The Common Ground Over Chaos bus is about creating a space for dialogue between NYSUT members and the candidates we endorse.

During our roundtables on board, educators shared personal stories about their classrooms, students and communities. They’ve explained why we need funding for mental health supports, hands-on learning opportunities for kids, and professional development for staff. They’ve relayed the burden of high-stakes testing through students’ perspectives and their own experiences.

These conversations transform theissues that matter most to us from campaign rhetoric to real names and faces. Candidates have the opportunity to explain why they are the best person to champion our professions and our public schools in Albany and Washington.

Representative democracy means we have a choice, and we will choose those who care about our lives and livelihoods. This is how we make our voices heard.

lack of safe staffing ratios and accountability are big problems for New York state healthcare professionals. That’s why Long Island Community Hospital staffers Linda Raymer, Daniel Molloy, Desiree Moore, Joann Fowler and Kristin Thoden met with state lawmakers recently to discuss their concerns.

All are members of Brookhaven Memorial Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, a NYSUT local representing nearly 700 nurses and healthcare professionals at the Patchogue, Long Island hospital. They met in early October with Assemblymember Doug Smith, Sen. Dean Murray, Sen. Monica Martinez and reps for Sen. Anthony Palumbo and Assemblymember Keith Brown. The local is in a tough contract fight and establishing staffing ratios and a lack of accountability at the facility are key issues.

I Am Educator Inspired

early 500 educators, parents and students came together Sept. 20 at the “Disconnected” conference to find solutions to the ongoing problem of cellphones and social media in schools.

After the summit, based on mountains of data as well as real stories of harm, NYSUT took action and passed a resolution calling for a statewide policy restricting personal devices for the length of the school day.

“Those of us who are in schools everyday see that the constant use of personal electronics — not just phones, but earbuds, watches and other distractions — are impacting our students’ ability to focus, to connect with their fellow students, to be present in reality and to engage in authentic learning,” said NYSUT President Melinda Person.

fter a successful virtual launch of the NYSUT Members of Color Affinity and Action initiative last fall, the statewide union is ready to launch its first in-person conference dedicated to “celebrating, empowering and connecting educators of color.”

The Members of Color conference: Community, Organizing, Advocacy and Belonging, takes place Dec. 7–8 in Albany. The event will feature inspiring sessions, valuable networking opportunities and meaningful discussions, said NYSUT Secretary-Treasurer J. Philippe Abraham, whose office coordinates the union’s social justice initiatives.

“Our members of color bring unique perspectives, experiences and talents not only to the work they do, but also to the community and our union,” Abraham said.

s Pomp and Circumstance played in the background, NYSUT’s first class of BIPOC Pathways to Leadership graduates capped a year of growth and achievement with a September graduation ceremony. The air rang with claps, cheers and calls of encouragement as the 12-member group bid each other farewell after months of learning about themselves, each other and their leadership styles.

The BIPOC Pathways to Leadership program addresses a problem within the labor movement, explained NYSUT Secretary-Treasurer J. Philippe Abraham, who leads the initiative. “Our leadership doesn’t fully represent the make-up of our membership,” said Abraham. “We’ve created programs like this one to invest in our next generation of leaders, and that future is multiracial and diverse.”

Brandon Mendoza’s involvement started with an email advertisement. After reading the pathways mission statement, the Albany Public School Teachers Association member knew it was for him.

My passion for education and community engagement benefits my students and shows how one person can make a significant impact. My journey as a paraprofessional is marked by enthusiasm for teaching and a genuine love for the children I work with. Seeing my students’ faces when they master a lesson for the first time and yell, “I got it!” brings joy to my heart. This moment of triumph, when a student overcomes a challenge and achieves understanding, fuels my passion for my work.

My union involvement started with a need to know, so I began attending rallies, phone banking, leafleting, door knocking, and other volunteer opportunities with the union. As I learned more and more about being a unionist, the benefits and how to fight for the rights of myself and others, I wanted to do more. I ran to become the borough coordinator in the Bronx, and a delegate for NYSUT and AFT. In these positions I learned and was able to apply the knowledge I had received to help others.

ath teacher Martha Strever has seen educational trends come and go at Linden Avenue Middle School in Red Hook, Dutchess County. From the metric system in the 1970’s, to modern math and common core, over the years the only constant in the classroom has been Strever herself. That consistency hit a milestone this fall when Strever celebrated 64 years as an in-service educator — all spent in the Red Hook Central School District where she started as a student teacher in 1960. And as long as her health allows, the Red Hook Faculty Association member has no plans to retire.

“I really love all the kids, even the troublemakers,” said Strever of what keeps her coming back. “I want to turn them around. The reward is seeing students accomplish when they’re struggling, or when they don’t like math.”

