e advocated. We rallied. We won. It’s been a busy few months for NYSUT’s roster of dedicated lobbyists and activists, but making our voices heard in the halls of power has paid off in the final state budget. After many hours of negotiations, a cyber-attack and likely countless cups of coffee, the state Legislature approved a roughly $237 billion spending plan.

“This budget will support our current educators and attract new educators by continuing the process of fixing Tiers 5 and 6 in the pension system,” continued Person. “It will boost the impact of our colleges and universities with additional funding and require a collaborative process to revitalize SUNY Downstate. It will restore the majority of proposed cuts to public school funding and, importantly, will begin the process of updating the Foundation Aid formula to ensure every student in the state has access to a sound, basic education,” Person said.

t’s been a long time coming, but the Annual Professional Performance Review fixes educators have been waiting for are within sight. On March 20, NYSUT President Melinda Person and NYSED Commissioner Betty Rosa walked from the State Education Department building to the Legislative Office Building to hand-deliver a new bill rewriting New York’s flawed teacher evaluation system. The pair met with legislative Education Committee Chairs Sen. Shelley Mayer and Assemblymember Michael Benedetto.

If the legislation is approved, as expected, the revamped APPR system would end the current requirement that student test scores be included in teacher assessments and return teacher evaluations to local control.

“For too many years we’ve lived under this onerous system that uses test scores to intimidate educators,” said Person. “We want a locally controlled system that actually supports, mentors and aids in the growth and development of our educators.”

Person thanked the union’s partners in bringing the measure to fruition, SED, the NYS Council of School Superintendents, the NYS School Boards Association, School Administrators Association of NYS, the NYS Parent Teacher Association and the Conference of Big Five School Districts. “We worked collaboratively to put this bill together and we are so proud to deliver it to lawmakers today.”

t was a cold and rainy March afternoon, but that didn’t dim the spirits of hundreds of Westchester County educators and activists who rallied in support of fixing Tier 6. The Port Chester Teachers Association, led by Christopher Kazim, organized “March on the 6th to Fix Tier 6,” a rally and march highlighting the vast disparities between Tiers 5 and 6 and earlier pension tiers, and calling on lawmakers to institute changes. “I was sitting in gridlock traffic one day when it came to me ‘March on the 6th to Fix Tier 6,’” Kazim told the crowd. “Here we are, five months later, and I never could have imagined the tremendous support we have today!”

YSUT President Melinda Person lent her voice to the call for keeping students safe online. Sponsored by the advocacy group Keep Kids Safe Online, the mid-March press conference called for passing two bills that would prevent big tech from tracking, collecting and selling young people’s personal data to third parties, a practice that generates addictive feeds that keep kids tethered to their devices.

State Attorney General Tish James also voiced her support. “These are good bills that will protect our children and be models for the rest of the nation and the world to follow,” said James. “Because when New York gets involved, we tend to lead the nation … we’ve got a duty and an obligation to protect these young individuals from the harms of social media, and I’m honored to stand with my colleagues.”

or more than two years, the tenor was the same. Negotiation sessions came and went, but nothing productive was happening. Saratoga Springs teachers watched their peers get contract wins and felt unheard and disrespected by district administration. So, members decided to take action.

“I think the action was a game changer,” said McGuiggan. “It had a definitive impact on negotiations. Everything changed as a result of that rally.”

sing various mediums, students from middle school to college created visual representations meant to inspire important conversations about heavy issues: Women’s rights. War. Racial inequality. Self-acceptance.

The pieces were submitted for the inaugural juried student art exhibition held at NYSUT’s Tarrytown Regional Office. Students were asked to use NYSUT’s “Many Threads, One Fabric” theme to create original works of art that explore and embrace the histories, cultures and contributions of the many diverse peoples that comprise our world.

“It is fantastic to see the excitement from students who are exploring social justice issues, celebrating diversity and learning to express their feelings and beliefs through art,” said NYSUT Secretary-Treasurer J. Philippe Abraham. His office provided funding for the event as part of the union’s social justice initiative.

A panel of judges, including Abraham, NYSUT graphic designer Dana Fournier and retired art educator Cynthia Appold, RC19, reviewed the pieces and awarded prizes based on how closely students were able to connect to the theme.

