Here’s what leaders say about Jerry Jordan, who’s retiring as PFT president: ‘He’s the kind of guy you want to be the one taking care of you forever’

Jerry Jordan has spent 37 years with the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, and 17 as its leader. Here’s what people who worked closely with him have to say about the teachers’ union president, who’s retiring July 1.

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“He’s a measured leader and he was never going to back down or flinch or react in any sort of a way that centered him, and that’s a rarity. He’s the leader of public education in our region, an institution in our movement.”

Jordan takes seriously his responsibility to the entire PFT, Bavaro said — not just teachers, but nurses, counselors, paraprofessionals and others. He remembers the details of people’s personal experiences.

“And he takes the wide view in the slow process that is changing education in the United States,” said Bavaro. “He is traditional, but he’s open to listening, maybe more than he appears. We are working in an old system — in a very traditional, traditionally-set-up hierarchical system. There is a way that you have to be in order to get things done. There’s a ton of wisdom in figuring out how to progress in a system that is in no way set up to do so.”

Jordan is “personal and approachable,” Bavaro said. “And this is bittersweet: he’s the kind of guy you want to be the one taking care of you forever.”

Dean was six months pregnant and in her third year teaching at Carnell Elementary in Oxford Circle when she was laid off. Then-superintendent Arlene Ackerman had ordered layoffs out of seniority order, and Dean was frantic: How was she going to afford to take care of her coming child?

But the Carnell building representative reassured Dean: “‘Don’t worry, Trina, Jerry’s working on it,’” Dean remembers her colleague saying. “Jerry fought tooth and nail, regardless of what Dr. Ackerman wanted, and my job was restored.”

Dean said she’s never seen Jordan upset.

“I have seen him stern, I have seen him no-nonsense, but he never raises his voice. He’s very calm, but he’s a force. And his institutional knowledge is unmatched,” she said.

Gilmore Richardson, who spent two years as a PFT member early in her career, when she worked as a long-term substitute at Overbrook High, said Jerry Jordan is a “top-in-class leader; he’s always playing chess, not checkers. He’s just someone who really shows us how to be effective in your post. He gets things done, but he also cares.”

Jordan is her “market buddy,” Gilmore Richardson said — they often run into each other in the supermarket, where even in casual conversation, Jordan remembers the smallest details of people’s lives.

“He’ll say, ‘Oh, your daughter is graduating this year, right?’ How does he remember that? I’m thinking about nothing in the supermarket, and he’s asking me about my daughter,” said Gilmore Richardson. “Every time I see Jerry, it’s about working on behalf of the interest of the people he represents. He always asks about the children, the young people, how things affect them”

“Steady, focused, unwavering: That’s Jerry,” said Hughes. “Never got sidetracked by other issues in politics or in the community. It’s always about the students and the teachers with him. You’d never find him getting involved in any junk, any foolishness.”

Many of Jordan’s members have never seen him angry; Hughes actually has, when the stakes are high enough.

“And that’s not a place that you want to be, if he’s getting upset against you,” said Hughes.

Hughes is a longtime public education supporter in part because of his mother, who worked at Martha Washington Elementary in West Philadelphia for 38 years. Jordan, ever polite, rarely fails to ask after her.

“He’ll say, ‘I remember going to Martha Washington and seeing your mom; how’s she doing now?’” Hughes said. “My mother’s been retired for a couple decades now.”

A few years ago Keyes, a longtime paraprofessional in the district who was back in school to get his teaching degree, posed a question to Jordan at a membership meeting: Can the union help? Keyes needed to do his student teaching, but couldn’t afford to stop earning a paycheck while doing so. Jordan told Keyes about his hopes for a program that would address those needs.

He reached out to the district, and now, the district’s Para Pathways program helps employees like Keyes move up to teaching positions — placing workers who already have Philadelphia classroom experience into classrooms of their own amid a national teaching shortage.

