  |
| |
|
Spotlight sparkles on SRPs NYSUT stickers seen around the state 
December 9, 2004 SRP members of the Hamburg Teachers Association enjoyed fruit baskets, along with thanks, for their dedication. At Hamburg High, staffers enjoyed cookies from principal Jacqueline Peffer and assistant superintendent Daniel George. Little things mean a lot. In Orchard Park schools, Susan Hassenfranz was thrilled to see a big deal made over small stickers. "They were just stickers that said 'Proud to be an SRP' or for the teachers 'Proud to work with an SRP,'" said Hassenfranz, a member of the Orchard Park SRP union in western New York . "People really wanted to wear them and went rushing to their mailboxes to get them." Seventy-thousand stickers, printed and distributed by New York State United Teachers, were one way union members across the state commemorated the second annual statewide employee recognition day — Nov. 18. The 138 members of the Highland Essential Labor Personnel Association were honored when administrators, school board members, PTA members and the Highland Teachers Association feted them with a breakfast. "The encouragement it gave to support staff was a real shot in the arm," said Matilda DelForno, president of the group of classroom aides, teaching assistants, cafeteria, transportation, secretarial and custodial workers in the Hudson Valley district. DelForno also distributed stickers. Gov. Pataki declared Nov. 18 as an official SRP recognition day for the second year in a row, after a strong lobbying effort by NYSUT. The day is catching on in many places. In the North Country , the General Brown TA bought stress balls for colleagues in the General Brown SRP local. The union took off with an idea from a session of NYSUT's Local Action Project. "We included a poem and ended it with sincere apologies for bad verse and even more sincere appreciation for everything they do every day," said Lisa VanBrocklin, General Brown TA president. |
|
| | |