Valley Central Teachers' Association
About the VCTA
The Valley Central Teachers' Association (VCTA) was founded in the early 1960s as the official bargaining unit representing teachers. The secretaries joined the VCTA in the 1980s and the paraprofessionals joined in the early 1990s. Today the VCTA consists of over 400 teacher bargaining unit members, 23 secretarial bargaining unit members, 140 paraprofessional bargaining unit members, and 180 retirees.
The Representative Council is the governing body of the Association and is made up of building representatives (one for every 15 members or fraction thereof) from each of the seven buildings (Alternative Learning Center, Berea, East Coldenham, Montgomery, Walden, Middle School, and High School), a secretarial representative, a paraprofessional representative, and two non-voting retiree representatives. There are five elected officers (president, two vice-presidents, secretary and treasurer), an appointed Online Media Specialist, New York State Teacher Retirement System representatives and appointed Benefit Trust (dental and optical) representatives.
Representative Council meetings are generally held on the second Tuesday of each month during the school year in the Middle School library and are open to the general membership. Meetings begin at 4:00 p.m. For a schedule of this year’s meetings and a full listing of officers, appointed positions, committee members and building representatives with their corresponding buildings and email addresses, view the Representative Council page.
The VCTA is affiliated with the New York State United Teachers (NYSUT). Our regional NYSUT office is the Tarrytown Office located in Tarrytown, NY. Our Labor Relations Specialist (LRS) is Sarah Arbitrio. VCTA officers communicate directly with NYSUT on behalf of our members. NYSUT, the largest union in New York State, is a federation of over 1200 locals, "representing more than 600,000 classroom teachers and other school employees; academic and professional faculty at the state's community colleges, State University of New York and City University of New York; and other education and health professionals." On the national level, NYSUT is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA). NYSUT, AFT and NEA are an integral part of organized labor through their affiliation with the American Federation of Labor―Congress of International Organizations (AFL-CIO) and Education International which represents over 20 million members world-wide. All VCTA members are, therefore, members of these national affiliates. We are NYSUT Local 14-135 and AFT Local 3076. As members of these state and national associations, we encourage all of our members to purchase union made products and services to support our brothers and sisters in the union movement.
When possible, buy union products made in the USA. Keep America's economy strong. Support local "mom and pop" businesses (view our Communities Serviced by Valley Central Page). Buy products made without child labor.