarding the transfer of School Safety Agents (SSAs) from NYPD supervision to the DOE. This resolution only came to the floor after Unity delayed the vote for 8 months. In February 2021 the Police Free Schools movement lobbied against the bill because it renames School Safety Agents, hires more, gives them a new boss, new uniforms, new training and less capabilities, but ultimately fails to remove them from schools and invest in employing Black and Brown community members in positions supporting young people’s mental and emotional health. Rather than being supervised by the NYPD they would be supervised by the similarly problematic and opaque institution, the DOE. An economically advantageous move for City Council Speaker Corey Johnson as it allows him to claim he decreased the NYPD budget after the pressure to do so from George Floyd protests of Spring 2020 by simply shuffling more than 400 personnel to DOE’s budget.

This past year MORE members showed up to CC and NYPD hearings with organizations such as Teachers Unite, Dignity in Schools Campaign, Alliance for Quality Education, Urban Youth Collaborative, Sistas and Brothas United, Girls for Gender Equity, and many more to testify against Intro 2211 for not going far enough to remove SSAs from education spaces. The now-amended resolution means that this is now the official position of the United Federation of Teachers: we want real reform to the role of SSAs, not just a transfer of authority. We want more teachers, social workers, counselors, nurses, and librarians before adding any additional SSAs. And we want an end to the criminalizing practices that have harmed students and staff alike. 

Payrolled Unity caucus members debated against the amendment arguing SSAs know what they are doing and need not be reformed, but MORE members were called on too and spoke of extreme and unwarranted violence from SSAs during scanning and the economic motive behind Intro 2211. There was a lot of back and forth between the chair and the delegates, as Mulgrew, for a second time that night, could not simply rely on his usual eyeballing the room for the tally of votes. Instead he had to actually count votes. 

Undoubtedly, Unity Caucus members only voted for this resolution simply because they don’t trust the DOE to do a better job supervising SSAs than the NYPD, and unfortunately they have good reason to be distrustful given the history. They did not vote with the desire for police free schools in mind. But, we did get them to sign on to a vision of what it would take to attempt to create robustly healthy school environments and applied pressure to CC to revise the current bill. Now we must show up to support students and community members continuing to demand a bill that follows the Dignity in Schools Campaign’s outline for Police Free Schools.

In addition to these three resolutions, there was a resolution regarding Mayoral control of public schools that had been delayed and pushed to the end of the monthly agendas for 11 months. By now this resolution, which included language referring to the 2021 mayoral election, was out of date and had to be withdrawn. These types of delay tactics have been a constant feature of DAs; with resolutions and amendments proposed by anyone outside of the Unity caucus rarely even making it to the floor for a debate. But the success at this month’s DA shows us that a better union is possible. More than just possible, we saw a glimpse for what a better delegate assembly could look like: a place for members to put forward their ideas and arguments, an end to Unity delays tactics, and a union that takes bold stances for its members, our students, and their families. Join MORE today to help us make that more than just a glimpse. 

UFT  11/17/21 Delegate Assembly Notes

• Meeting Agenda and Proposed Resolutions

These notes have been color coded to demonstrate MORE and United For Change’s collective efforts to ensure that the DA runs for and works for the rank and file members of the UFT.  

• President’s Report: 4:20 - 4:44pm

• • Recognized school-based personnel.

• Thank you to those who donated money and coats, especially to Rich Mantel of Mark Twain; all go to students in transitional housing 
• Class Size Bill in City Council
• • End of Mayoral administration; many changes in City Council as well. 
  • To reduce class size, the strategy now is to change the health code of NYC. UFT has been trying to reduce class sizes for 30 years. There have been past attempts to put class size caps in contract negotiations, but opponents have argued change should come from the city. 
  • There is rhetoric that it will require building dozens of schools
  • In past contract negotiations, there have been efforts made to put class size caps in contracts but opposers said that this change should come from the city, not from teachers. 
  • Looking at classroom occupants - will not cause the city of NY to build dozens of schools or cost billions of dollars. Not true. 
  • One thing we received in the pandemic is that the DOE literally has a room by room analysis of all schools in NYC - Blue Book Program. Stuff in the Blue Book does not match any data that has been collected during the pandemic - instructional spaces are the only rooms considered. 
  • 84% of schools already have the square footage to meet decreased classroom occupancy limits. Need additional 38,000 seats.
  • Trying to get the bill to the city council - “getting ugly” 
  • Thanks to COPE folks it’s been a big lift for us
  •  Will send another email re: class sizes to UFT members today 
  • This is a different but “valid” approach 
  • Let’s do a vote - Day of Action, December 1st or 2nd - be creative and do an informational picket or something to raise awareness of the need for smaller classes. Wants us to share images that can go on Social Media

