Comments on: First day of school will stay the same, five days before second

By: Kat

Kat — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 00:50:10 +0000

Is anyone surprised that, once again, Klein and Bloomberg are lying and trying to bust the union yet again? Anyone? I mean, they remove perfectly good principals from schools that are *not* failing (B rating) and which are rated by their own quality review people as “well developed”.

I hope parents understand that the children are the LAST priority of Messrs. Klein and Bloomberg.

By: jodama

jodama — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 17:23:42 +0000

I have a solution. Parents don’t have to take their kids to school on the 8th. They can de-facto make the 13th the first day of school. Everyone knows that they will not miss much on the 8th so just don’t send your kids to school that day. Nothing tragic is going to happen if they miss that day. In fact the 13th, as we all agree, is going to seem like the first day of school. So vote with your feet — don’t send your kids to school on the 8th. Make the 13th the first day of school.

By: jodama

jodama — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 17:22:58 +0000

I have a solution. Parents don’t have to take their kids to school on the 8th. They can de-facto make the 13th the first day of school. Everyone knows that they will not miss much on the 8th so just don’t send your kids to school that day. Nothing tragic is going to happen if they miss that day. In fact the 13th, as well agree, is going to seem like the first day of school. So vote with your feet — don’t send your kids to school on the 8th. Make the 13th the first day of school.

By: Teacher

Teacher — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 03:54:26 +0000

Thank you for making the effort to really understand the politics behind this issue kk. The problem with your suggestion is that if the Union had proposed starting classes on the 13th instead of the 8th the DOE would have put it’s spin on it and the next thing you know their friends at the Post and The Daily News would be calling the teachers lazy for wanting an extra day without students. You have to have been in the trenches living through what we’ve been dealing with for the past 6 or 7 years to understand what’s really been happening here. We have a mayor and a chancellor who seem to have no real interest in improving the schools and providing teachers and schools with what we need to do our jobs, instead they seem hell bent on destroying the public schools and the teachers’ union. It’s sad.. we just want to teach and be proud of what we do. We’re not the enemy.

By: kk

kk — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 03:08:08 +0000

To clarify my above comment, when I said that the union should have been proactive, I didn’t mean by heading off criticism of switching BK-Q Day. Rather weeks, if not months ago, the UFT could have publicly and strongly questioned the proposed start day of school. If, as folks here indicate, there are more than enough instructional days to fulfill state requirements, then they could have just said start the year on the 13th. Period. Parents would have been jubilant, rather than pissed, as they now are…

By: kk

kk — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 03:03:11 +0000

I am not a teacher, but a parent of elementary school kids. When I read the email from Klein, my instant reaction was fury at the union because, obviously, having the students come back for that one day makes no sense.

But a moment later I thought, hmmm, isn’t it a bit odd that the mayor and chancellor have the opportunity of so publicly pointing out a villain; it’s like the perfect crime.

I then came to this site to read the dialogue here and the DC 37 argument is convincing to me. However, I do think the UFT could have been much more proactive on this. It’s obvious that parents wouldn’t like the September 8 date; the union could have rallied parents to their side by bringing up the arguments aired here. But they didn’t and now, I’m afraid, the parents who haven’t had the initiative or resources to come here will be convinced that the union is what “Queens Parent” sees it as, i.e. something opposed to the interests of our children, rather than what I believe it should be seen as, citizens and professionals proud of their work and organized to protect their rights, and by extension, the rights of all workers, including future workers, their students.

By: Math Teacher Bklyn

Math Teacher Bklyn — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 01:23:27 +0000

I was talking about last Friday for High School Students.

By: BKmom

BKmom — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 00:04:20 +0000

DC37 isn’t just school aides. The parent coordinators, community assistants , clerical assistants ,aides, and cafeteria workers, etc. have off on B/Q day. And many schools need that day of PD in order to get things in order for the next school year. It’s used for getting cum records, report cards and class assignments, portfolios, etc ready to make sure the transistion for the next year runs smoothly.

