PJSTA Live- Episode 3- Ed Reform 2.0

Our third episode of PJSTA Live deals with Ed Reform 2.0. We were joined by two guests, Alison McDowell and Jia Lee. McDowell, a parent and a public education activist, blogs at Wrench in the Gears where she takes a skeptical look at digital curriculum in public schools. Additionally she has been involved in United Opt Out and has presented her findings regarding digital curriculum at various locations across the country. Lee is well known in public education and teacher union circles. She has been a conscientious objector for several years, ran against Michael Mulgrew for UFT President last year, and has been a dedicated member of the Movement of Rank and file Educators. She has worked tirelessly to organize teachers in the fight against school privatization.

Here is the video of the panel discussion at the Students Not Scores “Going Beyond Opt-Out” conference today in Port Jefferson Station. The panel was followed by different workshops and a group discussion to round out the day.

Click here to view the News 12 coverage of the event.

Click here to see Newsday‘s coverage.

Jia Lee Reports on AFT Convention

The PJSTA did not send our delegates to the AFT Convention this year. So I asked our friend Jia Lee to share her observations of the convention with us. They will be published elsewhere as well. Here are Jia’s take aways from the convention…

AFT July 2016- Observations of a Rank and File Member

By Jia Lee

UFT Chapter Leader of The Earth School

Every two years, the American Federation of Teachers, convenes to address proposals for resolutions and positions we take as a national union. Seven non-Unity members from New York City, headed to Minneapolis, for the AFT convention on its 100th Anniversary. Arthur Goldstein of MORE and Jonathan Halabi of New Action, two of the seven newly elected high school executive board members, joined Norm Scott to report the events from the press section. You can find the links to their blogs below. Gloria Brandman, Lisa North and Gladys Sotomayor, all veterans of NYC public schools and members of MORE were present at general sessions, leafletting and networking with members from other locals. For me, being present in this space to support the reporting out of what goes on is just as important as being in solidarity with locals who need to know that there are other voices coming out of NYC besides that of the Unity stronghold.

To put things into perspective, while it is important to know how issues are brought to the convention and subsequently, how decisions are made, it is even more important to understand how immensely it connects to rank and file members back at home. We are the untapped power. For those of us who know little to nothing about how it works, here’s a little overview:

Out of 2,608 delegates in the AFT, representing locals from New York to California, the UFT sends 750 delegates to this level of our union. Yes, this is very NYC heavy. With the small number of delegates from the rest of New York State, many of whom are unable to afford the trip, our representation is often viewed as insurmountable. Delegates from different locals meet in nine different committees where most resolutions are debated and voted on. In between, there are general sessions where all delegates come together to debate and vote on the top three resolutions as a body, special acknowledgements and elections for AFT officers and panel presentations. The seven of us carried visitor passes since we are not elected delegates but we are AFT members via our local.

As one can imagine, there are many orders of business and activities that we could share, but here are three stark take-aways about the purposeful lack of democracy from this convention everyone should know, as dues paying members.

1. Our UFT Constitution needs to be amended. We handed out a MORE -AFT 2016 Edition flier explaining to fellow AFT members that while our high school exec board candidates won seats, they do not carry AFT delegate status. It is written in our constitution that winner takes all. This, in fact, ignores the fact that we won nearly 30% of the votes. When we tell this to other unions, many are surprised. Delegates from other locals reported that these positions are voted on separately. Why was this written into our constitution one may ask? It clearly ensures a block vote. The implications call for a change to representational percentages amongst delegates

2. The UFT/Unity does in fact control NYSUT, and this needs to change. It seems that to dominate the national scene, it is imperative for the largest local to also control the state. We learned that Ed Representatives which represent districts across the state, are nearly all Unity. It was written into the constitution at the state level that ed representatives do not have to necessarily live in the region it purportedly represents; therefore, Unity can and has put up their own candidates when they feel like. Because of the loyalty oath and disproportionate number of delegates we represent, whoever Unity puts in, is guaranteed a win. This contributes to the unfair advantage at the state and national levels. Locals across the state find this frustratingly unfair and undemocratic.

It plays out in divisive ways by creating an imbalance in representation electorally and subsequently has consequences at the state and at the national level. At this year’s AFT convention, at the convening of the Educational Issues Committee, something disturbing occurred. Almost everyone knows that NYSUT (our state union) passed Stronger Together’s (ST caucus) proposed resolution on opt out called I-Refuse at last year’s state-wide convention. A version of this was prepared by a committee within NYSUT for the AFT convention. It was printed in the resolutions packet on the first day of the AFT.

