Friday, May 17, 2019

ABCFT - Week in Review - May 17, 2019

ABCFT - Week in Review - May 17, 2019

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:
Applications for the 2019-20
ABCFT Teacher Leaders Program
With the support of AFT our national union, we are again honored to offer the ABCFT Teacher Leaders Program for the 2019-20 school year. Below are the details regarding this national program as well as the online application process.    

To learn more about ABCFT’s Teacher Leaders Program please attend the Showcase Friday, May 17th from 3:30-6:30 pm
at Fedde Middle School.

The recruitment flyer which highlights the program
can be found here-->ABCFT is Seeking Teacher Leaders
and TLP guidelines here--->TLP Participant Guidelines


ABCFT Teacher Leaders Applications are due by Tuesday, June 4, 2019
________________________________________________________________________
MEET A MEMBER
If you’d like to be featured in the Meet a Member Click this link here.
The ABCFT YOUnion is made up of 1,100 great teachers and medical professionals and each one of us has a story to tell. Each week we will highlight a member of ABCFT. Thank you Darian for sending in your meet a member form!
Meet Darien McGibbon an educator for 4 years. She is currently teaching Transitional Kindergarten at Elliott Elementary.
If you could give ” first-year teacher you” advice what would it be?
Don't worry too much or work too hard - everything WILL get done eventually! Also, don't forget to have fun!
How did you get involved with the union?
I am involved in the union so that I know my rights as an educator are protected and fought for.
Describe a day in the life of being a Rep at your site or your interactions with the union.
One of my favorite interactions was the Union sponsored student loan event - I learned so much that I was able to apply to my own student loans! It’s great to know Darien was able to use the information provided by an ABCFT sponsored workshop. We will have another Student Debt Clinic and other workshops to support our educators in the 2019-20 school year.
What is your favorite movie/show, song, or book?
My favorite show right now is Game of Thrones - no spoilers I promise!
Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter...MySpace?
Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. I am a millennial after all!
What do you do for fun?
I love to spend time outside by going to the beach, hiking, or walking my dog. I also love seeing live music, trying new breweries and food places.
Do you have a bucket list?
Hike Half Dome, travel to every MLB ballpark, & have my own family one day.
If you could have a superpower what would it be?
Time Travel.
Thank you, Darien, for sharing your story with the ABCFT community.

RESEARCH FOR YOUR CLASSROOMS
Elementary Teacher Subject Specialization - Is It a Good Thing?
"This should work!" Reading between the lines of a new study looking at how to make the most of effective elementary teachers, it seemed pretty clear that even its dispassionate authors, Kults from a North Carolina experiment in which some elementary teachers were allowed to specialize in one or two elementary subjects rather than teach all four. By having teachers focus on a few subjects that they're good at, Bastian and Fortner—and us, as well—expected their students to benefit.
They didn't.
The teachers, who had strong track records in their specialized subjects, actually became measurably less effective than they had been as generalists. And the more they specialized—such as teaching only one subject instead of two—the less effective they became. And their downturn didn't improve even after a few years under the new structure.
School of Choice Update  by Ray Gaer-

I will have Part 6 in my reports about the SOC committee in next Friday’s Review. Thank you to all of those who have shared your thoughts and stories over the past couple of weeks. Your emails and conversations are helpful guidance of what concerns and situations you are facing.

If you have been negatively impacted by the dramatic procedural change for ABC’s School’s of Choice lottery, I would encourage you to write to Tim.Catlin@abcusd.us




NEGOTIATION TIMELINE repeat
At this time, the ABCFT Leadership and Negotiating Team are researching data, attending budget workshops, and working with ABCFT member groups. ABCFT will have a full review of California’s May Revised Budget which is released later this month.  As we wait for the state to sort out the revised budget, we thought it would be good to highlight the State’s budget process over the past eleven months. Hopefully, if you were not aware of the budget process for the state of California this timeline would shed light on how the process works.
ABCFT expects to be in salary negotiations for the 2019-2020 school year starting in August after the State budget is finalized.

