Friday, April 13, 2018

ABCFT - Week in Review - April 13, 2018

ABCFT - Week in Review - April 13, 2018

In case you’ve missed previous Weeks in Review, you can find all of them here: ABCTeachernews To find previous editions, just click on “Blog Archive” which is the menu on the right and click on the specific week.

(ABC Federation of Teachers)

In Unity
ABC Federation of Teachers

For confidential emails - use your non-work email to write us at:

2018 CFT CONVENTION REPORT

Thirty eight delegates representing ABCFT attended the annual CFT convention March 23-25. ABCFT understands the importance of attending the convention since legislative resolutions and policy is debated and voted on by the delegates in attendance. Although we are considered a midsize local, we had the third largest group in attendance. ABCFT was definitely in the house!

The core of the convention is the work that occurs on the convention floor but there are many other activities that delegates partook. On Saturday, we joined thousands of other students, parents, and community members in the Walk For Our Lives rally in Santa Ana. It was heartbreaking to listen to the young adults speak of the damaging effects of gun violence. The activists weren’t just airing their grievances, they took action by aggressively pre-registering young adults to vote. Our Lieutenant Governor, Gavin Newsom also spoke and reminded the audience of how Californians had taken the lead as the first state to ban the sale of automatic assault rifles back in 1989.


At the EC/TK-12 Council on Friday night, delegates had an opportunity to Skype with Angela Johnson, a fellow AFT teacher from West Virginia that participated in the 10,000 educator strong 10 day strike. The teachers had not received a raise since 1990 and their once affordable healthcare was about to double in cost. The biggest take away from the monumental strike was how the working families came together to support the teachers. Ms. Johnson expressed how the struggles were not a red or blue issue but working people rising against big business. And in this case, the worker’s prevailed with a 5% wage increase for all state workers as well as restoring the right to govern their own health care. After it was all said and done, there is no doubt the strength in unity with power of the thousands upon thousands of educators, fellow unionists, and community members is what made their governor and legislators listened and take action.

A wonderful way to finish the convention Sunday was to honor our president, Ray Gaer. At the Pride of the Union Award ceremony he received the CFT Raoul Teilhet Educate, Agitate, Organize Award. Each year, one union activist is awarded this prestigious honor. This year, Ray was recognized for his many years of outstanding dedication  as a labor leader, union activist, and groundbreaking role model in labor management partnership. We are fortunate to have Ray as our president at ABCFT. Congratulations Ray!



NEGOTIATION UPDATE -  by ABCFT

The negotiations team has concluded the negotiating  process for the 2017-2020 Master Contract. ABCFT is awaiting the final edits from the District.  Similar to our salary tentative agreement, the executive board will need to approve it before it can be brought to the rep council (on May 10th) for a vote enabling it to be sent out for our members to ratify. More details will be forthcoming as this process proceeds.




ABCUSD School Calendars for 2018-1019 and 2019-2020. ------> Get your ABC Calendars here!
MEMBERS GET ACTIVE


ABCFT TEACHER LEADERS PROGRAM: Tanya Golden TL Facilitator Profile here

You’re hearing it here for the first time, the ABCFT Teacher Leaders Program will be offered again for the 2018-19 school year. We are very privileged and honored to participate in AFT’s unique program where the teacher’s are in the driver's seat in regards to action research and learning about the multifaceted components of unionism and its role in education. Applications for the 2018-19 session will be available later in May. Speaking of May, mark you calendars to attend the ABCFT  Teacher Leaders Showcase on Friday May, 18th from 3:00 to 7:00 pm at the Union Hall. You will be able to hear about each TL’s research results and get an insight to the program. So be sure to stop by even for 30 minutes to support your fellow teachers and union activists. More information to follow.     


YOUnion Social
Join us Friday, April 27th from 3:00-5:00pm for our monthly no-host YOUnion social at Frida Mexican Cuisine 11169 E. 183rd St in Cerritos.



