Chapter Leader UpdateApril 25, 2025
Image
Jonathan Fickies
POWERS OF PERSUASION: UFT Political Action Coordinator Lamar Hughes talks to City Council Education Committee Chair Rita Joseph (at left) and District 31 Council Member Selvena Brooks-Powers about the union’s city legislative priorities at the UFT City Council Legislative Breakfast this Thursday.
This Week's Focus
$700 retention bonus to be paid starting May 1
All UFT-represented employees who worked full-time during the 12 months leading up to April 1, 2025, will receive a $700 retention bonus as a supplemental check in their bank account. This annual retention bonus, which was negotiated as part of the 2023 DOE-UFT contract, will be paid next Thursday, May 1, to teachers, other pedagogues and all paraprofessionals. H-bank employees, including occupational and physical therapists and school nurses, will be paid on May 8. Per diem or other part-time UFT-represented employees who worked a minimum of 30 days during those 12 months will receive a prorated amount. They will be paid on May 16. As is always the case with supplemental checks, some banks take longer than others to post the checks. The employee must have been on payroll on April 1, 2025, to receive a payment. Employees on sabbatical leave, military leave with pay and paid parental leave on April 1 qualify. This annual bonus will be paid to all UFT-represented employees every year at the beginning of May in perpetuity. The bonus will increase to $1,000 in 2026 and $1,035 in 2027.
Voting in UFT election begins in May
Ballots for the UFT elections will be mailed to UFT members’ homes on Thursday, May 1. UFT members may vote for president and other officers, Executive Board positions and AFT, NEA and NYSUT convention delegates. This election flyer with voting information is being mailed to chapter leaders at their schools. This Thursday, a state judge denied a request by an opposition caucus seeking to bar all in-person voting in the election, so we are moving ahead with our plans to offer in-person voting options. The independent Global Election Services is overseeing the election and will count the ballots on May 29. Candidates will be elected to three-year terms that begin on July 1. UFT members will be receiving a special election issue of the New York Teacher in the mail by the first week of May. Please see the 2025 UFT elections section of the UFT website for more information.
ACTIONS YOU SHOULD TAKE:
- Please post the election flyer on your UFT bulletin board on Thursday, May 1, or soon thereafter.
- Talk about the UFT elections at your next membership meeting, make everyone aware of the new in-person voting options and encourage all members to vote and be counted.
Fix Tier 6 actions in every borough on May 6
Tuesday, May 6, will be a citywide UFT Day of Action to call on state lawmakers to fix Tier 6. Our focus this year is on lowering the minimum retirement age for Tier 6 members to age 55 after 30 years of service. There will be rallies at 4 p.m. in Brooklyn (Brooklyn Borough Hall), Queens (Queens Borough Hall) and Manhattan (Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building). Bronx members will be leafleting starting at 4:15 p.m. at three major transit hubs. Staten Island is organizing a rally in every school. For more information, see or reach out to the UFT political action coordinator for your borough. Let’s take our fight to improve Tier 6 to the next level!
ACTIONS YOU SHOULD TAKE:
- on Wednesday, April 30, at 4:30 p.m. to plan your school’s participation and start mobilizing members.
- Post on your UFT bulletin board.
- and share the registration form with your members.
Paraprofessional RESPECT check bill has been introduced
The 3,100 emails that UFT members sent over the break calling for action on our RESPECT check legislation paid off: This Thursday, the legislation was introduced on the floor of the City Council at its April 24 stated meeting. Now we must secure the votes necessary to get the bill passed in the City Council. You can read and see the City Council members who have declared their support for the bill. In the coming days let’s keep an eye in the coming days on who adds their name as a sponsor. Our next step will be to thank these council members and push those who have not signed on to get on board. We won’t let up until this historic legislation becomes law. To learn more about the proposed bill, read our FAQs.
Show appreciation for teachers and nurses
Teacher Appreciation Week begins on Monday, May 5, and National School Nurse Day is Wednesday, May 7, so it’s a great time to acknowledge these hard-working members of your school community. Tuesday, May 6, is Teacher Appreciation Day and also the union’s Fix Tier 6 Day of Action. Consider tying the two together, since what better way for state lawmakers to show their true appreciation for teachers than to give our most recent generation of educators the pension benefits they deserve? If you are organizing an activity to show your chapter’s appreciation, please send your best photos with caption information, including your school and borough, to uftphotos [at] gmail [dot] com (uftphotos[at]gmail[dot]com) so we can share them on our social media platforms. Use the hashtag #ThankATeacher and tag the UFT in your own posts on Instagram (@uftny) and BlueSky (@uftnyc.bsky.social).