(From a previous post) When do negotiations for salary raises start again?
Here is an overview by the California Federation of Teachers of the 2019-20 California State budget  Here is the link if you would like to look at this document.  This document is an analysis of the Governor’s preliminary State budget for 2019-2020. The proposal is part of preliminary negotiations between the Governor and the CA Legislators about how they will prioritize spending. As of the beginning of March, ABC is looking at 6 million dollars of additional monies but this doesn’t take into account ongoing increases in Health (1 million), Step and Column (750K), Declining enrollment (1-2 million), STRS increases (1% at 1 million). These are ballpark figures but as you can see we are suffering from what every other district is suffering from flat COLA (Cost of living) funding.  We hope to have more information closer to May when the State budget is revised and we have solid numbers that we can use for negotiations.

New information
CFT Research Department - Joanna Valentine
  • State revenues ran behind Dec-March due to personal income taxes coming in lower than expected. This turned around in April with the receipt of more than enough money to cover the shortfall.  The additional funds could result in an upward revision of Ca general fund revenues which will yield a corresponding increase in minimum Prop 98 guarantee. Governor called this "modest good news" as "there are dark skies on the horizon." May revise may be out as soon as next week, due on May 14th.
  • COLA rate at January budget was 3.46%, will be revised down to 3.26% in the May revise.
California State Budget Timeline Made Easy
July 1 - Fiscal year begins.
July 9 - September 15 - Department directors and agency heads initiate detailed reviews and develop budget proposals for their programs for the next fiscal year. These requests are then reviewed by the Department of Finance for review.
October- January 10 - The Governor evaluates the requests as reviewed by the Department of Finance and sends his or her proposed budget to the legislature.
January - February - The budget committee chairs in each house introduce the Governor's’ budget proposal in bill form. The Legislative Analyst’s Office prepares a detailed review of the budget bill.
March-May - Each house refers to its budget bill to their respective budget committees. The bills are then broken down by subject and assigned to the appropriate subcommittees by subject areas. After completion of the hearings, each subcommittee votes and send its report to the full budget committee.
Late May - June - The budget committee of each house considers the subcommittees’ reports and sends a revised budget bill to the floor for evaluation by the full body. Each house discusses and then votes on its version of the budget bill. The differences between the Assembly and Senate versions of the budget bill are worked out in a conference committee made of three members from each house. Upon completion of its review, the conference committee submits a single version of the budget bill to both houses. The Senate and Assembly each vote on this final version before it is sent to the Governor. The houses also vote on trailer bills if statutory changes are necessary to implement provisions of the budget bill.
June 15 - July 1 - The bill becomes law as soon as it is signed by the Governor due to its status as an urgency measure.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________


MAY ACADEMIC SERVICES UPDATE
Each month Connie Nam and Rich Saldana work with Beth Bray and Carol Castro to provide teacher input about professional development, curriculum changes, and testing changes. ABCFT believes that the biggest working condition impacting teachers are the key curriculum and the professional development being churned out of academic services. Many times the district is implementing changes that are coming from the State of California but rarely do unions get involved in those changes. ABCFT believes that teacher's voice helps to provide the district office with classroom advice and input that helps to deliver better comprehensive changes.  Each month at the ABCFT Representative Council Rich and Connie give reports and take questions on all things related to academic services.

____________________________________________


PRESIDENT’S REPORT - Ray Gaer
Each week I work with unit members in representations, contract resolutions, email/text/phone call questions, site concerns, site visits, presentations,  state/national representations and mediations. Here are some of the highlights of interest.


I hope you all had a good week and your students were on their best behavior. This week I participated in the interviews for the new Director of Fiscal for ABCUSD. This is the position just below the CFT Toan Nguyen and ensures that we get paid on time and that the schools get what they need to run smoothly. So, not only did district fiscal get an updated office and furniture, but they will also get a new director. On Tuesday, I met with the CTE teachers from across the district in the classroom of Cerritos High School CTE teacher Brian Rodriguez. In this meeting, we discussed the working conditions and class sizes of the CTE teachers from the various programs. I was shocked to see that in many cases CTE teachers have classes that are made up of more than 50% special education students. As you might guess, this fact has an impact on a wide variety of critical areas impacting their classes. As a group, they have willingly agreed to help me to inform the ABCFT membership of the quality of their various programs. They will be doing this by highlighting their programs at the ABCFT representative council meetings and by writing articles for the Week in Review. Thank you CTE teachers for our productive meeting!
It is starting to feel like the light at the end of the tunnel is getting nearer. I was visiting with the Nixon Elementary staff yesterday (I heard they had food) and I could hear and see that teachers are starting to wrap up with the end of the year activities and discussions about next years classes. I really enjoyed my time talking with the staff because we had some meaningful discussions about negotiations, mental health, and budgets. So many ABCFT members are staying current by reading the Week in Review that the discussions between members are well informed and insightful. I’m very glad that ABCFT made the commitment two years ago to start this weekly publication as a way to keep members abreast of the educational environment and how important each members voice is in shaping that reality. Thank you Nixon teachers and staff for the great conversations! I look forward to visiting many more schools as we close out the school year.