Strever is NYSUT’s longest serving in-service member, the longest serving teacher in New York state and might be the longest serving teacher in the world. The Guinness Book of World Records is checking that out, said April Montgomery, Red Hook FA president, explaining that building principal Stacie Fenn Smith, a former student, nominated her for the publication in the categories of longest teaching tenure in a single school and longest-tenured female math teacher.

erched along the Western border near Niagara Falls, Tuscarora Nation School looks much like every other mid-century rural school in New York state. Red brick. Rolling lawns. Flagpole out front. But the flag it flies is for a different nation. And the name out front isn’t written in English.

Tuscarora Nation School, Skarù·ręʔ Yerihętyáʔthaʔ, is one of three New York state primary schools within the Haudenosaunee or Iroquois Confederacy, which is composed of six Indigenous nations — the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca and Tuscarora.

“We give our students a grounding in who they are as Tuscarora,” said Tuscarora culture teacher Alexandra Printup, Niagara Wheatfield Teachers Association, of the pre-K through sixth grade school.

At the end of the discussion, I remember two things. Newton Godnick, chairman of the Fashion Buying and Merchandising department congratulating me for the session (following up with a heartfelt thank you note I treasure) and Winters asking me if I ever considered teaching.

That subsequent Labor Day weekend I spent reading the assigned student textbook for AC 111/Advertising and Promotion, a course in the Fall 1985 semester. Hurricane Elena battered the west coast of Florida that weekend, ruining my short vacation, but I returned to New York City and never looked back.

hen students enter Colleen Keough’s second grade classroom at Hamilton Elementary School in Schenectady, they know they are coming into a space where they are loved. In fact, it hangs on the classroom wall.

Within the walls of the school, Keough is known as an anchor point: a person around whom the entire building orbits. Nowhere is that seen more than in her efforts to revive the school identity and mascot — the Husky.

“Everybody knows Ms. Keough,” said Patty Wood, an instructional coach at Hamilton Elementary. “The kids know Ms. Keough. And I think across the district, people know, not only who Colleen Keough is, but that Colleen Keough is a Hamilton Husky. And will probably be for the rest of her career.”

he union is hard at work supporting endorsed candidates and retiree activism is leading the way. Political action topped the agenda at the October NYSUT Retiree Contiguous ED 51–53 At-Large meeting in Albany — including a visit from the union’s Common Ground Over Chaos campaign bus.

There’s a lot of work to be done in New York because we are a battleground state for the control of Congress, said Florence McCue, ED 51–53 at-large director. She thanked participants for local phone banking and door knocking efforts. “Legislators know that retirees are out there, and they appreciate it … we influence a lot of legislation by doing that.”

Ron Gross, NYSUT second vice president, also thanked attendees for their activism and discussed the inaugural celebration of Retiree Recognition Day on Oct. 21.

5 Questions for Esther Hernandez-Kramer

You’re Farmingdale Federation of Teacher’s third vice president, but you’re also its political action chair and NYSUT’s Nassau County Political Action Chair for Senate District 8. With a presidential election on the horizon, how are you getting out the vote and spreading the word about union endorsements?
We do phone banks, canvassing and we send out texts on behalf of endorsed candidates and about important issues. Here on Long Island, we’re very focused on winning Congressional races. We’ve also been going on lots of labor walks with other area unions, through the Long Island Federation of Labor, and speaking with members.

What do labor walks entail?
We go out into local neighborhoods, knock on doors and talk to members about issues and candidates. Meeting people face-to-face and having friendly conversations with them is the best way to find common ground and get people to think about who and what they support. Conversations like that have a chance of changing someone’s mind as opposed to just posting something online.

ou can work after retirement and still receive your New York State and Local System pension, but there may be a limit on how much you can earn.

Returning to work for a public employer in NYS

In order to retire, a member must have a bonafide termination of employment and be removed from the payroll of their employer before their date of retirement. Whether a termination has occurred is based on whether facts indicate that the employer and employee reasonably anticipated that no further services would be performed after the retirement date.

When earnings are limited

If you return to work for a public employer in New York state, an earnings limit of $35,000 generally applies to retirees who are under age 65.^* The limit applies to all earnings for the calendar year, including money earned in the calendar year, but paid in a different calendar year.

No, it doesn’t. Resignation is between you and your employer; retirement is between you and the New York State Teachers’ Retirement System. Since you can’t be on payroll and be retired, you must resign before retiring.

Additionally, for NYSTRS purposes, your resignation date must be at least one day after your effective retirement date. For example, if your last working day is June 30, your earliest retirement day would be July 1.

Schedule a consultation with your human resource or business office, or with your local union representative, to determine your district’s retirement policy.