[Part One: Monday 03/30] The UFT

 

Roger had several meetings scheduled for the morning to determine if any modifications should be made to the IEPs of several students. Justifiably, he was extremely apprehensive, because he had never spoken to the students, their parent(s) or their teachers. However, every single parent skipped the meeting. “Thank God.” 

And only one parent answered Roger’s follow-up phone call, but she was fluent in Spanish and functionally illiterate in English and Roger was functionally illiterate in Spanish and fluent in English. But after their brief conference call, Roger determined, based on his over a decade of “teaching”, that her child should continue to receive (free) special education services from the NYCDOE.

With his calendar free for the rest of the workday, Roger called the office of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) to see if he could get any information about his case. He had been advised, via a text message from his school’s union representative slash basketball coach slash social studies teacher, to procure the services of an UFT office manager. 

The first two times he called, he was told, “She’s in a meeting.” And the third time he called, he was told, “You just missed her!”