Just moments before raising the resolution, Karen Magee, our NYSUT president pulled out a substitute resolution that was entirely different from the original. Even the title was changed from “Support the I-Refuse Movement to Oppose High Stakes Testing” to “End the Misuse of Testing and Support Teacher and Parent Rights.” In effect, all of the strong and actionable resolves of the former resolution were removed and in its place was a much diluted version that upheld standardized tests as useful when not misused and supported the rights of parents to opt their children out of the tests and for teachers to explain these rights without fear of penalty. It did not support teachers as agents of change as the I-Refuse resolution did. Jilted, fellow NYSUT members of the ST caucus objected to the substitution which was overruled. The Unity stronghold had prepared for this, keeping the ST members in the dark. The substitute resolution passed.

3. AFT Leadership controls the membership. This must change. We are a top down driven union. The international relations and domestic positions of the Democratic Party, and specifically Hillary Clinton (who was present and gave a very disappointing speech about supporting public charter schools) shaped the convention. It was tightly controlled.

For instance, during the debate over the resolution to support the teachers of Oaxaca who have risen in massive numbers to strike against the privatization of their public schools, a teacher from California rose to distinguish, for members, the difference between supporting the Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (SNTE) and the Coordinadora Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (CNTE). The national union El SNTE has been in collusion with the government in its attack on teachers in Oaxaca, resulting in the violence that has led to the killings of teachers. She went on to state that the blood of those teachers would be on the AFT if it supported the SNTE.

Mary Cathryn Ricker, AFT Vice President, rose to speak against this. She said that it was not true, “The SNTE is not responsible…” This red herring argument derailed what the teacher was stating. Though the SNTE may not be responsible, they have been in collusion. For those who are not as informed, this was enough to downplay this very real problem.

In the “Fighting for Safe Communities and Racial Justice for Our Citizens and our First Responders” I was very intrigued to find that the resolution included lines that members found problematic. For instance, “Whereas, the AFT supports all police officers who perform the duty of serving us daily in the name of public safety;” and “Resolved, that the AFT will collaborate with unions representing police and public safety officers in the law enforcement community to advocate for fair policing through greater transparency and accountability, which will lead to safer communities;” was heavily debated on the floor. In a following analysis, I will share some ideas on how this debate detracts from the discussion needed to understand the fundamental changes needed to shift a culture of implicit racial bias and machismo (or patriarchy) that create conditions for disproportionate targeting and brutality of Black community members. One member pointed out that just as there is a police union, union members are victims of brutality. There is so much more to this issue than what lies on the surface, but it will not be discussed at an AFT convention.

However, at the AFT, the chair took liberties that clearly did not follow Robert’s Rules of Order, and at times, it seemed fair and at other times, it was clearly strategically unfair. In the end, the resolutions passed as intended, without the fortitude to muster true alliances and actions to enact real change to our daily lives as teachers. I should add that watching Randi Weingarten, the AFT president, chair all general sessions, was exhausting. She must control the pulpit, and this is, not so oddly, familiar. The Clinton endorsement shaped the landscape and, as usual, the leadership subdued the membership. The work of maintaining control at the NYC level contributes to maintaining the whims of a very ambitious and relentless AFT president.

In reflective conversations with folks from other unions at the UCORE event, it was said on multiple occasions that at the end of the day, resolutions are a piece of paper. Instead, we discussed the need for a different vision of unionism as we build our base, member by member, school by school. This requires that we continue to do the kind of self education and teach ins on the issues that slipped so easily through at the AFT. Envisioning a different way to enact democracy within our union is a must, or we are in danger of replicating the undemocratic ways of our present and past. What this means involves a real analysis of how race relations have played out through the positions of union leaders, as well as, developing structures different from the ones we know.