Chapter Leader Checklist
To Do #1
Last chance to nominate your chapter for a Trachtenberg Award
Are you proud of your school chapter? At Teacher Union Day in November, we honor chapters whose members are actively engaged at the school level in the effort to safeguard our workplace rights. We also recognize chapters that participate in citywide ĚÇĐÄVlogAppcampaigns and initiatives. This year, that includes fighting for more money for paraprofessionals, applying for funding to lower class sizes and lobbying our state lawmakers to fix Tier 6. Other hallmarks of award-winning chapters include regular chapter meetings, active school-based committees and a high level of COPE participation. Please note: ĚÇĐÄVlogApp that received an Ely Trachtenberg Award in the past three years are ineligible this year. The nomination deadline is this Friday, April 25.
To Do #2
Contact your district rep if members are pressured to sign extension of probation
Probationary employees whose principals want to extend their probations do not have to sign the extension of probation immediately. Members have a right to have one of the union's lawyers look it over. In fact, every extension of probation should be submitted to the UFT for a NYSUT attorney to review before the member makes the decision to sign or not. Contact your district rep each time a member receives an extension of probation or when your principal insists the member sign the extension without the proper time for it to be reviewed.
To Do #3
Share flyers with your members.
Here are flyers you can print and distribute in member mailboxes or post on your school’s UFT bulletin board:
Hub Highlights
Answers to all your questions
Chapter leaders have access to the UFT Knowledge Base, a deep and extensive repository of information, in the Chapter Leader Hub. This searchable database supplies the answers to many of your members' questions about their rights and benefits as UFT members. Whether it is confirming the process for accessing a UFT Welfare Fund health benefit or obtaining correct information about retention rights, the UFT Knowledge Base has the answers. Remember, you can access the hub using your UFT website username and password.
Work in progress
The UFT is tackling the following issues with the DOE and other city, state and federal-level entities as appropriate:
- Pushing the DOE to post vacancies in the Open Market Transfer Plan for schools that were approved for funds to reduce class sizes.
- Prodding the DOE to provide more budget transparency at pre-K centers.
- Continuing to work on an online per-session timekeeping system.
You Should Know
Contract Empowerment & Enforcement
SBO timelines, voting and sample ballots
It’s time to finalize possible school-based options (SBOs) for next school year with your chapter and your principal. Prior to moving to a vote on SBOs for next school year, these proposed modifications should be discussed at a chapter meeting and you should conduct a member survey to gauge interest. You can view the SBO ballots that your chapter approved for this school year and the prior one in the .
Sample preapproved SBO ballots and other sample ballots, sorted by division, are now posted. Additional preapproved ballots will be posted as soon as we reach final agreement with the DOE. Last year's preapproved SBO for a noninstructional half day for students in the afternoon parent teacher conferences is not being offered this year.
All SBO voting is conducted through the secure ElectionBuddy online voting system only. Schools must vote on all modifications on ONE day. SBO voting will be open this year on April 28. If one of your school SBO modifications includes a ballot on your school’s session time, the SBO vote must be conducted no later than June 13. Schools with proposed modifications that do not include session time have until June 26 to conduct the vote.
An SBO gives UFT members at a school the opportunity to collaboratively modify certain contractual work rules or create positions not automatically allowed under the contract. The principal or the chapter leader may propose an SBO. However, a principal cannot force the chapter leader to modify the contract and hold an SBO vote. Chapter leaders should only conduct an SBO vote for a modification that your members want and that has been approved by the UFT district representative. For an SBO to pass at the school level, at least 55% of the UFT members who vote must support the modification.
Find comprehensive information about the SBO process in the Chapter Leader Hub, including the SBO manual, a PowerPoint presentation and the sample ballots. If you have questions, reach out to your district representative.
Instruction
Teacher observations and summative conferences
All formal and informal observations for teachers must be conducted by June 6. The minimum number of observations is based on each teacher's tenure status and their final ratings for the previous two years. At the end-of-year summative conference, the teacher and the principal, or the assistant principal, must meet in person to review all observations conducted during the school year. This summative conference must take place by June 21. See the DOE's Advance at a Glance for other key dates and information.
