s we head toward another school budget season, it is once again essential that NYSUT members support school district budgets and NYSUT-endorsed board of education candidates.

In last year’s hotly contested races, NYSUT activists turned out big, making over 127,000 phone calls, sending more than 350,000 pieces of mail and knocking on over 5,600 doors in their communities.

As a result of this collective action, we saw 99 percent of school budgets pass and 86 percent of our endorsed pro-student, pro-education school board candidates win. That included 60 NYSUT members elected to school boards in every corner of the state.

UNY’s three public teaching hospitals, SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, Upstate Medical University and Stony Brook University Hospital are on the brink of a financial crisis. NYSUT and United University Professions are calling on Gov. Kathy Hochul and lawmakers to allocate $175 million to restore them to fiscal health.

“SUNY Downstate is a true community lifesaver for a reason: Our highly trained union members turn no one away and treat the most vulnerable members of our community, even if patients can’t afford to pay,” said UUP President Fred Kowal. “Patients with difficult, rare or hard-to-treat medical conditions are often sent to Downstate.”

At the same time, Kowal said, Downstate’s medical university trains the next generation of health care workers, many of whom stay in New York after graduating. “The state must act now to restore the necessary funding to stabilize SUNY Downstate and give it a strong future.”

“Our public teaching hospitals deliver extraordinary care to thousands of New Yorkers every year,” said NYSUT President Andy Pallotta. “And yet, every year we see state funding threatened for these critically important institutions.”

Of the three hospitals, SUNY Downstate is the most cash-strapped, and $133 million of the requested total would be used to cover this year’s operating deficit and maintain services. SUNY Downstate holds a special place in the state system and in New York City’s health care system. It is Brooklyn’s only academic medical center and has served the borough since 1860.

eanne Grace is a forester for the city of Ithaca. Her duties include supervising all the city’s parks and overseeing park maintenance. She freely admits that interpreting legal documents and other contracts isn’t her strong suit.

“We’ve been talking about affiliating for a while, but lately the city has taken more of a hardline approach to negotiations,” said Grace, CEA president, explaining that once the city brought an attorney to negotiation sessions, she worried they were at a disadvantage. “The city attorney would say something, and we weren’t sure if it was correct or not — we needed someone with negotiation experience.”

After a year without a contract, the group turned to the state AFL-CIO for advice. CEA had partnered with other AFL-CIO-affiliated Ithaca unions last fall to advocate for wage increases and other issues as the Ithaca Workers Coalition; they were impressed by the resources available to union members. An AFL-CIO contact suggested reaching out to NYSUT.

he New Hartford Employees Union agreed to a new contract following a difficult negotiation period that saw an impasse declared and the board of education attempt to split the union by giving non-negotiated raises to certain job titles.

Working with NYSUT labor relations specialist Heidi Miller, the NHEU and President Vincent Nesci formed an action committee. Members participated in unity actions like coordinated wearing of apparel and placing lawn signs throughout the community. Other members attended board meetings to highlight how the district’s core values relate to the union’s work.

Standing in unity and working with the community at large, NHEU was able to secure a three-year contract that saw every member receive at least an 8 percent raise. Sick time, longevity increments, stipends, personal leave, snow days, holidays and health insurance were also improved.

“What we went through was very frustrating and disrespectful,” said NHEU President Nesci. “But there was a silver lining to the cloud which resulted in our best contract to date!”

early 40 teen and pre-teen girls learned about financial literacy, self-defense and a host of other topics at the Young Women’s Empowerment Conference, held at the William Floyd Middle School in Suffolk County on Long Island.

The March conference was the first large-scale event held by Learn and Lead, a girls leadership club for Patchogue Medford-area students in grades 6–12. NYSUT Women’s Committee member Rahana Schmalacker and her daughter Lena Schmalacker started the group last year after Rahana attended a women’s committee meeting. A committee goal was forming empowerment groups for school-age girls to explore issues like fairness, safety, equity, access and representation.

Learn and Lead partnered with Caitlyn’s Vision, a not-for-profit founded by William Floyd student Caitlyn Michiels to help children and families suffering from vision impairment and blindness, to stage the event.

fter 35 years of hard work, the Kate Mullany National Historic Site in Troy will officially open to the public this summer.

“It will be a big day when that happens,” said Paul Cole, executive director of the American Labor Studies Center. Cole, one of NYSUT’s founding activists and secretary-treasurer emeritus of the state AFL-CIO, has shepherded this project from its infancy, first assembling a proposal for the site to become a National Historic Landmark in 1988 and then lobbying to transform the landmark into an official National Historic Site.

