\Week in Review – May 25, 2017
ABCFT This Week –
ABCFT NEWS
ABCFT officers and reps concentrated on their local site testing and school plans this week so there were no Executive Board meeting or site representative council. The next scheduled meeting will be an Eboard meeting on June 1st and a site rep meeting on June 8th.
Tanya Golden, ABCFT Ex VP flew to Albuquerque, New Mexico to meeting with other AFT local leaders to discuss the implementation of a teacher leader program for ABCFT members for the 2017-2018 school year. ABCFT is working on an ABCFT Teacher Leader Program that will give up to fifteen teachers the opportunity to meet monthly to learn about budgets, legislation, how to engage local and state politicians, legislation advocacy, research for local negotiations, committee opportunities and opportunities to attend state and national union leadership trainings. Those teachers who enter the teacher leader program will be paid a stipend of a thousand dollars at the end of the school year. The stipend will be supplied by our national affiliate the American Federation of Teachers. ABCFT is currently building the program but we should have more information out to those interested in June so stay tuned.
28th ANNUAL ABC RECOGNITION DINNER
On Thursday night at the Sheraton in Cerritos ABC employees were celebrated for their years of service to the ABC community. A special recognition was held for those ABC employees that are retiring this school year. If you’ve never attended an ABC Recognition Dinner, it’s something to experience and when you are being recognised a must for your family to attend.
President’s Report
I attended/worked with members on representations, contract resolutions, site concerns and mediations. This time of the year is when we begin to prepare for next year so I’ve been working with staffs/reps on site representative elections, bell schedules, banking minute agreements/votes, and adjunct duty lists.
A few specific examples that were highlights: This week I worked with the district supervisors to help Artesia High School work on their innovative bell schedule as AHS prepares for next school year and the challenges of declining enrollment while still offering exceptional academic and career tech opportunities. I’m happy for Artesia for passing their bell schedule, being innovative is tough work and this was no exception. In a separate issue I also consulted with Human Resources throughout the week concerning seniority lists for ABC teachers. The seniority lists are important for specific contract situations so it is always prudent to check these lists.
On Wednesday I attended the PAL Council where we discussed the implementation and structure of the local site PAL surveys. The PAL Council consists of representatives from all employee groups and administrative leaders. This week we self evaluated on what supports the PAL Council can provide to help facilitate the PAL Survey better for the 2017-18 school year. It was agreed among all parties that a PAL Survey committee of two district administrators (but not evaluators) and two teachers will continue to monitor the PAL Survey process. The PAL Council is also responsible for the timing and content of the annual October PAL Retreat held for all ABCFT Site Reps and their Principals. The PAL Council is scheduled to meet multiple times before the beginning of next school year and is one of the groups that helps to maintain communication between ABCUSD and its employee groups.
Have a great Memorial Day!
In Unity!
Ray Gaer
ABCFT President
AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS
AFT’s Weingarten on Flawed Bellwether Education Report on Teacher Pensions
“Far from the distorted picture painted by the report's authors, the teacher pension system is actually a win-win for participants, working people and the American economy at large.” WASHINGTON— AFT President Randi Weingarten issued a detailed memorandum today responding to a fallacious report released last week by Bellwether Education Partners on teacher pensions.
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AFT President Randi Weingarten on Trump’s Healthcare Cuts
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WASHINGTON—American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten released the following statement on President Trump’s healthcare budget:
“President Trump’s cruel healthcare cuts will make Americans sicker and poorer, as well as deny lifesaving care to those who need it the most. These callous cuts are on top of the president’s efforts to rip away healthcare from 24 million Americans.
“Trump’s budget slashes more than $800 billion from Medicaid, gutting a program that more than 70 million low-income children, adults, people with disabilities, and the elderly rely on—and one the president promised to protect. On top of that, Trump handicaps our healthcare workforce by cutting training programs for nurses and doctors, and he undermines communities’ ability to combat the rise of the opioid epidemic.
“This budget leaves America’s poorest families with less access to food, healthcare and social services, and will have a devastating impact on the most vulnerable Americans. His sharp cuts to the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will make our country less knowledgeable about and prepared to combat public health crises.”
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NATIONAL NEWS
Top education official resigns
Ahead of a Congress hearing, James Runcie, a senior Education Department official in charge of managing federal student aid has resigned. Runcie said he was he was not seeing eye to eye with the new administration, asserting: "Successfully leading and managing a large, complex organization in the public sector requires alignment on governance and mission between operational leaders and political ones. Simply put, I submitted my resignation late yesterday because that alignment no longer exists".
DeVos advocates school choice but gives little away
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has said the government is planning "the most ambitious expansion" of school choice in U.S. history, but gave little information on how the program will work. In a speech in Indianapolis she said: "We must offer the widest number of quality options to every family and every child. We stand on the verge of the most significant opportunity we have ever had to drag American education out of the Stone Age and into the future". Mrs DeVos also stated that decisions on school choice must be left for states, not the federal government, to make, but warned states against boycotting reform.