Catch Norm’s Reporting

And Arthur’s observations:

http://nyceducator.com/2016/07/from-aft-2016-resistance-is-futile.html

http://nyceducator.com/2016/07/uft-folk-do-darndest-things.html

http://nyceducator.com/2016/07/clinton-at-aft-lets-learn-from-public.html

http://nyceducator.com/2016/07/in-which-uft-unity-member-lectures-me.html

http://nyceducator.com/2016/07/social-justice-is-for-everyone.html

http://nyceducator.com/2016/07/mulgrew-demands-apology-for-my-little.html

http://nyceducator.com/2016/07/happy-days-redux.html

Jonathan: https://jd2718.org/

Summer Musings, Part I

Last school year was a particularly taxing year, for a number of reasons, both professionally and otherwise. It left me wiped out and completely fried by the time we reached the last day of school. So I took the first two weeks of my summer to pretty much disconnect from the education world. No blog reading, public ed tweeting, or conversations with Beth Dimino. Outside of fishing with a couple of my PJSTA brothers, I was totally disconnected from my normal work, which is very rare for me.

Two weeks ago, however, I had lunch (Korean BBQ for those of you wondering) with a couple of my friends from MORE, Jia Lee and Mike Schirtzer and it helped to re-energize my passion for the organizing work that we do. Part of the overwhelming feelings that I had at the end of the school year dealt with the feelings that there were battles being waged on so many different fronts and it can become really exhausting. There are the opt-out battles, the battles for democracy within NYSUT, the work to try and build STCaucus into a more member centered caucus, the importance of the November elections on both a state and national level, the work that came with being a member of the PJSTA negotiating team that settled our contract in June, along with the many other issues that we deal with.

So upon arriving at lunch with Jia and Mike, I declared to them that I had given very little thought to public ed and unions over the previous two weeks. Fortunately they are two of the more remarkable unionists and teachers that I know and spending a few hours with them helped to center me and give me an idea of what direction to head in from there. That has become more clear to me in the time since our meeting as I have had time to contemplate some ideas and as I watched the AFT Convention in Minnesota unfold from afar (for a few good reports on that convention check out Norm Scott’s blog over at Ed Notes, along with the other blogs he links to). What I am speaking of is the idea of elevating teacher voice. Giving a louder voice to the actual teachers working in the classrooms.

This entire concept is a very important one for me. One of the largest problems that we have faced in recent years has been the lack of teacher voice when it comes to the decisions that shape our public school system. That shouldn’t be any secret to readers of this blog. While we have made some strides in the pushback against ed deform in recent years, I am not so sure we have made much, if any, progress in terms of raising teacher voice. We have some tremendous allies who have done incredible work alongside us in bettering public education. Still, when it comes to the issues that impact our students and teachers most, the voices that we typically hear from are not those of the teachers who are in the classroom every day. We hear from elected officials, parents, union leaders, authors, caucuses, coalitions, and groups, all of whom have contributed immensely to some real progress over the past few years. But rarely, if ever, do we hear from actual classroom teachers. On the rare occasion it is a teacher who we hear from, it is often because they are first identified as the head of one of the aforementioned groups. There are some very real reasons for this, of course. But ultimately, as long as teachers allow themselves to be regularly pushed to the sidelines when the issues that impact them so greatly are discussed, we, along with the students we serve, will continue to be at the mercy of others.

As I begin to wrap my head around the idea of the 2016-2017 school year, I do so with the question in mind of how do we raise teacher voice across New York State and beyond? How do we empower our members at the very grassroots level? How do we better engage our membership at the local, state, and national levels in a way that allows the members to drive the union agendas? How do we create union cultures that encourage membership participation and what exactly does that participation look like? How do we create times and places to facilitate discussions among the rank and file about what our unions are vs. what they actually should be? How do we build more democratic unions and how do we overcome the obstacles that stand in the path of union democracy? How do we turn our unions from passive unions or unions who simply mobilize around top down mandates into unions who have rank and file organizing at the very heart of their operation?

I’ll be using this blog throughout the remainder of the summer to explore some of these ideas and more. Additionally there will be a few new ideas to present to you before the start of the school year that I believe will help to raise teacher voice. I strongly encourage you, whether you are a member of the PJSTA or any other local for that matter, to use the comment section below to share your feelings on the questions posed above. I honestly have no idea what the best answers to those questions are (though I have plenty of ideas, lol), so I welcome the thoughts of others. You can also reach me via email at pjsta1vp@gmail.com or @Sashammy on Twitter.

