NYC Educators, There is a group of educators in NYC like no other.It advocates for UFT members better than the UFT itself.It educates members and arms them with tools as well as stands with those under attack from the school administration, to the DOE headquarters to Albany. The list of… Continue reading
“…remember the names of the lions at the main library: Patience and Fortitude. There is a terrible urge to lash out wildly in protest of injustice. Resist the urge. The battle must be won in the courts, but cases must be legally sound.” Continue reading
Principal orders classroom locks of whistleblower to be changed during state test. Continue reading
They say “Choose your battles wisely.“ I say “Leave no necessarybattle unfought!“ I’m re-posting the article I wrote pertaining tothe complaint I filed against the UFT for unfair representation. I have included the letter from PERB below. It states it has been scheduled for a conference before an Administrative Law… Continue reading
They say “Choose your battles wisely.”
I say “Leave no necessary battle unfought!” Continue reading
With a budget of over $25 billion, an employee roster of over 136,000 and over 1,400 buildings to manage, there is plenty of room for theft and corruption at the New York City Department of Education. Continue reading
[UPDATE: The below post is the original from November 2014. The only difference is the letter from the UFT Grievance Department indicating they will not be representing this case in arbitration. It’s located at the bottom of the article. It took exactly 130 days to decide.] Below you will hear… Continue reading
I’m just past the three-year mark from when my fight began. By “fight” I mean I raised real concerns about public education, the Department of Education came after my career, in an attempt to cover up their misconduct, and… I “fought” back. I must have hit some of these DOE employees back prettyhard, because they suddenly forgoteverything! Continue reading
Let’s get something straight here.
The growing Opt Out movement against testing isn’t about teacher created tests. 60,000 students in NYS didn’t opt out of a pop quiz on the American Revolution last year. Continue reading
According to the UFT-DOE Agreement, an employee is supposed to have only one official file. I seem to have several unofficial ones. Grievance time. Continue reading
One of thereasons this blog even exists is because of the concerns I raised at the IS 49 School Leadership Team (SLT) meetings. Yesterday, January 7, 2014 NYC Public Advocate Letitia James and Class Size Matters filed papers to intervene in a lawsuit Thomas v City of NY. Michael… Continue reading
“Please be advised that since Francesco Portelos requests emails that have the word “Portelos” between us, we will all start using the acronym FP instead. Thank you.” Continue reading
I reached out to New Action caucus to try for a bipartisan push against the DOE and UFT and possibly help these over 800 terminated teachers. The reaction from some MORE members was ridiculous. “No New Action!” Continue reading
A quick recap of the summer and an email for a new position I was assigned by the DOE. Ambassador Teacher on Rotation. Excited to get back to school. Continue reading
The Online Occurrence Reporting System (OORS) is what is used to keep track of all incidents that occur in or around a NYC DOE school. At one point, the school I tried to improve had 1,283 incidents in 180 days. That is an average of 7.12 incidents a day or roughly an incident a period. Continue reading
Seriously… Is it not Read Below. Over a year ago I FOILed the number of probationary (nontenured) teachers discontinued in the NYC DOE inthelast two years. I know, I could have just asked the UFT, but they wouldn’t give usthe info. In fact, when I asked for thenumber ofreassigned teachers,… Continue reading
Well I’ll tell you that I am very curious to know the background of who is hired for these positions that I was not qualified for. A new teacher right out of college Someone with a Common Branch license and no science or technology experience Only one way to find out…. Continue reading
In Part 1 I shared all the charges against me that were dismissed by thearbitrator from my termination hearing. Those did not include the over 25 allegations and investigations against me that were unsubstantiated. Do not mistake investigations with charges. All in all, with investigations and charges, the Department of Education has taken over 50 shots at my career and missed. Thanks TENURE!!
Now for some of the charges that were sustained by Arbitrator Felice Busto. Continue reading
Again, I spoke up on issues of PUBLIC CONCERN and had I not been tenured, I would have been fired. Continue reading
If you do some research on the actual construction of the Tweed Courthouse, you will find that it was actually built on theback of corruption. It was built using funds provided by the corruptWilliam M. “Boss” Tweed, whoseTammany Hallpolitical machinecontrolled the city and state governments at the time.Tweed became one… Continue reading
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