ABCFT - YOUnionews - December 6, 2019
ABC School Board Reorganization Results
This week, the ABCUSD School Board had its annual reorganization of trustee officers. Every year the school board holds internal public elections for the officer positions of President, Vice President, and Clerk for the school board.
Outgoing school board President Ernie Nishii was honored by surrounding city council officials and state legislative liaisons for his tireless community engagement for ABC students. Ernie Nishii has finished his tenure as the president school board for the last twelve months. The ABCFT Leadership work regularly with board presidents about issues that impact ABCFT Members.
At Tuesday night's Board of Education Reorganization Meeting, the Board elected the following new Board Officers:
Dr. Olga Rios, President
Leticia Mendoza, Vice President
Soo Yoo, Clerk
Chris Apodaca, Member
Maynard Law, Member
Ernie Nishii, Member
Sophia Tse, Member
One of their first pieces of important business was the ABCFT Tentative Salary agreement
NEGOTIATION UPDATE: ABC SCHOOL BOARD UNANIMOUSLY APPROVES SALARY AGREEMENT!
Two weeks after members of ABCFT overwhelmingly (98.2%) approved the ratification of the 2019-2020 tentative salary agreement the ABCUSD School Board unanimously approved the agreement set forth between ABCFT and the ABC Unified School District. Now that the agreement is approved, fiscal services are working to make sure that ABCFT members see a 3% increase reflected in their February checks. In addition, ABCFT members will see an extra one-time check of 2%. This additional check is calculated by using a calculation of 2% from your 2018-19 salary schedule. For more information please refer to past YOUnionews articles for the full details on the agreement.
A favorite saying of the ABCFT leadership is that “school board elections matter.” This piece of wisdom has been passed down since the eight-day ABCFT Strike in 1993. That historic job action took place a week before an ABCUSD School Board Election and ABCFT Members went door to door during that election to make change for more teacher and student-friendly board members. The ABC Federation of Teachers prides itself on working hard to maintain a teacher-centered and student-centered school board. The ABCFT Leadership would like to personally thank all the ABCFT members who give voluntary COPE donations or those who donate their time during school board elections to support Union endorsed candidates. Without member support, the YOUnion would not be able to maintain a teacher-friendly school board.
Schools and Communities First Initiative Seeks Much Needed Funding for Schools by Tanya Golden
CFT has joined a coalition representing families and students to reclaim over $12 billion per year in tax revenue for K-12 schools, community colleges, and local communities by closing a commercial property tax loopholes for big corporations. For almost forty years these big corporations have not been paying their fair share which has left our schools and communities underfunded.
At this point, you may be asking yourself what role you play with improving the education of our students. At this month’s Rep Council meeting, the Reps were given petitions for signature gathering. Statewide we need to collect almost 1.6 million signatures to get this important initiative on the November 2020 ballot. ABCFT has committed to doing their part and we need your help. In the next few weeks, your Rep will be asking for your signature. We need your signature to lead us to our goal. Be sure to seek out your Rep or contact the union office to sign the petition. Here is more information about Schools and Communities First.
Program Spotlight - Tracy Infant Center by Vanessa Valenzuela
From time to time we like to highlight some of the wonderful programs that are part of our ABCFT community. This article is an opportunity to spotlight ABCFT members who have dedicated their lives to their students. During the recession, there was the talk of closing down this important community resource for our youngest ABC students. The ABC Federation of Teachers successfully advocated keeping this facility open. Since that dark time for Tracy Infant Center employees, the ABC District has renewed its pledge to improve this program and facility. Thank you, Vanessa Valenzuela, for telling us a little about Tracy Infant Center and what you do there. If you would like to highlight your school/program or classroom just drop us an email at abcft@abcusd.us.
Hello, I’m Vanessa Valenzuela and I have a teacher with ABCUSD since 2012. I am a Child Development teacher, with a M.A. in Early Childhood Education with an emphasis on Trauma studies. I am currently teaching at Tracy Infant Center in the Toddler 2 room and preschool for the Migrant Education Program. I am also an active union member as a site representative and I participated in the ABCFT Teacher Leader. I joined the union to learn about teacher’s rights and to become an advocate for Child Development teachers. Below are some interesting facts about the Tracy Infant Center program.