Lottia Barnes, an 11th grader at Suffern Central School District, won second place for her acrylic painting Slipping Through My Fingers, a self-portrait depicting Barnes in the bathroom as her mother styles her hair. The pair are reflected in the mirror as their younger selves during what Barnes describes as a more trying time for both.

efore the union introduced a peer-to-peer mentoring program for teaching assistants, the East Syracuse Minoa School District was looking at unsustainable turnover.

“Our union-led peer mentoring program started with NEA in September of 2023,” said Tammy Hughes, president of the East Syracuse-Minoa Teaching Assistants Association. “Since implementing our program we have had a 92 percent retention rate. This is a huge increase over the 45 percent loss that we experienced in the last two years.”

While acknowledging the program is still new, Hughes said the difference to morale has been invaluable. “Teaching assistant mentors have shared their knowledge and insight. Mentees feel welcomed and supported. And students have benefited from happier, trained teaching assistants,” Hughes said.

I Am Educator Inspired

In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week starting May 6, NYSUT is highlighting stories we’ve gathered from people around the state sharing how educators have encouraged, guided and cared for them in ways big and small. We’ve amassed an impressive collection of videos and handwritten notes from students, parents, elected officials, celebrities, community members and NYSUT members as part of our Educator Inspired campaign.

“We know how hard educators work every day to not only teach children, but to help them feel safe, accepted and confident in themselves,” said NYSUT President Melinda Person. “Whether it’s helping a student achieve a ‘lightbulb’ moment in a subject they’ve struggled with, supporting them during difficult times in their personal lives, encouraging them to pursue pathways they didn’t believe were possible, or just making learning fun — our members are doing it all.”

During this Teacher Appreciation Week, take time to make sure the teachers in your life feel the love. And check out the impactful stories of gratitude shared at educator-inspired.org.

ne of nine children, State Senator Robert Jackson knows how to survive. Times were tough for his family growing up, and they sometimes struggled to make ends meet. The experience taught him that “you have to be persistent in reaching your goals,” said Jackson.

It was a lesson he learned well. In 1993, that persistence led Jackson to launch the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, a coalition of parents, community members and education advocates who sued the state over school funding cuts and overcrowding.

The case went all the way to New York’s highest court which found that New York City children were being denied a sound, basic education due to a lack of resources — violations of the state constitution and Title Six of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, since most District 6 students were children of color. The result: A historic $16 billion school funding win in 2003.

For his persistence and ongoing commitment to fighting for workers’ rights, Jackson is receiving the union’s highest honor, The Albert Shanker Award for Distinguished Service. The award recognizes individuals who’ve made special contributions to public education in the United States.

NYSUT 2024 Representative Assembly Awards

Growing up, Perez knew she wanted to be a teacher. From her earliest days playing school, to her first job as a classroom observer, her path was straight and true. It was a call to service, and that’s how I see myself — as a servant leader,” she explained. She graduated from Brooklyn College with a degree in education and took a job as a bilingual/ESL teacher at PS 160 in Brooklyn.

ith a friendly smile, special handshakes and a simple “how are you today?”, Rochester music teacher Zachary Arenz starts each morning by welcoming students to school as they get off the bus. It’s his way of checking in and meeting students where they are emotionally that day.

“I don’t always know what happened in the hours before my students arrive at school or walk into my classroom,” Arenz explained. “It’s a chance to make sure that they’re having a good day and if they’re not, what can I do to help?”

At Flower City School Number 54, Arenz’s colleagues jokingly dubbed him the “kid whisperer” for his innate ability to read his students, build positive relationships and gain their trust. For some kids, Arenz is their main motivation for coming to school at all. He shares a time when he learned from one of his ensemble students, who had been racking up absences, that the reason he was missing so much school was because he was going back and forth from his separated parents’ houses.

She introduced me to theater, music and how to escape into a book. She is adored by so many students. That particular year, our class seemed special, or she made it seem like we were, in our working-class neighborhood. I believed I could be and do whatever I set my mind to. Many of us went on to do great things; many of us are in creative fields. I would like to say it was because of her class.

I wanted to be like her, and I wanted kids to feel like I did in her class. I went on to have many great teachers and decided this was the path I would take.