Curriculum Link of the Week


This week we thought we could show you a way to add some adventure and leveling up into your classroom with Classcraft. This website provides the tools to gamify your classroom. Students get individual avatars, go on quests, face challenges for points and levels. Classcraft transforms school by taking the video game mechanics that provide rich and interesting play experiences and applying them to the classroom setting.

Sharing resources and ideas are what keeps our classrooms innovative, interesting, and organized. Each week,  ABCFT will highlight an education resource that we heard was great for teachers. If you have a website, book, or training that you found helpful in your classroom let us know at abcft@abcusd.us so we can share it with everyone.

If you send an idea or link and we use it in the Review, we will send you a Starbucks gift card for the helpful hint.



  PRESIDENT’S REPORT - Ray Gaer video profile here

Over this past week I attended/worked with unit members in representations, contract resolutions, email/text/phone call questions, site concerns, and mediations. Here are a couple of highlights from my week:

Spring Break signals that we are heading into the last quarter of the school year where all the preparation teachers have done throughout the year will pay dividends. As the students wind up for testing many principals and teachers are already planning for the challenges of preparing for next school year. Many staffs are looking at bell schedules, adjunct duties, and staffing for next year.

At the Union Hall, we are also starting to prepare for next school year. At the end of June we will no longer be renting the entire building on our corner site. We will be reducing the size of our facility as our programs, needs, and resources change. When we first moved into this newer Union Hall deep in the recession it was a bargain and a chance to centralize the Union in the district. When we took over the building ABCFT was doing a lot of teacher trainings and needed larger facilities to house these activities.  ABCFT wants to live within our means as a union and as things get tighter with fewer students in our schools, ABCFT also feels the impact of declining enrollment with fewer teachers. ABCFT has not raised local union dues since 2007 and we are mindful of using every local dollar to give back to the membership through representations, salary raises, negotiations, support when teachers have questions or need assistance.

How has ABCFT changed? Well, the short answer is that over the course of the past six years, ABCFT has become more of a “organizing model” local. What that means that we have engaged the district directly about professional development to guide district professional development because that impacts your classrooms dramatically. To engage the district this way we have had to organize teachers to become leaders in their areas of expertise. The Union is not about a single person or a small group of fanatic teachers. The YOUnion is about engaging every member and activating/empowering that individual power. ABCFT’s latest project that illustrates how we organize is the very successful Teacher Leader Program where we have given fourteen teachers the tools to grow personally and professionally. The saying “Together we are strong” is not cliche, it is fact.

The united support of all teachers working together in a YOUnion is a powerful force and has been the reason the ABC School District has remained strong throughout the past forty-five years.

Thank you for all you do with our students and for supporting  each other as a YOUnion.
As always, we will see you back here next week.

In Unity!

Ray Gaer
ABCFT President

CALIFORNIA FEDERATION OF TEACHERS

Convention 2018:  A snapshot summary in words and pictures

March 23-25: Hilton Orange County in Costa Mesa
About 400 delegates at CFT Convention 2018 discussed resolutions on a broad range of policy issues; heard from the law school dean at UC Berkeley, Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom, and Tony Thurmond, the CFT-endorsed candidate for the job of superintendent of public instruction; joined thousands to rally and march for safer schools and common sense gun control; learned a whole lot about Janus v. AFSCME, a Supreme Court case that could effectively turn the public sector into a “right to work” zone; and heard from a teacher in West Virginia where they succeeded in getting a 5 percent raise for all public employees.
In a grim time for public schools and unions in general, with Donald Trump as president and billionaire anti-public education advocate Betsy DeVos as the Secretary of Education, speakers acknowledged the bleakness of the situation while exhorting CFT members to fight harder and offering bright spots to celebrate.

AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS

Below are a few of the most recent press releases from AFT over the past couple of weeks.