“He never forgot his promise, and he earned my respect and admiration,” said Keyes, who’s now in his first full year as a classroom teacher at Spruance Elementary in the Northeast. “Jerry has been a phenomenal leader for PFT. It’s not about being loud, it’s not about bringing the most attention, it’s about having a plan.”

“I have one word for Jerry: transformational,” Kenyatta said.

Kenyatta said Jordan and the PFT deserve some of the credit for Pennsylvania allocating money for school facilities fixes for the first time in years. Under Jordan’s leadership, the PFT has often called out the deplorable, dangerous shape many school buildings are in.

“He leaves with this major victory on an issue that has been so defining,” Kenyatta said. “He’s always able to not only advocate for his members — which I think he always did very effectively — but to constantly make the point that kids are legally mandated to come to these schools that we know aren’t safe. He centers the most vulnerable in public policy. He understood people, but he also understood policies.”

Kenyatta said he values Jordan’s advice — Jordan served as a campaign chair when Kenyatta ran for U.S. Senate — and appreciates the fact that Jordan “was never resistant to the idea that sometimes there are new people who could bring a different voice to the system. He’s such a deep listener, and I was always so impressed of his command of the broad issues and the small details.”

And though he leads one of the city’s most powerful unions, Jordan is remarkably low-key, Kenyatta said.

“He is somebody who eschewed the spotlight other than as a means to an end to get people to pay attention to the issues he cared about,” said Kenyatta. “It’s never about Jerry as a person.”

It’s not lost on Kenyatta that Jordan was the first Black president of the PFT.

“A part of what sometimes gets forgotten is that your legacy is not just for you,” Kenyatta said. “It is proof-positive for other people who feel like certain things aren’t possible for them.

As a boss, Jordan “was very organized, very direct,” said Phillips, who began working for him in 1997. “He had walked the walk as a teacher, a building rep, a staffer, and he was always available to talk to you. If you even looked like you had a problem, he would sit next to you elbow-to-elbow and work things out with you. And he was a strategist — school district policies that we weren’t even aware of, he had them in his head.”

Jordan isn’t flashy, or loud, and he considers things deeply, Phillips said. He worked on and cared about the day to day, but he always had the bigger picture in mind.

Personally, Phillips said Jordan cared about his staff and members deeply. When her elderly parents became ill, he always asked after them, told her to prioritize taking them to medical appointments.

“He would say, ‘You only have one set of parents,’” said Phillips.

But he had an edge, for sure, Phillips said. When the district was entering state takeover, when the School Reform Commission attempted to cancel the PFT contract, Jordan was who you wanted holding things down.

“There were tough times, but he was unflappable,” said Phillips. “He reminded us: ‘Collectively, our voices can help make a change.’ He didn’t just focus on teachers. He said, ‘If we fail, the children fail.’”

In some ways, Weingarten and Jordan are an odd couple: She gregarious and a passionate, shoot-from-the-hip speaker, he quiet and measured.

But they are good and longtime friends. Jordan and former PFT president Ted Kirsch were among those who convinced Weingarten to take the leap from running the New York City teachers’ union to leading the national union. And Jordan is one of Weingarten’s national vice presidents.

“We were leading these very storied locals and probably became what other people would have thought was improbable friends. We worked hard together, and had each other’s back together over all these years,” said Weingarten.

When the School Reform Commission voted to close dozens of schools in 2013, Weingarten and Jordan engaged in civil disobedience together. (They decided that it made more sense for Weingarten, as the out-of-towner, to get arrested.)

“That was the partnership we had,” said Weingarten. “Jerry is one of those very special leaders. He combines a deep sense of compassion and righteous anger, a great strategic mind, with being a real gentleman, a real mensch.”

Watch Jordan’s eyes, Weingarten said: He’s a master at not revealing what he’s thinking. But he got things done, she said.

“Jerry’s first impulse is to protect students, families, educators,” said Weingarten. “People trusted him because of that.”