ABCFT - YOUnionews - February 21, 2020
PRIMARY ELECTION 2020
California has changed its’ primary election to March 3, also known as SUPER TUESDAY. For the first time, California voters will be joining fifteen states and territories holding a primary election on March 3rd. Also new to California is the new voting options for the 2020 primary election. You can now cast your vote at Vote Centers or use ballot drop boxes between February 22 to March 3. Yes, you read correctly, we now have eleven days to cast our vote! Of course, you can still vote at home by using your vote-by-mail ballot which you can return using the new ballot drop boxes, voting centers, or USPS.
We encourage all of our members to actively participate in the democratic process by casting your vote. To find a Vote Center, dropbox location, or other primary election information click on these links for
ABCFT MEMBER NEWS by Tanya Golden
Personal Learning Opportunity - Maximize Your Kaiser Health Plan was a success! Over twenty ABCFT members learned about the many benefits Kaiser offers its’ members. Many more members wanted to attend but due to their busy schedules were unable to join us. We thought the information was too valuable not to share. Here is the link to the Kaiser resources.
Final Call - Negotiations Survey
The Negotiating team would like to hear from you! In preparation for Master Contract negotiations, we are seeking your input regarding contract language. You now have until February 24th to access the survey.
Click on this link for the Master Contract Survey.
AFT Convention Delegates election will take place Monday, February 24-28. Ballots will be sent to your work email. You will have an opportunity to vote for up to 10 delegates who will be representing ABCFT at the AFT convention on July 27-30.
YOUnion Social
Join your fellow union members as we say good-bye to the fast and furious month of February on Friday, February 28th from 3:00-5:00 pm at BJ’s in Cerritos.
PICTURES OF THE WEEK
Congratulations to Golden Apple Award Winner Sandra Valdez-Soriano (Aloha ES Head Start Teacher) and Whitney HS Teacher Susan Wu who was recognized by the Fulbright Hays Group Projects Abroad.
Both teachers were recognized at the ABC School Board meeting this week. Congratulations on your Awards!
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;
Where did February go? They say that time flies when your busy so I’m guessing right now ABCFT is going supersonic. I’m sure the feeling we are moving quickly is the same in your classrooms. Membership Coordinator, Tanya Golden and I are doing a two-month “world tour” to all ABC schools and programs in preparation for Master Contract negotiations. Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve had the pleasure to visit the teachers and nurses at Gahr HS, Cerritos HS, Melbourne Elementary, Leal Elementary, Wittmann Elementary, Carmenita Middle School and our wonderful Extended Day Program.
As always, we would like to thank all of you who sat with us to discuss those issues and concerns that are impacting your ability to deliver your best for your students. Teachers and nurses are the experts in their fields so the opportunity to hear directly from you is invaluable as ABCFT prepares for Master Contract negotiations in late Spring. In case your wondering, our visits are not all about problems and concerns. These face-to-face meetings with members are an opportunity to build a relationship with all of the ABCFT membership. I personally find our conversations rejuvenating and I am constantly amazed by the skills and insightfulness of ABC teachers, nurses, and SLPs. Every person has a unique story and perspective and I am honored to have the opportunity to hear some of your stories.
Last weekend, the seven members of the ABCFT Negotiating Team flew across the country (yes, on Valentine weekend) to attend the annual American Federation of Teachers Bargaining Conference. The ABC Federation of Teachers was honored to be among eight presenters for this national conference…...and we were awesome. Our session was on Internal Conversations for Contract Ratifications and I am proud to say that ABCFT has a premiere communication system that is the envy of unions in New York, Chicago, Baltimore, Ohio, Florida, and other states affiliates that were in attendance at this conference. ABCFT has a proud history of being innovative leaders and our local goal of being transparent with our members is rare among both union organizations and administrative organizations. Clear, predictable, and consistent communication is an ABCFT hallmark that we are proud to share with other organizations. In ABCFT, we believe that the Members drive the union and that without your collective voice we wouldn’t have a YOUnion. If you are interested in what we presented at this conference you can click this link to view the ABCFT presentation.
The audience for the ABCFT workshop was impressed with our communication network systems and we were able to share the examples of the YOUnionews, focus groups, how we visit school sites, annotated contract changes and especially the ABCFT Strategic Plan. In a recent conversation with Superintendent Dr. Sieu during one of our weekly Wednesday meetings she made me aware of the astonishing fact that unlike ABC, most school districts do not have a Strategic Plan. It is an amazing fact that most districts shoot from the hip and fall into the trap of being reactive to change rather than being proactive about change. For the most part, their union counterparts also fall into the category of bringing reactive instead of controlling the narrative with member voice for better decision making. Can you imagine walking into your class every day without a lesson plan and just “winging it.” For any ABC teacher, this would be an unthinkable reality because we all know that this would be a disservice to our students and would make our jobs impossible to sustain.