COVID: 

•   Mentioned in a reply that NYC has a brief uptick. Other than that

Politics: 

• Federal: Infrastructure bill has been passed (applause). The economy having a good uptick is a good thing. It’s a good thing for us as a union because in that package, it says the federal government will pay for universal pre-k, (which then the city wouldn’t have to fund)
• State: Thank you to the Retired Teachers Chapter for Phil Murphy victory (volunteers). Headed into our State Budget cycle. 
  • 2nd year - funded for CFE - Hochul will give first State Of State address. Will see where she goes. 
  • Introduced New VP for Career and Technical Education - Leo Gordon. Governor is a big fan of CTE.
  • State democratic party convention is in February 
  • Primary was supposed to be in June - it may not because they need to finish redistricting. Local boards of election need to be set up to accommodate new redistricting. Having a primary in July is a problem. 

Other Issues

• Digital Classrooms - everyone should have gotten their check. Only 9 people have had a problem. If there is a problem, let Michael Sill know. [email protected]
• MAP/DESSA Other compensation - all SEL or literacy screeners, or SERS - all completely messed up. It was never planned to be done in six weeks. The rollout, implementation, was supposed to take months. Certain screenings were supposed to happen one at a time, never planned to overlap. Blames this on mayoral control. Mayoral control sunsets in this legislative session - someone at City Hall wanted to get all these screeners done before they left (because of future political opportunities), so they were rushed. Time is more valuable to us rather than more screening. Use Paperwork complaints in Operational grievance if they try to do more screening. (Note: these screeners will all require followup screening, DESSA in the Spring, MAP in January and May, etc). 
• SERS issue - you’re going to have a lot of people telling our members to do paperwork that is not necessary 
• Paraprofessionals - two updates - 1) law has passed - working on for over 10 years - all paras will be automatically enrolled in the pension system. 1,800 - 3,000 paras are not enrolled in the pension system. CLs to let paraprofessionals know they have been automatically enrolled and the pension department will reach out to buy back their time 2)  shortage of paras - lost 900 to the vaccine mandate. UFT has helped 4,000 paraprofessionals get through the hiring pipeline. 
• Contract Committee: Next month - will have to start: new mayor & new contract. Wants to have the biggest negotiating committee ever - last time had 330-350. Wants members from each chapter itself to be negotiating provisions for their contract. Requires training people in advance - have to decide what the priorities will be. Wants each chapter to be there representing the needs of their chapter. The DOE couldn’t argue with any one of the members representing the chapters about what goes on during the day - they were blown away & didn’t know what to do. We need to keep pushing, which is why last time we ended up with a contract representing the most changes and the most interests of our chapters. 
• Retiree/Current Member Health Care: health care for all city workers was negotiated through municipal labor council (MLC)- there is a reason why we believe we’re the only public sector workers who have premium free health care. We’re not going to sit back and be passive about our health care, ever. Our retiree chapter has a fully functioning health care committee now. 
  • As we continue down this road in health care, we don’t only need to educate ourselves as union leaders but need to educate our own members about how everything we do in healthcare. We hear that city workers have free health care - do we have free healthcare? Yes, we do. We pay for it, and we pay a lot for it - but we get a better deal than probably anyone else. 

• Had everyone stand up and wish Leroy Barr a happy birthday. Oh, and there’s singing.