Follow AFT President Randi Weingarten: http://twitter.com/rweingarten




On May 1, join the Los Angeles May Day Coalition for our annual May Day March. On that day, Los Angeles will honor the contributions of immigrants, workers, and those who fight to create a more just society for all. This year, thousands of Angelenos will march together in the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Harvey Milk, Dolores Huerta, and Cesar Chavez to fight for the right of all workers and immigrant communities.
Together, we will fight back against the attacks on our communities!
DETAILS:
What: May Day March
When: Tuesday, May 1, from 12 - 3 p.m.
Where: Gather at Pershing Square - 606 S. Olive St
Parking: Suggested parking at Union Station, ride the metro to Pershing Square

----- NATIONAL NEWS -----

I expect we will continue to see more situations across the country like Kentucky, Virginia, and Oklahoma.
Kentucky and Oklahoma teachers go on strike
School teachers in Oklahoma and Kentucky have gone on strike to protest cuts in pay, pensions and years of low spending on public education. Spurred by West Virginia teachers, who went on strike and got a pay raise, the educators are also demanding better conditions for students and themselves. "This isn't just about teacher salaries," said David DuVall, executive director of the Oklahoma Education Association. "This is about funding our schools for our students." Jennifer Thornton, a third-grade teacher from Tulsa, said the lack of funding has led to outrageous class sizes. "The worst I've seen is 40 special ed students in one classroom," she said. "We don't have enough adults in the building to keep the number of students we have safe or still learning."
Oklahoma teachers end walkout
The Oklahoma Education Association called off a nearly two-week walkout that shut public schools statewide, saying it had secured historic gains in education funding after a decade of cuts devastated budgets. The walkout ended after the Republican-dominated legislature passed its first major tax hikes in a quarter century that raised about $450m in revenue for education. Republican leaders said they had no plans to go as high as the $600m being sought by educators. Alicia Priest, president of the Oklahoma Education Association, which has around 40,000 members, said: “We absolutely have a victory for teachers. Our members are saying they want to go back to the classroom.” The walkout began on April 2nd and affected about 500,000 of the state's 700,000 public school students. Lawmakers said that Oklahoma teachers, who were seeking a $10,000 annual wage hike over three years, will see an average annual pay raise of about $6,100 from the increased funding.


Puerto Rico to close 283 schools
Amid the island's long economic slump and the continued departure of families after Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico's Department of Education has announced it is to close 283 schools this summer following a sharp drop in enrollment. Education Secretary Julia Keleher said there would be no layoffs in the U.S. territory, that currently has more than 1,100 public schools serving 319,000 students, with teachers and other employees being reassigned to other schools as part of a plan to save some $150m. "We know it's a difficult and painful process," Keleher said. "Our children deserve the best education that we are capable of giving them taking into account Puerto Rico's fiscal reality."

Cell phones more prevalent in U.S. schools
According to data from the National Center for Education Statistics, the percentage of K-12 public schools that prohibited cell phone use was about 66% in 2015-16, down from more than 90% in 2009-10, while among high schools, the shift over the same period dropped from 80% to 35%. “We’ve seen a lot of schools say, well, I’m not going to fight the tidal wave of parents coming at me that are upset that their child can’t have the cellphone in school,” said Liz Kolb, an education technologies professor at the University of Michigan. “There are teachers who have found that having the cellphone is like having a computer in your pocket, so it’s a way to have another learning tool at the disposal of the children that isn’t necessarily costing the district more money,” she said.

More US schools employ armed officers
A U.S. government study has found that armed security officers are becoming more prevalent at schools. According to data from the National Centre for Education Statistics, armed officers were present at least once a week in 43% of all public schools during the 2015-16 school year, compared with 31% a decade before.

----- STATE NEWS -----

Survey finds California parents fear school shootings but don't want to arm teachers
Two months after a gunman killed 17 people at a Florida high school, a new survey finds that most California parents are concerned about the threat of school shootings but that a large majority opposes allowing more teachers and school officials to carry guns on campus. The statewide survey, conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California, found 73% of California adults and 82% of public school parents say they are very or somewhat concerned about “the threat of a mass shooting in your local school.” It also found that that 67% of adults and 68% of public school parents oppose allowing more teachers and school officials to carry guns at schools. There is more opposition in California than the nation as a whole; a recent CBS News poll found that 50% of adults nationwide oppose arming school officials. California lawmakers are currently considering a bill that would assign armed law enforcement officers to all school campuses at state expense.


