Throughout the summer the entire world had been hearing that UFT Solidarity was to have a rally in front of Superintendent Aimee Horowitz's office in Staten Island this past Wednesday, August 26. The world was ready.Just an aside, Aimee Horowitz is High School Superintendent for Staten Island and Superintendent for the Renewal Schools. Aimee has also been in the news recently for several of her schools fixing grades and her ignoring the warning signs and the whistle blowers.
Now back to the fun.
So all summer as mankind was awaiting the hordes of humanity emerging on 715 Ocean Terrace in Staten Island so that Aimee Horowitz would quake in fear of the Movement that is UFT Solidarity we here at SBSB awaited with bated breath for that day.
Sadly, I was in Lake George but news travels up I-87.
UFT Solidarity had planned not to have the rally in front of the campus of the Michael J. Petrides School on the sidewalk, but rather in front of the building itself. On the property.
The DOE put the kibosh on that and rightly so.
Your request for a permit to hold a demonstration at the Michael J. Petrides School has been reviewed and is denied. Chancellor’s Regulation D-180 does not authorize the issuance of a permit for such purposes.
Sylvia Jamison
Supervisor of Extended Use
New York City Department of Education
52 Chambers Street New York, NY 10007
212-374-6009
sjamison@schools.nyc.gov
Hmmm, Chancellor's reg D-180.
Someone from UFT Solidarity wrote back. Can't say who, but someone did.
Good afternoon Ms. Sylvia,
I’m in receipt of your email in which you notify me
that our request for a permit to meet at the Petrides complex is denied.
We read through CR D-180 and do not see how having an open civic
meeting, to voice our objections on how Aimee Horowitz has been running
her schools, is being denied.
Civic meetings/forums, as long as they don’t discriminate,
and are open should not be denied according to section I.F and I.H if
D-180.
In any case, we will continue with this civic gathering outside of the complex, on Ocean Terrace, on August 26th.http://www.uftsolidarity.org/
We are however appealing here to General Council Jackson-Chase. Our request is being unreasonably denied.
Thank you.
Just an aside. Shouldn't the woman be addressed as Ms Jamison, not Ms Sylvia? Are we living in 1962 Mississippi?
But UFT Solidarity thinks it made a case. We wondered that too so we decided to have The Crack Team's legal intern, Zippy the Brain Damaged Chimp examine D-180 and with a focus on I.F. and I.H. Here are the two lines in question;
Permits may be granted for civic forums and community centers in accordance with applicable law.Zippy says;
Permits may be granted for holding social, civic, and recreational meetings and entertainment, and other uses pertaining to the welfare of the community. All such uses shall be non - exclusive and open to the general public.
"UFT Solidarity is not a community nor civic organization. UFT Solidarity does not represent the citizens. While it does have CITIZENS amongst its ranks, it is not representative of the community as a whole. Its focus is narrow and for a select few. UFT Solidarity is not open nor is it inclusive to the entire community. It is also not recreational in nature. It is amazing that UFT Solidarity can't get past their own self worth to see this!"Zippy also added;
"However, UFT Solidarity should have attempted to try selling itself as an entertainment act. Their argument might have met with success."So what became of this rally? As you can see in the photo, it set the world on fire (Again, identities were obscured by a photo of Tommy Lee of Mötley Crüe. We apologize to Mr Lee.
Seven people! Horowitz must have been cowering under her desk.
Yes, UFT Solidarity is a movement. A bowel movement.
Warm puppy shit.
ReplyDeleteQuite the turn-out! Homeric, really. I am sure Horowitz will change her evil ways and we can all sleep better knowing UFT Solidarity was on the case.
ReplyDeleteHoly Shit! Porto managed to get 7 people to this massive rally? Impressive work after a year of pushing Solidarity in everyone's faces. He should do well in the UFT elections.
ReplyDeleteI guess I am kind of out of the loop on this. Why do you rag so hard on Portellos? He seems like he would be a good thorn in the side of the UFT if his caucus got off the ground. What is the alternative in the next UFT election? MORE seems like a good choice but I am not a big fan of their social justice theme. Please fill me in as anything has got to be better than the UNITY machine in place now.
