Paul Egan Misuses UFT Issued Equipment

I went into the deli this morning to get breakfast and there right in front of me was the headline on today's Daily News about a sex scandal that has roiled the UFT. And sadly I was not surprised. Norm Scott had a feeling something was up earlier last week. Little did he know that wasn't the only thing "up."

Paul Egan, the UFT's political leader and director of chapter something or other who had been being paid over $190k a year was fired for using UFT issued cell phones and computers to sext and presumably other stuff with his a female UFT lawyer who according to the Daily News is a subordinate.

Frankly I do not care who he was banging. I don't care whether or not Egan or his babe have spouses. Yes, there are issues being involved with a subordinate, but what happens between two consenting adults is their business.

What I do take umbrage with his using dues monies to text photos of his junk using phones and computers paid for by the rank and file. Again, be as filthy and naughty as you want. Just use your cell and your computer.

I take offense that this man is paid, according to the Daily News...

...a salary of $192,102 in 2018 plus $25,757 in expenses, according to union filing

And what did he do to earn such a top flight salary within the UFT? I guess it all started when he was a teacher at PS 113 in the Bronx and he told he 7th graders before a standardized test to sharpen their pencils and just by an amazing coincidence the answers for the first 11 questions were next to the sharpener! And then to be sure to cover his tracks his brain kicked into high gear and blabbered to the students...

“Don’t tell anyone that I helped you or you’ll be the ones who get into trouble.”

Hey, we're all allowed our Homer Simpson moments, right? Why would the UFT hire such a person?

I am wondering about this incident that Egan was involved in...

...his next brush with notoriety occurred in an alcohol-fueled banquet at Albany’s posh Marché bistro in 2011. Big-eater Egan got rowdy while ringing up nearly $2,000 on dinner and drinks at the posh restaurant, which is now closed.

Why did Egan get upset?  He whined that the portions of his prix fixe meal were too small. This was his complaint. So big deal? When you leave, find a Burger King and have a post dinner Whopper. Heck, have a Double Whopper.

The main course of his meal was quail. WTF?? Who eats quail? I guess that is something one eats when you aren't the one paying for it. Why some fancy joint? There is not a IHOP, Denny's, TGIF, on Wolf Rd in Albany where the UFT can dine. Egan looks like a pancake guy. IHOP routinely has all you can eat pancakes.

Why oh why on the day this comes out that the UFT is spending thousands of dollars for a Functional Chapter retreat at the Hilton in Rye Brook NY? Would it not be more cost effective to have such a retreat or whatever it is be at 52 Broadway?

Bad optics. Almost no one at the UFT thinks steps ahead nor what the rank and file truly want.

It would have been nice for Mulgrew to have been quoted in the Daily News article about how appalled he is at the behavior of Paul Egan. I think that would have been good optics. But Mulgrew is rarely about the optics.

Worse, there will be members who will use this to discontinue paying their dues. Some statement by Mulgrew and transparency with this incident might help keep some who are thinking of leaving to stay.

It's Time the UFT Helps Displaced and Indigent Former and Retired Teachers

It never ever stops. That innate ability to teach. That special talent to reach young mind and souls through your own kind of magic. You never ever stop being a teacher. You never ever stop wanting to share your gifts. There are only two things that can stop you.

Dropping dead and the NYCDOE.

Back in 2017 we here at SBSB reported on a teacher that went through hell at his school PS XX with trumped charges that we see time and time again are systemic and the pain and suffering he went through facing the demons of the 3020-a. In March 2019 he is still hurting.

I was at the Meadowlands Fan Duel sports book this past Saturday evening (I bet $10 on the Phoenix Suns -2.5 over New Orleans. Suns won buy 2.) from Aaron Goldstein. He told me that yet again his old lady booted him out of the house as they were arguing over money and his lack of steady work. He was heading into the city to find a subway car to sleep in.

If I had been home or not out with friends I would have picked him up and he could've crashed at my place. But it also got me thinking. He should have some support. Support from his union.

Aaron is nearly destitute. He shouldn't be. If the UFT were smart, it would set up some type of job retraining, job something for teachers that have been discontinued or terminated. Something in which they can learn to transfer their teaching skills into the "real world." You could also add resume and interview skills and even a job bank in which other teaching positions in the charter, parochial, and private schools of NY/NJ/CT are listed. Heck, even give that newly out of work teacher a "career coach." I would donate to such a thing. Better spent for this instead of for COPE.

And what about teachers that are truly destitute? At least Aaron has a roof over his head and he's not eating cat food for dinner. I am sure there are former teachers that have it a lot worse than Aaron.

What a great story I read in yesterday's Daily News how EMS workers are helping keep alive the memory and the spirit of Yadira Arroyo...

...the Daily News launched a fund to help Arroyo’s five sons. EMS members were so inspired by the gesture that they decided to keep the good will going with their own campaign, according to Vincent Variale, president of the Uniformed EMS Officers Union, Local 3621. So two years ago, Arroyo’s colleagues launched the EMS FDNY Help Fund to assist needy families of EMS workers.

Better my money goes to something like this than to COPE.

Even Major League Baseball has the Baseball Assistance Team in which indigent former ballplayers are helped with a slew of arrangements that benefit them.

This can be funded very easily. Automatic donations from paychecks in lieu of donations to COPE. Instead of paying for 1,000 people or whatever at the Rye Hilton twice a year how about those monies go to help retired teachers? Maybe a couple of gold tournaments at Winged Foot (or Westchester Country Club?)or some silent auctions? Mulgrew could auction off his US Open seats.

But it's time. We here at SBSB call on the UFT to initiate this plan post haste. It's needed. Hurting teachers need it.

Forest Hills High School Up in Smoke

 Disclaimer: I promised someone no snarkiness nor silliness on this subject but it's late. Serious blog post about FHHS tomorrow.

It appears, according to the New York Post, that stoner principal Ben Sherman now has a baby sitter with him at Forest Hills High School.

So The Crack Team has been hard at work trying to find out what has been happening behind the scenes now with Sherman and his baby sitter. Today they struck gold.

We here at SBSB were blessed enough to hear audio between Sherman and his baby sitter as they discussed the marijuana scandal. Sadly the file format could not be saved as a link and we here at SBSB were forced to transcribe the conversation. 

Babysitter: Man, what is in this shit, man?
Principal Sherman: Mostly Maui Waui man, but it's got some Labrador in it.
Babysitter: What's Labrador?
Principal Sherman: It's dog shit.
Babysitter : What?
Principal Sherman: Yeah, my dog ate my stash, man.
Babysitter: Yeah?
Principal Sherman: I had it on the table and the little m**********r ate it, man. Then I had to follow him around with a little baggie for three days, man, before I got it back. Really blew the dog's mind, ya know?
Babysitter : You mean we're smokin' dog shit, man?
Principal Sherman: Gets ya high, don't it?

Principal Sherman: Uhhh, I wonder what Great Dane tastes like, man.
Babysitter : I think it's even better than before, you know?

What a weird and far out school.