Week in Review – May 19, 2017
BREAKING NEWS
Make sure you sign up for the one day professional development opportunities when school gets out. ABCFT hopes you are are looking forward to ABC's "Make it Personal" Professional Learning event on Monday, June 19 for secondary and Tuesday, June 20 for elementary. This opportunity was made possible by an agreement between ABCFT and ABCUSD as part of our LCAP employee input meetings. ABCFT worked hard to make sure teachers were well compensated for this event ($440 for six hours) so sign up and support Teacher Driven Professional Development opportunities. Registration closes on Friday, May 26th and there will not be any late registration, so sign up now. You will need your employee identification number when you register.
ABCFT This Week –
ABCUSD Board Meeting this week
17:30 - ABC 2016 California Honor Roll Schools were recognised by the board: Bragg ES, Burbank ES, Carver ES, Cerritos ES, Elliott ES, Gonsalves ES, Kennedy ES, Leal ES, Nixon ES, Carmenita MS, Haskell MS, Ross MS, Tetzlaff MS, Cerritos HS, Gahr HS and Whitney HS. Principals of these school were featured and teachers were thanked for their hard work.
29:00 - A well produced and informative video was shown highlighting the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) Program in ABC (it’s worth the watch!)
1:17:00 - ABCFT Employee Report - President Ray Gaer gives an update of ABCFT activities of interest to bargaining unit members.
2:33:00 - ABCFT response to board vote on management tentative agreement. Vote was 6-1 in favor of a 1% on salary and 1% one time check.
ABCFT Negotiating Team Attends 2017-18 Budget Conference
Members of the negotiating team attended a Budget Conference on the State budget in preparation of compensation negotiations during late Summer. The negotiating team members regularly attend School Services state budget overviews throughout the school year to get updates on state finances which directly impact school districts.
District LCAP Presentation to Employee Groups
ABCFT Executive Board Members and Negotiating team members attended the annual ABCUSD LCAP report prior to the approval by the school board. LCAP stakeholders receive a summary presentation of the district's preliminary outline of how the District will spend sixteen million dollars of funds earmarked to impact students needs. This report will be on the ABCUSD website and it will get a final approval for 2017-18 by the school board in June.
President’s Report
I attended/worked on teacher representations, contract resolutions, site concerns and mediations. This week ABCFT and ABCUSD continued talks about the transition of ROP teachers as they become ABC employees that will be represented by ABCFT in the 2017-2018 school year. This is a crucial time for these employees as they make this important transformation we know that ABCFT members will take the time to welcome and support them during this time of change.
On Wednesday I had my weekly meeting with Dr. Sieu but I also spent time at a Special Education Training. This training was discussing functional behavioral assessment tools that could be used to enhance the writing and implementation of IEP goals for special education students. Functional behavioral assessments look at the causes of behaviors and the impact of positive and negative reinforcement on student behaviors. For more information, talk to you school site PBIS team, site psychologists, or your special education teachers.
Thanks to all those teachers who wrote in for the “Teachers Pay Teachers” giveaway. Your $10 give certificates for “Teachers Pay Teachers” are on their way!
In Unity!
Ray Gaer
ABCFT President
NATIONAL NEWS
Michelle Obama attacks school meals policy
Michelle Obama has hit back after the Trump administration loosened nutritional standards aimed at making U.S. school lunches healthier. At a public health summit in Washington, the former first lady, who championed the 2010 Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, said: "This is where you really have to look at motives. You have to stop and think, why don't you want our kids to have good food at school? What is wrong with you? And why is that a partisan issue?" She added: "Think about why someone is OK with your kids eating crap. Why would you celebrate that?” Mrs Obama’s comments come just over a week after Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue signed a proclamation that relaxes standards for the upcoming school year in three key areas: whole grains, salt and milk. Under the new proclamation, states will be able to grant exemptions to schools experiencing hardship in meeting the 100% whole-grain-rich standard. Schools will no longer need to hit the strictest target for lowering sodium in foods offered to students and meal programs will be able to serve students 1% flavored milk instead of fat-free flavored milk.
Pot linked to poorer school performance
Pot smoking teens regularly achieve poorer grades at school and risk their chances of going to university, according to a new study in Canada, published in the Journal of School Health. Users were four times more likely to skip classes and two-to-four times less likely to complete their homework and value getting good grades.