Probably the most fascinating aspect of attending national conferences is when you become aware that your organization is “different.” It was shocking for the ABCFT team to hear almost every union in the room boasting that the threat of a strike was their starting point for negotiations. It is almost impossible to build trust and compromise when organizations are trying to destroy the other side. In addition, administrators are not exempt from this kind of posturing, so there is major disfunction on both sides across the nation. Labor and management in America are very polarized in many cities across the nation. Who suffers in any dysfunctional relationship? It always comes down to how it impacts our students and our communities. ABC isn’t perfect but we are not trying to destroy each other and I am thankful for that fact.
I hope that you are able to out this weekend to do something that builds a connection with the important people in your life.
In Unity,
Ray Gaer
President, ABCFT
CALIFORNIA FEDERATION OF TEACHERS
FEBRUARY 17, 2020 SPECIAL EDUCATION
Marcela Chargoya, a special education teacher in Los Angeles and chair of the CFT Special Education Committee, has been teaching at the same middle school for 21 years. And she’s never seen special education in such a bad state.“First and foremost, it’s the elimination of programs,” she said. “Districts seem to think it’s one size fits all or fits most when it comes to special ed.”
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
Follow AFT President Randi Weingarten: http://twitter.com/rweingarten
----- NEWS STORY HIGHLIGHT-----
Schools struggling with coronavirus
School districts across the U.S., particularly those with large Asian American populations, are still battling to respond to the outbreak of the coronavirus COVID-19, which has already killed more than 1,500 people. At least 15 cases have been confirmed in the U.S., mostly in California, which is home to about one-third of the nation’s Chinese immigrants. Health officials in Ohio County in West Virginia felt pushed to ask a family to retrieve a child from school on February 3 to undergo a 14-day self-quarantine, even though federal guidelines did not apply to the student’s travel history. “We’re just doing our best to comply as the rules and outbreak evolve," said Jenny Owen, spokesperson for the Duarte Unified School District, near downtown Los Angeles, where about 6% of the district’s students identify as Asian.
----- NATIONAL NEWS -----
U.S. must invest in teacher coaching, survey asserts
Few teaching coaches have the time and administrative support to do their jobs effectively, according to a survey of more than 1,000 active coaches by Google for Education, nonprofit Digital Promise and professional development nonprofit Learning Forward. A large number of teacher coaches surveyed revealed that they oversee at least 16 teachers, more than the recommended 10 teachers per coach, and while teachers report finding value in receiving biweekly coaching most see their coaches less frequently and in shorter durations than teachers would like. The report’s authors recommend several reforms to how coaching is coordinated and funded at schools and districts and the researchers assert: “Given the billions of dollars U.S. districts and others around the world currently spend on PD, coaching should not be seen as prohibitively expensive from a policy perspective.”
Struggling K-12 districts caught between rock and hard place
Daarel Burnette II explores the complexities facing struggling school districts across the United States. Large parts of the nation are undergoing dramatic demographic shifts due to urbanization, a changing economy, and declining birth rates, he says, though school district lines do not mirror more malleable voting boundaries, which are redrawn every decade, creating “a patchwork system of sparsely populated school districts and overcrowded schools.” While policymakers blame "stagnant district lines" for the nation's teacher-shortage crisis, outcome and opportunity gaps between student groups, Burnette asserts, there remain about 13,500 US school districts in fiscal distress because of rising pension and health-care costs and dwindling tax revenue resulting from drops in student enrollment. The ability to dissolve and consolidate struggling districts, he adds, is complex, costly and differs hugely across states with various degrees of restrictive legislation.
U.S. scores poorly on kids' wellbeing
Children in high-income countries face uncertain futures because of climate change, environmental degradation and the marketing of unhealthy food and tobacco products that target youths, according to a new report from a global commission of health experts convened by the World Health Organization, UNICEF and The Lancet, which warns that none of the 180 countries surveyed are adequately protecting kids' futures. Several of the wealthiest countries, including the United States, the report notes, rank in the bottom 10 for providing children and adolescents a healthy, sustainable future. "Countries need to overhaul their approach to child and adolescent health, to ensure that we not only look after our children today but protect the world they will inherit in the future," said Helen Clark, the former prime minister of New Zealand and co-chair of the commission.
