Congratulations Kerri

Last night, our own Kerri Anderson was elected to the Mt. Sinai Board of Ed, receiving the most votes of the five candidates vying for two positions:

Kerri Anderson (733)
Lynn Jordan (726)
Anthony DiPaola (584)
Michael McGuire (387)
Robert McGrath (220)

Kerri’s victory is not just great news for her and for us, but is another positive indicator of how the tide is changing in favor of teachers and public education. Running as a teacher on a platform that included pushing the district to “enrich its academic programs to ‘meet the needs of all students.’ and advocating additional autonomy and flexibility for teachers,” she garnered nearly twice as many votes as one of her opponents whose goal was to save money, in part by looking at teacher contracts, “a major part of the budget.”

Please join us in congratulating Kerri. She will no doubt serve the Mt. Sinai community with the same dedication, passion, and excellence that she has been providing to our students.

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SWRTA Says: Protect Public Edcuation

It was great to see so many SWTRA members showing off their new “Protect Public Education” T-shirts yesterday.

BOE Endorsements

Please remember to go out and vote in the school budget vote / BOE elections on Tuesday, May 17th.

The following are the 2016 Board of Education Endorsements by Local

Suffolk County

Babylon TA:  Dave Sonkin, Elizabeth Altbacker (Incumbent)

Bayport-Blue Point TA:  Katherine Heinlein (Write-In column 1), Molly  Licalzi (Write-In column 2), Brian Johnson (Elect column 3 )

Bellport TA/South Country:  Cheryl Felice, Dr. Anthony Griffin, Carol Hermann (Incumbent)

Central Islip TA:  Dan Devine (Incumbent), Glenn Mitchell

Connetquot TA:  Robert  Grable

Huntington:  Bari Fehrs, Bill Dwyer

Islip TA:  Russell  Dietz, Danielle Flora

Kings Park CTA:  Pam DeFord (Incumbent), Dan Tew

Middle Country TA:  Robert  Feeney, Kris Oliva, Dawn Sharrock

Middle Island TA/Longwood:  David W. Pfister, Philip Reany, Jr.

Mt. Sinai TA:  Anthony  DiPaola (Two Board seats and three endorsements in Mt. Sinai.), Kerri Anderson (NYSUT Member), Lynn Jordan (Incumbent)

Patchogue-Medford CT:  Thomas P. Donofrio, Teresa A. Baldinucci

Port Jefferson Station TA:  Fran Alabau-Blatter, Rob DeStefano

Riverhead CFA:  Chris Door (Incumbent), Amelia Lantz (Incumbent), Tom Kruger

Rocky Point TA:  Susan Sullivan (Incumbent)

Sayville TA:  Maureen Dolan (Incumbent), Norman deVeneau (Incumbent)

Smithtown TA:  Mike Saidans, Dan Lynch

Three Village TA:  Jonathatn Kornreich, Angelique Ragolia

West Babylon TA:  Dennis Kranz, Pete Scarlatos, Diane Klein

 

 

 

Nassau Districts

Baldwin TA:  Joel Press

Farmingdale FT:  Michael Goldberg, Suzanne D’Amico

Levittown UT:  Peggy Marenghi, James Moran, Christina Lang

Locust Valley SEA:  Lissa Harris

Long Beach CTA:  Perry Bodnar

Massapequa FT:  Tim Taylor

North Merrick FA:  Paul  Leavin, Jennifer Hyland

Plainedge FT:  Maryanne Karageorges

Roosevelt TA:  Glenda Sanchez

Wantagh UT:  Kera McLoughlin, Peter Mountanos

West Hempstead:  Karen Brohm, Patricia  Greaves

Westbury TA:  Rodney Caines, Leslie Davis, Lauar Pierce

Verizon Rally in Patchogue

Teachers from SWRTA and a number of other locals joined with striking CWA and IBEW workers at a rally in Patchogue today.  Thanks to everyone who came out. One more way you can show your support is by contributing to the Verizon Striking Families Solidarity Fund.

Decision in the Lederman Case

A decision was announced in the Sheri Lederman case today, with State Supreme Court Justice Roger McDonough finding that Ms. Lederman’s rating was, as she claimed, “arbitrary and capricious.”

While this is not the slam-dunk we were hoping for (which would have been a ruling that would invalidate the use of value-added measures to evaluate teachers) it’s still great news. The ruling applies only to Lederman’s rating, with the judge stating that “he could not rule beyond the individual case . . . because regulations around the evaluation system have been changed,” but it sets an important precedent.

Bruce Lederman, Sheri’s husband/lawyer, said he believes this is the first time that a teacher’s evaluation has been overturned by a court, and says “The decision should qualify as persuasive authority for other teachers challenging growth scores throughout the country.” Additionally it provides great evidence for lobbying efforts to eliminate the use of value-added measures, something especially important as the Regents and NYSED begin their work to explore the way tests are being used for evaluations.

For more, see Carol Burris’ piece in the Washington Post.