MEMORANDUM

Memo To:   All Buffalo Teachers

From:         Philip Rumore, President, BTF

Date:          May 5, 2021

Subject:     Updates – Lack of Paper Towels, Summer School, Safety/Health Conditions

Shortage of Paper Towels?!

Administrators have been advising teachers that there is a District-wide shortage of paper towels and that there is no District plan for restocking.

Some schools were limiting the distribution of existing quantities to restrooms with no hand dryers and teachers were advised to not ask for them for student restrooms.

Yesterday morning we notified the Superintendent of this.

We are now informed that at the Health and Safety reopening meeting yesterday afternoon, the lack of paper towels in the District was discussed. Yvette Gordon, Director of Building Safety & Health, stated that an emergency order of paper towels was placed and expected to arrive within the next few days. Due to the ransomware attack, MUNIS was compromised and therefore supplies could not be ordered. It was stated that MUNIS is now functioning.

Some teachers (no surprise here!) went out and purchased paper towels for their students.

If you did or do, complete a requisition form at your school to be reimbursed. You should provide a receipt. If you no longer have your receipt, indicate that you attest that the amount is what you spent and provide picture/wrapper, etc.

If you are refused, advise your LRS. Hopefully, we will not have to grieve this. (No good deed goes unpunished.)

Summer School

Teachers have been unable to obtain clarity on exactly what will be offered, when, the hours, etc.

Apparently, the District is still making plans. 

Regardless of what is planned, you should know:

• Hiring is first based upon the number of years of summer employment in the Buffalo Public Schools. (XII (G) (1)) pg. 24
• For vacancies, e.g. for those vacancies after all teachers with summer school employment have been canvased, positions are filled based upon contract, probationary, temporary, i.e. seniority/years of service. (XII (G) (3) (a)) pg. 24-25
• If a program, at a site is “mutually agreed” by the District and BTF, to have been developed for the students at a particular school/site, teachers at that school have priority to fill those positions. They are filled in the order outlined above. (XII (G) (3) (b)) pg. 25

We are working with the District to identify and agree on programs designed for students at the school/site and programs designed for students not at the school/site, who are from various other sites and are to be established at the school/site.

The hiring for each is handled separately as above.

We have been informed that some programs may last four (4) hours or more. If you accept a summer school position that is for four (4) hours or more, you must receive 1/200^th of your salary for each such day. (VIII B (2)) pg. 14

Less than four (4) hours, as always, you receive the hourly rate (1^st year - $29.72, 2^nd year - $31.85). These will be increased in our next contract. (Yes, retroactively.)

As soon as we reach agreement with the District on programs “mutually agreed” to be for students at a particular site, you will be notified.

We have corresponded with the District of our concerns relating to the lack of details in the postings. (Click Here)

We will continue to work with the District, so that you can plan.

Stay tuned.

Safety/Health Conditions

Thank you for continuing to report safety and health issues at your schools/sites. They are reported to the District. If they continue, please advise your LRS (Click Here). If the District does not address them, they will be made public.

Please stay well. Take no chances.

MEMORANDUM

Memo To:   All Buffalo Teachers

From:         Philip Rumore, President, BTF

Date:          May 12, 2021

Subject:     Transfers/”Conversations”, APPR/Evaluations

Transfers/”Conversations”
The arbitrator in a 1993 arbitration, Ronald Kowalski, stated (Note: He refers to a previous arbitration);

“The District has argued that it was unable to honor the request for transfer by the Grievant in part because principals at Schools #27 and #93 did not select him as a candidate. However, Arbitrator Simmelkjaer’s Opinion and Award has established that ‘the inclusion of a principal’s prerogative or right of veto violated the transfer procedures embodied in the Collective Bargaining Agreement.’ As Arbitrator Simmelkjaer has stated, if Section A (2) and Section A (1) of Article XIV are satisfied in that the teacher is a permanent teacher and the transfer will not upset the staff balance in the desired school then the only remaining factor necessary to consider was Section A (5) if the application has been made in a timely fashion prior to April 15th. The factor referenced by Arbitrator Simmelkjaer in Section A (5) is ‘that the wishes of the individual teacher be honored whenever possible.’ Among teachers seeking a transfer to a school seniority shall be the governing factor if all other factors are substantially equal.”

“Arbitrator Simmelkjaer’s Opinion and Award establishes that the Grievant’s preference must be honored whenever possible regardless of the wishes of the principal.”