Staff Director’s Report

• Leroy says thank you, Class size campaign, please sign the petition and share it at your schools and work sites. Members, parents, etc. to show collective force “class size is a health issue” 
• CL update - informational picketing - wants photos at local sites. “Once in a generation opportunity”
• Thank you to MS Thanksgiving Luncheon/Coat Drive - Nov 20th, come and get coats
• Virtual World AIDS 12/1 6pm to 8pm 
• ES Toy Drive - Please bring unwrapped new toys newborn - 16 year old to UFT offices
• Happy Thanksgiving! 
• Next DA: December 15

 

• Question Period (4:50ish)

 

Question: I want to know where the School Based Support Team is, where are the counselors that the mayor promised would help and support our children? 

Mulgrew: As I said before, supposed to be a rollout over six month, blames it on mayoral control. Kids fail because of the mayor's political agenda. Impact bargaining: They as employers have the right to say no, we are doing it anyway, we will outsource it. Even with per session, people don’t want to do it. Union 101 - to protect your work. It’s not good as is, literacy October, Numeracy - Now, SEL - December, Jan - screening was the plan. That’s not what happened. We move forward. Haven’t filled all Social workers, nationwide issues, but the money is still there.

Q: My question - you already have answered it but I want to make sure I’m getting it right. The literacy and numeracy and SEL - does that mean that we can still do that, or if we do that all at the same time, are we filing an operational complaint?

M: It’s a burden on the staff, please use the operational quietly. Mayor announced the deadline, DOE keeps moving it back 2 weeks (quietly). They keep moving it back, and talk to admin to slow it up and if no, do the operation complaint. 

Q: Can CL’s do a survey to find out if there is too much paperwork? 

M: We can do a survey to find out what we already know - the paperwork is horrendous. I’m signalling to start operational now. We have certain places where principals are sticking to the original schedule. Use operational complaint, if people don’t want the compensation, then don’t do it. 

Q: Can a principal say it’s nonnegotiable to include standards in a lesson plan?

M: NO. Move it to the consultation at the district level. 

Q: OT Delegate (Executive Board of OT chapter)- being told that they cannot visit their chapter leader at 52 broadway. 

M: I don’t know, you go up (for appointments)! I will take care of it!. 

Q: D75 teacher. Very few students are keeping faces covered. Every day more cases, news says it is ticking up. School was cleaner last year. People are getting concerned, COVID in all schools on SI. So what do we do? 

M: In terms of cleanliness, let Leroy Barr know - and we’ll take care of that right away. In terms of masks at D75 - as someone who taught in D75, there are many different challenges to teaching there - D75 taught everyone how to wear PPE properly. We’ll work with the administration in D75. Teachers and different functional chapter people always wore gowns, masks, and shields. There are children in D75 who for medical reasons cannot wear masks, but this is why it’s so important for us now - we had a fight last week to close those two schools in Queens. DOH changed codes but one of the schools was very odd - it was absolutely spreading inside the building. It was all children, no staff. We are constantly looking at this stuff - NYC for the first time in weeks is having a slight uptick. Still very low compared to the rest of the country - but this is one of the things we are working diligently on - we want more students to be vaccinated. Eric Adams has said there should be a mandate to have children vaccinated. 

Q: Matthew Sarker, Bx HS of Science - Followed your advice and tried to do my research. I read An American Sickness. Our healthcare is fee for service, insurance are good with costs rising and names our union (10K and 100K for the same procedure), broken market. NY Health Act, ready to be passed in NY State legislature, fixes the market costs, I know last month someone brought up that previous resolutions, you had your reasons for opposing. I want it to be a transparent process. Asking the membership, are we going to let this process happen in small meetings or are we going to make a collective decision? Tries to follow up and is being cut off - where can we talk about this if not here? 

M: I got your question - so the issue here is we’ve bargained all of our healthcare with the MLC - THIS IS NOT A DEBATE - so that is why we are forming the committee. The very question of why we are forming this committee - when people talk about the ny health act, we need to pass that at a federal level - i want to be clear with everyone, if we pass the NY health act, it would cost NY State 4.5 billion dollars annually. So where’s the big pot of money at the state level - education - because we now tax the rich more than anyone else - and as I understand, there is not going to be the willingness to do that. If we pass the NY health act, then there will be less money set aside for education. Personally, I believe federally our health care should be free, but our jobs at the union is to make sure we are protecting the livelihoods of our union now. People have their own political beliefs and agendas - but if their agenda or beliefs will pose an issue and force a decision that will affect people’s livelihoods - that’s why we need to form a health care committee. I’ve read that book and understand what you’re saying but until we can get this passed at the national level, we need to incentivize good behavior.

