Activist Slate Challenges NHFT Leadership

A new race is on for New Haven Federation of Teachers president — with the union’s 15-year incumbent facing a challenge from a teacher-activist’s slate focusing on democratic process, clear communication, and coalition-building.

Incumbent President David Cicarella has repeatedly faced challenges over his five terms in office, especially in recent years. His latest challenger is Metropolitan Business Academy social studies teacher Leslie Blatteau.

Thursday afternoon, Blatteau formally announced her campaign to become the next president of the New Haven Federation of Teachers, Local 933, AFT, AFL-CIO.

She did so alongside a slate of a dozen fellow local educators also running for local union leadership positions, at a ​“Fighting For Our Future” campaign launch party at Bear’s Smokehouse Barbecue at 470 James St.

Cicarella told the Independent during a phone interview Thursday evening that he too will be running for another three-year term in office.

That means that, come election time in December, local teachers will have their fourth opportunity in three years to pick whom they want to lead their union. Cicarella won reelection in Dec. 2018, and then won two subsequent redo elections stemming from challenged results and technicalities.

As has been the case during previous recent teachers union presidential challenges to Cicarella, this year’s contest appears to be as much about the ​“hows” of leadership as about the ​“whats.”

Blatteau and her supporters and fellow union candidates stressed again and again on Thursday the importance of centering the perspective of the average ​“teacher in the classroom” at all steps of public education decision making processes.

They criticized the current union structure as too hierarchical, and not focused enough on clear communication and engaging a wide base of rank-and-file members.

Local educators need to reimagine ​“how we see our union and our role in it,” Blatteau told an enthusiastic crowd of roughly 50 supporters chowing down on mac and cheese and cornbread. ​“We are the union. Not leadership. We are the union. We have the collective power, and when we can engage with members and make sure they have a seat at the table for democratic decision making, for collaboration, we know we can win the fights ahead of us.”

Cicarella pushed back on that critique of his leadership style. He said that every year he appoints a diverse range of union members to serve on different committees focused on everything from teaching and learning to grading policy to curriculum planning.

He said he also prides himself on keeping rank-and-file members informed on the latest with the union through a Local 933 website where he and his fellow union leaders publish regular updates.

He acknowledged that a relatively small number of people tend to be most involved in day-to-day, year-to-year union work.

But that’s not due to a lack of outreach or effort to engage the base, he said. That just reflects the reality that many teachers are already stretched thin and don’t have the time to dedicate themselves to union work on top of their class work, grading, and other personal and professional responsibilities.

“It’s easy to say we should change,” Cicarella said. ​“But do you change for the sake of change?”

Blatteau: ​“Fighting For Our Future”

Blatteau and supporters at the launch party framed that critique as about much more than change for change’s sake.

They generally praised Cicarella’s tenure, arguing they are most interested in building a union for the future rather than lambasting how the union has been led in the past.

“For too long, people have felt the union is leadership, and that teachers are just teachers,” said Blatteau, who has worked in the New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) system since 1999, and has been a full-time NHPS teacher and union member since 2007.

She called for reinvigorating union committees and making sure that everyday teachers are engaged in how the union is run, in order to forge an equitable, democratic solution to the many challenges that lie ahead for public education.

Those range from helping to determine how a flood of federal pandemic-era relief dollars will be spent, to making sure that buildings are safe for students, teachers and staff alike during the ongoing pandemic, to protecting teachers from potential layoffs as computers become more and more central to how a classroom functions.

“We know that public education and public schools continue to be under attack,” Blatteau said. ​“We have to stand together. We have to breathe new life in our committees. … We need a seat at the table, not just for brainstorming, but at every step of the process of educational policy.”

One of the key end goals of this type of democratic teacher union activism is ​“fully funded schools,” she said. And what does that look like? ​“Lower class sizes, more staff in schools, better resourced schools, fairer compensation, more robust benefits, making sure buildings are safe, making sure there’s a nurse in every school five days a week.”

If she is elected president, she promised, the teachers union will work closely with other municipal unions, including those that represent paraprofessionals, cafeteria workers, and bus drivers.

“We know that union activism wins fights,” she said. ​“We have a potential collective power when we” work together.

Those themes resonated with many of the teachers and local educators who came out to support Blatteau, and in some cases run alongside her on the Fighting for Our Future slate.

“I do think it’s time for a change,” said Wilbur Cross school counselor Mia Comulada Breuer. Her top concerns with current leadership: A lack of communication and transparency from the top. ​“I do think we have a very strong union,” which she appreciates, but many union members do not know why and how certain decisions are made.

“This needs to be a more inclusive union,” said ESUMS teacher Kirsten Hopes-McFadden. Regular teachers need to be involved in decision making processes, not just those at the top.

“I’m ready for a change, for something fresh,” said Beecher School magnet resources teacher Erin Michaud.

Paraprofessionals Union President Hyclis Williams agreed. ​“I’m so excited to be in solidarity” with Blatteau and her slate, Williams said. The teachers and paraprofessionals unions can and must ​“work together side by side. We are a team.”

Blatteau’s slate of candidates for this December’s teachers union election includes Mia Comulada Breuler, Melody Gallagher, Samantha Ginzberg, Jennifer Graves, Kirsten Hopes-McFadden, Rachael Parrott, Alfred Meadows, Stephen Staysniak, Michael Soares, and Cameo Thorne.

Cicarella: ​“A Job I Still Enjoy, & I Think I’m Effective At It”

When asked why he’s running for a sixth term helming the teachers union, Cicarella responded, ​“It’s a job I still enjoy, and I think I’m effective at it. I’m proud of what we’ve done.”

When he first came to power 15 years ago, he said, ​“the union was in a fractured state. … I had to pick up the pieces back then. We are much more together as a union, and I’ve guided us through some really difficult times.”

During the ongoing pandemic, Cicarella said, the union under his leadership has fought for ​“reasonable working conditions for teachers, negotiated contracts for teachers that maintain medical benefits and that provide raises for them throughout the years.”

He also said he’s proud of the vaccination-or-testing policy that the union has secured for its members.

Thanks to this agreement, he said, local teachers have to be vaccinated or submit to weekly testing. ​“We think that’s a really fair compromise.”

The governor’s order does not necessitate the testing option, he said. That state-level executive order says that teachers must be vaccinated unless if they have a medical or religious exemption.

In New Haven, he said, teachers have the option of opting out of vaccinations and choosing weekly testing for any reason. And they will not have to pay for the cost of testing.

Cicarella also defended his style of leadership that prioritizes collaboration rather than public confrontation with the superintendent, the Board of Education, and the NHPS administration.

“I disagree with [Superintendent] Dr. [Iline] Tracey and board members on a lot of stuff,” he said. ​“You do that, but you make sure you do that in a responsible way. I think when you do it that way, when you’re collaborative and you’re responsible, you can be firm in your positions and get more results.”

As for collaborating with other local unions, Cicarella said the teachers union already does that. He said Local 884 and the Central Labor Council both have office space at the teachers union office building on Chapel Street in Fair Haven. ​“We are in constant communication with them.”

He said the teachers union worked closely with the city police, fire, and management unions to secure an agreement that allow for members to have more choices for IRA and HSA contributions.

Cicarella said he too plans to run alongside a slate of candidates, many of whom will also be running for reelection.

“It’s a very, very diverse slate,” he promised. ​“I’ve done that quite purposely. Younger and veteran teachers, high school and elementary teachers. We’re Black, white, brown, male and female.”