Lost in the Ozone...: family

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Monday, July 19, 2010

DOE Family Advocate Drops ‘N’ Bomb by Sasha Austrie - Queens Tribune

Read original and listen to audio clip...

This is a composite recording of a meeting of the PS 134 PTA Executive Board as they met with District 29 Family Advocate Ron Barfield to discuss changing over to a PA and adopting bylaws.

In the recording, they are reviewing a template from the Office of Family Engagement and Advocacy, and setting up the new PA’s bylaws with Barfield’s assistance.

:05 – When discussing when to hold PA executive board meetings, Barfield suggests days that would discourage parental involvement:
“Do it Fridays, cause niggers don’t like to come out on Fridays... That’s the truth, cause I ain’t coming out to nothing.”

In the second section, which starts at :20, the Executive Board is discussing what standing committees (pronounced communities on the recording) should be established. Standing committee chairs would have a vote on the Executive Board.

:53 – Barfield suggests not having standing committees in order to reduce the number of voting members.

“No community liaison. No standing committees... Just vote em in. Keep the niggers out… All them niggers are going to be voting and getting y’all to debate and dividing up the board. “

In the third section, which starts at 1:11, the board is voting to adopt the by-laws, which is supposed to be done by the full membership, and is not.

1:44 – Barfield suggests making t harder for parents to be involved:
“Please make sure that I get a copy, you keep a copy and let everybody else beg you for a copy.”

2:06 – After the vote, on his way out, Barfield give a word of encouragement to the people present:
“Keep niggers out the house.”

By The Department of Education has initiated an investigation into the Family District Advocate of District 29 after a recording of him using the “N Word” and other derogatory statements at a PA organizational meeting surfaced.

Ron Barfield was recorded on May 27 at a parent association executive board meeting at PS 134 in Hollis, using the word “nigger” on a number of occasions. The meeting was held to craft bylaws per Chancellor Joel Klein’s regulations.

Barfield has held his post since October 2007 and he is one of 32 family district advocates throughout the City. A family district advocate’s responsibility is to assist parents if they still have questions after consulting with their parent coordinators or principals.

While the executive board was discussing the implementation of standing committees, Barfield dismissed the concept as a divisive measure.

“We don’t want no community liaison, no ‘standing’ voting on your board; keep the niggers out,” the recording states. “All those niggers ain’t going to be voting and y’all going to debate and divide up the board.”

Felicia Galy, former vice president of the PA and Frances Vicioso, former recording secretary, confirm that the voice on the tape is Barfield.

“I actually was shocked when he said it,” said Galy. “He is a black man in a high position. I was just shocked.”

Vicioso, who had not attended the meeting, said she was “dumbfounded” when she heard the recording.

Barfield makes numerous references to “niggers” during the almost hour long recording.

At one point, the board is discussing when to host executive and general membership meetings. One board member said to continue the meetings on Wednesday, but Barfield suggests Friday.

“Hold it on Thursday or Friday,” Barfield said. “Hold it on Fridays because niggers don’t like to come out on Fridays. That’s the truth, cause I ain’t coming out to nothing.”

After Barfield’s statement, a chuckle rises from some in the room.

Matthew Mittenthal, a DOE spokesman, said Barfield’s alleged statements could land him on probation, transferred or demoted. He said the most extreme would be termination.

“Hurtful, offensive language has no place in our schools,” Mittenthal said. “We are referring these allegations to the Special Commissioner of Investigation.”

Galy said she has no faith in the DOE’s investigation.

“They basically cover for each other,” she said. Galy said her previous complaints to the DOE about the PA’s dysfunction had fallen on deaf ears.

“It’s a buddy system,” she said. “They cover for each other.”

Though Galy has a total lack of faith, she is hopeful that Barfield is disciplined, but not fired.

“What would be hopeful is that we don’t have these types of people in our schools,” she said.

In the recording, after the overhaul of the bylaws, the executive board unanimously votes to adopt the new amended version, without the vote of the general membership. According to the chancellor’s regulations “PAs must adopt a set of bylaws by a vote of the parent members.”

“Please make sure that I get a copy, you keep a copy and let everybody else beg you for a copy,” Barfield said.

Chancellor’s regulation requires the bylaws to be available at every meeting and to members upon reasonable request.

Just after the school bell rings signifying the end of a period, Barfield closes the meeting with “Keep the niggers out.”

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Councilman Joe Addabbo, Assemblywoman Cathy Nolan & WFP Call on Senate to Get Serious About Paid Family Leave...

66% of Mothers with Young Children Work Outside the Home

20% of Adults Care for an Elderly Relative

78% of People Who Need Family Leave Can’t Afford to Take IAt

Left to Right:Jane Thompson: Working Families Party, Martha Baker: NYS Coalition for Paid Family Leave, Assemblywoman Cathy Nolan, Melanie Castellano & Sean McCabe with their two month old daughter Kiera, and Councilman Joe Addabbo at the Learning Tree Early Childhood Center in Middle Village.

