President's Notes by Tomia Smith (June, 2007)

On May 17th, the Massapequa Board of Education hosted its Annual Tenure and Retiree Reception. It is a time for our retirees and our teachers who are receiving tenure to be recognized. I was fortunate enough to attend this reception and enjoyed wishing our members well who were moving on to their next adventure and meeting those who are still so young to the profession.

One newly tenured teacher in particular I am unable to forget. When we were first introduced, I was greeted with a friendly smile and handshake; as our conversation led to the fact that I am president of the MFT, her smile quickly faded and the conversation abruptly came to a halt. I was taken aback at first, wondering how I offended her, but soon I realized it had more to do with my position than with me.

Unfortunately, there are other members who share this negative view of unions in general. We could look to fault anti-union organizations and politicians who like to blame unions for all the perceived ills in public education. Of course we have a few choice administrators to add to the list and there is always the media. But we also know that we must look within our own union and at how we educate our members of what their union is about if we wish to truly understand why some of our members see their union in such a negative light.

The Faculty Room

Representative Assembly

Here is a snap shot of what was approved at this year's RA...

• push for reform and funding of the NCLB Act
• insist on support of non-tested subject areas such as health, physical education, and family and consumer sciences
• bring attention to class size, especially those classes dealing with special needs children within the general education setting
• deal with health and safety of our members and students, not just from hazardous materials, but from administrative bullying and hostile working environments
• help to protect and enhance our pensions and retirements, which are under attack locally and nationally
• push to protect the very tenure that many were granted May 17th
• push for permanent COLA improvement
• protect seniority rights
• push for diversity training for teachers as part of certification
• push for improvement in the Taylor Law to limit a district's ability to drag out negotiations
• push for approval of Tiers II, III and IV to retire at 55 with 25 years of service
• hope to stop administration and parents from excusing teachers' attendance to CSE meetings for our neediest students
• push to enact a permanent health insurance moratorium to protect retirees from unilateral reductions of health benefits

The work that is done at the RA helps to ensure that New York's public education system continues to be one of the most desirable in the country. There is often a misconception that teachers' unions hurt public education; however, it is evident that where there is a strong union presence, the children are afforded the optimum setting in which to learn.

Local 1442

Looking closer to home, it is unfortunate that many members only hear of "issues" that the MFT addresses. Many of our members are not aware that the MFT works to improve the relationship between our members and administration while continuing to safeguard the rights allowed us under our agreed upon contract and those rights of all public employees. Few members know that the executive board is involved in researching changes in mandates, state policies, and current state and national educational trends.

The Union

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