Tracy Infant Center
- It’s been open for more than 30 years.
- Located next to Tracy High School.
- The building homes two programs, early intervention, and the infant center.
- The center has a brand new playground built last year.
- The Child Care/Daycare program provides:
- Tracy infant center services low-income families for children 2-36 months.
- We operate under the State of California licensing program. Teachers must have a permit, we are required to do two DRDP a year, parent conferences, ITERS, and weekly lesson plans.
- We also collaborate with The Teen Parent Program as babies and toddlers of teens at Tracy High attend at the infant center as the parent completes studies at the high school.
- The Early Intervention Program provides:
- Developmental based learning for children 18 months to 3 years with special needs including autism, speech delay, down syndrome.
- Early Intervention teachers have birth to 5 yrs old Early Childhood Special Education teaching credential
- Additional staff on-site include cook, Occupational Therapist, Physical Therapist, Speech Therapist, and Nurse.
- Children within the daycare program and early intervention program, integrate during outside play, and toddlers visit the classroom for 20 minutes to promote and foster play between typically and special needs children.
Above is a picture of Vanessa giving a report about the Tracy Infant Center to the ABCFT Rep. Council this month.
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December ACADEMIC SERVICES UPDATE
Each month Kelley Forsythe 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 the 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 Kelley give reports and take questions on all things related to academic services.
Next Tuesday! Personal Learning Opportunity
The fourth in the series of free members-only Personal Learning Opportunity is Using Podcasts to Teach Listening Skills offered by ABCFT Teacher Leader and Aloha teacher, Jennifer Marcus. In this interactive and engaging workshop, participants will learn about practices that will help your students learn listening skills.
Are you looking for a useful and free tool to help you teach and assess your students in Listening Comprehension? Do you want a free tool that requires no grading on your part?
If you would like to learn how to start a podcast of your own to help your students develop their listening skills, participants will be provided information to get a podcast set up in their own classroom. Although these podcasts are designed for elementary students, secondary History and Special Education teachers will also get a few resources that may be of use to you as well.
Let’s have some fun and learn how to motivate your students to actively listen with a fully interactive and ready to use podcast.
Using Podcasts to Teach Listening Skills
Personal Learning Opportunity
Tuesday, December 10th
from 3:30-5:00 p.m.
at Fedde Middle School MPR
21409 Elaine Ave. Hawaiian Gardens
Light refreshments will be provided.
Click the link to register
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PICTURE OF THE WEEK
This is a picture of Ruben Mancillas at the Tuesday ABCUSD School Board meeting speaking on behalf of the ABCFT negotiating team to the school board trustees and the administrative cabinet. Ruben thanked all of the negotiation participants for their civility and productivity during this year’s salary negotiations.
Ruben is the Chief negotiator and part of a six-member team that represents ABCFT members from a diverse set of backgrounds. Moreover, during bargaining sessions will often call in representative members who have expertise in their subject area to provide firsthand accounts that substantiate the contract language or salary increase.
We will be posting more information about the negotiating team, the process of negotiations, and how your voice can make a difference in the upcoming Master Contract renewal in the Spring of 2020.
ABCFT 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. Throughout the year I find articles that are interesting and food for thought;
What a difference a week of vacation can have on your psyche. Your spirits need nourishing and rest to maintain the energy you pour into your teaching and nursing. It’s so refreshing to know that we only have two weeks before we get a longer break from our regular day to day routines.
Just before the break, I attended a two-day conference for California union presidents sponsored by the California Federation of Teachers. It seems like yesterday that I was one of the newbie presidents desperately looking for ideas and supports so that I could better serve my members. I continue to look for best practices and inspiration but often it is ABCFT that is inspiring to other local leaders. What we do as a union is noticed by unions across the country. Research shows that one of the key factors found in almost all successful labor-management partnerships is the longevity of leadership. Having leaders that build expertise and wisdom over time gives organizations the chance to build capacity and strength. ABCFT is a leader among CFT and AFT locals because of our ability to build union strength.