Medical & Wellness
New member events on Staten Island and in the Bronx
We know connection and camaraderie are key to surviving your first years as a New York City public school educator. Throughout this school year, the UFT’s Member Assistance Program and the UFT New Member Committee have been hosting fun events in each borough to help new members connect, collaborate and celebrate all that they do for New York City public school students. Please encourage UFT members in their first three years on the job to go bowling on Staten Island next Monday, April 28, or participate in a scavenger hunt at the New York Botanical Garden on Thursday, May 29. Both events will run from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Political Action
Stand up for worker and ĚÇĐÄVlogApprights at the May Day rally
The first of May is International Workers’ Day, and unions across New York City will be using the day to raise their voices in opposition to the new administration’s attack on worker and ĚÇĐÄVlogApprights and benefits. The UFT contingent will gather at 4:30 p.m. at Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse (at the corner of Duane and Centre streets). The rally and march will begin at 5 p.m. in Foley Square. We will be joining fellow ĚÇĐÄVlogAppmembers in the New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO, for this May Day rally and march.
DOE must reimburse members for travel expenses
Enough is enough with the DOE’s ineptitude when it comes to reimbursing our itinerant members for their travel expenses. This Wednesday, we held a press conference outside DOE headquarters to demand that the DOE fix its broken payment system. Many UFT members must travel from school to school to work with the students in their care. It is unacceptable that they must wait months — and sometimes years — for their money after they submit for reimbursement through the DOE’s Travel Reimbursement Approval Certification (TRAC) system. Occupational and physical therapists must also wait far too long for tuition reimbursement that they are entitled to under their contract. Since we launched our email campaign on Wednesday, nearly 500 itinerant members have sent emails to the four DOE administrators in charge of the TRAC program to tell them to do their job and promptly reimburse their employees. It is disrespectful and unacceptable that the DOE treats its employees this way. Let’s light a fire under them!
Special Education
A clarification about certification requirements for high school teachers
It has come to our attention that there is confusion in the field about the certification requirements for high school special education teachers who teach special (self-contained) classes. Special education teachers who teach special classes at the high school level must be certified in the content area they teach unless the special class is composed exclusively of students who participate in alternate assessments. You can find detailed, up-to-date information about special education teacher certification in the Students with Disabilities section of the UFT website.
Hold your spring meeting of the special education committee
The school-based special education committee must meet with the principal at least once in the fall and once in the spring to discuss and try to resolve special education compliance issues, such as coverages and teacher and paraprofessional programming. In District 75 schools, you can discuss available space and staffing at the main school and each cluster site to support students in crisis. The goal of the spring meeting is for your school to start the new school year in full compliance with special education rules and regulations. If your committee has not yet met this spring, please schedule a meeting with your principal and submit your special education committee notes on the 10 school days after the meeting to let us know if the principal resolved the issues you raised. The form should take less than five minutes to fill out.
Everything Else
American Idol’s Charlie Romo to perform at the Spring Education Conference
Our Spring Education Conference has always blended professional learning with inspiration and entertainment. This year, in celebration of our theme, “We Teach This City,” “American Idol” singer and Staten Island teacher Charlie Romo will perform at the gala luncheon. Our students and their talents will also be on display. We’ll gather at the New York Hilton Midtown on Saturday, May 17, from 7:30 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. Participants can earn two CTLE hours by attending two of the four workshops. There will also be a chance to win raffle prizes. The registration fee is $50. There is an additional cost of $30 per CTLE hour for teachers and $15 per CTLE hour for paraprofessionals and other UFT members who attend workshops for credit. Gather a group of members from your school to attend this year's premier conference and bring your New York City spirit for a day of inspiration, professional learning and camaraderie.
Recent Guidance and Agreements
Key Events & Deadlines
- Advise the DOE of leave decision
- UFT AIDS Walk
Contact the UFT
- DOE members, call 212‑331‑6311.
- DOE functional chapter members, call 212‑331‑6312.
- A health benefit question? Call the Welfare Fund at 212‑539‑0500.
Chapter Leader Update Feedback
Please let us know what you found most valuable in the current issue of the Chapter Leader Update and how we can improve the newsletter.
Look for your next Chapter Leader Update on