By: Teacher of LD kids

Teacher of LD kids — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 23:11:11 +0000

Teacher – thank you I like being liked, but even more, I like it when someone appreciates my lack of censorship from brain-to-mouth. My gripe about the a/c is an old one. It stems from the time during a heat wave, I think it was 2 years ago, when my classroom went up to about 110 degrees, and I had a couple of kids faint in the room. We also had a few non-verbal wheelchair-bound kids howling and crying because they were miserable because their sweaty legs were stuck to their seats. The school where I work has A/Cs in some of the classrooms but not in all. It would definitely be interesting to find out if Regents grades differed significantly depending on where the test was taken. Of course, there’s no way to have experimental and control groups because each school’s tests were marked by their own teachers, so there’d be no way to control the external variables.

By: Teacher

Teacher — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 22:56:33 +0000

Teacher of LD Kids… I like you! Our school was like an oven today … had to be WELL above 100 degrees in the upper floor classrooms…. everyone was dripping sweat. Maybe if Klein and all the DOE people had to keep their A/Cs turned off UNTIL schools were out for the summer, they’d do things a bit differently. Do they really think children are learning anything when they’re so hot and uncomfortable?? Your post also made me wonder if Eva Moskowitz schools and the other charters have air conditioning. My guess is they do… does anyone know for sure? I bet a/c would help improve student test scores.. can someone do a study.. PLEASE!!!

By: Teacher

Teacher — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 22:46:31 +0000

Math Teacher… I don’t believe having students in attendance today, June 28th, had anything to do with snow days.

Last summer the Chancellor wanted the Union to agree to some concessions.. I believe it was reducing the interest on retirement accounts among other things. In exchange for those concessions it was decided that teachers would not have to report to work on the Thursday before Labor Day but could instead report the Tuesday after (as it had been in the past). Great, except that the students were also expected to report back on the same day. Teachers and students all reporting back the same day???? Chancellor thought it would be a fine idea… anyone with half a brain thought otherwise. He reluctantly agreed to push back the student start day one day, to Wednesday after Labor Day but with that he decided to extend the school year to June 28th (instead of the 25th which was in the original calendar). It was stupid to have students come in on a Monday, in swealtering heat, just to collect their report cards. It should have been done on Friday. Even with the snow days we still exceeded the State’s 180 days of instuction so there were no make-up days necessary.

By: Teacher of LD kids

Teacher of LD kids — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 22:44:03 +0000

Teachers in NYC already work enough days. We only need 180 instructional days and yet we actually work at least 183. In fact, if you count up each day individually, teachers end up working about 190 (how many of those are kid-days I never bothered to count). Many municipalities around the country (please don’t ask me specifically which ones, because I don’t know them by name) have snow days in their banks, and those snow days are given back toward the end of the year if they remain unused. We could use those unused snow days as heat-wave days or longer weekends or an earlier end-date for the school year. BloomKlein’s 2010-2011 school calendar was published on the DOE’s website months ago. And some of the other comments are correct – they supposedly “listened” to the parents but why don’t they ever “listen” to the teachers? Actually, what might have made more sense would have been to push the start date to Monday August 29th and end a week earlier in June. Why wasn’t that even considered as a negotiating point? Many private schools and other municipalities start before Labor Day and end mid-June. By the time NYC DOE gets out for summer, the days are already getting shorter. I think I’m starting to rant because there are just so many issues and we’re butting our heads up against KleinBloom – by the way, Mr. Mayor, next time you tell us to “tough it out” in 95-degree classrooms without air conditioning- why don’t you turn off all the A/C at City Hall and 65 Court Street while you’re at it? You arrogant, slow-witted, selfish twits.

