Longtime RTA President Adam Urbanski faces challenge in election

One way or another, Adam Urbanski's long reign atop the Rochester Teachers Association is coming to an end.

Voting is under way in the biennial union leadership election, where Audrey Sowell, an East High School graduate and longtime sixth-grade teacher at Enrico Fermi School 17, is opposing Urbanski for president. If she wins, she will become the first new president of the union since 1981.

If Urbanski wins, he said, he will spend the next two years helping recruit and train a new set of leaders for the RTA and almost certainly step down in 2025 to become a "full-time grandparent."

Both candidates agree on the most important challenges facing the union and the district: restoring safety to school grounds, adding social-emotional supports for students and stemming the exodus of teachers from the district. All three are issues that most urban districts in the United States are facing.

Different visions on paths to success

They differ mostly in their vision of how to achieve victory. Sowell, RTA's School 17 building representative, emphasizes that she and the other educators on her electoral slate are all active teachers in the district with first-hand knowledge of the way COVID-19 disrupted schools.

"It gives us a different level of understanding," she said. "Education has changed dramatically these last few years. That's why we feel such an urgency to get hands-on support to students."

Urbanski, meanwhile, last led a classroom 40 years ago, before many of his RTA constituents were born. Since then he and his longtime deputies have been on work-release dedicating themselves to union work: negotiating contracts, advocating during budget season and representing teachers in various capacities.

Those skills, he said, will prove more useful in persuading the district to increase spending or avoid teacher layoffs.

The candidates differ as well on their perspective of student behavior challenges. Sowell called for a major increase in the number of adults trained to support students to prevent disciplinary issues in the first place; she said she is ambivalent about the idea of reintroducing police into schools.

She also called for more professional development and expectations around anti-racism, an area where Urbanski has stepped more cautiously.

Urbanski agreed on the need to add social-emotional support but said it is "important and necessary but not sufficient."

For several years as RCSD has turned toward restorative practices, Urbanski has consistently said that traditional punishment — suspensions and, in some cases, arrests — should not be discounted in all cases.

"I agree we should not criminalize our students, but we also should not decriminalize criminal behavior," he said. "What we have now is a lack of logical consequences."

Challenges and criticism

Urbanski's presence at the RTA has been the most noticeable constant across two generations of gradual decline for RCSD, and so his name has become a curse word in certain circles. Some superintendents (Clifford Janey, Terry Dade) have fulminated against him, while those with better relationships (Peter McWalters, Barbara Deane-Williams) have stood accused of being in thrall to union interests.

Jaime Aquino, the state-appointed Distinguished Educator, suggested that "the Teachers Union and its contract are a major roadblock to improvement," and exhorted the district to bargain harder against Urbanski and the RTA.

Sowell, meanwhile, called the recently ratified teachers contract subpar and said she believes she could do better.

Increasing teacher pay, she said, is the only way to stop losing experienced teachers to suburban districts. So far this school year, 160 teachers have resigned, already more than last year's record of 135, Urbanski said.

Teacher pay in RCSD is currently pegged to the top one-third of Monroe County districts, an agreement Urbanski helped forge long ago to avoid negotiations becoming bogged down in "arguing over decimal points," as he put it.

Whoever wins the election will face a major challenge next winter, when the district is expected to propose a major plan for cutbacks and school closures in light of declining enrollment.

Sowell is running atop a ticket that also includes Kristen French and Amy Labrosa as vice presidents, Bill Best as treasurer and Kellene Paul as secretary. Urbanski's slate includes John Pavone and Margaret Sergent as vice presidents, Aimee Rinere as treasurer and Matt Lavonas as secretary.

Union members can vote until May 8, and results will be announced May 16.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Adam Urbanski challenged in Rochester Teachers Association election