Membership Coordinator Tanya Golden and I are trying to bring some closure to some year-long campaigns as we gear up for next year. This year it was important that ABCFT prepare for the various campaigns and plans we have for next school year.
Here is a list of next school year’s major campaigns and plans for ABCFT:
  • Master Contract negotiations for next spring
  • Salary negotiations opening in August for next year
  • Stipend salary adjustments/additions/restructuring
  • Preparing for Week in Review Program Highlights for Nurses, Speech and Language, Career Tech Ed, Secondary Visual Arts, Adult School, and Mental Health.
  • 2019-2010 ABCFT Teacher Leaders Program
  • PASS Program restructuring
  • ABCFT New Website - Google Site for key documents for members
  • ABCFT Executive Board Retreat/ABCFT Rep Trainings
  • Site visitations/Rep councils/Executive Board meetings
  • PTA/District Partners outreach and coordination of meetings
  • Member ONLY workshops

I hope this list gives you a general idea of what we are doing to serve the membership both publically and behind the scenes to make sure that ABCFT members are represented and your voice is used to make policy that works for all teachers, nurses, and medical professionals in ABC.

Have a great weekend!
In Unity,
Ray Gaer
President, ABCFT

CALIFORNIA FEDERATION OF TEACHERS
The latest CFT articles and news stories can be found here on the PreK12 news feed on the CFT.org website.

AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS

AFT's Randi Weingarten on the NURSE Act
WASHINGTON—Statement from Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, on support for the Nurses for Under-Resourced Schools Everywhere (NURSE) Act, sponsored by Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nev.), to help provide nurses in under-resourced public schools:
“When kids get sick or injured at school, or have unique medical needs, school nurses are right there, providing the care and comfort students need to feel safe and healthy at school. This bill isn’t just about providing that care for the kids who have enough, it’s about providing it for the kids who need a little more, too.

“Unfortunately, a decade of disinvestment in public schools has left more than half of all schools nationwide with no full-time healthcare professional: Three million students in this country attend schools with some kind of police or security officer, but no nurse. And too often, these positions are cut in lower-income districts where students’ only exposure to healthcare may be at school. School nurses care for other people’s children—they know their names and they invest in their well-being. In turn, we must invest in those nurses.
“The NURSE Act makes federal funding available to put a nurse in every school, so children in under-resourced public schools can get equitable access to the care they need, and be ready to learn.”
Follow AFT President Randi Weingarten: http://twitter.com/rweingarten


----- NEWS STORY HIGHLIGHT-----

Brown v. Board school desegregation ruling is 'at grave risk,’ report says
A new report argues that, 65 years after the historic Brown vs. Board of Education decision ordered that public schools must be integrated, the promise of the ruling is “at grave risk.” The report was issued by the Civil Rights Project at UCLA and the Center for Education and Civil Rights at Pennsylvania State University, with input from researchers at Loyola Marymount University and North Carolina State University; it says that, while intense levels of segregation markedly decreased for black students after the 1954 court ruling, they have been rising again since Supreme Court decisions in the 1990s led to the end of hundreds of desegregation orders and plans across the country. Over the last three decades, black students have been increasingly segregated in intensely segregated schools (which are defined as being 90%-100% nonwhite). By 2016, 40% of all black students were in schools with 90% or more students of color. New York, California, Illinois and Maryland are the four states in which a majority of black students attend intensely segregated schools.