State Superintendent Torlakson on lack of student funding
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson said on Monday that, even though school funding in California has bounced back from budget cuts made during the Great Recession, California nonetheless provides barely half the funding-per-pupil that states like Massachusetts and Connecticut provide for the education of their students. Speaking to the Davis Rotary Club, Mr. Torlakson said that, at “about $10,700 (per year, per pupil)…“We are around 45th or 46th” among U.S. states in terms of funding per pupil. He went on to stress the importance of studying world languages, adding that he will be making an important announcement later this year regarding bilingual education in California, so “we will have more students learning Spanish or Mandarin or Farsi, in addition to English.”

Davis Enterprise

100,000 Californian teens pre-register to vote
California Secretary of State Alex Padilla has released data showing 100,000 16-17 year olds have pre-registered to be automatically eligible to vote once they turn 18, under a program launched before the last Presidential election.Los Angeles USD interim Superintendent Vivian Ekchian welcomed the news, saying: “Registering to vote empowers our students to stand up for what they believe in, and to help build the world they want to inherit.”

----- DISTRICTS -----

This section is good when comparing for stability of administrations and labor relations.
LAUSD begins interviews for new superintendent
Los Angeles USD board members have begun interviewing candidates to succeed Michelle King as superintendent. The leading internal contender is thought to be Vivian Ekchian, who has filled the role on an interim basis since Ms King went on medical leave in September, with chief academic officer Frances Gipson also thought to be in the running to lead the nation’s second-largest school system. The Times speculates that the school board could well opt for a leader without an education background, such as former investment banker Austin Beutner, who currently co-chairs an outside task force assessing how the school system works. Mr Beutner has also served as an L.A. deputy mayor, as well as publisher of the Times.
Chico to consider alternative scheduling for high schools
Chico USD trustees are set to meet later today to consider possible alternative scheduling models for the district’s high schools, potentially changing the high schools’ current six-period day into something that will better accommodate student needs, such as credit recovery after failing classes and AP and career technical education courses. The board is also slated to make a decision about Blue Oak School charter renewal petition.


San Diego teachers reach deal on contracts
A San Diego Education Association spokesman has confirmed that teachers in the district have reached a tentative agreement on a new three-year contract that includes a 2% raise in the 2018-19 school year, with staggered payments of 1% to be paid July 1st 2018, and 1% to be paid by February 2019. The preliminary contract, which must be ratified by the SDEA membership and approved by the San Diego USD board, also guarantees three weeks of paid maternity leave for women in SDEA who have worked in the district for at least one year, and places new caps on class sizes.

Bonita names third superintendent in three years
Bonita USD has selected Carl Coles as its new Superintendent, marking the third change in superintendent in the past three years. Coles has worked for the district for 11 years as a director and assistant superintendent, and has been serving as acting superintendent since January 2018, when Christina Goennier was placed on administrative leave. School board president Chuck Coyne praised Coles, saying he was: “First and foremost about the students…His integrity is impeccable, his honesty is Boy-Scout like.”
Gonzales Superintendent fired over teacher cuts
Board members in Gonzales USD have unanimously voted to fire Superintendent Liz Modena, after prolonged criticism from parents, teacher and students over numerous popular and long-term teachers being let go under Modena’s watch. High school teacher Fidencio Cuevas told reporters: “People wanted to know why qualified teachers were being let go in a state teacher shortage. These are veteran teachers who want to be here.” 14 teachers have been fired, leading to tensions between infuriated community members and the district, with Cuevas saying that Modena’s firing is “a step in rebuilding” lost trust.


Beverly Hills reaches impasse with teachers over salary cut
Beverly Hills teachers have reached an impasse with Beverly Hills USD for the first time in 20 years, as a third-party mediator has stepped in to rescue suspended negotiations over district proposals to cut teacher salary. Current measures secure teacher salary by obliging the district to raise teacher salaries in line with property taxes, leading to a 14.9% raise in wages since 2014, which critics say is unsustainable in light of BHUSD’s current budget crisis. Superintendent Michael Bregy said: “It is important to recognize we must all work together to ensure the success of our students by attracting and retaining high calibre teachers, while…sustaining a financially healthy school district.” In light of BHUSD’s budgeting issues, Beverly Hills residents are to vote on a $385m bond requested by the district on June 5.