Education Secretary refuses to rule out funding schools that discriminate
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has refused to say whether the federal government would step in to ensure that private schools in receipt of taxpayer funding would not discriminate against students, commenting only that such decisions will be left to school districts and parents. Speaking at a House appropriations subcommittee hearing on the budget, Mrs DeVos defended proposals to spend $1.4bn on the Trump administration’s expanded school choice agenda. The budget plan would eliminate more than 20 education programs, including after-school schemes for low-income students, and redirect funding to expanding school choice initiatives. Those include a $250m program to give students publicly funded scholarships to attend private schools. The conservative Heritage Foundation said the spending blueprint “signals a serious commitment to reducing federal intervention in education - a necessary condition to make space for a restoration of state and local control”. However, former education secretary John B. King Jr. called the plans an “assault on the American Dream”, adding: “No one in good conscience could stand up and say this budget makes sense for the interests of students and the long-term interest of the country”.
Charter schools and special needs
The US government is encouraging school choice, saying it can also benefit special needs students. However, charter schools, funded with public money, often are criticized for keeping out students with disabilities because they may be more expensive to educate and they tend to have lower academic results. A 2012 federal study shows students with disabilities accounted for 11% of those in traditional public schools and 8% in charter schools. Some observers say charter schools tend to prefer students who are more likely to succeed, while others say charters are less likely to classify students as having special needs.
STATE NEWS
Gun ban in schools strengthened
The California Assembly has passed a bill that rescinds superintendents' ability to let people carry guns in a school zone. Superintendents were originally allowed to give permission to carry guns on campus to ensure domestic violence survivors could defend themselves. However, Sacramento Democrat Kevin McCarthy said the provision had been "exploited" by school districts to allow cafeteria aids, teachers and yard duty assistants to carry firearms in schools. Around five California school districts have issued permits for civilians to carry guns in school zones
DISTRICTS
The most expensive school board race in US history
In last week's Los Angeles Board of Education race, charter school supporters and unions spent nearly $15m to fight each other, making it the most expensive school board election in US history. Charter supporters won a majority on the Board of Education, a move that could bring massive changes to the district. Charters spent $9.7m, compared with the opposition’s $5.2m, and their candidates finished first in both races on Tuesday’s ballot. Pro-charter outside groups and individuals spent $144 for every vote cast for one of the charter-endorsed candidates, while unions spent $81 for every vote received by teachers union-backed candidates.
School board to offer more support for undocumented students
The San Francisco School Board has extended its support for students who are in the country illegally, stressing that the district will contest immigration enforcement efforts by any legal means. Under the resolution, San Francisco USD officials cannot require students or families to disclose their immigration status, and are also restricted from cooperating with ICE investigations or “providing information or consenting to access to student records.”
TECHNOLOGY
Are personal assistants making children rude?
When children ask personal assistants like Apple’s Siri or Amazon’s Alexa for something and fail to say please, the assistants do not correct them as a parent might. Debbie Parsons, founder of the Parsons School of Etiquette, which offers manners classes to children in the South Bay area, believes that one way kids adopt good manners is by seeing their parents act politely.
Schools using apps to protect children
Smart phones are being used by some schools as protection against bullying and sexual assaults. Using tailor-made apps, victims and bystanders can alert school officials, police or parents to trouble. One app called STOPit, launched in 2013, allows victims and bystanders to anonymously report to administrators, teachers and virtually anyone the school deems appropriate.
SOCIAL & COMMUNITY
Students given crisis info on ID cards
Students at Davis High School will be given information about the Crisis Text Line - a free, confidential, 24-hour support service - on the back of their ID cards from August. Lisa Qvistgaard, a parent in the Davis Joint USD and a crisis counsellor with the text line, approached Davis High administrators about having the Crisis Text Line added to the cards.
Anti-Semitism on the rise in Bay Area schools
According to the Anti-Defamation League, reports of anti-Semitic vandalism and bullying at nondenominational K-12 schools in California have doubled since November compared with the same period the previous year. ADL regional director Seth Brysk said: “One of the disturbing trends we have found was rhetoric from the [presidential] campaign, or references to the campaign, finding its way onto middle school and high school campuses.”
HEALTH
Good news on vaccination rates, but outbreaks still possible
In an opinion piece Patrice Apodaca, a former Newport-Mesa public school parent and former Los Angeles Times staff writer, says recently released data shows that California's vaccination rate of kindergartners, at nearly 96%, represents a three-point increase from the 2015-16 school year. This progress, she says, is tempered by the fact that vaccination rates remain blotchy, particularly among older students, and the potential for outbreaks is still a concern in certain areas and at particular schools.
Vaccinations rates higher
Because of a change in state law that eliminated personal exemptions as a reason not to immunize children, area school districts saw an increase in the number of vaccinated students. A Orange County Grand Jury report, released earlier this week, said: “Each district planned well in advance of the change and acted early and successfully in their efforts,” said the report, which listed year-by-year vaccination rates for 24 school districts in the county dating to the 2013-14 school year.”
LA Times