Is longevity important in other ways? You bet it is. A couple of hot topics I hear from all ABCFT members is a concern about the lack of longevity in our paraeducator support and in our substitute teacher pool. Even though these positions are not in our bargaining unit, the impact these employees have on our classrooms is indispensable. The common conversation about the turnover of ABC paraeducators is happening across the school district. If ABC had paraeducators that had longevity, we would see improvements in classrooms across all schools and programs. This week I have been in numerous meetings with members and administrators discussing the topic of paraeducators.
ABC needs a consistent and stable pool of substitute teachers and paraeducators. The days of just having a warm body to take the position are not acceptable and it is starting to have grave consequences in our classrooms because it is hindering the delivery of the curriculum. Without consistency and longevity, our students get cheated. Teachers are having to retrain and redirect new paraeducators constantly and this is disruptive to the flow in our classrooms. Kindergarten teachers report that they can’t predict who will be in their classrooms and that they struggle to do centers and groupings that could be facilitated by a paraeducator. When we are not consistent with our most needing students we will often see undesirable behaviors and a lack of academic progress. These examples are similarly applicable to the substitute situation in ABC I am having discussions with school board members, the superintendent, and the superintendent’s cabinet members about the impact of our substitute situation. Having an effective substitute you can rely on is priceless and is critical to moving the curriculum when teachers are not in their classrooms.. In a parallel situation, having a paraeducator who has longevity in their position is just as valuable.
I hope that you will take a moment to encourage your principals and supervisors to advocate for a more stable workforce of substitutes and paraeducators. These employees may not be part of ABCFT but the impact they have in our classrooms is measurable. ABC needs to pay these employees more so that they will invest in ABC like all of you have invested in ABC.
A crucial ingredient to make a change in education is funding for education in California. Next November there will be a proposition on the ballot that can close the tax loophole for multi-million dollar businesses. Closing this loophole can raise up to 12 billion dollars for the State of California. That amount of additional money would have a positive impact on our classrooms. Contact your site/program representatives to see how you can help to get this proposition on the ballot.
Thanks for all you do.
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
- 12/03/2019
- 12/02/2019
Follow AFT President Randi Weingarten: http://twitter.com/rweingarten
----- NEWS STORY HIGHLIGHT-----
California School Boards Assn pulls $15bn tax from 2020 ballot
The California School Boards Association announced Wednesday that it and its partners will end their effort to put a $15bn tax initiative benefiting K-12 and community colleges before voters next November. It will now seek a tax in 2022, to avoid the prospect of competing tax measures for education on the same ballot. The decision eliminates one of the challenges facing another tax proposal that has yet to qualify for the 2020 ballot; called Schools and Communities First, it would raise an estimated $12bn for counties, cities, schools and community colleges by raising property taxes on industrial and commercial properties.
----- NATIONAL NEWS -----
Teacher preparation program enrollment suffering
Enrollment in teacher preparation programs dropped by one third between 2010 and 2018, according to a new study by the Center for American Progress think tank. Enrollment declines were widespread, the report warned, and only five states - Utah, Arizona, Washington, Texas and Nevada - experienced increases in teacher prep enrollments. Nationally, one-third fewer students enrolled in teacher preparation programs in 2018 than in 2010 and nine states saw declines of more than 50%. Oklahoma suffered an 80% enrollment drop, the worst on record, followed by Michigan, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Illinois, Idaho, Indiana, New Mexico, and Rhode Island. The number of completers of teacher preparation programs also fell.
States move to add Native American history to curricula
A recent report by the National Congress of American Indians found that 87% of state history standards include no mention of Native American history after 1900, while 27 states don't mention Native Americans in their K-12 curriculum. However, 90% of states surveyed reported that they are working to improve the quality of, and access to, Native American education curriculum, and a majority of states indicated that Native American education is already included in their content standards, although far fewer require it be taught in public schools. Michael Vendiola, the education director for the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community and former program supervisor for the Washington's Office of Native Education, commented: "For Native people, it's a matter of having their story told and being accurate and having a local perspective. [Not having developed curricula] severely impacts the success of tribal students in the public school system because most of the time (what is taught comes from) a very narrow point of view - totem poles from Alaska or a bit of Navajo ceremonies. There are over 500 tribes in the U.S. which are clearly more diverse than that."