----- LEGAL -----

Fresno woman wins major equal pay decision
Relying on a woman's previous salary to determine her pay for a new job perpetuates disparities in the wages of men and women and is illegal when it results in higher pay for men, a federal appeals court ruled yesterday. The decision by an 11-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals came in a lawsuit filed by math educator Alieen Rizo in Fresno County. Ms Rizo sued Jim Yovino, Fresno County superintendent of schools in 2012 because her newly hired male colleague - who shared the same job title as her but had less education and experience - was being paid $13,000 more. Mr. Yovino, who says he will petition for a Supreme Court review of the case, commented the policy at the time was to add 5% to the previous salaries of all new hires, and that it was "gender-neutral, objective and effective in attracting qualified applicants."
Teacher appeals termination over military comments
Gregory Salcido, the El Rancho High School teacher who was fired in March after video emerged of him making disparaging comments in the classroom about the military, has appealed El Rancho USD’s decision. The case now moves to the state’s Office of Administrative Hearings; there is no timeline as yet as to when the appeal will be heard.


Former Long Beach soccer coach settles discrimination lawsuit
Teri Collins, a former girls’ soccer coach at Long Beach Poly High School, has settled a lawsuit against Long Beach USD that claimed she was stripped of her coaching job for complaining about gender discrimination and sexual harassment. The suit alleged that she also complained that the chairman of the physical education department sexually harassed her, physically threatened her and used demeaning and humiliating language toward her in front of students.

----- WORKFORCE ----

Teachers more powerful now than ever before, academic asserts
Jon Shelton, author of "Teacher Strike! Public Education and the Making of a New American Political Order," and an assistant professor at University of Wisconsin at Green Bay, argues that, given the vital economic significance Americans have placed on education, teachers may be more powerful now than ever before. "They cannot be outsourced, and neither free-trade deals geared toward corporate interests nor digital technology can render them obsolete. It's quite possible that striking teachers across the country represent the beginning of a trend in which the ordinary people who keep our education system and our economy running realize just how much power they have," he says.

Arizona teachers move to California to double pay
An Arizona teacher who moved to teach in California after not receiving a pay raise for six years is indicative of a wider trend for underpaid Arizona educators being attracted to California and other nearby states for better earning opportunities. Renee Castillo was working in Yuma UHSD, Arizona, when he realized that “with a one hour commute, he could double his pay, to nearly $80,000.” US Census data shows that 730 teachers left Arizona each year from 2014-16, with over half of these choosing California for its superior pay prospects.

----- HEALTH & WELLBEING -----

Most students’ natural rhythm out of sync with classes
The majority of students are out of sync with the traditional school day and it correlates with decreased academic performance, a study has shown. Researchers at the University of California Berkeley found that 50% of “night owl” students were taking classes before they were fully alert, while 10% of “morning larks” had already peaked by the time their classes had started. The researchers suggested that “we should work to individualize education.”

----- TECHNOLOGY -----

Warning signs for edtech community
Forbes contributor Derek Newton examines the results of a recent Gallup survey which asked 500 K-12 teachers in the U.S. about students’ use of digital devices such as smartphones, tablets and computers. The results show that most teachers – 58% – said digital devices were not helpful in education. Of the teachers responding to Gallup, 30% said the devices were basically irrelevant, neither a help nor a harm to education, and 28% said the devices were “mostly harmful” to education. The remaining 41% of teachers did report that digital devices were “mostly helpful.” Mr. Newton suggests that the survey should come as a warning sign to the edtech community due to the fact that teachers in higher grades (9-12) were even more skeptical of the educational value of digital devices – 64% said they were either not impactful or actually harmful to education.