By: Teacher

Teacher — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 22:29:13 +0000

Yes, the school aides (DC37) are OFF on Brooklyn-Queens Day. So if Klein got his way it would have had a big disaster to have students in attendance that day and no aides to get them on and off their buses, supervise students during lunch, etc. etc. Does student safety mean anything to this man? Another show of his true incompetence where he just flies by the seat of his pants without any clue how things work. If he wanted to start the schools on the 13th he could have just done that without trying to make the change to Brooklyn-Queens Day. He once again had his OWN agenda.. to take away a PD day from schools… he just pretended that he was acting on behalf of parents. When it failed, he just used it to once again blame the Union. Shame on you Klein!

By: Seta

Seta — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 21:47:48 +0000

Math Teacher, you do not need to apologize. That was a low blow. We are on an opinion site..not writing a thesis!

By: Jeff S

Jeff S — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 21:37:26 +0000

The UFT has issued a statement regarding this and it is available on their web site but once again it boils down to this. We have an arrogant, incompetent, uncertified lawyer who never spent a day in a classroom as a teacher trying to show the union is responsible for anything that is bad and that he is so wonderful. Well let me speak from the perspective of a former High School teacher Mr. Klein. The first day of classes is devoted to organizing your class, assigning seats, explaining classroom procedures and in the best of circumstances perhaps distributing textbooks (not always but someties). If 1/2 to 3/4 of the class is absent, you have to repeat the whole procedure when the class is relatively all present. From an educational view point, it is idiotic to do what is being done; anybody with any experience in education (which Kleinh lacks) knows and understands that. And it has nothing tyo do with a day off for the teachers; they have to work that day anyway regardless. There are enough instructional days to meet state mandates and a PD day counts anyway. For Klein to blame the union just again goes to show what a low life he truly is and how he doesn’t give one damn about the safety and well being of the kids or the importance of getting a school term off to a non chaotic start. Just another indication of how unqualified this lawyer masquerading as an educator really is.

By: BKmom

BKmom — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 21:34:05 +0000

I love how they try to blame the UFT when they didn’t even mention DC37 in the letter at all. DC37 members have Brooklyn/Queens Day off as part of our contract so trying to change B/Q day would be a bigger mess. The DOE just wants to create more drama with the UFT. The DOE probably had no intention of changing the first day of school at all.

By: Math Teacher Bklyn

Math Teacher Bklyn — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 21:10:17 +0000

I apologize for my spelling errors and grammatical errors. Writing has always been my weakness, which is why when I type anything for school or work I have wife proofread it for me. I’m just blogging so I was not paying much attention to my grammar I try very hard not to make any spelling mistakes. However, the more I post on this site and the petty things people argue about it makes me sad that some of these people maybe my colleagues one day. I did not appreciate you telling me in public about my spelling errors, I try very hard not to make any but I still do it seems. I would not mind if you email me (you can get my e-mail on my blog) my errors cause I’m always looking to improve myself.

By: Queens Teacher

Queens Teacher — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 21:03:40 +0000

The letter the DOE sent out to parents today was DISGUSTING!!!!

By: jr

jr — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 20:55:50 +0000

Just to repeat. We closed the Rubber Rooms, saving the city 30 million per year. We agreed to that new pension system that saves the city 100 million per year. We made test scores part of teacher evaluations. We added charter schools allowing the city the chance to gain 700 million dollars. We changed the rating system, allowing us to get an ineffective rating for 2 years, and then be fired within 60 days. Shouldnt all of these negotiations and side agreements been part of our new contract? WE gave into all of this, and got absolutely nothing. No 4%, no 2%. Im have a long way to go before retiring and thinking about quitting much sooner. Cant stand the union for letting all this go. None of the above should have been agreed to until we were paid.

By: Michael Fiorillo

Michael Fiorillo — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 20:49:42 +0000

The ambiguity in the article is whether the DOE asked only for the June, 2011 Brooklyn-Queens Day in exchange for Wednesda , 9/8, or were they demanding that it become an instructional day in perpetuity.

If Klein was trying to grab something that we’d never get back, and that can be useful in schools that do PD well, then the UFT did the right thing. And, as others have pointed out, it’s the DOE that sets the calendar.