Harvard and Yale face Education Dept probe
The Department of Education is investigating Yale and Harvard universities, for allegedly failing to disclose hundreds of millions of dollars in gifts and contracts from foreign donors. The probe is centred on whether the two Ivy League universities had failed to report at least $375m from countries including China, Iran, Russia, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The department is seeking extensive records related to grants, gifts, contracts and overseas programming. "This is about transparency," Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos said in the statement. "If colleges and universities are accepting foreign money and gifts, their students, donors, and taxpayers deserve to know how much and from whom."
----- STATE NEWS -----
How California plans to implement teacher recruitment and training proposals
California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration has published a “trailer bill” offering a roadmap to the Legislature on how to fund and implement his plans for recruiting and training teachers. Through a new California Teacher Credential Award Program, Newsom proposes spending $100m to offer $20,000 stipends to fully credentialed teachers who are willing to teach subjects or work in schools where there is a teacher shortage. The governor also proposed The Workforce Development Grant Program to help districts recruit staff to provide counseling, speech therapy, mental and physical health services, clinical and rehabilitative services, social services and librarian media services. The program would provide $193m in grants over four years. The budget also includes $15m to establish the Computer Science Supplementary Authorization Grant, which is expected to help approximately 10,000 K-12 teachers earn a supplementary authorization on their credential to teach computer science over the next four years. The continuing Educator Workforce Investment Grant program gets $350m, the biggest chunk of money in the governor’s proposed budget. It offers grants to pay for professional development for educators in various subject areas, including literacy, school climate and mental health, and STEM.
Special education in California in need of overhaul, researchers say
Special education in California should be overhauled to focus on the individual needs of students, with better training for teachers, more streamlined services and improved screening for the youngest children, according to Special Education: Organizing Schools to Serve Students with Disabilities in California. The publication, which collects 13 reports with a summary produced by Policy Analysis for California Education, looked at dozens of ways to improve special education, including how to recruit and train teachers, better ways for schools and other agencies to coordinate services for disabled young people, and how schools can help special education students with career and college planning. According to the report, in general the state should do more to integrate special education with K-12 education for non-disabled students, which researchers refer to as “general education.” Additionally, the academic and social-emotional needs of special education students should be weighed equally with those of non-disabled students. The report also stresses the need to train general education teachers in how to address the needs of disabled students.
----- DISTRICTS -----
Selma USD staff battle to keep jobs
Dozens of Selma USD teachers attended a district board meeting on Tuesday night, to speak out against mooted plans to cut school programs and jobs. Officials say the deductions are necessary due to declining enrollment, overstaffing, and increased costs. “A lot of these kids' parents are field workers, just like mine were," math intervention teacher Baljit San Miguel said. "They don't speak the language just like mine did. It's hard for them. The only people they have to get help is us." The board is due to make a decision on how to proceed on February 25.
Paradise school district cutting classes, teachers, administrators
The Paradise USD board will tonight discuss a proposal to terminate 72 full-time equivalent certificated positions at the end of the school year, 56.2 of which are either vacant or to be vacated. The vacant position reductions include one Administrator Services in TK-6, 20 full time positions in Multiple Subjects Self Contained Services, one position in Title 1 Services, two positions in Site Administrator Services, and nine positions in Special Education Services. The board will also be asked to approve a new class that will be operated at Butte Class that will teach students the basics of firefighting. The class will learn about the history of firefighting, the behavior of fire and there will be hands-on activities and the potential for some weekend events as well.
Big budget shortfall threatens East Side district jobs
A projected $23m budget deficit is being blamed for potential layoffs in the East Side Union High School District, one of the largest in North California. Staff cuts could number as high as 150 with counselors, student and family advisors, custodians and school administrators being affected. The district is now facing a March 15 deadline to notify staff of potential layoffs that could happen in June. Teacher and staff unions are now asking the district for a deeper examination of their budgets to make sure the projections are accurate and to find possible savings.
Newport-Mesa school district adopts contract for teachers’ union
Newport-Mesa USD trustees have unanimously approved a new teacher contract that assures a 3.5% raise for all employees in the union retroactive to December 1, as well as a 1.4% one-time compensation boost from December through June and an increase in the cap on district contributions to health and welfare benefits. Following the vote on the teachers’ contract, the board voted unanimously to open negotiations for next year’s contract with the California School Employees Assn., which represents support staff such as custodians, administrative assistants and teacher’s aides.
----- CLASSROOM -----
Principals share experiences of school shootings
Leaders who survived shootings at their schools reflected on their experiences at a National Association of Secondary School Principals event last week. The educators are members of the National Association of Secondary School Principals' Principal Recovery Network, a formal support system and advocacy group launched last year by NASSP for administrators who have lived through gun violence in their schools. “The principal must collect the broken pieces of the community and restore them whole,” Beverly Hutton, NASSP’s deputy executive director, said at the event. “It’s a very difficult and isolating position for any principal.” Attendees included Frank DeAngelis, a former principal of Colorado’s Columbine High School, Jake Heibel, principal of Great Mills High School in Maryland, and George Roberts, former principal of Perry Hall High School, also in Maryland.