That’s why we need the committee, so that people understand it’s not about political beliefs. If people are trying to bring their personal political beliefs through the union, they need to be transparent. Protection of our rights and livelihood is our top priorities - severe, severe ramifications to these political actions. 

Called out of order three times - 

Motion & Resolution Period (5:08)

Motions to be added to the agenda

Motion 1: Greg Monte, FDR HS

This month: In recognition of school related professionals, SRP worked harder than ever, most vulnerable students rely on them, be it resolved to recognize 11/16 SRP Recognition Day. Motion to take a moment to recognize the outstanding SRP at NYC schools. Seconded. Vote to add to agenda. Total: 94% online, I think we had 100% in here. 

Passed.

Motion 2:  Nick Bacon, HS for Law and Public Service

Next month: Can present and motivate it - resolution on health care plan changes current and future. Because the UFT has such a high weighted vote in the negotiations between MLC and OLR, we would like for there to be more democracy in how we go about making decisions in that committee. Before we make major decisions such as for retirees, we’d like for there to be actual debate at this delegate assembly, and that there be a vote before our representatives on the MLC make their own vote. Mulgrew: a complete vote of the whole union? Nick: yes? 

Anyone against? Janelle, VP for academic HS - in opposition, as Mulgrew said several times, the creation of the health care committee will allow us to engage in in depth debate and analysis about any potential changes. This will allow us to engage in conversation on the ongoing basis so that when it is time for decisions to be made, we can do that work with an informed membership - so since we have never had votes on our health care process, that’s never been a right that has been afforded to UFT members, and since we’ve never engaged in that kind of debate in the past, I’m asking you all to vote against this motion. 

Point of information: Is there anything in the resolution just proposed that would preclude a committee being formed?

M: I do not think it does

Vote: 49% yes online, 

Motion rejected. 

Point of order - Given the closeness of the votes, can we have the exact numbers? Had people vote in person again to make the point. Said that the exact numbers will be published in reports. 

Chanting: hands off our health care. 

M: Motion period closed. 

Resolutions: 

Resolution 1 - VP of elementary schools, Karen Alford.

 Strengthen our commitment to lower class size, urgency, eloquence, “This can’t wait” I knew that my children weren’t getting everything they should be. Now we need to recognize the public health challenge of class size. Additional lense of public health. Reduce class size. 84% of classes could do this now. There is infrastructure $ available, not negotiation. Negotiation = dollars for class size. We don’t want to have that conversation. Wraps up, seconded. 

Open for Debate: 

Ryan Bruckenthal, Beacon HS, District 2 - speaking in favor, with motion to amend. Amendment: add one more resolved. We will follow up after the City Council bill by supporting changes at the state level, returning to the issue in contract negotiations, and possible participation in a lawsuit if the city doesn’t follow through in enacting this policy. We showed power in our organization and our membership is excited to take action after Thanksgiving.

Debate on the amendment 

Loretta Tamborello, D24 Ps 29 - Rise in opposition to this amendment. Using this as a negotiation in the contract - class sizes are not the right place for that. We are trying to make a difference using the health code - believes that when we negotiate the contract, the committee from a grassroots position, the committee will drive us in what we negotiate for the next year. We should take action now with the 2 days of action, we should not include this in our contract negotiations. 

Farah Alexander: CL at 3K MNS 290, in opposition - no secret that Ts are overworked at capacity. Class size now

Teachers are overworked, over extended at capacity, much like our class size. I am saying that we want class size done now before our new contract in 2022, and we don’t want this to become a mandatory item because we don’t want to take a voice away from our rank and file members. AGAINST

MORE member, in favor of the amendment - empowers CL to grieve and enforce this at my school. Policy can be passed, but is meaningless without enforcement. Would like to grieve it as a contract violation. 