Councilman Joe Addabbo joined with Assemblywoman Cathy Nolan, the Working Families Party (WFP), the NY Coalition for Paid Family Leave, and a new mother to call on the state senate to finally get serious about Paid Family Leave (PFL). Addabbo lambasted the Senate Republicans’ lackluster effort to address the growing concern in the labor force between family/work balance. Citing a late session, one house bill which was introduced by Republican Senator Thomas Morahan, and co-sponsored by a number of his colleagues including Senator Maltese, Addabbo dismissed the legislation as a pathetic attempt to guarantee political cover, rather than a legitimate policy initiative. In June, 30 Senate Democrats signed a letter in support of the legislation, in addition to the four sponsoring Republicans, which would’ve passed had the leadership brought it to a vote.

"There are thousands of people across this state who every day have to choose between caring for a newborn child, or a sick family member, and putting food on the table. Women represent 53% of the state’s workforce yet Paid Family Leave eludes us. The bill put forth in June is tantamount to an empty gesture, rather than the real life legislation New Yorkers deserve. This is a serious issue which warrants much more than a signature,” said Councilman Joe Addabbo who chairs the Committee on Civil Service & Labor in the City Council.

“The Senate has bottled action which would be of minimal cost to business, and in fact strengthen our work force. Working mothers still remain the primary care giver to their children and relatives, and it’s time that New York State caught up with the changing face of labor. Bottom line: New York is not doing enough for young mothers and working people,” added Assemblywoman Cathy Nolan who sponsored the legislation in the New York State Assembly.

Studies by the New York Women’s Foundation found that the state ranks in the bottom third of states for women’s labor force participation (44th); and African American and Latina women are much less likely to be in managerial or professional occupations relative to white and Asian American women. However, women continue to enter the workforce at an increasing rate, and New York is no different.

Paid Family Leave is an initiative that would expand New York’s existing Temporary Disability Insurance program (TDI) to cover a worker who needs time off to care for a newborn or newly adopted child, or a seriously ill family member. Workers would receive up to 12 weeks of benefits. Under the current Temporary Disability Insurance (TDI) program, benefits are relatively low: 50% of a claimant's average weekly wage, up to a maximum of $170 a week. The current Paid Family Leave proposal would extend the same level of benefits to new situations.

According to June 2008 estimates by the Department of Insurance, PFL would only cost about $8/person annually or 16 cents/week, which translates into a 10-15% increase in disability premiums.

In polls by the Community Service Society, New Yorkers across income levels said they would be willing to pay for a paid family leave benefit. Seventy-six percent of low-income New Yorkers and 64% of moderate and higher income New Yorkers said they would favor extending TDI to provide up to 12 weeks of paid family leave even if it meant $1 a week would be deducted from their paychecks. (Source: 2005 Unheard Third Survey, CSS).

“Serf Maltese’s insincere support of a one house bill which reads like a 3^rd grade book report is an insult to working families everywhere. Maltese boasts of passing over 200 bills in his career, so why is it that suddenly a senior member of the Senate cannot advance a bill which bares his name? Albany’s continued willingness to play politics with the practical application of our lives is reckless and wrong,” added Martha Baker from the New York Coalition for Paid Family Leave, and a resident of Forrest Hills.

“Senator Maltese and the Republican leadership in the State Senate have failed the working men and women of this state by playing games with the important issue of Paid Family Leave,” said Jane Thompson, Executive Committee member of the Working Families Party and Political Director of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. “Too many workers aren’t able to afford to take time off of work after the birth of a new child or when a family member is seriously ill. That is why we need Joe Addabbo as our State Senator in Albany. He will provide the leadership necessary to move this issue to the forefront and get legislation passed.”

Addabbo went on to detail further the relevant demographic statistical data from the 2000 Census for the 15^th senate district represented by Serf Maltese:

10,995 women (16-65+) without a disability live below the poverty level
60,692 women in the labor force
4,848 women collect unemployment (as opposed to the 67,017 women who are just not in the labor force)
7,871 households (married, male head only, female head only) who are below the poverty line (this includes everyone, no matter what sort of public assistance they do or do not receive.)
84,720 households with wage or salary income
27, 242 households with no wage or salary income.

“I received six weeks paid disability from my job at a local Key Food, but it’s not enough. Times are particularly tough and they’re only going to get tougher with more mouths to feed. I’m lucky to be part of a supportive family, but I have to go back to work sooner than I would like. These first few months with my daughter are some of the most precious, but unfortunately I won’t be around as much as I would like,” said Melanie Castellano as she held her eight week old daughter, Kiera.

California’s Paid Family Leave law, enacted in 2004 has been extremely successful, even saving small businesses an estimated $89 million dollars a year in decreased turnover and a savings of $25 million a year to state on disability assistance.

Similarly, advocates have used California to illustrate the benefit to employers and as well as employees.

In 1993 President Clinton signed the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) into law, allowing covered and eligible employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave from a job to attend to their own health, the health of a family member, or to spend time with a new child. Much data exist, however, indicating that while many Americans need to take leave for family or medical reasons, a significant percentage of these individuals do not take leave because they cannot afford to miss a paycheck. Twenty-eight states have identified this shortcoming in the current law and the adverse impact it has had on employees and their employers. However, only California, New Jersey, and Washington have actually passed Paid Family Leave into law.