Showing posts with label Debbie Poulos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Debbie Poulos. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 26, 2017

UFT Update: Internal Wars - Engler and Schoor

Engler is still employed and makes $215,447 a year... NY Post - UFT director sends scathing emails with typo to secretary
Engler is the power behind the throne at UFT & Mulgrew defers to her .... anonymous
The NY Post has a story about emails from a year ago from Ellie Engler complaining about Howie Schoor's comments to Bronx staffers.
“I had a disturbing meeting with the Bronx folks about what you said to them,” Engler wrote last August in an e-mail to Schoor that was copied to UFT boss Michael Mulgrew and other top personnel. “They reported that you said, everyone hates Ellie and I am getting in your way to do the work you want to do.” 
A year ago I reported:

Mulgrew Removes Brooklyn Borough Rep Debbie Poulos - Was She too aggressive on certain abusive principals?

Insiders blamed Engler and some of her cohorts for Poulos' removal. Howie Schoor was Poulos' mentor and supporter.

Engler was a Randi implant and is viewed as her agent within the UFT. Note this comment on that blog post:
Of course Engler is her agent. She is not even a UFT member and was made one of the Direcor's of Staff because she was Randi's roomate in college. You can't imagine how hated she is by UFT staff.
Did Howie Schoor, who is now the union secretary and former Brooklyn and Bronx borough leaders -- and makes an equivalent salary as Ellie Engler --  leak these emails or did he forward them to someone who did? Little birdies in Unity Caucus have been chirping. Funny how much the Post puts emphasis on a typo clearly due to a computer error. What idiots at the Post.

My report last year
There is speculation that Poulos had stepped on some toes in the UFT hierarchy who have especially close relationships with officials in the Farina's DOE administration who are unhappy with UFT officials who are considered too aggressive. There are rumored names of those in the UFT hierarchy who had it in for Debbie but at this point that info is not confirmed...
As I said, Howie was Debbie's mentor and boss at the Brooklyn office before being moved to the Bronx to clean up a major mess there. (Note that Amy Arundell is replacing the retiring Rona Freiser at the Queens office -- where there was also a bit of a mess).

You might note that with the pressure MORE and New Action has been putting on the UFT leadership -- they seem to have been more aggressive with abusive principals and superintendents. Howie and Debbie were known to be advocates of that policy.

I reported a  year ago--
There is speculation that Poulos had stepped on some toes in the UFT hierarchy who have especially close relationships with officials in the Farina's DOE administration who are unhappy with UFT officials who are considered too aggressive. There are rumored names of those in the UFT hierarchy who had it in for Debbie but at this point that info is not confirmed 
Insiders told me that Engler forms a troika of sorts in the hierarchy- I forget with whom - I think these emails possibly confirm that Engler did play a role in Poulos' removal.

By the way -- Engler's claims -- she was never a teacher -- she has devoted her life to the union pales in comparison to Howie's career -- he has been in the UFT since the Civil War.

Read my post of a year ago here.
Below is the full NY Post article.

Sunday, July 17, 2016

Mulgrew Removes Brooklyn Borough Rep Debbie Poulos - Was She too aggressive on certain abusive principals?

"Mulgrew may think Poulos doesn't have the right temperament for the job," a Unity source told me. "She doesn't kiss ass enough."

Night of the long knives at the UFT

Sunday, July 17, 2016

A central office UFT Unity source contacted Ed Notes with an unconfirmed  rumor that UFT President Michael Mulgrew was removing popular Brooklyn Borough Rep Debbie Poulos. Poulos will be given another position in the UFT. The announcement is due to be made sometime tomorrow to the Brooklyn reps at the AFT convention in Minneapolis. Mulgrew often uses the occasion of AFT conventions to make these type of staff changes.  It wouldn't shock me to see other changes coming.

Poulos had a good working relationship with members of the opposition in MORE who worked in Brooklyn and a bunch of us hung out with her last Friday at the SOS march in Washington - she even took a photo with us wearing MORE shirts. "This won't get you into trouble," I joked. She laughed.

But that has nothing to do with this change. Behind the scenes Debbie has been known to be more aggressive than other UFT officials in hassling certain abusive principals. She supposedly had a top-10 hit list of principals. She played a role in the John Dewey story with the removal of principal Kathleen Irvin, sending in special reps to assist chapter leader Michael Solo in his battle. Michael left MORE and joined Unity Caucus because he was so appreciative of the help.

Debbie was a chapter leader early in her career under an abusive principal and full well knows the score. I put up a reso in the late 90s calling got more protection for chapter leaders due to the situation Debbie was in. Unity Caucus turned it down overwhelmingly.

There is speculation that Poulos had stepped on some toes in the UFT hierarchy who have especially close relationships with officials in the Farina's DOE administration who are unhappy with UFT officials who are considered too aggressive. There are rumored names of those in the UFT hierarchy who had it in for Debbie but at this point that info is not confirmed - Unity slugs are welcome to speculate in the comments section.

Mulgrew, not wanting to endanger his seat at the DOE table,  may be sending a message to those few reps who stand up for teachers too rigorously. When I checked with another source in Unity I was told they might try to turn the Brooklyn office into another Queens borough office which is considered by some to be the worst - or equal to the Bronx -

I know my old pal Howie Shoor will take exception to that but he is no longer Bronx borough rep, being replaced by Mary Atkinson who at one time was an Ed Notes distributor. Howie has moved up to 2nd in command as UFT Secretary. Howie was Debbie's guide and mentor and I wonder how he feels about this.

Debbie Poulos is popular with the Brooklyn reps who feel she  has their backs. I don't know all details but I've never considered the people I know in the Brooklyn office of being especially aggressive. But I am not plugged in to that info.

We'll report from the convention if we hear anything more.

If we find tomorrow that none of the above is true I will have to find a nice Minneapolis hat to eat.