Educators, students sleep out for homeless

For 21 years, educators and students in western New York have used the first Friday in February as a day to bring attention to the plight of the homeless.

Bundled in layers of clothing, activists sleep in cardboard boxes to raise awareness, money and donations of food, clothing, personal care items and furniture for Buffalo-area agencies that serve people in need.

This year, the group is well on its way to raising more than $30,000. The group included hundreds of students and members from the Kenmore TA, led by Don Benker; the Clarence TA, led by Frank Cantie; and the Lancaster CTA, led by Ursula Lundgard.

The sleepouts were started by Kenmore TA retirees Steve Ash and Jerry Starr, founders of the group Educators Totally Committed. Ash has been working for more than a year with UNESCO  - United Nations Educational, Social and Cultural Organization  - to designate the first Friday in February as "Worldwide School Day to help People in Need." Ash encourages school groups that conduct similar sleepout events to consider holding them on the same date to bring more attention to the issue.

Above: Lancaster students Alex Rindo, David Zhall, Zach Garland and Kip Evans invite English teacher John Efthemis in for a visit to their new overnight home, a refrigerator box. Efthemis, a member of the Lancaster CTA, organized the school's sleepout, which raised more than $3,000.

For information about ETC, contact Ash at (716) 694-4492 or e-mail allhelpall@yahoo.com.

Hair today ...

It was an ugly, hairy scene at Jordan-Elbridge High  - but all for a good cause. The high school held its first Ugly Beards Contest with proceeds, including cash and donations of canned goods, going to the Jordan-Elbridge Food Pantry.

Twenty-one male educators, including Jordan-Elbridge TA Grievance Chairman Ben Alexander, agreed not to shave from Christmas to Valentine's Day. School members and the surrounding community cast votes for the ugliest beard, paying $1 or one can of food per vote.

The contest raised $1,939 and more than 890 cans of food.

 - Syracuse Post-Standard, www.teacherbeards.org

... gone tomorrow

Teachers often make sacrifices for their students. And Marcia Ranieri is no exception.

The West Genesee Spanish teacher is participating in the St. Baldrick's "shave off" March 9 in honor of Jack Drozynski.

St. Baldrick's is a volunteer-driven worldwide fund-raising event for childhood cancer research.

Ranieri, a member of the West Genesee TA, taught Drozynski for three years. She also tutored him the year he was out of school undergoing chemotherapy.

For more information, or to help Ranieri reach her fund-raising goal, visit http://www.stbaldricks.org/. To support Ranieri, click on "participant," type in her name and click "shavee."

 - www.wgta.net

Ossining book drive a success

The Ossining Teachers Association recently sent more than 600 children's books and blank DVDs to soldiers stationed at a hospital unit in Baghdad.

The book drive, aimed at uniting families of deployed service men and women through literature, was sponsored by the union's Local Action Project committee. LAP is a community outreach/ coalition-building initiative developed by NYSUT.

Through member and community donations, the local collected more than 300 pounds of children's literature. The drive supported the United Through Reading Military Program.

Participating moms and dads will be able to record themselves reading the books, and have the recording, and sometimes the book itself, shipped back to their children.

A DVD of the child's response can be forwarded to the deployed parent as well.

The Ossining TA, led by Terry Bartok, is preparing a second shipment of books and DVDs to be sent to the 10th Mountain Division out of Fort Drum.

 - Ossining TA

Southern Tier solidarity

Members of Southern Tier local unions in NYSUT Election District 11 and statewide union staffers from the Vestal and Elmira regional offices donated more than $3,500 to striking employees at Dresser-Rand, a turbine manufacturer located in Painted Post.

The 400 members of local 313 of the International Union of Electronic, Electrical, Salaried, Machine and Furniture Workers  - Communications Workers of America struck in August in a dispute over health insurance and work rules.

Throughout the more than four-month strike, NYSUT members and staffers in the very "union conservative" area were in solidarity with the Dresser-Rand workers, collecting donations and donating homemade baked goods. The local union returned to work in December under the terms of the company's last offer. More than 300 union members have returned to work. Another 70 have been granted unemployment and job training benefits because the company moved their jobs overseas.

Locals supporting Dresser-Rand workers included: Horseheads TA, Ithaca EA, Odessa-Montour TA, Spencer-Van Etten TA, Greater Southern Tier Boces SSA, Newark Valley United Support Affiliates, Retiree Council 11, Horseheads School Support Association and the Endicott TA.

 - STROLL

Schenectady district disputes charter enrollment figures

Schenectady school officials are disputing several enrollment figures it received from the International Charter School of Schenectady and have accused the charter school of trying to defraud city taxpayers.

The district, claiming the charter school systematically failed to provide proofs of residency for students, submitted payments far less than the charter school requested. Host school districts must deliver per-pupil resources to charter schools.

In several instances the International Charter School submitted proof of residency for less than half of the students it claimed were enrolled. The school recently fired its director and information technology director. Last year, the charter parted ways with its management company.

In January, the State Education Department issued a decision to take more than $740,000 from Schenectady's state aid and send it to the charter school.

 - Schenectady Daily Gazette

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