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

American teachers can only dream of homeownership
Average teaching incomes amid rising home prices are putting the American Dream out of reach for many American educators, according to two new studies. Data from Trulia shows that teachers can afford fewer than half of all currently listed homes in 76% of major cities, while data from Apartment List shows that one in five teachers is burdened by housing costs, which are particularly burdensome for preschool and kindergarten teachers. In San Jose, California, where the average teacher makes just under $80,000, teachers can afford less than 1% of available home listings.

SATs to take hardships into account
The company that administers the SAT exam will for the first time assess students on their educational and socioeconomic backgrounds as well as their math and verbal skills. The College Board announced Thursday that it will include a new rating of between 1 and 100 on students’ test results. An average score is 50, and higher numbers mean more disadvantage. The score will be calculated using 15 factors, including the relative quality of the student’s high school and the crime rate and poverty level of the student’s neighborhood. The rating will not affect students’ test scores, and will be reported only to college admissions officials as part of a larger package of data on each test taker. David Coleman, CEO of the College Board, commented: “Merit is all about resourcefulness. This is about finding young people who do a great deal with what they’ve been given. It helps colleges see students who may not have scored as high, but when you look at the environment that they have emerged from, it is amazing.” David Hawkins, the executive director for educational content and policy at the National Association for College Admission Counseling, said he believed that overworked admissions officers would welcome a more standardized measure of hardship and disadvantage. Adam Mortara, a lawyer for Students for Fair Admissions, said he saw the adversity measure as a viable alternative to race-conscious admissions.

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

Report names 54 districts as ‘positive outliers’
A study of California school districts released Wednesday by the Learning Policy Institute identified 54 school districts in California where students of color achieved higher than predicted on state test scores, after controlling for socioeconomic status. The study also identified 167 California districts where Hispanic and white students on average consistently achieved higher than predicted, and 48 districts where African-American and white students did so. Researchers found that two factors had the most impact on whether students performed well or not: their family’s income and educational level, and their teacher qualifications. Districts with high African-American and Hispanic student achievement tended to have higher average teacher experience. “We refer to these California school districts as ‘positive outliers’ because their students are beating the odds relative to the socioeconomic conditions in their communities,” researchers wrote in the report.
Teachers union delays strike at Sac City USD
On Thursday night, the Sacramento City Teachers Association (SCTA) announced it will delay its second one-day strike, planned for May 22nd. The announcement was made just before the school district's board meeting was set to convene. Sacramento City USD Superintendent Jorge Aguilar said he appreciated the union's decision, adding: "We look forward to commencing negotiations with SCTA leaders and working together to address our severe fiscal challenges." SCTA President David Fisher said the about-face came about because "the third interim budget makes it clear that a state takeover is no longer imminent, and our contract can be fully implemented." According to district officials, the 178 job cuts announced last week, on top of all the other cuts made so far, may have been enough to temporarily stop the state takeover that was set for June 1 if the district uses $19.67m of district reserve s to cover next year's expenditures.

----- DISTRICTS -----
LAUSD faces state takeover if parcel tax fails
Los Angeles USD will run out of money in three years unless it makes drastic cuts in spending, or voters pass a parcel tax on the June 4th ballot, according to the district’s most recent ballot. Current projections estimate the district will spend $1.5bn more than it brings in over the next three years. After draining its reserves to stay afloat, the district expects to drop more than $700m into the red in 2021-22. “If the parcel tax does not pass, Los Angeles Unified will need to drastically reduce the plan it has to deliver more resources and services to schools and classrooms,” said Shannon Haber, a spokeswoman for the district. “Without additional funding, it is anticipated that in Fiscal Year 2021-2022 and beyond, it will be necessary to implement cuts to Los Angeles Unified programs, schools and employees, including possible teacher and employee layoffs and increased class sizes.&rdquo ;
Ocean View trustees unanimously reject staff cuts
Ocean View USD trustees voted unanimously on Tuesday to reject proposals to cut preschool work hours and positions for classified staff, leading to cheers and applause from attendees at the public meeting. Trustee Gina Clayton-Tarvin said the projected $181,000 savings that could be made by the cuts were "not enough savings to hurt human beings," while trustee Patricia Singer expressed hope that tuition increases and promotion to boost preschool enrolment would prevent the board from needing to revisit cutbacks in the future.