----- FINANCE -----
Cost of proposed new Visalia high school goes up
The anticipated $150m cost of building a fifth Visalia ISD high school has risen to $189.5m. It had been originally thought that the state would share the cost; however, the district may now have to find an extra $69.9m for the school to go ahead, because of lower than anticipated state matching funds and the higher estimated project cost. The board is discussing funding options to make up the difference, Superintendent Tamara RavalÃn said; the project could be phased in, while adding a stadium, pool or theater after the initial construction is also a possibility. District officials say a new high school is necessary to more evenly distribute students across campuses.
----- LEGAL -----
Students sue Delta after jet fuel dump over Whittier high school
Three students from Pioneer High School in Whittier have filed a lawsuit against Delta Air Lines after one of its planes dumped jet fuel over their campus and other suburbs of Los Angeles County. On January 14, Delta Flight 89 released up to 15,000 gallons of jet fuel over cities and schools across the county; the students suffered an array of symptoms such as skin irritation, nausea and emotional distress after they were exposed to the jet fuel, and are seeking compensation for emotional distress as well as medical and attorney fees.
----- WORKFORCE ----
High-stakes tests don’t push teachers to quit
Eliminating state testing does not have an effect on overall teacher turnover and attrition, according to a new paper published by the Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research, which analyzed the effects of changes in mandated state testing in Georgia. Researchers compared changes in mobility over time in grades and subjects that discontinued testing with grades and subjects that are always tested and found that the removal of statewide tests had no effect on the likelihood of changing schools within a district, moving between districts or quitting altogether. Early-career teachers however, the study found, are less likely to leave the profession when there are fewer required tests.
----- HEALTH & WELLBEING -----
Physician: USDA has abandoned America's schoolchildren
Practicing physician Casey Means, M.D., and Grady Means, a former staff economist in the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, warn that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) proposed “School Meals Flexibilities” rule for school menus is a "disaster" for millions of children. It's a "full retreat from science-based health and nutrition principles," they assert, "severely misaligned" with today’s research and could even be considered a human rights violation of young Americans. While President Trump’s State of The Union address focused on giving all American schoolchildren the chance to succeed, they suggest, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue is doing "just the opposite," while many school boards around the country are not taking their responsibilities seriously. The most prominent victims of bad food choices are low-income families, the authors add, and especially their children, who may rely on school lunches as a primary source of their nutrition.
----- TECHNOLOGY -----
Marian University introduces virtual classroom for teacher training
A group of education majors at Marian University in Indiana is being introduced to classroom teaching via a mixed-reality simulation program that sees them placed in front of a large monitor with five “digital students” looking back at them. Developed by tech firm Mursion, it is run using both computer programming and a simulation specialist, who is watching and can turn up or dial back the avatars’ classroom behavior. Marian students use the program throughout their teaching courses. As they build on their skills, the student teachers could deal with a virtual student looking at their phone, putting down a classmate, or having an outburst related to autism. Eventually, they will practice running a parent-teacher conference. “I like that I’m thrown in because it gives me a feel of if I want it or not,” said Treanna McKinney, a Marian freshman, who says she loved interacting with the virtual students. McKinney said she was scared for her first simulation, but that it went better than expected.
---- HIGHER EDUCATION -----
California's community colleges chancellor defends new online college
California’s new online college is on track and moving in the right direction, the chancellor of California’s community college system told state senators Thursday. “While at times the road has been rocky, I believe Calbright is well on its way to achieving the objectives the Legislature established and that my office expects of them,” Chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley told senators at a joint oversight hearing at the State Capitol. Four senators - led by Sen. Richard D. Roth, chair of the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Subcommittee No. 1 on Education, and Sen. Connie M. Leyva, chair of the Senate Education Committee - questioned Oakley and Tom Epstein, who serves as president of both the Calbright board of trustees and the board of California Community Colleges. The online community college, which is offered at no charge to students, is getting $100 million in state funds over seven years for startup costs and about $20m annually for operating costs.
NTA Life Insurance - An ABCFT Sponsor
About three years ago ABCFT started 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.
Updated Salary Schedules
In case you missed it, the new 3% salary increase has been applied to the paycheck you received on February 1st. Unit members also received a one-time 2% check last week as well. I hope you get a chance to celebrate the hard-earned salary increases.
