newteacher

T-N-T --THE NEW TEACHER

Health and Welfare Fund Benefits
First-Year CPTs and PPTs:
Stay Covered During the Summer
Before you leave for vacation, make sure your health insurance and UFT Welfare Fund benefits are in full effect during the summer months. Like vacation pay, health and Welfare Fund benefits depend on when you started teaching during the previous school year.
If you are an appointed teacher, your health and benefit coverage continues throughout the summer. The same is true for substitutes who started teaching before January 15. If you're unsure of your status, ask your school secretary to check for you.
If you are a regular sub (CPT or PPT) who started teaching after January 15, your health insurance and UFT Welfare Fund benefits run through July only.
To continue your health plan for the month of August, you can purchase insurance coverage at group rates through COBRA, the federal Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act. Forms are available from your payroll secretaries, or
Bureau of Health and Welfare Services
65 Court St., Room 502
Brooklyn, NY 11201
(718) 935-2312

Is Your Summer Pay Correct?
Before stashing your checks or advance direct-deposit stubs in the sock drawer, check the figures carefully to see if they are for the correct amount.

   •   If you started service on or before Sept. 15 and filled a long-term vacancy for the duration of the year, this is easy: You should receive full vacation pay - five checks identical to those you received throughout the school year.
   •   If you started your long-term assignment on or after Sept. 16, this calculation is not so easy because summer vacation pay depends on how long you worked. In salary talk, your vacation pay is pro rated. Here are two examples:
   •   A CPT began teaching on Sept. 23. Because she started on or after Sept. 16, when one tenth of the school year had passed, her vacation pay is 10 percent less than a normal pay check. The reduction is divided equally among her July and August paychecks. If she earns $29,611 a year - or $1,233.79 gross per paycheck ù each summer check will be reduced by $123.38. She would, therefore, receive four checks of $1,110.41 gross each.
   •   A PPT on Step 1A started on Feb. 1 to fill a long-term vacancy. Having started before Feb. 15, he receives vacation credit for five months and, therefore, earns 50 percent of a normal paycheck. Each summer check will equal half of his regular pay, or $616.90 gross.
Taking Care of Your Paychecks
Those of you paid by check should receive five paychecks in June - one for the second half of June and four others for July and August.
Don't cash these checks before the date stamped on them. If you do, the board will charge you $23 per check and your bank will slap on its own penalty. Early cashing or depositing also endangers the union-board agreement that brought you the post-dated checks ù a convenience it took the union years to get. And be sure to put your checks in a safe place that you won't forget.
Replacing Lost or Stolen Checks
If your checks are lost, stolen or mutilated, you will have to stop payment on them and request replacements from the Pedagogic Payroll Inquiry Unit at 65 Court St., 14th floor, Brooklyn. Go there in person or call (718) 935-5200. Either way, you'll have to provide:

   •   Your name and home address. Acceptable proof is a valid driver's license, passport or official Board of Education ID.
   •   Your school district and borough.
   •   Your file number and Social Security number.
   •   The date and the net amount of any lost check.
   •   The reason for the "stop-payment."
Once you provide this information, you will be asked to complete and return an affidavit. The city will search bank records - taking six to eight weeks ù before issuing a replacement check. So do yourself a favor: protect those summer paychecks.

PPTs and Pink Slips...
If you're a preparatory provisional teacher, you will probably receiv a pink slip from the Board of Education.
It is outrageous for the board to operate this way, and the UFT has tried to make them stop. Here's what's happening: because you haven't earned certification, the board is not obligated to offer you a job next year, so it sends out termination notices to everybody ù even though they know that there are lots of positions to be filled.
Don't worry: you're almost sure to be rehired somewhere in the system.
The best way to avoid this is to get your certification as soon as possible.

Reminder: Don't Move the Furniture
If you are thinking about how to set up your classroom for the coming school year, we want you to know about one very practical consideration: Don't move the furniture!
A few years ago the UFT lost a case filed by a teacher who had slipped and fallen while moving her chair back to its usual spot after the custodian had pushed it to the side of the room during the holiday break. The arbitrator denied the teacher's claim of injury in the line of duty on the ground that moving furniture is not one of a teacher's duties.
So if you return to your classroom in September full of great ideas for bulletin boards, special projects and classroom organization and find the students' desks piled in a heap off in the corner, use your mouth, not your hands. Ask your principal to have an authorized person move the furniture.

Must I Accept an Appointment?
Q: I recently passed the New York City Board of Education oral licensing exam. Will I be appointed to a permanent job?
A: Perhaps. The board's Staffing Services Office will work all summer to determine the number of positions that will be available in each license area. If yours is needed, you may receive a letter inviting you to a placement center at 65 Court St. in Brooklyn. There, you will be interviewed by school officials or sent to a school or district office for a job interview that could lead to your appointment to a permanent position.
Q: Must I accept an appointment if I get one?
A: Yes, except for specific reasons discussed below. If you know you will not be available for appointment, you should say so as soon as you get the invitation to attend a placement center. You must declare yourself unavailable before you are offered a position. You cannot refuse to accept a position after you have indicated you are available. If you do so your name will be removed form the qualifying list entirely.
Q: What are the acceptable reasons for declining an appointment?
A: The acceptable reasons are listed on the back of the board's letter. Here are two examples:
You are on a leave of absence or have the basis for a leave next year. The leave can be for child care, study toward a master's degree, work outside the school system, illness or residence far from the city. You will need appropriate documentation, such as a child's birth certificate, school registration form, doctor's note or a letter from your employer.
You are already appointed in another license area and have either not yet served a year or completed probation in it. You must work for a year in a license to validate it or you risk losing it. For greater protection, it's best to complete your three-year probation in a license before accepting a new appointment. That way if you are discontinued as a probationer in your new license area, you can return to your former one as a tenured teacher, which gives you greater job protection.
Q: What if I just don't like the school to which they appointed me?
A: Sorry. Wanting to work in a "good" school, "good" neighborhood or specific district are not valid reasons for refusing an assignment and will not be honored. If you refuse the assignment, you're off the list.
Q: What if I have some extraordinary qualifications and want to be in a certain kind of school or program to make the best use of them? Or what if travel poses problems for me?
A: Staffing Services will consider your qualifications and reasonable travel requests, but the number of available vacancies and the need to satisfy integration guidelines will limit the options. However, remember that you will not be assigned to a specific school, but to a district or high school superintendency. The district or superintendency then places you in specific school.
Q: Can I get an appointment in place?
A: That depends. As soon as you get the notice to appear at a placement center for assignment ù or even when you are first notified that you've passed the board's oral licensing exam ù speak to your principal about an in-place appointment. If there is a vacancy in your license area and your service has been satisfactory, he/she probably will be glad to request you. Then the superintendent or personnel director must give you a letter requesting your assignment or call Staffing Services directly.
Q: Where can I get more information about appointments?
A: Read the UFT's Guide to Appointment and Placement, which the union distributes at the placement centers. (During the school year, this booklet is available at your UFT borough office.)