UPDATED: Malcolm Smith founded charter school fires UFT teachers- Mulgrew threatens law suit

UPDATED: Wed. July 21, 2010, 9:45PM

UFT calls press conference at 52 Broadway, Thurs. July 22 1pm
Word is they will go to court. Which court? Or PERB (probably not as that is for public employees). Maybe NLRB- isn't that controlled by pro-charter Obama administration that is so anti union teacher?

How will this story play out in local and national charter schools the UFT and AFT is trying to organize? Should teachers in charter schools look for a union with muscle to organize them?

Will the UFT follow Randi's advice and FIGHT SMART?
Or as they say in France: nous nous rendons

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July 21, 9am
Since the UFT has made organizing charter schools a lynch pin of their policy, what message does this send? The UFT should have been out there supporting our friends from Rochester who came down to protest against Smith on July 5 over mayoral control. Oh, I forgot. The UFT supports mayoral control. And charter schools.

I made note of this excerpt from Chicago CTU/CORE delegate Jen Johnson in her must read report to Substance on the AFT convention:

"Generally speaking, the New York delegation represented organizing charters as the best model for handling their role in reshaping unions, despite the fact that according to many reports few charter schools in New York have been organized as is the case in Chicago. This logic is the same touted by the Progressive Caucus of the AFT. The few that have been organized are a part of the UFT local though they have separate contracts negotiated with the help of UFT. The Chicago delegation reflection the mindset that allowing new charters to continue to proliferate while attempting to organize existing charters is an end game in which public schools and the union lose."

And ask your friendly Unity/UFT rep what Mulgrew is doing about this:

Teachers at PS 222 in Queens say their principal excessed seven of them but is still hiring. (NY1)


Merrick Academy workers get boot via FedEx amid contract dispute between school, union

BY CLARE TRAPASSO
DAILY NEWS WRITER
Wednesday, July 21st 2010, 4:00 AM

Pace for News

Merrick Academy fires nine staffers amid bitter contract dispute.

Some of the Merrick Academy staffers who got the boot are chalking it up to a bitter contract dispute between the school and unionized teachers.A scandal-plagued Queens charter school fired at least nine teachers Tuesday - via FedEx, union officials said.

"If the board of the Merrick charter school is firing teachers because of union activity, then we're going to take all legal action against them," said United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew.

Teachers at the Queens Village school voted to unionize in 2008 but they haven't reached a contract with Victory Schools, which operates the charter.

Ge rald Karikari, chairman of Merrick's Board of Trustees, would not say how many teachers were fired and denied the layoffs were retaliatory. "At the end of the year, every teacher is evaluated on the way they performed," he said.

Kindergarten teacher Marjorie Berry, 60, one of the fired teachers, isn't buying it. "I was upset, because I put my heart and soul into these children and into the school," said Berry, who has taught at the school since it opened. "I just feel like I've been pushed aside like a piece of garbage."

Federal prosecutors have subpoenaed documents from a politically connected architect who helped design Merrick's school building in an ongoing corruption probe of several Queens politicians, including Merrick founders Senate President Malcolm Smith and U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2010/07/21/2010-07-21_disunion_as_9_teachers_fired.html#ixzz0uK5z1btw

Rochester Crew Was In the House

We met a great bunch of resistance fighters from Rochester today who made the long trip down to rally in front of Malcolm Smith's offices in Queens and Manhattan because of his attempt to get the NY State Senate to shove mayoral control down their throats. I won't go into Smith's history here - search Ed Notes and The Wave (www.rockawave.com) to find all the sordid details. You see Smith's picture when you look up "conflict of interest" in the dictionary. The Daily News sent a reporter.

James and Camille Eterno (and baby) came by to make a statement as did GEM's Diane Smith. I took some video which I will try to work on during the long plane ride to Seattle. (Big question- should I do convention stuff Thurs night or go see the Yankees?)

Some of the Manhattan parents showed up later (I didn't make that event) and here is a statement by Richard B:

I stood with the folks from Rochester in front of Malcolm Smith's 250 Broadway office today. NY 1 and WNYC radio were there. I pointed out when it was my turn that as unhappy as those of us here in NYC are about the fact that the Legislature essentially renewed mayoral control for NYC with only minor changes, over our objections, there is a level of outrageousness present in the Rochester situation which was not present in our situation, in that a legislator from another city (Smith) is attempting to get mayoral control established for Rochester EVEN THOUGH the city's own senators oppose it.

As Patrick Sullivan wrote in a post yesterday, we really ought to demand that our own senators refuse to go along with dictating to Rochester how its own school system should be governed.
RB

WAVE Editorial Calls for Investigation of Malcolm Smith

Flake, Smith - The crew in this piece are all up to their ears in charter schools. Below the editorial, see a list of powerful articles by Wave editor Howard Schwach. Or go to then Wave web site and search the archives (www.rockawave.com). If not for this corrupt political system, they all - and I include many Tweedies here - would be taken out with coats over their heads. Anyone have a teabag to lend me?

Published February 5, 2010 (www.rockawave.com)

It’s Time For An Investigation

There have been many disquieting stories about State Senator Malcolm Smith, who serves as both the Senate’s President and our representative to the legislative body.

Any one of the stories, taken alone, should be enough to spark a state ethics investigation. Taken together, they reveal a picture of greed and unethical behavior that surely should trigger an investigation. However, our state ethics laws are so skewered toward protecting the wrongdoers, that such an investigation is anything but certain.

Just two weeks ago, Smith’s earmark of $100,000 for the Peninsula Preparatory Academy, a charter school he founded and to which he maintains strong ties, came into question, as did his push to pass a state law that would allow double the number of charter schools in New York City.

Tied to those questions is the growing belief that Beach Channel High School is being closed primarily to clear the room for another Smith-founded charter school, this one a high school to accommodate his PPA students once they graduate from the middle school.

On the heels of those questions came allegations from a national group that recently filed a state ethics charge against Smith in connection with a non-profit organization that he and Congressman Gregory Meeks founded in 2001.

Two of the original board members for that non-profit were Smith’s wife and the wife of a former business partner, Darryl Green, who had been convicted in 2004 of stealing money from those who purchased his expertise about minority hiring. Green is also a partner with former Congressman Floyd Flake in the Aqueduct Entertainment Group, which was just awarded a multi-million dollar contract from the Senate and the Governor to run a gambling Racino at Aqueduct Racetrack.

Smith worked for Flake and remains a close friend. In addition, Smith, Meeks and City Councilman James Sanders Jr. brokered a deal that required the developer of a huge cargo facility on Rockaway Turnpike to provide $250,000 for community development in southeastern Queens. That money was given to the non-profit started by Smith and Meeks, reportedly on Smith’s “suggestion.” Records show the money going in, but little coming back to the community.

The Aqueduct deal also raises red flags because the Flake group was not the highest bidder. In fact, all three incidents raise red flags and indicate that an investigation is due and due soon.


More articles:
Senator Malcolm Smith’s Mentor Wins Aqueduct Racino Bid Paterson Pulls Winning Lever For Flake

WAVE Editor Howard on State Senator Malcolm Smith's Ties to For Profit Victory Charter School and its $750,000 Slice of Public Money

Howie Schwach: It's All About Charters And Breaking The UFT

The DOE says that Victory Schools is paid by PPA through fundraising, but I am willing to bet that Victory Schools is being paid by taxpayer dollars funded by Malcolm Smith and his cohorts in the State Senate.