Call to Action: Contact DOE Chancellor and his liaison about failures in rolling out TRS trustee election process
Most teachers and school principals STILL don’t know there is an important TRS trustee election on Wednesday — and, now, also held on Thursday according to DOE ‘hidden’ memo.
There is supposed to be an election in schools this Wednesday for the TRS pension board election. The big problem is that an overwhelming amount of teachers and principals/school administrators have received little to no notification about the election process that the DOE is proposing.
There was a backdated memo released on the DOE backend web pages that reportedly some superintendents received on Thursday morning. And the DOE posted a blurb about their proposed process on its back room intranet, called InfoHub, seemingly late Friday, after most teachers went home for the day. Yet, again, to this date teachers and other TRS members will tell you that no direct email or notification has come from the DOE or their principals about the election, the candidates or its process.
The matter is further complicated since the DOE’s proposed process for this week’s election contradicts the process outlined in the law that spells out what the process must look like.
Call to Action
🚨 Most of the active teachers have little to no details about the election process for this Wednesday’s election for teacher-member for our TRS pension board.
We need to email the chancellor and his liason about this!
Here are their emails:
Rodi Katherine - KRodi@schools.nyc.gov
DOE Chancellor David C. Banks- NYCChancellor@schools.nyc.gov
CUNY Chancellor Felix V. Matos - Chancellorcommunications@cuny.edu
cc:
Michael Mulgrew, UFT President - mmulgrew@uft.org
Beth Norton, UFT legal counsel - bnorton@uft.org
Elizabeth Vladek, DOE legal counsel - evladek@schools.nyc.org
Jumaane Williams, NYC Public Advocate - gethelp@advocate.nyc.gov
Find a sample email template you can tweak to email them.
———
Esteemed,
My name is (name) and I am working at (your school). I have been working for the NYCPS since ….
I’d like to know how TRS members will be able to have their voices heard in the first election in over thirty years for TRS teacher member trustee. I understand the vote has been extended to May 9th. Who is responsible for making sure that all members of TRS get an opportunity to vote? Why are so many of us not aware of this election and its details? Why are so many principals and administrators also unaware of the details and their roles in conducting this process?
Lastly, will the proposed election process comply with the law — namely city Admin code 13-507?
Our pensions are an important conversation for all of us. This election should provide spaces for this discussion. Also, it’s important that the process is done properly or it can adversely affect the taxpayers as well.
Please let us know as soon as possible.
Name
Below, find the DOE memo that has not been effectively communicated to the voting TRS members. Adding to the chaos, the UFT leadership sent out an email, yesterday, sharing election process details that don’t exactly align with the DOE’s proposed plans. It’s leading to more confusion and questions.
There are reports that the UFT and the Ben Morgenroth campaign have brought the issue to the DOE and, separately, have filed formal complaints.
This is the city admin code that it contradicts in many of its proposed steps:
https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/newyorkcity/latest/NYCadmin/0-0-0-22363