DeVos' 'edutech' speech rubbishes Prussian education model...
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos' speech to education technology advocates at the 2017 annual technology and innovation conference in Salt Lake City deserves much attention, says the Post's Valerie Strauss. She talked mostly about school choice, not educational technology, renewing previous attacks on the value of government and public schools: "The system is based on the Prussian model implemented in the early 1800s. Yes, courtesy of a country that no longer exists. The system assigns your child to a school based solely upon the street on which you live. If you’re a block away from a better school zone, too bad," DeVos said.
STATE NEWS
Wage increases may hit California after-school programs
A possible hit to California's after school program appears to be an unintended consequence of two of Governor Jerry Brown’s widely praised policy proposals - the shifting of control to school districts of state funding and the increase of the state’s minimum wage. "We have been told by about a third of the program providers across the state of California in a survey we did earlier this year that if they don’t get some relief with a higher daily rate, they’re going to have to close their doors,” said Jennifer Peck, chief executive officer of Partnership for Children and Youth. Separately, the Bee reports, Sacramento City USD and Twin Rivers USD are seeking other organizations to provide free after-school services after the city pulled funding for their long-standing programs.
CLASSROOM
School bullying falls
According to a new study in Pediatrics magazine, school bullying has dropped significantly. In 2005, 28.5% of students surveyed reported experiencing at least one form of bullying but, by 2014, that had dropped to 13.4%. One of the study authors, Catherine Bradshaw, a professor and associate dean at the University of Virginia, said: "Occasionally, there is some good news out there. There are some things that are improving". She also said much of the improvement coincides with the Obama administration's efforts to fund research.
WORKFORCE
The struggle to hire minority teachers
Even though the teaching workforce in the US has become more diverse, progress has been at a relatively modest pace. According a 2015 study from the Albert Shanker Institute, from 1987 to 2012, the minority share of teachers nationally has grown from 12% to 17%, but the minority share of the student population increased from 27% to 44% over the same time. Minority teachers are leaving the profession at a higher rate, the study showed. Some minority teachers are leaving because they feel they lack autonomy at work and little input into decisions.
CHARTER
LA campus offers an idea of what lies ahead
At the core of Tuesday's Los Angeles USD school board election was the conflict between charters and traditional public schools, and one LA campus may provide an idea of what lies ahead. Daniel Webster Middle School, a traditional public school co-exists with Magnolia Science Academy 4, a charter school that receives public funding but is independently run. The election results have brought differing feelings on the Webster campus and other schools across the city, with some believing the changing climate will provide more choices for educating children, while others worry what might happen to LAUSD’s traditional schools, alarmed by the huge spending power of pro-charter groups.
SOCIAL & COMMUNITY
Immigration ‘the civil rights issue of our time’
Carl Cohn, executive director of the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence, has said immigration is “the civil rights issue of our time.” He said with the US government’s increased focus on immigration and school choice, asking parents and community members what they want is critical to the future success of public schools.
Bullying endures and sexual assaults up
According to a study by the National Center for Education Statistics and the Justice Department, one in every five middle and high school students has complained of being bullied at school and the number of reports of sexual assault on college campuses has tripled over the past decade. Lauren Musu-Gillette, one of the authors of the study, said: "There are areas of concern in terms of bullying and rates of victimization being high. We are seeing a long term decline, but we still want people to be paying attention to areas where rates are still high."
Brown v. Board after 63 years...
As the historic Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, which ordered the desegregation of public schools in the United States, turns 63 years old today, author Richard Rothstein, who is also a research associate at the Economic Policy Institute and a fellow at the Thurgood Marshall Institute of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, argues that poor, black and Hispanic children are becoming increasingly isolated from white, affluent children in America’s public schools.
FINANCE
CTE funding could be cut
Governor Jerry Brown’s 2017-18 state budget proposes a complete elimination of funding for Career Technical Education (CTE) and other programs. Jim Aschwanden, Executive Director of the California Agricultural Teachers’ Association, said: “We are extremely disappointed that Governor Brown has proposed eliminating Career Technical Student Organizations like the Future Farmers of America and other CTE funding in California.”
OTHER
Teen dies at school after drinking too much caffeine
Sixteen-year-old Davis Cripe collapsed and died at Spring Hill High School in South Carolina last month after drinking too much caffeine, a coroner has concluded.
CNN
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