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UFT Election Results Coming Today

The United Federation of Teachers, the country’s largest teacher union local, has wrapped up their 2016 elections and results are due back today. President Michael Mulgrew, who infamously threatened Common Core opponents with violence, was being opposed by opt-out activist Jia Lee. Though a victory for Lee would seem to be a no-brainer to most outsiders, those who know the UFT’s rigged system of democracy will tell you that it is anything but. It is expected that Mulgrew and Unity Caucus will be victorious, however the MORE Caucus, of which Lee is a member, is expecting to seriously challenge for several executive board seats. Winning executive board seats would represent an enormous victory for MORE, the social justice caucus of the UFT.

Early election results are showing an increase in voter turnout by about 10,000 according to James Eterno at the ICE UFT Blog…

Camille Eterno and Norm Scott are reporting from the American Arbitration Association where votes are being counted in the UFT Election. Here are the latest numbers from Norm:

53,000 voted, that is up 10,000 from 2013.

Only 1000 of that increase came from retirees who in 2016 make up 46% of the voters. In 2013, retirees made up 52% of the voters.

Where did those new voters go? Mulgrew is the known commodity. The conventional wisdom guess would be the majority went to Unity but we shall see.

We will try to be back later with updated results.

Courageous MORE Teachers Defy Gag Order

Three courageous members of the United Federation of Teachers are defying the city’s gag order on speaking out against the state tests. Lauren Cohen, Jia Lee, and Kristin Taylor, all of whom are running for positions in the upcoming UFT election with the Movement of Rank and File Educators Caucus, spoke to NBC 4 New York and encouraged parents to opt their children out of the rigged Common Core exams that New York State students in grades 3-8 are in the midst of now.

Click here to watch the video with the three courageous teachers.

Contribute to Defeat Mulgrew

I have written in great detail about the harm that Michael Mulgrew and his Unity Caucus inflict not only upon their local union, the United Federation of Teachers, but upon unionized teachers across New York State and beyond. Fortunately this is an election year for the UFT and Mulgrew has a very formidable challenger in noted public education activist Jia Lee.

Lee needs no introduction to most advocates of public education. She has been on the front lines of the fight against high stakes testing, junk science teacher evaluations, and the struggle for more democratic unions at all levels. In 2015 she travelled on her own dime to Washington DC and she quite eloquently represented public school teachers in the United States Senate. PJSTA members will remember her as our keynote speaker at the PJSTA Conference Day last year. She was one of the first conscientious objectors in New York State when she began refusing to administer the rigged New York State assessments in 2014 and she is one of the authors of the Teachers of Conscience Position Paper. As someone who is fortunate enough to call Jia a friend, I can share that she is the real deal when it comes to public education advocacy. She breathes activism. In addition to the tireless efforts she has put into the opt-out campaigns and working for union democracy, Jia is a dynamic teacher at New York City’s Earth School and she has been a tremendous professional resource to me, sharing countless things from her classroom that my students have then been able to benefit from. If such a thing as an education superhero exists that person is Jia Lee. You can click here to access one of Jia’s flyers to share widely with your public ed allies.

Beth Dimino, Jia Lee, Brian St. Pierre. Lee is running against Michael Mulgrew for UFT President.

This election is about more than just Jia, however. Jia is simply running at the top of a slate of candidates being put forth by two UFT Caucuses. Those two caucuses (MORE and New Action) are tired of seeing their union compromise and collaborate with reformers bent on destroying us. They are ready to transform the UFT into a member driven union that represents the teachers in the classroom rather than the union “leaders” with personal agendas. While that sort of transformation would certainly benefit New York City’s classroom teachers, it’s benefits would stretch far beyond that as well. It would significantly alter the direction of our statewide union, NYSUT, and our national union, the AFT. As the local that is by far the largest in the country (several times larger than the second biggest), the UFT’s leadership wields extraordinary power within the teacher union landscape. They impact virtually every unionized teacher in the United States. The leadership of the UFT is the largest reason why unions have supported the Common Core and test based teacher evaluations. They were the ones urging state legislators to vote in favor of the Education Transformation Act last year! As a matter of fact, much of Unity Caucus’ (the caucus representing the UFT leadership) campaign in this year’s election has even centered upon their support for the evaluation plan in which 50% is made up of test scores.

Clearly anyone who supports public education has a stake in this year’s UFT election. Nobody can ignore it and think that it only impacts teachers in the five boroughs. This election will impact every teacher, student, and parent across the state. With that in mind I will ask that all of you head on over right now to make a donation to the MORE Caucus and their election fund. Unseating the biggest bully on the public education landscape can’t be done by simply “liking” something on Facebook or retweeting a link on Twitter. It will take money too. So give what you can, even if it is only a small amount. Finally, be sure to ask your friends who support public education to do the same.

