n anti-union misinformation campaign couldn’t deter educators at the Mary Cariola Children’s Center in Rochester from organizing. The 163 full-time, part-time and per diem staffers, representing a range of titles including teachers, behavior analysts and speech therapists, said “yes” to the union in early December to form Mary Cariola United, one of NYSUT’s newest locals.

As an 853 School serving children and young adults who are medically fragile, or have autism, cognitive delays or physical disabilities, staff retention and recruitment is a key issue, said Trevor Francis, an organizing committee member and third-through-fifth grade teacher at the school for more than 10 years. “Staff are getting burned out and a lot are leaving for other work,” said Francis, noting that many of the students have severe needs and the work can be challenging. Other concerns include safe staffing, having a say in classroom issues, better resources for students and improved pay and benefits.

Staffers also hope affiliation will bring greater respect for what they do. “Since we teach daily living life skills, instead of English or math like at traditional schools, some think of us as a specialized daycare, but we are real teachers,” said Francis. “It’s macro teaching and often more difficult that just sitting kids down and teaching them subjects … people don’t understand that.”

lot can happen in 13 years. For schools, a child will enter kindergarten and graduate high school. But for the Lawrence Teachers Association, something was absent for that length of time: a current contract.

And then finally, with a quickness that was the antithesis of everything that had happened the past 13 years, the contract was settled. In a matter of weeks, it went from irrevocably stalled to signed, sealed and delivered.

“There is a huge sense of relief,” said Rachel Kreiss, president of the Lawrence TA. “We’ve already seen an increase in morale among our members and feeling valued for the work that we do.”

ctivists gathered in Albany for the NYSUT Justice Conference in November, a first-ever joint meeting of the union’s Civil and Human Rights, LGBTQ and Women’s committees. Members gathered for a weekend filled with inspiration, and a shared commitment to uplift voices, celebrate diversity and advance social justice in communities statewide.

NYSUT Executive Vice President Jaime Ciffone opened the event. “Post-election we should be as one as we commence this work,” she said noting that uniting efforts would help committee members better achieve the union’s social justice goals.

NYSUT Board member Kim McAvoy, treasurer for the Rondout Valley Federation of Teachers and School Related Personnel, agrees. “Knowing the positive pieces that come from being a part of this union … I know that we will continue to fight,” she said.

“We have three big pieces that we’re digging into to move this conversation of social justice forward,” said NYSUT President Melinda Person of the union’s One-in-Five anti-childhood-poverty initiative; its campaign to combat hate through implicit bias trainings and other awareness programs; and NYSUT’s reverse runaway inequality initiative that calls for an additional tax on those earning over $5 million to fund public-benefit programs.

Committee members met as one for a Friday opening session, broke off into individual committee meetings for day two and rejoined as a group for day three to discuss how the committees could work together to advance the union’s three-pronged social justice agenda.

My job consists of many different things. I am mostly with self-contained classes for seven or eight periods a day. These classes are usually small enough that I can build relationships with the students.

I am always thinking: What else can I do for my children? I have purchased everything from work boots to toiletries for those who are in need. My familiarity with the curriculum and skills needed for Regents exams are beneficial. I encourage the students to use the strategies we have taught them, and I also provide test accommodations and IEP modifications to those who need them.

I have the best job in the world. When you see in a child’s eyes that they finally get it, it is the best feeling in the world. I LOVE my job and I do not see me doing anything else.

I joined the union in 1996, the year I was hired, and have been involved ever since. I have seen over the years our executive members working hard and taking care of us. I would volunteer now and again but I was raising five children of my own. As my youngest entered college, it was my turn to step up and do my part to help. I wanted to run for a small role but decided to run for union secretary because the previous secretary was retiring. In 2019, I ran and became WSUT&SRP union secretary and I still am to this day. I am also the new membership liaison, SRP BLT member, SRP sick bank, SRP PD member, SRP PD schoolwide member and SRP grievance chair. I attend the NYSUT SRP Leadership Conferences and have been to the Capitol in Albany for SRP Lobby Day.

here’s not much difference between teaching and performing as far as United Federation of Teachers member Gaspare Randazzo is concerned. “Stand in front of a classroom, stand in front of a stage, same thing to me,” said Randazzo, a history teacher at Susan Wagner High School on Staten Island for the past 13 years.

