Janella Hinds - UFT Vice President for Academic High Schools

10/23/2025

Solidarity!

07/03/2025

Months of organizing paid off for UFT members at the Boerum Hill School for International Studies and two other public schools on their overcrowded Brooklyn campus when the city Department of Education agreed to reallocate eight empty rooms from the Success Academy Charter School that is co-located in their building.

Boerum Hill, which serves grades 6–12, will get four classrooms and an office this fall. Digital Arts & Cinema Technology HS and P368K Star Academy, a District 75 school, will each get two classrooms.

“Everyone is getting more space and that is because of the work that we’ve done,” said Boerum Hill Chapter Leader Patricia McNamara.

In recent years, enrollment has dropped at Success Academy Charter School–Cobble Hill and increased at Boerum Hill and Digital Tech. At Boerum Hill, classrooms are programmed for all periods, except lunch, McNamara said. IEP conferences and pull-out groups take place in noisy hallways or corners of crowded classrooms. Teachers must move between multiple classrooms so they cannot do typical things like hang up anchor charts and student work.

UFT delegate Mike Langley, who teaches English, said it was disheartening to walk by empty rooms when Boerum Hill was crammed. He likened the current arrangement to “racing around in a giant Tetris puzzle.”

UFT members began organizing in the fall of 2024. They launched an online petition, spoke at three different Panel for Educational Policy (PEP) meetings, emailed the chancellor and local elected officials about the problem, and gave several PEP members a tour of their overcrowded campus.

As a result of members’ activism, Success Academy will occupy just the basement floor of the three-story building in the fall, McNamara said. The flow will be better for Boerum Hill, she said, which will now have the option to have middle school and high school classes on separate floors.

Teacher Isaac Selchaif, the head of Boerum Hill’s history department, said it was empowering for members to collaborate and achieve results. “It’s a powerful thing that we could embark on this and have an end result that is optimistic,” he said.

Langley said the DOE should have redistributed the space sooner. “It’s pretty absurd that it took a seven-month campaign with teachers, elected officials, parents all dedicating their time to this to be able to use classrooms that were sitting empty in our building,” he said.

The need to reclaim available space from co-located charter schools has become more urgent as the city phases in the state class size law. McNamara contended that there should be a routine review process in place citywide.

“Not every school should have to do what we did if there’s empty space in their building,” she said.

07/02/2025

The city Department of Education signed a settlement agreement with the union on May 20 that pays 105 UFT members from Edward R. Murrow HS in Brooklyn for the time beyond their regular workday that they spent in lockdown and on hold at their school during an emergency.

The DOE will pay the members for their time to settle a grievance filed by Murrow Chapter Leader Terrain Chambers Reeves on behalf of herself and the rest of her school chapter. The DOE agreed to the settlement just days before the case was set to go before an independent arbitrator.

“The staff members at Murrow HS worked to ensure the safety of their students and of each other, just as other responders, such as the police, did,” said UFT Grievance Department Director Mark Collins. “And like other first responders, they deserve to be recognized for their service and compensated for their time.”

The precipitating event happened around 9:20 a.m. on Dec. 5, 2023, when two 15-year-old students got into an argument at the school and one boy stabbed the other. The injured student was rushed to Maimonides Hospital while the student who stabbed him immediately fled. When the police arrived on the scene, they put the building into lockdown.

Murrow educators and students were confined to their rooms, not even allowed to use bathrooms or have lunch for much of the next six hours, as police officers proceeded to search the building and each and every student — more than 3,600 — for weapons.

Reeves said the lockdown was a stressful ordeal for students and staff alike. Throughout the day, she contacted the members of her chapter via her email list to keep them updated. She and others helped alleviate stress by bringing snacks to classrooms or escorting students to restrooms, when the NYPD allowed it. The lockdown was finally lifted at 3:30 p.m.

After the DOE failed to pay UFT members for the additional time they worked during the lockdown, Reeves filed a grievance on Jan. 16, 2024, which was signed by 104 other Murrow members who also worked that day.

The DOE paid the full amount owed to members, totaling just under $7,000.

“A grievance makes it clear something was done wrong and you want it fixed and the parties that wronged you held accountable,” said Reeves. “I would tell anyone else in this situation, ‘File, don’t hesitate.’”

06/14/2025

Team HS in the house!!!

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT, Brooklyn (PIX11) — A New York native and Brooklyn-based teacher was honored on the national stage this week. Gary Edwin Robinson, head of the Theatre Arts Program at Boys …

06/07/2025

05/14/2025

Join us!

Future in Focus is a UFT program designed to expose public high school students to unionized careers in New York City. 💪

At our next event on May 30, we'll inform students about unions, collective bargaining and the impact of organized labor on our society. In an open exhibition hall, students will move freely between tables and speak with union members, including young union members, representing public- and private-sector unions and building trades. They'll learn about the occupations represented, the qualifications required and apprenticeship opportunities.

You may register here to bring your students to one of three one-hour sessions: https://web.cvent.com/event/0c6ed084-92a0-4696-98e6-3949b8c5e96c/summary

05/05/2025

Thank you for everything you do!

It’s Teacher Appreciation Week!

This week—and every week—we celebrate educators who do more than teach. They fight for their students, uplift their communities, and defend the future of public education.

05/01/2025

The first of May is International Workers’ Day, and today we join unions across the country to raise our voices in opposition to the new administration’s attack on worker and union rights and benefits.

04/26/2025

Congratulations to the honorees!

04/23/2025

Thank you for EVERYTHING you do!

Today we honor all of the administrative professionals who keep our schools running! Thank you for all that you do to support students, parents, educators, and communities.

04/11/2025

04/11/2025

So proud of the phenomenal students of Celia Cruz HS!