----- STATE NEWS -----
How California is changing how it measures academic success
Following in the footsteps of some of California’s other large districts, Los Angeles USD is expected today to publicly share data showing how its students improve year to year, a move the district expects will provide deeper insights into how individual schools are helping students progress academically. The data, which is being published as part of a new online platform called School Information+, will provide stakeholders with a measure of student progress that Superintendent Austin Beutner has called a better way to judge a school’s impact on student learning than relying only on what is available through the California School Dashboard. The CORE districts’ growth model uses a formula that predicts a student’s test score and then compares that to the actual score. When calculating the predicted score, the formula considers a student’s previous test scores and whether the student is an English learner, has a disability or is low-income, foster or homeless youth. A school is considered to have high growth if its students are beating their expected scores, even if they are not meeting standards. Proponents say the district can use the information to identify more accurately schools that need more resources to help their students improve and that making the data public will benefit parents when deciding where to enroll their children.
Blue Shield launches student mental health initiative throughout California
Blue Shield of California announced Monday that it will launch a multi-year effort to address mental health issues among middle and high school students around the state. The BlueSky initiative is a collaboration with the state's Department of Education, Wellness Together, the National Alliance on Mental Illness California and DoSomething.org. The coalition plans to add mental health clinicians to schools around the state, train teachers to identify signs of mental health issues and offer in-person and online support. Researchers with UC San Francisco's Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies will work with Blue Shield to analyze BlueSky and determine whether it improves student mental health and leads to greater educational success.
California to address high levels of underqualified teachers
The most inexperienced and least qualified teachers continue to teach in schools with the highest-needs students in California, even though those students require the most expert teachers, and research has shown that the effectiveness of classroom teachers is the biggest in-school factor contributing to students’ achievement. A recent report from the California Department of Education found that districts with the most low-income students had 25 percent more inexperienced and underqualified teachers and teachers with a temporary intern credential than districts with the lowest numbers of low-income children. “In the decade since the recession, we haven’t made a serious effort to invest in schools with novice teachers, when the research has been clear that their inexperience creates an opportunity gap for kids,” said Bill Lucia, CEO of the Sacramento-based, nonprofit, advocacy organization EdVoice. Next year, the state will have collected and will make publicly available comprehensive data detailing the numbers and percentages in every school and district of “ineffective,” “inexperienced” and “out-of-field” teachers, categories of underqualified teachers that federal law requires districts to count.
California’s economy will grow faster than the nation’s, UCLA forecast predicts
California’s economic growth will slow next year, but it is likely to outshine that of the nation overall, according to a new UCLA Anderson School forecast. Even as recession fears haunt the ongoing expansion, California’s economic output expanded by 2.6% this year, albeit down from 3.5% in the last quarter of 2018. “This is still above the U.S. rate,” wrote forecast director Jerry Nickelsburg, noting that U.S. GDP grew by 2.1% in the last quarter. “While we expect further slowing of the California economy as part of the U.S. economic growth slowdown in 2020, this differential is expected to persist.”
----- DISTRICTS -----
Berkeley seeks voter approval of tax measures to pay teachers’ pay raises
Berkeley USD will ask voters to approve several hundred dollars’ worth of new parcel taxes and a bond to give teachers and groundskeepers a raise, pay for new buildings and seismically retrofit old facilities. The school board unanimously agreed November 20th to approve two parcel tax measures and a bond measure for the March 3rd 2020 election. All three measures would need at least two-thirds yes votes to pass. School board members said the measures are needed because the district doesn’t get enough money from the state to pay teachers a competitive salary and maintain its buildings. “We’re forced to do it this way because the state refuses to fully and fairly fund public education,” board member Julie Sinai said.
----- CLASSROOM -----
Five steps to addressing impeachment in classroom discussions
Education Dive looks at ways that educators and administrators can broach the subject of impeachment to students in the classroom. India Meissel, former president of the National Council of the Social Studies (NCSS), said in her three decades of teaching through the impeachment of former Bill Clinton in 1998-1999 and now the Trump inquiry, she always begins by contextualizing current events for her students. Once the facts are established, teachers can open the discussion to allow for opinion. “You want to help students share their opinions with each other so they’re learning to have an actual discussion,” said Paula McAvoy, an assistant professor at North Carolina State University in social studies education who has also done research on teaching and learning about controversial issues.