“In the instant case, honoring his request was possible in that he was the senior teacher seeking transfer to the schools in question. The District therefore violated Article XII J. and Article XIV of the Master Contact as per Arbitrator Simmelkjaer’s Award when it failed to honor the transfer request of… in 1992.”

We have won every grievance on this issue. Teachers were then given their choice of schools either later in the process or in the next year.

We have filed a Federation grievance on such “conversations”.

Also note on the District correspondence, prior to the list of schools and dates to sign up for conversations (Click Here), it states;

“Open Houses are a voluntary mechanism to allow Principals or their designee to meet with teachers to discuss school wide expectations. Principals may or may not take advantage of the opportunity to host open house meetings.

It is also optional for teachers to sign up for the open house meetings.” (emphasis added)

Some teachers choose to visit the school to see if they want to transfer to the school. It’s up to you.

APPR/Evaluations

The New York Senate passed legislation (*5576-A) (Click Here) on Tuesday that we have been working on to eliminate the APPR for 2020-2021 for both tenured (Contract) and Probationary teachers.

We are awaiting a vote in the Assembly (*6750) (Click Here). As this is written, it has been sent to the floor for a vote. It must then be approved by the Governor. We believe he will sign it. (See #17 in both)

Stay tuned.

Regardless of the fact that some “administrators” are actually “evaluating teachers” we, as we have said previously, will have them (the evaluations) thrown out.

They tried to have us, as the administrators did, agree to virtual evaluations. We did not.

Indeed, we have a copy of what the District submitted to the State wherein it states that evaluations will be done in-person, not virtually.

Please stay well. Take no chances.

MEMORANDUM

Memo To:   All Buffalo Teachers

From:         Philip Rumore, President, BTF

Date:          May 11, 2021

Subject:     Updates – School Safety, Negotiations, Class Size/Caseloads, Grievances, Transfers

School Safety
While teachers have advised us that health and safety conditions and procedures have improved, we are still hearing of serious issues.

If there are serious health and safety issues at your school, please report them to your LRS (Click Here) and This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

If after what you consider a reasonable time, they have not been resolved, please repeat the above procedure so that we know that issues(s) have not been resolved.

We will continue to do whatever is necessary to ensure that our schools are safe for students, staff, parents and the community.

Yes, some are angry with us; however, we will, as we always do, do what we know is in the best interest of our students, staff, parents and community. No one will ever know the physical harm prevented or the lives saved as a result of ours and the District’s actions.

Be assured many have benefited from our actions though they may not know it.

Our next court date before Judge Colaiacovo is scheduled for May 20, 2021.

Stay tuned.

Negotiations
We are still awaiting the mediator’s suggested meeting dates to resume negotiations. Please be careful what you say in front of some administrators. Some are advising District administrators that teachers are divided, just want a contract, and will accept anything.

Not now, not ever! We have worked on a state and national level to secure major funding increases. There can be no excuses.

A contract not reflective of those around us – but superior to them.

Lower Class Sizes/Caseloads, Etc.
The District has millions of dollars that must be utilized to undo the damage done to the education of our students.

We must and will ensure that the funding that must be used for that purpose is used for that purpose and not wasted (more administrators, programs that don’t work, etc.).

Enclosed, please find a copy of correspondence sent to the Superintendent and Board. (Click Here)

In addition, we will continue to work with parents to ensure that the use of the funds are agreed to by your Site Based Management Teams (SBMTs).

Yes, if necessary we will got to court. Hopefully, we will not have to.

Grievances
We will be appearing before the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) on May 12, 2021 in relation to the charges we filed against the District for violating the grievance procedures.

An arbitration relating to the District’s unilateral change to Medicare Part D for some members is scheduled for June 10, 2021.

We have reached agreement, if the teacher agrees, to have Level III (Superintendent) hearings held virtually until August 31, 2021, unless either side terminates said agreement – memorandum of understanding (MOU).

Other grievance hearings are being heard in-person and virtually.

Transfers
We have just received a copy of the absurd (at best) email regarding transfers. More on this insanity tomorrow.

Please stay well. Take no chances.

MEMORANDUM

Memo To:   All Buffalo Teachers

From:         Philip Rumore, President, BTF

Date:          May 14, 2021

Subject:     Scam?

We are awaiting confirmation that the correspondence most teachers received relating to a company, Kroll, providing free services relating to the hack on the District. Please take no action until the District confirms that this is not a scam. We have asked that the District notify you regarding this. 

The District has just responded to us that the "Kroll" correspondence is not a scam. You will be receiving correspondence from the District.