Shane McCandrew from UA Global Commerce - Rising in opposition to this amendment. I teach in HS. We have a health crisis but we also have a social emotional health crisis as we are starting to negotiate coming out of quarantine and staff is trying to negotiate all the new requirements, smaller class sizes will allow teachers to support students better. It’ll give students the space to feel more comfortable. I believe by putting this as part of the legislative process, it removes the pressure at the bargaining table. For the caller that spoke about  members having their voice, they do have their voice as part of the legislative process. 

Matt Driscoll, Chapter Leader D2 - in favor of the amendment; In favor of resolution and amendment, the amendment does not take away from the resolution, but it supports it. 

Jennifer Brown, in favor of the amendment, and it’s important to fight for class size at all levels, both/and, legislative and city council.  

Delegate from D7: I call the question (close debate on the amendment and to vote)

Daniel Alicea, Delegate: Point of order - this is an important issue and squashing debate on it is not - the delegate that just asked that - are they on the union payroll? (GASP). 

Mulgrew: if he’s a delegate, then he has that right. That is an elected delegate that you have offended. 

Delegate: D7, I have the right to vote, and I should not be challenged. That is offensive to my union members in D7. You cannot deny me!!!!

M: We are not the rest of the US, we are a teachers’ union in a tough time, okay, remember and be respectful. I will start calling people out of order if they are being disrespectful. 

The Q called for all matters before the house. We are now voting to end debate on all matters before the house

Voting to end debate on all matters - 

82% yes. Ended debate. 

Vote first ON the amendment to the resolution. 

Vote total: 61% yes to the amendment ONLINE. 

M: AMENDMENT PASSES! Do we have a total count on the number of people in the room? Everyone who voted yes, stand up, yes for the amendment. Does a manual count. Internally, right now, it’s 30. No votes, stand up. We got the online report, I have to count it now. Some argument in the room? Making everyone stand up again to do a recount because “it was too close to call” despite refusing to do a recount earlier about more transparent decision making. 

The Amendment passes. 

Now we vote on the Resolution itself (for class size reduction) 

M: We voted on the amendment, now we vote on the resolution

Mike Stivers - called the point of information - you were doing a count. Is it possible to get this beforehand? How many people are online? Asked why Rasheed is reporting a percentage for online votes vs. raw count for in-person voting. We don’t know how many people are online. Is it 50 people?

M: it’s always below 300 in person. Doesn’t give an actual number, but says there is way more online than in person. 

Voting on the Amended Resolution to Reduce Class Sizes: 

ONLINE: Yes, 82%, same in the room

M: I don’t need to count anything, I’m very happy that way. 

#2: Daniel Alicea: 

My union siblings and family, Happy Bday Leroy, 3 asks. 3 truths

 

• Mayoral control is not a single, pet issue, it’s the root and integral part of the school’s frameworks and decisions. Ultimately it controls our schools and how. Some will say, it’s a single issue, on a menu of multiple issues, and we can make a choice about a candidate. We learned for the past 20 years that its undemocratic and dictatorial that we have to eat. One meal, fits all, it’s what we have to eat from. Corruption, consultants, vendors, very toxic and racist system that courts our votes and our endorsements. “This time it will be different’

• Most of us online or in the room wish that this undemocratic and dictatorial systems be reformed to have true checks and balances or to be abolished 

• When we speak of mayoral control, we aren’t speaking about 1 - 2 elected officials. We are speaking of a system that has stripped authentic engagement from all of us who are stakeholders. It’s a system that has told families of color in large urban areas that they can’t be trusted with control of their local schools. 

 

M interrupts: someone is broadcasting the DA; I have to stop at this moment because we have a resolution banning that. To the person who did it, shame on you! Our enemies will use it against us, to sow division, etc. lots of applause. You have to confirm that it’s stopped or I have to stop the DA. 

How do we confirm that? The people who found the feed. There are so many people who want to see this union destroyed. If you think attacking and weakening the union, I am telling you, you are wrong. We have one of the best healthcare programs in the entire USA. It’s still happening? It is stopped? We may continue. Please monitor because there is someone here who wants to hurt us. 