I love acting, writing, reading, theater and music. It was only natural for me to choose English as my subject. I went to Queens College for my degrees. While there, I worked three jobs, and I took on a tutoring job at Townsend Harris High School during my break from classes.

t Victor Senior High School, student mental health demands an all-hands-on-deck approach. In 2019, the growing district just 20 minutes south of Rochester adopted the collective care team model for student wellness, and educators say the new model has fundamentally shifted the way the district supports students.

The pupil services staff includes 12 members, divided into six collective care teams that direct and manage the daily care of students. Each team consists of an administrator, school counselor, school psychologist, school social worker, school nurse and substance use prevention counselor; students are assigned to collective care teams alphabetically.

Each care team comes together every other week to discuss the students they are working with and how they can best be served. During these meetings, or “minis” as they’re called, the team members share their findings, identify appropriate resources, collectively hammer out an action plan, and then check up on student progress, Banaszak said.

YSUT’s “daytime army” of retiree activists were out in force for the Committee of 100 lobby day at the state Capitol in Albany this March. Scores of retired unionists met with lawmakers to speak about issues important to NYSUT members such as APPR reform, pension tier equity and fully funding Foundation Aid. Later in the day they lent their voices at a spirited noontime Fix Tier Six rally against the majestic backdrop of the Million Dollar Staircase.

Chanting “we won’t quit till we Fix Tier 6!” and other pro-change slogans, retirees helped underscore the need to make Tiers 5 and 6 equitable with earlier tiers so that the profession can continue to recruit and retain newer educators.

5 Questions for Kim Jones

First, congratulations on being named the 2023 Ruth Schwartz School Social Worker of the year. What inspires your work?

Thank you. I was very honored to be recognized.

What inspires me is to know that I’m helping people. I try to create an atmosphere of kindness and hope in my work. I do what I do from my heart.

Your school is close to the site of the 2022 Tops supermaket shooting. How did you help your students cope?

The Buffalo Academy for Visual and Performing Arts is in a majority-Black community about five minutes away from the store. A lot of my students’ family members were either victims or related to victims. I set up a counseling room at school the Monday after the Saturday shooting for my fifth through 12th grade students who needed emotional support. I offered talking, art and play therapy and, for some students, just let them console each other while I facilitated. I followed their lead.

or those NYSUT members who have recently retired or plan to do so in the near future, it’s important to take some proactive steps to make the transition from in-service work to retirement an easier process. If you are currently enrolled in NYSUT Member Benefits-endorsed programs and would like to continue participation, you must maintain your NYSUT membership as a retiree.

This can be accomplished in one of two ways:

1. Continue membership within your local if retiree membership is offered. Contact your local to find out if any retiree membership requirements are in place. You must comply with these retiree membership requirements to continue your membership in NYSUT and our national affiliates, the American Federation of Teachers and National Education Association.

2. Continue as an at-large member of NYSUT through the Retiree Council in your region. Contact your local to ensure you will be reported as retired to NYSUT. This will provide you with membership in the Retiree Council in your region along with NYSUT, AFT, and NEA.

s a member of the New York State and Local Retirement System, which administers the Employees’ Retirement System, it’s important to regularly review and update your information.

Use Retirement Online and keep your password current

When it comes to managing your NYSLRS account, Retirement Online (bit.ly/RO-sign-in) is the fastest way to do it. Skip printing forms, having them notarized and sending them through the mail — when you submit your requests online, NYSLRS receives them immediately and your changes will be completed more quickly.

Be sure to sign in at least once a year and update your Retirement Online password so it doesn’t expire.

If you don’t have an account, sign up today. You can find step-by-step instructions for registering in the Tools & Tips section of the Retirement Online page (bit.ly/retirement-online).

My financial advisor claims to be a New York State Teachers’ Retirement System expert. Can I trust their advice?

No. When it comes to your pension, don’t rely on outside sources for pension advice. Financial planners often contact NYSTRS members offering retirement preparation services and claiming to be experts about NYSTRS benefits, but they’re not. Although they design their seminars, ads, videos, publications and mailings to look like NYSTRS-sanctioned products, these firms aren’t affiliated with, or endorsed by, NYSTRS.

Kudos