Week in Review – September 8, 2017
ABC FEDERATION OF TEACHERS THIS WEEK...
Many of the ABC elementary schools are already having their Back to School nights, so ABCFT has been making sure that Teachers and Staff are appreciated for their hard work and preparation. Here’s some proud teachers at Leal prior to their cake feast. (Site rep on the right is Laura Aragon)
ABCUSD SCHOOL BOARD HIGHLIGHTS
You can watch the school board meeting highlights here: Sept 5 School Board Meeting
Highlights are:
@ 29:00 - Facilities and Maintenance report (find out what improvements have been made over the past couple years)
@ 1:15:00 - ABCFT Employee Rep Reports ( Ray & Tanya)
ABCFT SCHOOL BOARD ELECTION NEWS
ABCFT/ABCUSD NEGOTIATIONS UPDATE
ABCFT negotiating team began negotiations Friday, September 8th for master contract for 2017-2020, salary and benefits for 2017-18, and the calendar for 2018-19. ABCFT will be reporting on the progress of negotiations as they develop.
HURRICANE HARVEY RELIEF FUND - MAKE A DIFFERENCE
In response to the needs Hurricane Harvey relief fund, ABCFT Executive Board unanimously voted to send an unprecedented $2,500 to our Texas AFT brothers and sisters. Texas AFT teachers will use the money to replace classroom supplies that were destroyed during the devastating storm.
PRESIDENT’S REPORT
Over this past week I attended/worked with members on representations, contract resolutions, site concerns and mediations.
Every so often I get the chance to visit with principals and staffs about the state of their schools and how things are going. This week I visited Melbourne Elementary to meet with the principal to discuss the changes at Melbourne over the past year. I was impressed with how the staff is using AVID and a university theme to create a new culture of excellence among the students. The principal, Karina Martir spoke highly of the Melbourne staff and how teacher leadership continues to be a cornerstone of the success of the school. I especially was impressed by the bulletin boards in the staff lounge that documented all of the hard work that has been done by the staff to create a fluid PBIS process.
Teachers were able share their different PBIS behavior charts and is similar to how we show students work on our bulletin boards. It was valuable to see documents illustrating all of the intense, behind the scenes work going on to help Melbourne students. Thank you Melbourne for sharing.
On Thursday, ABCFT had our monthly site representative council at Haskell Middle School. We will begin sharing the site rep talking points the week after our monthly site rep meeting. So, if you happen to miss the union meeting, you can still be aware of some of what’s being discussed at the site rep meetings. A big thank you to all of those tireless ABCFT Site Reps who make it to the monthly meeting to share and discuss the most important issues that impact teachers and nurses.
Have a great weekend and we will see you back here next week.
In Unity!
Ray Gaer
ABCFT President
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CALIFORNIA FEDERATION OF TEACHERS
CFT's Josh Pechtault on DACA
CFT President, Josh Pechtault, sent out the following message today after the Trump Administration announced that DACA would be TERMINATED! We believe that you would like to know how you can help support our DREAMERS…
MORE INFO IN THIS LINK: ABCTEACHERNEWS
AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS
AFT’s Weingarten Responds to DACA Repeal
WASHINGTON—American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten released the following statement on President Trump’s decision to terminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that protects more than 800,000 young, undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children:
Go here to see the transcript: Full transcript from Randi Weingarten
Follow AFT President Randi Weingarten: http://twitter.com/rweingarten
NATIONAL NEWS
New scores show huge achievement gap
New results from the ACT highlight the achievement gap between students from disadvantaged backgrounds, and those with more affluent families. The scores show that only 9% of students in the class of 2017 who came from low-income families, whose parents did not go to college, and who identify as black, Hispanic, American Indian or Pacific Islander are strongly ready for college.However, the readiness rate for students with none of those demographic characteristics was 54%. “That kind of shocked us,” ACT chief executive Marten Roorda said. “We knew it was bad, but we didn’t know it was this bad.”
Teachers assigning less homework
According to a University of Phoenix (UP) study of more than 1,000 U.S. K-12 teachers, less than half of them assign three or more hours of homework a week, while 27% of them assign an hour or less, or even no homework at all. “This data challenges the notion that American teachers are continuing a reliance on outside schoolwork,” says Pamela Roggeman, from UP. “In reality, many educators are embracing new models of learning in lieu of traditional homework assignments.”
Senate committee rejects Trump’s education cuts
The Senate Appropriations Committee has voted to approve a spending bill that rejects President Trump’s proposed cuts to education funding for fiscal year 2018. The move has derailed the administration’s goal of directing federal dollars toward promoting and expanding school choice and private school vouchers. Among the largest cuts sought were $2bn to a federal program used to hire and train teachers. “After millions of students, parents and teachers stood up and rejected Secretary DeVos’ extreme privatization agenda, I’m pleased that Republicans and Democrats in Congress ignored her requests to gut programs that help students from preschool to college and beyond.” Democrat Senator Patty Murray said.
STATE NEWS
California to revive vocational training
California is to spend $6m on a campaign to revive the reputation of vocational education, and $200m to improve the delivery of it. Enrollment on vocational courses at community colleges has dropped to 28% from 31% since 2000, and research by the state’s 114-campus community college system shows that families and employers alike didn’t know of the existence or value of vocational programs and the certifications they confer, many of which can add tens of thousands of dollars per year to a graduate’s income.
Free school tampons bill clears senate (Garcia is an ABC Assemblywoman)
A bill, introduced by Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia, which requires schools that educate any combination of students from sixth through 12th grades to stock half of campus restrooms with free menstrual products, has cleared the state senate. The bill only applies to schools in which 40% the students meet the federal poverty threshold. “To me this bill is not just about a medical necessity, but about access to education,” Garcia said. “A lot of young women tell us that they miss school because they cannot afford these products.”
Education news was a little light this week…..
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