“Someone said to me once, ‘You don’t retire from something, you retire to something.’ And I think that’s what I’ve done with this project,” Cole said.

Cole worked to assemble the funding necessary to turn the formerly blighted building in downtown Troy into a fully functioning, restored historic site, with exhibits and a re-creation of Mullany’s living quarters, complete with antique furnishings. The building will also be home to the American Labor Studies Center, where Cole and other labor leaders will help teachers bring the labor movement into their classrooms.

rom leading NYSUT efforts to reform New York’s grades 3–8 ELA and math assessments to launching an initiative to recruit professionals into the education field to broadening the work of the NYSUT Women’s Committee, outgoing NYSUT Executive Vice President Jolene DiBrango has made her mark.

“I’m really proud of the work we did with the Correct the Test campaign,” said DiBrango, noting that the statewide union kept the pressure on then-state Education Commissioner Mary Ellen Elia by diligently counteracting misleading statements she made about the tests, point-by-point.

A special order of business, introduced by DiBrango and approved unanimously from the floor of the 2019 NYSUT Representative Assembly, also had a big impact. It cited NYSUT’s lack of confidence in the commissioner and called on the Board of Regents for a real fix to the state testing system, said DiBrango.

“I think it was a catalyst that led to her decision to step down. We passed that resolution in May and by June she announced she was leaving.”

Being out in front of the teacher shortage is another point of pride. “We were one of the first groups out there sounding the alarm,” said DiBrango. The union’s work to increase teacher diversity and strengthen the educator pipeline through its Take a Look at Teaching initiative has recruited a thousand students into the education field.

ne size doesn’t fit all when it comes to the mental health needs of individuals of color and members of the LGBTQ+ community. They can often face unique mental health challenges and may be hesitant to seek out care. That’s why it’s important to consider an individual’s background when offering assistance.

Discussing these differences and teaching educators how to better help underrepresented students was the focus of “Promoting Health and Well-Being Through an Equity Lens: Cultivating Cultures of Care and Strategies to Support Mental Health.”

“To achieve wellness, we must be open to discussing our feelings and examining them through the unique lens of our personal life experiences,” said J. Philippe Abraham, NYSUT secretary-treasurer, who hosted the Many Threads, One Fabric event. “A conversation about the health and wellness of individuals in underrepresented communities is timely.”

In addition to the Academy Award, Quan also received a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award for the 2022 role, becoming the first Asian man to win in any individual SAG Award category.

Quan rose to fame as a child actor in the 1980s playing Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Data in The Goonies. Born in Saigon, South Vietnam, Quan’s family fled to Hong Kong in 1978 and were admitted to the United States as part of the Refugee Admissions Program in 1979. A naturalized citizen, Quan was raised and resides in California.

NYSUT is proud to celebrate the contributions of individuals of Asian and Pacific Islander descent. Downloadable PDF versions and printed copies of this poster are free, in limited quantities, to NYSUT members. For a free download of this poster, visit nysut.org/publications.

For more information, including eligibilty, deadlines and prizes, visit CareerZChallenge.com.

Teaching is a second career for Kevin Todd, Watertown Education Association. After practicing law, he is a middle school social studies teacher.

Only a few events come to mind when I think back to my first memories of school. I vividly remember my soon-to-be best friend Geoff throwing a block at my head in kindergarten. I also love the thoughts of Mrs. Northrup’s airplane design challenge in third grade. She was such an amazing teacher. However, what I remember most, and the thought surfaces quite regularly, were lunch tickets in my elementary grades.

My school handed out tickets of different colors for students on free and reduced-price lunches. Red tickets for the poorest students on free lunches; blue tickets for students on reduced-price lunches.

My family was very poor. My father was an amazing dairy farmer on a tiny farm in Northern New York. He worked incredibly hard, but in a family of seven it was rarely enough. I recall being ashamed of our poverty. I felt intense shame having to stand in line for a red ticket; I still do. I cannot speak for my siblings, but I would go to school with something from home to eat or I would go hungry, rather than be seen in line for lunch tickets.

I understand poverty at a level few others do, but I also understand the power of a free public education. I graduated at the top of my class, as did all my siblings. We all went to St. Lawrence University because of the amazing scholarships available to North Country students. My siblings all earned master’s degrees in different education-related fields. Today, we are teachers, a manager of a large day care facility, and a superintendent.

ith the COVID-19 shutdown, hybrid learning and quarantines for students and faculty, West Genesee Middle School teacher Ellen Miller almost gave up on her three-year quest to become a National Board Certified Teacher. Several times.