He would know. When not in the classroom, Randazzo’s a successful standup comedian who travels the country performing. His material centers on his experiences as a classroom teacher and funny interactions with students. He also appeared on the first season of the Netflix reality gameshow “The Trust: A Game of Greed,” co-hosts “The Social Studies Podcast” and is active on social media.

“It’s wild to me sometimes, I’ll be in a place like California or Oklahoma … and I’m like, how do they even know who I am? I was literally just talking about Alexander the Great in my classroom,” said Randazzo, who calls the experience super cool and humbling. “In my mind I still view myself as a teacher.”

his is no ordinary student presentation.

Acting as consultants, seniors from Tech Valley High School are creating solutions to problems identified by industry experts at highly successful businesses.

Seventeen-year-old Griffin Lane and his team worked with State Street to provide solutions for how generative artificial intelligence can be used to increase productivity while keeping in mind ethical considerations for its use in a work environment.

“When I came to Tech Valley, every time I would go to stand up even in front of just five people for a presentation I would shake, and I was so worried,” Lane recalled. “But now I can stand in this room full of 80 people and do a presentation. I think that’s going to be really helpful for the future.”

ike many school-based speech therapists across the country, Rachel Parker’s caseload has increased dramatically since the COVID-19 pandemic — but also been totally transformed.

“Our population has definitely changed. When I started, most of my work was in articulation or vocabulary, but now, more students are coming in with significant communication issues, including more students who are nonverbal or have very limited communication skills,” said Parker, a speech therapist at Homer Elementary School and member of the Homer Teachers Association.

So how has this changed her approach? “We’re changing what therapy looks like,” Parker explained. She and her colleagues are doing more co-treating, more push-ins, and finding ways to do interventions in all accessible locations, including the playground, she said.

Last year, at Parker’s behest, the district installed communication boards at all three playgrounds. The boards, which feature a variety of symbols and pictures and cost between $5,000 and $8,000, are designed to help children of all abilities communicate with each other.

s a new year begins, NYSUT remains steadfast in our goal of ensuring safe and healthy schools for all. We continue to push for improvements that help our students thrive and ensure that education professions remain enticing and sustainable career choices.

Good jobs and strong public schools are central to our values. Last year, with our members’ support, the state Legislature passed numerous bills to improve both educators’ working conditions AND students’ learning conditions. We achieved these victories by listening to you and bringing forward the issues that matter. And we’ll be back at it this year, taking what we know educators, students and communities need and making sure our lawmakers listen and act.

hen I think about the moment I knew I was going to be a teacher, I think back to fourth grade. That year we were learning about the American Revolution and the Constitution; the fourth-grade teachers decided to teach the topic through a play. I was the town crier and I was also responsible for the 19th Amendment playing the role of Sojourner Truth. I was the only Black student in the fourth grade class. To be given the role of Sojourner Truth was both an honor as well as a turning point in my early life. I had learned about a woman who demonstrated courage and strength, and who was the voice to tell the story of Black women when no one knew or showed concern.

My fourth-grade year was also the year that my mother, a union activist herself, was starting a Civil Rights Committee for her local United Auto Workers union. I would sneak and read her materials about the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. I was learning about “me,” about my ancestors; I felt alive. I wanted to know more, and when I knew more I wanted to share it, I wanted to teach it. That is when I decided I wanted to be a teacher; I was going to be a teacher.

hen it comes to toileting, guidelines from the New York State Education Department can’t come fast enough.

In June, the state Legislature passed new legislation that requires SED to establish uniform statewide protocols for diapering and toileting students in public schools. The new law was the result of years of successful advocacy and lobbying by NYSUT members. The protocols are expected by spring of 2026.

