United Federation of Teachers Southern Section Meeting & Symposium

 

Ken Goodfriend UFT /RTC Florida Coordinator of Services and Sections welcomed the Retirees, guests and speakers. 

The 1st speaker was Terry Rizzo from the Florida Democratic Party. She strongly urged the group to Pink Slip Rick Scott for all the damage he has done to the State of Florida. He has been no friend to education, voter rights or the healthcare rights of the citizens of our state.

Next was entertainment by Al Guastafeste playing show tunes on the piano. The audience was encouraged to guess the show & entertainer for each song.

Susan Bucher Commissioner of Elections for Palm Beach County told us that because of the embarrassing long lines on Election Day, on the 1st day of the legislative session the Election Bill that had reduced access to the polls was reversed. More early voting places will be allowed. The number of early voting days will be changed from 8 to 14.  Early voting will be allowed on the Sunday before the election. Future ballot amendments will be limited to 75 words. In addition 3rd party organizations who register voters will now have 10 days to hand in the registrations, not 48 hours as was the case for the past couple of years.

Michael Mulgrew UFT President – 1. He congratulated the NYSUT teachers in Florida for helping to win the Presidential Election for President Obama. We helped to prove that money doesn’t buy an election. People voting is what won the election. He emphasized that in the upcoming New York City Mayoral Race he hopes that numbers of people voting for someone friendly to education wins the race not money backing a candidate unfriendly to public education. 2. He said that the closing of schools to then open charter schools is both an attack on schools & teachers. 3. On the topic of evaluation he said the New York City Teachers need a “Scope & Sequence” for their courses so that they know on what they are to be evaluated. Currently there is a 50% turnover of new teachers due to excess paperwork.

Congressman Ted Deutch District 21 - Congressman Deutch is very supportive of teachers and the need to teach coursework vs. having to always be concerned about teaching to tests. He seems to get it that schools that are rated “Failing” are usually the result of better students just not being in those schools for a variety of reasons.