ReplyDeleteOh man all that work at Disney Land for this!
ReplyDeleteI've been fairly quiet on this issue though I have a post going up on ed notes about these kinds of rallies -- and the reluctance of MORE to hold such events is one of the dividing points. Portelos has alienated pretty much everyone who has been in the opposition and beyond including pretty much every major education blogger in the city, including me, who was once his major supporter. I won't go into details at this time - a total lack of trust is the essence. People like you not close to the situation just don't know the half of it. Other than Peter, they don't blog about him for a variety of reasons but may at some point as the election gets closer. There will never be a joint slate with Portelos - Solidarity declared him as presidential candidate and this is not acceptable. ICE unanimously rejected him and Solidarity at a June 29 meeting. No one in MORE wants anything to do with him - he sends taunting emails every day to different people and badgers the MORE steering committee regularly. Beyond anything else bizarre behavior makes people roll their eyes and thank god he has left - By doing what he did he divided what potentially was a united opposition. Who benefits? Unity Caucus and they are happy Solidarity exists and he us running to divide the opposition. After meeting with Randi last year, it is she who benefits the most. That some people in Solidarity have put their trust in someone so many people mistrust makes people question their judgement and the judgment of the group as a whole - a major problem in the UFT over 60 years has been the cult of personality. Solidarity never ran for anything before - go out and prove they people to get on the ballot and get a serious amount of votes. Why should established groups like MORE who did hard work building themselves over years give up their own people who want to run for president? If you want to challenge Unity work with MORE - it is as democratic as possible - and if you have issues with aspects of social justice make them known specifically. In fact why not share exactly what MORE says regarding SJ bothers you or is it just using the words SJ? In fact I and others had issues a year ago with the way SJ was being presented and didn't leave MORE but worked to make sure broad based issues were addressed without sacrificing core beliefs -- which include building a movement to challenge the attacks on teachers and public schools by building allies in communities. If you don't think that is important then I suggest you go with Solidarity.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your input. I teach upstate and have been following what's going on in the NYC caucuses for a while. I was wondering what happened to Solidarity.
DeleteHe should have remained in his hammock. His next rally: at Peter's house to protest this blog.
ReplyDeleteMore than welcomed to come to Westchester and protest. Milk and cookies will be served.
DeleteIt's all about Portelos. If he can't be the only deciding factor in MORE he takes his ball and goes home. Then he crawls back and asks them to support him for president when it should be the other way round.
ReplyDeleteHis put down of James Eterno really turned me off! How could he think he was better qualified to run for President than James??? Really and he compared himself to manager who could run a 5 star restaurant and James was just a lowly chef. What a great sense of self he has of himself. Too bad most people have discovered he is fake! By the time this school year is finished he will be lucky if he can get a job as a fast food clerk in McDonalds.
ReplyDeleteI don't think he will be a fast food clerk at McDonalds....but if he remains in the the DOE he will float around Staten Island for the rest of his career....no Principal will touch him...his pariah designation is permanent.
ReplyDeleteThis guy has gotten the UFT, DOE and MORE all to agree that no one wants him on their team!
ReplyDeleteI guess I was really not too happy a while back with MORE getting involved in the Garner/NYPD march. Back then, MORE was all about getting involved in fighting racist cops, police brutality, etc. My opinion is that the UFT or teacher unions in general should not be involved in those type of activities. My concern right now is that teacher unions fight for teacher rights in regard to our contract. I am glad that MORE has stepped away from marches and that type of rhetoric. I don't know much about Portellos personally other than the fact that the DOE hates him and that he won his 3020A case and exposed a lot of corruption in the DOE. I was not aware of how many bridges Portellos has burned in regard to other caucuses. If nothing else, anti-Unity caucuses should stick together. It is a shame that Solidarity does not want to make any alliances as wining the next UFT election is all about being a numbers game. (Oh yes, please be aware that I did support Julie and voted the MORE slate during the last election) Maybe a debate among MORE/NEW ACTION/SOLIDARITY would be a good idea in the near future.
ReplyDelete^^^ Nice try. Now where have I heard that debate idea before. Hmmm, I think from Solidarity.
ReplyDelete