“All of the extra, unexpected obstacles made what was already a very challenging endeavor seem absolutely impossible at times,” said Miller, a sixth-grade ELA and social studies teacher. “We all at some point wanted to quit, but we kept each other going!”

The group, led by professional learning facilitator Kimberly Smith, an NBCT herself, provided both professional and emotional support. The educators met monthly at West Genesee High School, sharing resources, helping each other with videotaping lessons and proofreading each other’s writing for the portfolio components of the national certification.

he Representative Assembly, NYSUT’s highest policymaking body, will convene at the Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza and the Albany Capital Center April 28–29. Delegates have a packed schedule of elections, resolutions and events both before and after the conference. You can access ongoing coverage of the convention at nysut.org/RA.

The business of the 2023 RA kicks off with an expanded Local and Retiree Council Presidents Conference, April 27–28.

NYSUT President Andy Pallotta will give his final State of the Union address at the opening General Session on Friday, April 28. Delegates will also hear from Executive Vice President Jolene DiBrango, Second Vice President Ron Gross and Secretary-Treasurer J. Philippe Abraham as well as a host of union and legislative dignitaries.

Delegates will recognize the winners of NYSUT’s constituency awards, Ken Kurzweil Social Justice Recognition Awards, community service awards, Life Line Honor Roll and the union’s VOTE-COPE awards.

On Sunday, the inaugural NYSUT Runs New York Family 5K walk/run kicks off in downtown Albany. All proceeds benefit the Albany Fund for Education. For more info or to register, visit NYSUTRunsNY.org.

Never one to back down from a challenge, Manley started her education career with students who faced their own difficulties. As a para, she worked with students classified as NIEH, neurologically impaired, emotionally handicapped.

5 Questions for Maxine Brisport

You’ve worked with the Peer Support Line since August 2022. How did you prepare for the role?

I received two weeks of training, including handling crisis calls, suicide prevention and connecting to 988, the suicide and crisis lifeline. We learned the American Society for Addiction Medicine criteria and how to recognize the signs of an opioid overdose. We also received information about HIPPA and medical and professional compliance and receive extensive ongoing training. When I took my first call, I knew I was well prepared to handle whatever the client needed.

You retired last year from the Troy City School District. Does your background as a school psychologist help in this work?

Yes, 100 percent. As a school psychologist I worked directly with students conducting psych evaluations. The terminology is the same, and I’m well versed in it, and I have a background in dealing with behavioral issues and a lot of experience in family engagement.

It’s What We Do

n response to the requests of NYSUT members, NYSUT Member Benefits is excited to announce the launch of a Universal Life Insurance program with Convalescent Care Benefit provided by Trustmark®.

This innovative universal life insurance product offers added financial protection for NYSUT members and their spouses/certified domestic partners, while the YourCare360® feature provides access to long-term care resources.

Available May 1, 2023, this program combines a life insurance benefit to help provide financial security for your family with a convalescent care benefit that can assist with paying for long-term care services at any age. In addition, caregiving tools provided by YourCare360® offer guidance to help manage long-term care needs.

One aspect of retirement planning some members may not consider is how a divorce may affect their retirement benefit. In New York state, retirement benefits earned by members of the Employees’ Retirement System are considered marital property. If you file for divorce, a judge may award your ex-spouse part of your pension.

The most common distribution formula for a public pension was established by the New York State Court of Appeals in Majauskas v. Majauskas. This formula provides an ex-spouse with one-half of the part of a member’s pension that was earned during the marriage. Other ways to divide pension benefits include a flat dollar amount or a flat percentage of the benefit.

The division of benefits is determined by the terms of the Domestic Relations Order — a court order that gives specific instruction on how benefits should be split. A DRO must be on file with the retirement system in order for pension payments to be made to the ex-spouse of a member. All DROs are subject to review and acceptance by the ERS Matrimonial Bureau.

“This year we raised more than $8,500 profit for the United Hospice of Rockland County,” said Jon Wedvik, president of the Clarkstown TA. “We were honored to have NYSUT President Andy Pallotta and Executive Director Melinda Person attend. Rockland Assemblyman Ken Zebrowski also stopped by the event to show support.” ED 14 Director Sparrow Tobin and ED At-Large 13/14 Director Matt Haynes also attended.

In the past nine years, the RCTA has raised more than $100,000 for hospice. The group hosts an annual Bowling Spectacular and a Billiards Bonanza.