“This law, it came from our SRP committee,” said Jo Ann Sweat, president of the Buffalo Educational Support Team and a member of the NYSUT SRP Advisory Committee. “This is very important, because it doesn’t just affect us, it affects our students and families.”

While the common assumption may be that general education students are potty-trained by the time they reach pre-K, being potty-trained is not, in fact, a required skill for students, and they can’t be excluded from kindergarten or prekindergarten because of it, Sweat said.

Instead, school staff — usually School-Related Professionals — are responsible for both teaching students how to use the bathroom independently, and for diapering them, changing them, and cleaning up after them until they do.

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN THAT AN ELECTION FOR THE FOLLOWING POSITIONS WILL BE CONDUCTED ON FRIDAY, MAY 2, 2025, AT 4:30 P.M. DURING THE 2025 NYSUT REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY AT THE ROCHESTER RIVERSIDE CONVENTION CENTER, ROCHESTER, N.Y., IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE PROCEDURES SPECIFIED BELOW.

NOTICE IS HEREBY FURTHER GIVEN THAT NOMINATING PETITIONS FOR EACH OF THE FOLLOWING POSITIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED THROUGH 5 P.M., FEB. 14, 2025, IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CRITERIA AND PROCESSES OUTLINED BELOW.

5 Questions for Esther Hernandez-Kramer

When I arrived in the states, I was put in ninth grade at Thomas Jefferson High School in Brooklyn with my 13-year-old brother. They did this without asking me for any paperwork about my schooling back home. It was so dispiriting. I was nearly a grown man taking classes with a bunch of kids.

I couldn’t deal with it.

I was already 18, so in 1988 I left that school and transferred to the old Boys and Girls High School in Brooklyn to enter their GED program. However, when I wanted to take the GED test, they wouldn’t let me because they said my English score wasn’t high enough. So, I left again and switched to a different program at the same school. That’s where I met a Haitian teacher who was the first person to ever ask me about my school performance back home. She evaluated me, and I attended summer school and did project work with her. I finally graduated at the age of 20.

She really helped me a lot because, as a January baby, I was at risk of aging out of the public school system.

It’s What We Do

ake a moment to think about the people in your life you love and care about. What would their lives look like if something were to happen to you? It’s a scary thought, right?

Life insurance is a topic many people find confusing, complicated, and uncomfortable to think about. It is truly one of the most important types of insurance products you can purchase, though — especially for those who depend on your income such as a spouse/domestic partner, children and other loved ones.

Designed to offer a financial cushion for your beneficiaries upon your passing, life insurance can provide crucial income for daily living expenses, mortgage payments, property taxes, college savings, burial or medical costs, and other debts.

Much like other insurance products, the time to purchase life insurance is NOT when you find yourself in an emergency situation. Purchasing a policy when you are younger and in good health can help to secure a lower premium rate since the cost normally increases as you age and depending upon your health status.

ervice credit is a major factor in your New York State and Local Retirement System pension benefit. You earn service credit for your paid employment with a public employer in New York state. For NYSLRS members whose employment is based on a school year, your service credit is calculated differently so it’s important to understand how this applies in your situation. And if you have past service or military service, you may be able to request additional service credit.

Calculating service credit

Your service credit is based on the number of days you work, which your employer reports to NYSLRS.

If you work full-time, you receive one year of service per school year—even if you only work 10 months of the year. Usually, a 10-month school year is at least 180 days. However, a full academic year can range from 170 to 200 days depending on your employer.

Although retirement isn’t on your horizon yet, several important milestones occur over the next few years. Your death benefit coverage begins after one year of continuous service credit, entitling your designated beneficiary to both the balance of your member contributions and a death benefit if you die before retiring. After two years of service credit, you’re eligible to purchase prior service credit. And at five years of service credit, your pension is vested, meaning it’s guaranteed.

For details, visit the active members/service milestones page at nystrs.org for specifics.