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STCaucus Works to Restore Power to the Teacher

On January 9th, more than 140 people turned out on Long Island for the Restoring Power to the Teacher Conference hosted by STCaucus. The conference focused on ways to organize and empower teachers so that they can not only fight for the schools our students deserve, but for the democratic unions that we deserve!

The morning began with a panel discussion featuring four activist women:

Beth Dimino, STCaucus Chairperson
Mel Holden, Buffalo Teachers Federation activist
Jia Lee, candidate for UFT President and teacher activist in MORE Caucus and STCaucus
Samantha Winslow, organizer and staff writer at Labor Notes

Among the common themes of the discussion were union democracy and organizing at the rank and file level.

Following the plenary, attendees broke up into different workshops. During the first workshop, Melissa McMullan of the Port Jefferson Station Teachers Association and Patricia Alberti of the Rocky Point Teachers Association facilitated a workshop titled Finding Your Voice: Supporting Children’s Rights to Fair and Accurate Standards and Assessments and Protecting Our Profession, in which they discussed the state of public education and how teachers could have their voices heard. Samantha Winslow of Labor Notes facilitated The Caucus as a Vehicle for Positive Change in Our Union, which centered on where our power comes from (the membership) and how a caucus can help harness that power. Ms. Winslow tied STCaucus’ work to what successful rank and file caucuses in places such as Chicago, Massachusetts, Seattle, and other places across the country have accomplished. Jia Lee’s Teachers of Conscience- Teachers Refusing to comply and Opting Out workshop dealt with the courageous steps some teachers are taking in refusing to administer New York State assessemnts to their students. Finally, Katie Kleinpeter of the PJSTA facilitated a “best practices” styled workshop titled Organizing at the Local Level.

The second round of workshops saw four more sessions for attendees to visit. Geri-Ann McNamee of the PJSTA and Tracy Zamek of the Hauppauge Teachers Association facilitated a workshop titled Creating Change Through Local School Boards. Both women are school board members in their home communities and, in one of the most promising developments of the day, at least one attendee to the workshop now appears intent on running for the board in her home district as well. The Young Teachers Collective, who traveled all the way from New Jersey to be a part of the conference, facilitated the workshop The Personal, The Professional, and The Pedagogical: Organizing for New and Pre-service Teachers. Their dedication to the profession that they are only now beginning is admirable. They clearly are a bright part of the teaching profession going forward. Ms. Winslow ran her second workshop of the day, The Friedrichs Case and Organizing in Right to Work States, dealing with the looming Supreme Court case and what it means for us. Finally, I worked with Norm Scott from the UFT’s MORE Caucus to facilitate a workshop titled Unity Caucus: Thirst for Power and the Undemocratic Nature of Our Unions. They helped to inform attendees to the workshop on how a small group of people within UFT leadership manages to control nearly every level of teacher unionism we have all while shutting out any opposing viewpoints.

The day was a remarkable success as it brought passionate teachers from all parts of the state together to learn from each other and to network as to how we move forward as a caucus. It was exciting, for a change, to see an event planned and carried out entirely by rank and file teachers, with the intent of having their voices shape the union, as opposed to the top down nature of NYSUT that we have all come to know. The success of the event makes it increasingly likely that similar events around the state can be planned.

You may also want to check out UFT member James Eterno’s blog post on the event.
Here is Norm Scott’s post.

The PJSTA’s Deniz Yildrim, Gail Ports, and Sue Hirner sell hot dogs at the STCaucus’ Restoring Power to the Teacher Conference.

MORE Announces Jia Lee Will Oppose Michael Mulgrew in 2016 UFT Election

Beth Dimino, Jia Lee, Brian St. Pierre. Lee will be running against Michael Mulgrew for UFT President.

Jia Lee, the well known teacher activist from New York City who was the guest speaker at the 2015 PJSTA Conference Day, will be running in opposition to Michael Mulgrew for president of the United Federation of Teachers in this spring 2016 UFT election.

Mulgrew, whose position as the president of the largest local in the country, makes him the most influential teacher unionist in the country, in regards to influencing the direction of our statewide and national unions. He famously defended the Common Core at the 2014 AFT Convention by threatening anyone who “took them away” from him with violence. Additionally he marched with Governor Cuomo during the 2014 Labor Day Parade.

