GNTA
  • GNTA
    • Mission Statement
    • Executive Board
    • Delegate Assembly
    • BRC, BCG, & SDM
    • Staff
    • Benefit Trust Fund
    • Affiliates
    • Constitution & Bylaws
  • Information
    • GNTA Calendar 2022-23
    • District Calendar 2022-23
    • APPR
    • Pregnancy FAQs
    • Contact Form
    • Elections
    • Forms
    • Retirement
    • TAC Guidelines
    • Summer Scholarship
    • Teacher Center
    • Inservice
    • Tutoring Directory
    • Links
    • History >
      • 75 Years Strong
      • Video: A History of GNTA
  • New Members
  • Get Involved!
    • LAP
    • Political Action >
      • Talk Back-Fight Back
    • Social Justice
    • Social Outreach
  • News Blog
  • New Page

Delegate's Report: Sheila Henchy

5/5/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
Seven GNTA members, selected as delegates by our membership in 2014, attended the NYSUT 44th Annual Representative Assembly in Rochester from April 8-9. This yearly convention of almost 2,000 members is NYSUT’s highest policy-making body. Here's what our delegates have to say:

SHEILA HENCHY
GNTA President

Every NYSUT Representative Assembly closes with the hundreds of delegates joining hands and singing the old union song “Solidarity Forever.” I unabashedly love that moment, and this year’s rendition was especially poignant for me, since it was my sixteenth and final RA.
 
NYSUT President Karen Magee gave her “state of the union” address on Friday night; her theme was “What a Difference a Year Makes.” She highlighted the many positive changes we’ve seen in the past year: a new Commissioner of Education; the SED firing of the test-maker Pearson; a moratorium on using test scores to evaluate teachers; a major change in the make-up of the Board of Regents; a new, far more teacher-friendly Chancellor of the Regents...to name just a few. Many of those changes are a result of lobbying efforts on the part of NYSUT, but those efforts would not have borne fruit if not for the grassroots activism of teachers on the local level in partnership with parents. Think of all the rallies we’ve attended...the letters we’ve written...the faxes we’ve sent...our children whom we’ve opted out. Thank you for everything you’ve done to heed NYSUT’s call to action for the last few years. Your activism is making a difference. We still have much work ahead of us, but we’ve certainly learned this: NYSUT is US.
 
Some of our members fear that our strength locally is compromised when we are politically active in state or national affairs. I would argue that there’s little distinction. Everything is political. Our Annual Professional Performance Reviews are dictated in large part by state laws and State Education Department regulations. Our budget-and thus our ability to negotiate fair contracts-is affected by the state tax cap. Our curriculum is influenced by the national Common Core. We can’t afford to sit back and leave it to others to fight against laws, regulations, and policies that harm our profession. NYSUT has 600,000+ members, but we’re only 600,000 STRONG if we raise our voices as one.
 
We have many challenges ahead. We will need to work hard to defeat the call in 2017 for a Constitutional Convention in New York that could compromise our pension rights...to fight the next Supreme Court challenge to our collective bargaining rights...to push our legislature to make changes to the tax cap law that will make it more viable for school districts. NYSUT will lead those fights, but make no mistake: NYSUT only succeeds when GNTA, together with all the other locals, uses our collective strength for action.
 
Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for the many times you’ve elected me to represent you as a NYSUT delegate. I’ve been incredibly proud to identify myself as a GNTA member. I have one wish for all of you: that you’ll keep in mind-and put into action-the words of the song: “Solidarity forever, for the union makes us strong!”

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    October 2022
    September 2022
    March 2021
    December 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    June 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    November 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012

    Categories

    All
    Accolades
    Affiliates
    AFT
    Board Of Education
    Bylaws & Constitution
    Community
    Contract News
    Curriculum
    Defensive Driving
    Education News
    Elections
    Financial Aid Fund
    GNPS Budget
    Healthcare
    Inservice
    Legal Services
    Member Benefits
    Mentoring
    New Members
    Newsletter
    NYSUT
    Organizing
    Political Action
    President's Report
    Required Reading
    Resources
    Retirement
    Scholarships
    Selection Committees
    Social
    Summer Scholarships

    RSS Feed

Great Neck Teachers Association
NYSUT, AFT-NEA, AFL-CIO #2686 | The Cottage • 343 Lakeville Road • Great Neck, NY 11020 
gnteachers@gmail.com | @GNTeachers
(516) 829-9070