President Andy Pallotta interrupted the flow of questions and answers in the open dialogue portion of Wednesday’s luncheon to welcome local presidents to the Pre NYSUT RA Local & Retiree Council Presidents Conference.
Stepping to the podium, Pallotta pulled out a piece of paper and said, “We have an Assembly bill A.10475 that relates to state assessments and teacher evaluations...” at which point, everyone in the room rose to their feet.
To prolonged applause, he went on to describe the bill — sponsored by Speaker Carl Heastie, Education Chair Cathy Nolan, Majority Leader Joe Morelle, and Assembly members Christine Pellegrino (a NYSUT member) and Ellen Jaffee — that would fix New York’s broken teacher evaluation system.
Pallotta announced NYSUT’s urgent campaign to push members of the state Senate to vote for the bill in the final weeks of the legislative session. The governor has expressed support for the legislative solution.
“We have to fight and make sure everyone’s with us,” he said. “We need to start calling and sending faxes and asking members of the Senate, ‘Where are you on this bill?’”
Pallotta assured the local leaders that the new bill preserves the key element of local control: collective bargaining.
“If you have something you like, you can keep it. If you don’t like it, you can create something new,” he said.
Here’s NYSUT’s official statement and the actual Assembly bill.