 

• Last truth here - during the primary we were told that Yang and Adams were threats to this union - very likely Bloomberg himself. Since we were forced to cooperate with the same person who wanted to cut pay and shove 400 students into a classroom - not grappling with mayoral control brings a sense of dire urgency, and we must be intentional as we approach decision time with these future races for governor. There are many in this room who believe this - (Mulgrew told Daniel to get to the motivation) - asking that in the next few weeks that after our next mayor is inaugurated that we get together all sides, every CL and delegates to start pushing against mayoral control in hoping that those who want to work together including Bill Woodruff - 

 

M: hold on, hold on. 

“This little kid does not speak for me.” 

Mulgrew said this resolution is moot since it is about the mayoral race of 2021 - maker of the resolution has asked for it to be withdrawn. 

#3 - MORE member - presents amendment to this resolution that she has made - 

An amendment to the resolution, the maker of the resolution is asking to amend it, because I gave you the latitude of six months to do it. (M: Maybe I won’t!!) 3 amendments  - UFT urges City Council to amend Intro 2211 to not transfer 400 SSAs to DOE authority, UFT supports the reform of the rules of SSAs, UFT supports hiring more teachers, social workers, and counselors, nurses, librarians, UFT supports more resources for schools. 

Floor is open for debate.

Rich Mantell, MS VP, Resolution 2211, the entire bill speaks to removing SSA to NYPD to DOE, we all know if you take it away from NYPD, reported incidents will go down, but incidents won’t go down. Confused, and I just oppose it. 

Travis Malekpour, online - Benjamin Cardozo HS

Speaking in favor of the amendment, because this was added to our budget at the height of the protests, the court favored those who perceive issues with policing. As is, the bill makes us responsible for school safety, puts responsibility on DOE. We should not be figuring out how to shuffle around money for SSA. 

Margaret, Bronx, PS 36 - move to extend DA until all resolutions are completed. - M ruled out of order to finish debate on this first.

Roy C Delegate HS Construction Trades, Art, Architecture

What language did the amendment change with the resolution as written in the agenda that was distributed? 

M: Pretty sure this was already voted on in the city council - someone needs to check. I know this because the UFT already said they’re against SSA being under the DOE. We all know why. There is a reason why we moved it from them. Asking MORE member to correct what they changed? 

MORE member returns: Urges CC to amend their vote about SSAs being transferred to the DOE and reform their training of SSAs.  

Asks for online open for debate

Janet Zisberg, PS/IS 235 - oppose, policing are the experts at safety, the NYPD, they should have control over SSAs. We don’t want our principals to have more control. 

Ilona, Delegate D12, Bronx -

Speaking in favor of the amendment, we can all agree, DOE should not be overlooking school safety, but the amendment, it’s still reforming SSAs and they need to be reformed, no matter who is supervising them. That role needs to be reformed, regardless of DOE or NYPD

Shoshana Brown, SW Delegate, Happy bday Leroy, I’m speaking in favor of the amendment, as a SW, get the impact of many of our students and their mental health and wellbeing. Random scanning at my site - 5 SSAs tackled one of my students for doing nothing -  It’s clear to me that SSAs are not well trained or experts at safety, saying this as a dean, important that we pass it, because of our Ss mental health. Working with SSAs as a dean, there are a lot of SSAs who would like to grow their capacity and SEL skills, and they aren’t getting that training for the role. Think critically about it and be on the right side of justice. 

M: Way past automatic adjournment time - will ask the body - can we continue the debate - note: no online input. A chorus of in-person people said, “NO.” when this was announced. Able to vote online after this point. 45% yes online. 55% said no online. 

Debate is closed. Vote to end debate passes. 

68% voted yes online. 

M (big sigh) - We gotta do a count again. M agitated that he has to do a recount and that people are questioning why we’re going past time. 

Amendment has passed. 

Last vote - all those in favor of the resolution as amended - 71% yes online. In person vote -  Resolution as amended passes. 

 

Motion to adjourn: 6:16