Adam Urbanski wins handily in Rochester Teachers Association election

Adam Urbanski this week was elected to the presidency of the Rochester Teachers Association for the 22nd consecutive time, easily fending off a rare challenge by Enrico Fermi School 17 sixth-grade teacher Audrey Sowell.

According to results released by the union Wednesday, Urbanski got 1,354 votes to Sowell's 511, or 73% to 27%. The rest of his veteran slate defeated challengers affiliated with Sowell by similar margins.

"I think teachers recognized we have a hard road ahead in the next two years, so they voted for experience," he said Wednesday.

Turnout in the election was the highest in 25 years, Urbanski said.

The RTA's top priority during Urbanski's new two-year term will be addressing disruptions and violence in schools and fending off expected staff reductions and school closures to be announced later this year. RCSD will lose a great deal of federal stimulus funding in 2024-25 and already is bracing for a difficult budget year. The 2023-24 budget passed uneventfully on Tuesday.

One of Sowell's key points on the campaign trail was the need for union leaders with recent experience in classrooms; Urbanski and his top leaders have been on work assignment for many years.

Nearly a quarter of the RTA voters, however, were retired teachers. They are allowed to vote in elections but not to ratify contracts.

"I think the fear campaign that was put forth by the union really got to a lot of the retirees," Sowell said. "Unfortunately, people feel safe with doing the same thing that we’ve done and not trying something new, even though it’s not working for our students."

Urbanski has said he likely will not run for reelection again in 2025, and that he will spend the next two years developing one or more candidates to replace him as union president. Sowell said she's interested in running again.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Adam Urbanski re-elected as Rochester Teachers Association president