Author: Dave Sipley

In order to promote the membership meeting on Wednesday, February 11th at the High School Large Group Room, I’m republishing an e-mail I received from NYSUT President Karen Magee.   Sisters and brothers: Gov. Cuomo has declared war on teachers and public education … and every student, parent and educator is threatened by his attacks. […]

In order to promote the membership meeting on Wednesday, February 11th at the High School Large Group Room, I’m republishing an e-mail I received from NYSUT Excecutive Vice President Andy Palotta:   Dear Activist, On Wednesday, Governor Cuomo will present his budget when he gives his State of the State address. It is no secret […]

Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow, we have committee meetings! Let’s go bowling! JETA will be sponsoring a night out on March 19th at Revolutions at Destiny USA. This adults-only evening will be about $10-15 dollars for members and $20 for guests. JETA will be subsidizing part of the cost, but we need a […]

The Executive Committee met on December 15th and got quite a lot accomplished: –Decided on a form for building reps to use to report problems and concerns to both the Executive Committee and school administration when necessary. –Decided that to increase turnout at Board Meetings, the High School would represent JETA at the meetings in […]

The Board of Regents has proposed an amendment to state Education Law that explicitly would require school districts to participate in “field testing.” State Education Department officials maintain the action is necessary to offset the increasing number of parents keeping their children from participating in field testing, which is the practice of administering test questions […]

This past week, Ben resolved an issue with the district that involves only first year coaches and first-year club advisers who are paid under Schedule A-3. If you fall into one of those categories, please check with your building representative to be sure that you are being paid what you should be for your time. […]

This past October, Paul Farfaglia was re-elected to the New York State Teacher Retirement System Board of Trustees. There are only ten people who sit on the board, and only three active teachers. Paul’s work for teachers goes way beyond Jordan Elbridge. Check out the page for the Board at https://www.nystrs.org/main/about/board.htm Thank you and congratulations, […]

A common objection I hear from people who don’t like to donate to VOTE/COPE is that “NYSUT always endorses Democrats.” To be honest, it’s not that simple. In the past election cycle, NYSUT refused to endorse Andrew Cuomo, and even worked to block his endorsement from the AFL-CIO, of which NYSUT is a part. Failing […]

I wish I could take credit for writing this, but it was written by Maggie Estlinbaum, one of the high school building representatives in a letter to the high school faculty that was too good not to reprint here: ************************************************************************************************************************   Hello Everyone,   Tuesday November 4th is Election day.  It is of the utmost […]

Since the salary agreements went out this month, several people have been in touch to find out if their paycheck is correct. In general, this is an easy figure to calculate. Take a paystub from the last school year. In the lower-right corner of all the deductions and contributions, just above the image of a […]