Congratulations to our NYSUT Retirees of Westchester/Putnam (RC 15/16) President, Veronica (Roni) O'Connor, who was awarded NYSUT Retiree Member of the year at the NYSUT Representative Assembly in Albany on April 2, 2022. This award is presented to two retirees; one representing UFT Retirees in NYC, and one representing NYSUT Retirees in the rest of New York State; who have demostrated outstanding leadership and union activism as in-service and retired NYSUT members.
Roni is a retired elementary school teacher having taught in the Mount Vernon and Pelham Public Schools for a total of 38 years. Her students came from a variety of socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds and brought a colorful and varied prosepective to each other's educaitonal experience. From her first year of teaching in Mount Vernon in 1964 and continuing in Pelham from 1970 until her retirement in 2003, Roni served as Association Bulding Representative, working closely with teachers, union leadership and administrators to assist in protecting contract rights. While in-service, she served on numerous professional committees and worked as a mentor to new teachers assisting wih classroom responsibilites and curriculum, as well as providing information about the union. She served as a member of the Pelham Teachers' Advisory Council and her school's Site-Base Team. She represented the Pelham Teachers' Association as a member of the negotiating team, always prepared to be sure that contract rights were protected. Although retired, Roni continues to serve on the Pelham Teachers' Association Executive Board as the Retiree Liaison.
As a retiree, Roni is the definition of NYSUT's "daytime army" of union retirees. She participates in the Committee of 100 lobbying and working with local and state legislators in support of public education, social justice and senior issues; serves on NYSUT's statewide Retiree Advisory Commitee, where she is the chair of the Constitution and By-Laws Sub-Committee; and is the retiree representative for the PelhamTeachers' Association, to keep Pelham retirees informed and involved. She is also a delegate to the Westchester-Putnam Central AFL-CIO Labor Council, and to the COPE Convention for the Pelham Teachers' Association. As RC 15/16 President, Roni was instrumental in ammending the council's constitution and by-laws and updating the council's financial proceedures. A longtime Making Strides Against Breast Cancer participant, she also encourages member contributions to NYSUT's Disaster Relief Fund.
During the COVID-19 shutdown, Roni transitioned quickly and smoothly from in-person to virtual meetings and programs to keep our membership engaged and informed, She created an extensive database of retiree email contact information which she used to share COVID updates and NYSUT, AFT and AFL-CIO Labor Council information with RC 15/16 members.
Over the years, Roni has served with distinction on several boards; among them the Port Chester-Rye Brook Library Board of Trustees, where she currently serves as President; member and President of the Michigan State University National Alumni Board, and as Treasurer of the MSU College of Education Alumni Board where her focus was to raise funds to support students during their fifth-year teaching internship. She currently serves as Treasurer of the MSU Alumni Club of Greater NY and Secetary/Treasurer of the Spartan Alumni Foundation of Greater NYC, where her focus is on raising funds for NY area students attending Michigan State.
For almost sixty years, Veronica O'Connor has shown not only outstanding leadership, but has provided significant service to the members of her local, the Pelham Teachers' Association; the members of her retiree council, NYSUT Retiree Council of Weschester/Putnam; the statewide NYSUT Retiree Advisory Committee; her Alma Mater, and her local commumity.