Lee’s record shows her to be quite a different candidate than Mulgrew. A current special education teacher, Lee has been one of the most visible opponents of high stakes testing in the state. She has worked diligently to build the opt-out movement in New York City and has traveled to other parts of the state as well to help the movement in those regions. She spoke at a Students Not Scores event in Port Jefferson last spring. Lee is also the face of the conscientious objector movement as she has refused to administer the New York State tests the past two years and helped to pen the Teachers of Conscience position paper. Lee, a member of the MORE Caucus within the UFT will be at the head of a joint slate put forth by MORE and New Action. At the statewide level, Lee is a member of the Stronger Together Caucus.

Via MORE Caucus…

NEW YORK: Educators, parents, and community members cheered the announcement of Jia Lee as their choice for UFT presidential nominee at the State of Our Union, State of Our Schools Conference on Saturday. Fed up with overcrowding, underfunding, and overtesting, educators are coming together with the community to take back their union, and bring change to their schools through the 2016 UFT elections.

“Our schools are in crisis, in large part part because our current union leadership is complicit in bad policy and continues to tell us that this is the best they can do. It’s not the time for us to re-negotiate what has already proven to be disastrous. It’s time for teachers to come together with the community and chart a new course for our union. We are going to take back our union and lead a fight for the schools our children deserve,” said Ms. Lee.

Saturday’s conference, organized by the Movement of Rank and File Educators (MORE) in coalition with a host of community organizations, was the first step in defining a platform for the upcoming UFT election and 2018 contract negotiations to defend and enhance New York City’s public schools. The conference featured discussions ranging from “Bringing Democracy to the UFT” to “Making Black Lives Matter in Education.”

In the upcoming UFT election, Lee will head a joint slate of teachers representing a united front of MORE and the New Action caucus. As a parent and a teacher since 2001, Jia Lee is at the forefront of the growing movement to opt-out of high stakes testing. She has served as a UFT Chapter Leader for the past 8 years, and is a conscientious objector who has steadfastly refused to administer tests that reduce her students to test score. Last year, she brought this testimony to theU.S. senate hearing on ESEA.

Educators have lost patience with Michael Mulgrew and the Unity caucus’ leadership of the United Federation of Teachers and are joining the community to continue building a movement for change– in their union and in our schools. Mulgrew has been president of the UFT since 2009 but has been unable and unwilling to effectively challenge the corporate onslaught against public education. He has agreed to high stakes-test based teacher evaluations and a contract that delayed earned pay raises for teachers.

In the last union election, in which 75% of working educators did not vote and the majority of ballots came from retirees, the MORE caucus earned 40% of the vote in the high school division and 23% of the active teacher vote overall. This year, in partnership with the New Action caucus, MORE seeks to increase voter turnout as active teachers reclaim their union.

ABOUT MORE: The Movement of Rank-and-File Educators (MORE), is the social justice caucus of the UFT and largest force for change within the teachers union. In the upcoming elections, MORE has formed a united front with New Action Caucus to challenge Unity Caucus, the bureaucratic political machine that has dominated New York’s teachers’ union for the past 50 years. Over the past decade, Unity has led the UFT into crisis, signing off on harmful policies such as overuse of standardized testing and pay increases that fail to keep pace with inflation, while using union funds to pay UFT President Michael Mulgrew over $260,000 per year and dole out salaries of over $100,000 per year to over 100 Unity Caucus political operatives on UFT staff.

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The Movement of Rank and File Educators is the Social Justice Caucus of the United Federation of Teachers. To learn MORE, visit www.morecaucusnyc.org

Lee’s keynote at this weekend’s MORE Caucus Conference…

Students Not Scores Forum

Below is the broadcast of Saturday’s Students Not Scores Forum featuring Jia Lee, Andy Greene, Ali Gordon, and Jeanette Deutermann. The forum starts at about the 12:30 mark.

MORE’s Jia Lee speaks at about the 16:00 minute mark.

Principal Andy Greene speaks at about the 54:00 minute mark.

Comsewogue School Board Trustee Ali Gordon right around the 1:10:00 mark.

Long Island Opt-Out’s Jeanette Deutermann begins speaking at around the 1:22:00 mark.

Tag: Jia Lee