San Francisco plans more affordable housing to tackle teacher attrition rate
San Francisco USD is seeking developers for three new sites for affordable teacher housing, with Planning Department approval still pending on the district's first - and first-of-its-kind - teacher housing project. In a request for qualifications issued in March, SFUSD noted that its need for 3,600 teachers each year is "challenged" by a 10% attrition rate likely linked to the high cost of living, with 64% of teachers spending over 30% of their income on rent and 15% spending most of their income on rent. Seven developers have so far expressed interest in developing the three sites - which could include mixed-income and mixed-use housing - with the Board of Education to select finalists later this month.

Mother banned from campus for threat to alleged bullies
A mother has been banned from Niguel Hills Middle School in Capistrano USD for threatening a classroom of students over the alleged bullying of her daughter. NHMS principal Tim Reece told parents in an email that the assistant principal escorted the woman from the premises after she warned students: "If you look at her the wrong way, if you breathe the wrong way, send your mom to me."

----- CHILD DEVELOPMENT ----

Preschool has enduring benefits for disadvantaged children – and their kids too
New research from the University of Chicago shows that, not only do at-risk children reap long-term educational and earnings benefits from high-quality preschool programs, it also has an effect on their siblings, and their eventual children. The research is an extension of earlier research examining the outcomes of children — now adults in the their mid-50s — who were part of the famous Perry Preschool Project experiment in Ypsilanti, Michigan, in the 1960s. Researchers assigned one group of 3- and 4-year-olds to a daily preschool program that included weekly home visits by staff. The control group didn’t receive those services. Lead researcher Professor James Heckman looked at the children of the original participants.

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

Oceanside to revamp elementary school sex-ed program
Following complaints that its sex education lessons were too explicit for younger children, Oceanside USD officials plan to revamp its health education program. The changes, to be discussed at a series of meetings between now and the fall, will align with the California Health Education Content Standards, Jennings said. Parents and guardians will be able to preview the materials in January 2020. Last year, parents took issue with elements of the curriculum that included asking kindergarten students to name reproductive organs, and for sixth-graders to look skeptically at sex education material from religious sources.
California districts inconsistent in LGBTQ student protections
A study from the Equality California Institute indicates that state laws to protect LGBTQ students are being implemented inconsistently across school districts statewide. The analysis found 80 of 130 K-12 school districts surveyed to be in the "middle tier" for LGBTQ-focused policies, with 22 districts identified as "priority districts" in need of greater support for LGBTQ students.

----- SOCIAL & COMMUNITY -----

Woman accused of posting Nazi propaganda at schools
A 22-year-old Fullerton woman has been charged with one count of vandalism and two counts of posting graffiti at Newport Harbor High School and Fullerton College. Although prosecutors characterized the postings as “Nazi propaganda,” with swastikas and SS mottos featuring prominently, they declined to charge Grace Elisabeth Ziesmer with a hate crime, because there was not enough evidence to prove at trial that the vandalism specifically targeted individuals or institutions because of their association with the Jewish religion.

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

UC regents agree to raise tuition for students who live outside California
University of California Regents yesterday voted 21-1-6 to approve a 2.6%, $762 tuition increase for students who live outside California, with an amendment to set aside some of the money for financial aid. It will ensure that 10% of the money from the tuition increase will cover financial aid for 10% of nonresident students. According to UC, applications from domestic nonresident and international students have remained high despite tuition increases every year since 2015. Graduation rates also have improved over time.

----- INTERNATIONAL -----

Mexico cancels school in capital due to poor air quality
The Mexican government has cancelled schools in the capital and surrounding areas for today - amid extreme air pollution concerns. Dozens of brush fires burning in and around the city have produced a blanket of smoke which, along with weather conditions at the end of Mexico’s dry season, have almost brought the area to a standstill.

----- OTHER -----
Suspensions for teachers posing in noose photo
Palmdale School District Superintendent Raul Maldonado has said that four teachers and the principal of Summerwind Elementary School north of Los Angeles are being investigated over a photo of the teachers smiling and holding what appears to be a noose. The image was originally emailed by Principal Linda Brandts, and was shared hundreds of times on email and social media. Parents of some African American children at the school told the NBC station said they were troubled by the educators’ apparent insensitivity about the association of nooses with Jim Crow-era lynchings.
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