50 YEARS AGO

Teachers union merger watched

The proposed merger of the New York State Teachers Association with the United Teachers of New York was being watched closely by Saratoga County teachers, who would be asked in coming weeks to vote on the proposition. Presentations were being planned in many of the 11 school districts in the county to inform teachers about the merger, said one NYSTA official. Several local teachers’ organization leaders confessed they had not been able to study all the ramifications of the merger. “We were more opposed to the merger agreement than to the merger,” said Betty Wheeler, president of the Ballston Spa Education Association, an affiliate of NYSTA. The state’s teachers would be mailed ballots May 19 to decide the fate of the proposed merger, which would join the 165,000 NYSTA members, who were primarily in the upstate region including Saratoga County, with the 85,000-member UTNY with the most strength in the New York City area.