----- SECURITY -----
Teacher survey: Lawmakers 'not doing enough' to prevent school shootings
A new survey of 1,067 teachers from Fishbowl has found that 87% believe lawmakers are not doing enough to prevent school shootings. Of states with at least 50 teacher responses, Michigan had the highest percentage of teachers (98.4%) saying lawmakers weren't doing enough, while Texas had the lowest portion at 80.39%. The findings come shortly after a report from The Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center, released last week, suggesting many incidents of school violence could be prevented. It stated that while "prevention is key" and schools should establish prevention programs to identify students of concern, there is no one typical profile of a student attacker, and attackers usually have access to firearms at home.
----- CHILD DEVELOPMENT ----
Parents, other experts named to guide California’s early education reforms
Parents and family child care providers will help guide California’s revamp of early childhood education, a signature issue of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration. On Friday, he announced appointments to two groups that will help expand access to early childhood education. The first is a group of nine organizations that will select representatives to develop a Master Plan for Early Learning and Care by next year. He also appointed 20 members to the new Early Childhood Policy Council, which will provide recommendations to him, the Legislature, and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond on early childhood. They will also provide input on the Master Plan for Early Learning and Care. State Surgeon General Nadine Burke Harris was named chairwoman of the council, whose members include experts in social services, early childhood education, and childhood trauma and health.
----- HIGHER EDUCATION -----
Cal State math proposal would create an unfair barrier for black and Latino students, critics say
A California State University proposal to require a fourth year of math-related coursework for admission came under robust questioning and at times harsh criticism Wednesday from top state educators, who said it would unfairly block black and Latino students from the system with no guarantee that it would improve graduation rates. According to CSU’s analysis, 93% of admitted students already meet the proposed requirement. Of students meeting it, 24% graduate within four years. Of students not meeting the requirement, 15% graduate in four years. “These numbers simply do not add up. They do not create a foundation for such a dramatic change,” said Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, an ex-officio member of the board. “What is it that you found in research that shows that this course, more than anything else - that this course is the secret sauce that will improve graduation and retention rates for the students that we say we seek to serve?” asked State Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, another ex-officio board member.
International students 'overwhelmingly satisfied' with U.S. experience
International students who chose the U.S. are overwhelmingly satisfied (91%) with their experience and feel welcome in the country, according to a new survey by World Education Services, though many continue to face mental health, adjustment and other challenges. While even students expressing the least satisfaction - those from South and Central Asia - are still highly satisfied (89%) with their experience, over a third of international students surveyed (41%) found it hard to form relationships with domestic students and 31% reported facing discrimination due to their nationality.
UC leaders support dropping use of SAT, ACT
Top leaders at the University of California say they support dropping the SAT and ACT exams from admission requirement. UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol T. Christ, along with the UC system’s chief academic officer, Provost Michael Brown, said Friday that research has convinced them that performance on the tests is so strongly influenced by family income, parents’ education and race, that using them for college admissions decision is unfair. Last year, UC President Janet Napolitano requested a review of the research on standardized testing. A faculty group studying the topic is expected to issue recommendations early next year. The fairness of the tests has also come under renewed fire in the wake of a widespread admissions scandal in which wealthy parents are accused of paying bribes to cheat on their children’s exams. Over the last year, nearly 50 schools have made SAT and ACT scores optional, joining about 1,000 others that already made the change, according to FairTest, a group that opposes testing requirements and tracks university policies.
----- OTHER -----
NTA Life Insurance - An ABCFT Sponsor
About three years ago ABCFT stated a working relationship with National Teachers Associates Life Insurance Company. Throughout our partnership, NTA has been supportive of ABCFT activities by sponsorship and prizes for our various events. This organization specializes in providing insurance for educators across the nation. We have been provided both data and member testimonials about how pleased they have been with the NTA products and the opportunity to look at alternatives to the district insurance choice.
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