Google's Wi-Fi connected school buses program to be expanded
Google is planning to expand its school bus Wi-Fi program to 11 more U.S. states after the pilot was initially rolled out in Caldwell County, North Carolina in 2016. The initiative focuses on maximizing the long travel times that students in rural areas are forced to sit through by giving them an opportunity to do homework and additional computer exercises. "A Rolling Study Hall is like an extended classroom. It addresses the needs of students that don't have Wi-Fi or internet access in their home," Lilyn Hester, Google's Head of Southeast Public Affairs, said.

YouTube accused of violating child privacy laws
YouTube stands accused of violating U.S. laws designed to protect children’s privacy online, in a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission filed by a coalition of nearly two-dozen campaign groups. The complaint contends that the Google subsidiary has been collecting and profiting from the personal information of young children on its main site, although the company says the platform is meant only for users aged 13 and older. It directs younger children to the stand-alone YouTube Kids app, which contains a filtered set of videos from the main site.


----- HIGHER EDUCATION -----

DeVos to reconsider fate of ACICS
Betsy DeVos, the Education Secretary, has said she is to consider reinstating the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS) following a court ruling in favor of the higher education accrediting agency. The Obama administration stripped the organization of its power in 2016, after deciding it was incapable of rectifying years of lax oversight, but the judge called the decision process flawed for failing to consider relevant evidence. “As the court ordered, we will fairly consider all of the facts presented and make an appropriate determination on ACICS’s petition,” Mrs DeVos said.

Widespread hunger in U.S. colleges, study finds
According to a report conducted by researchers at Temple University and the Wisconsin HOPE Lab, more than one third of college students in the U.S. say they don't have enough money for food, with some even going whole days without eating as they simply cannot afford meals. The study, involving 43,000 students at 66 institutions in 20 states and the District of Columbia, says 42% of community college attendants described themselves as food insecure, while a third say they have skipped meals or eaten smaller portions to cut costs.

----- CHILD EXPLOITATION-----

Website shutdown applauded by campaigners
U.S. law enforcement agencies have seized the sex marketplace website Backpage.com as part of an enforcement action by the FBI. The move was applauded by groups and political leaders working to end forced prostitution and child exploitation. The website posting said lawyers in Arizona and California, as well as the Justice Department’s section on child exploitation and obscenity and the California and Texas attorneys general had helped shut down the website. Senator Heidi Heitkamp said: “Backpage was shutdown. It’s a huge step. Now no child will be sold for sex through this website.” Senator Heitkamp helped draft legislation passed by the Senate last month that makes it easier for state prosecutors and sex trafficking victims to sue social media networks, advertisers and others that fail to keep sex trafficking and exploitative materials off their platforms.
Reuters The Register

----- CHARTERS -----

LAUSD board takes control of charter school rules
Los Angeles USD board members voted 6-0 on Tuesday on a deal that formalizes who controls the “boilerplate” language regarding charter school petitions. Going forward, members of the LAUSD board, rather than district staff, will now vote annually to approve a uniform "district-required language" document that every charter will have to follow. Emilio Pack, who runs STEM Prep charter schools, said: "What we’re going to have is an authorizing environment where the rules are clear. It makes it a lot easier for the [Charter Schools Division] to enforce those policies and it becomes much more easy to follow when you actually know what the applicable policies are.”
Low-achieving students less likely to apply to charter schools
Underprivileged students - specifically those who are low-achieving, non-white and low-income - are less likely to apply to charter schools yet stand to benefit the most from them, according to new research from UC Berkeley. The study looked at patterns of selection into Boston charter schools. Christopher Walters, an assistant professor of economics at UC Berkeley, said: “Complicated school enrollment processes may be easier for more-advantaged households to navigate. There are a variety of studies suggesting that disadvantaged students are less likely to enroll in high-quality educational options, possibly because they face higher logistical barriers to learning about and taking advantage of these options.”


.----- OTHER -----

Parkland survivor wins UC Irvine place
David Hogg, the teenage survivor of the Parkland, Florida, high school shooting who was mocked by Fox News host Laura Ingraham for not being accepted to several California universities, said yesterday he has been accepted to UC Irvine. The 17-year-old Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School senior said he has not yet decided whether to attend the school, as he has been so busy.









at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)