If you haven't heard, Time magazine's November 3 cover is both misleading and insulting, categorizing educators as "Rotten Apples."  This weekend, we have been raining a Twitterstorm down on them and have been actively signing a petition against this anti-teacher, anti-tenure display.  You may know that there's a big nationwide push (more than 45,000 responses as of yesterday) against Time's cover (already available online).    Will this sell upcoming issues of Time?  Possibly.  Should our educators give voice to this horrific cover?  Definitely.
 

Election Day, Nov. 4th, is less than two weeks away. Please take the time to look over the attached  list of candidates NYSUT is officially endorsing. 

 

NYSUT has not endorsed a candidate in the NY State Senate race in the 7th District. This district includes Herricks. Great Neck, Mineola, Roslyn, Port Washington,  Westbury and many neighboring areas. The two candidates in this race are Adam Haber and Jack Martins. At the NYSUT Endorsement Conference in August, many local presidents spoke highly of Jack Martins' support for our schools and communities. He has brought much financial support to

Welcome back! Hope you had a relaxing and restful summer. As the year begins it is time for our members to become engaged and enact change for our profession.

 

At Tuesday's Opening Day meeting speech (link attached) I reminded colleagues that our strength as a union is derived from your involvement. The Primary Elections are just days away. NYSUT has refrained from making an endorsement in the governor's race. This has sent a clear message about Governor Cuomo's lack of support for education. You can make your voice heard by becoming active. An informational flyer on  Andrew Cuomo and Zephyr

I hope you enjoyed the first ten days of summer. I wanted to update you on two items:

 

The New Teacher Contract was ratified by 92% of teachers who voted. This successful response was due largely in part to our PNC and Executive Council who met with teachers in the buildings and explained the changes in the contract. The breakdown by building was:

Administration   1  YES     0 NO

Center St.        39 YES     3 NO

Denton             50 YES     3 NO

High School      91 YES    10 NO

Middle School  69 YES      8 NO

Searingtown     40 YES      1 NO      1 NOT VALID (marked wrong)

 

Total:             290

At the Board of Education Reorganization Meeting on July 1st, Jim Gounaris was sworn in as the 2014-2015 Board of Education President. Nancy Feinstein will continue as Vice President and Christine Turner as the Parliamentarian.

 

At the regular BOE meeting, Board President, Jim Gounaris, announced that the BOE had come to an agreement with the HTA on a successor teacher contract. The Board and HTA worked together since January to come to the agreement that was reached on June 19, 2014.

 

Below are the terms of the agreement reached:

Dear Colleagues,

 

Thank you for voting in today's Teacher Contract Ratification Vote. Regardless of how you voted, we respect your opinion and continue to work to represent you. This was a difficult choice for many to make. Negotiations is a process of give and take. The current climate of the 2% Tax Cap, State Mandates and other factors made this compromise even more difficult. The HTA and the District needed to find the best balance that would benefit both parties and help to maintain our premier Herricks District.

 

I am pleased to inform you that today's teacher vote ratified the tentative