By Don Pallozzi

Political Action App: NYSUT has developed a mobile app for virtually instant political
action. The attached link will bring you to the site and give directions for the app. https:/
/mac.nysut.org/

Lobby Day: Brian Casey and Dave Metzger went to Albany this week to meet with
Legislators and worked their magic regarding many issues including the tax cap,
Common Core, and the APPR. Dave and Brian will also be attending the Legislative
Breakfast to continue lobbying on our behalf.

Rep Assembly: Brian Casey and Dave Metzger will be attending the NYSUT
Representative Assembly, held in Washington D.C. this year, in April. I will also be
there for the President’s Conference. We will report back in May.

Calendar Committee: The calendar committee will be meeting within the next week
to set our calendar for school year 2013/14. We will be bringing it back to our rep
assembly for feedback.

Elementary Report Card: The elementary report card has been increasingly
problematic and we’ve discussed this with the District on many occasions but the letter
from the Pine Brook staff caught the District’s attention. At our most recent problem
solving meeting the District brought this up. I believe they have a clearer understanding
of the software limitations as well as the increased demands all for a document of
limited value to parents and teachers. It appears that there will be a District committee
in the future to address the utility of the document and in the short term there will be
conversations with Infinite Campus about the problems with the format. I don’t know
how quickly these things can or will happen but thank you to our Pine Brook colleagues
for their effort.

Teacher Grants: The Central Western Zone of The New York State Retired Teachers
Association is awarding grants of $100.00 or more to full time teachers who are
pursuing advance study in an educational field. We have the application here in the
office if you are interested.

Building Visits: By the end of this week we will have visited 15 of 17 buildings
discussing the current state of negotiations. It’s been great to have these
conversations. Thanks to all who gave up time to participate in these discussions.
Between the APPR visits and the contract talks we’ve been in most buildings twice this
year.

APPR Survey: The APPR Teacher Leaders, Amy McCabe, Rob Stalter, Brian Ebertz,
Jason Cooney and I met this week to create a brief survey that you will be receiving
soon. Your feedback is important and will help shape the revisions to the process. This
will be resubmitted to the State by September 1, 2013 for approval.