ABCFT YOUnionews for March 11, 2022
KEEPING YOU INFORMED - Negotiations Update By Ruben Mancillas
The negotiating team met yesterday with the district regarding the master contract. We discussed the process and were able to identify some of the articles in our contract that we would like to focus on in upcoming sessions. Each side in effect gives each other “homework” to consider in advance of our next time at the table. The negotiating team will meet again on March 24 for our own internal planning and crafting of language and will be in contact with the district soon to schedule the next formal bargaining session.
One of the questions I receive occasionally is “what is the timeline for negotiations?” The most accurate response is that we are always negotiating in one form or another. We just completed our salary negotiations for the 2021-2022 school year. Now we are moving on to our master contract which will cover the next three years. Having extended our master contract in recent years due to COVID means there are a number of issues that we have been waiting to address. Ray literally has old school sheaves of paper clipped to the whiteboard in his office full of notes for potential inclusion into the master contract. Thank you to everyone who participated in our survey as well as the many groups who have met with us individually in recent months to discuss the unique needs of their respective programs. We are able to use all of this valuable member input when we write new proposals to be added to our contract.
While updating our master contract is our current priority, we are already working within the context of next year’s salary negotiations as well. Governor Newsom presented his preliminary budget for 2022-2023 in January and we are awaiting the May Revise numbers to have a better picture of what the final budget numbers will be for next year. At yesterday’s ABCFT executive board meeting we received the latest health benefits committee update with an awareness that an increase in future rate renewals will impact the amount of ongoing dollars for compensation. Ray, Tanya, and I will be attending a CFT leadership conference next week and I will be looking to get updates from our state lobbyist and legislative analyst regarding any potential STRS relief in negotiations between the governor and the state legislature. The state allowed districts to suspend planned increases to our retirement programs during these past few years but if these percentage contributions do move forward without any additional funding it will be another amount of ongoing dollars that will be paid for out of next year’s COLA.
This year’s tentative salary agreement will be voted on by the ABCUSD school board on March 15. Assuming it passes, we can expect to see the first installment of that ongoing 5% raise on our April paychecks. The district gave a June date as to when we can expect to receive our retro checks for the 5% on schedule and the 1% off-schedule payment. Administrators have received training for documenting our STIS contracts and accompanying compensation and we should get an updated timeline for this process in the coming month.
Lastly, thank you to our negotiating team of Patty Alcantar, Ray Gaer, Tanya Golden, Daren Ham, Laura Lacar, and Jill Yasutake. This is an experienced team of activists that have volunteered countless hours to better serve their ABCFT brothers and sisters. I am proud to have this group of fighters by my side when we sit across from the district team. We have been operating under what feels like more pressure than usual of late and are willing to crack a pointed joke (or two!) to relieve the tension but this team is nothing but focused and committed to representing our members when we are at the bargaining table. The school board may experience upheaval and the district can change its personnel but our team has been a consistent force and I appreciate all that they do for all of us.
In Unity,
ABCFT-R Retiree Newsletter
Upon retirement from ABCUSD, ABCFT members can become a member of the ABCFT-R retiree chapter. The retiree chapter meets monthly and is involved in supporting the ABC community by providing food baskets, scholarships to ABC seniors who are looking for a career in education, and joined teachers and nurses at the ABCFT YOUnity Rally at the district last month. To learn more about what the retirees have been up to see their latest ABCFT-R Retiree Chapter Newsletter
MEMBER BENEFITS - Free Well-Being Webinar Series
Resilient Practices for Educators, Staff Members, Administrators and Teams with a Staff Well-Being Webinar Series
In partnership with Kaiser, Alliance for a Healthier Generation is offering a professional learning series on staff well-being, including stress management, holistic well- being, and positive work culture. You do not have to be a Kaiser member to participate.
Social-emotional health matters as we continue to maneuver through challenging times. Practices in building resilience can improve overall job satisfaction and ensures we take care of our own health as we work with other adults and serve youth throughout California.
Each session will feature different strategies to help educators and school district staff prioritize their own well-being. Learn ways to combat burnout, set healthy boundaries, practice gratitude, and use feedback as an effective communication tool with colleagues, students, and families.
Register here for the well-being series of workshops
You can attend the live sessions on Thursdays from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. from March 17th to April 28th or watch the recorded sessions. Registration is required for live or to receive the recorded sessions.
MEMBER-ONLY RESOURCES
NewsGuard: A free media literacy tool
Share My Lesson is excited to share resources from our newest educational content partner, NewsGuard. They feature tools and resources to help students in grades 6-12 develop their media literacy skills. For example, NewsGuard provides trust ratings for 7,500+ news and information sites – written by trained journalists based on nine apolitical journalistic criteria. They include what standards each site uses in creating its content, who’s behind the site, how it’s funded, and whether you can trust it.
Download these free NewsGuard educational resources–now available to Share My Lesson members–to help you teach media literacy to your students.
A Media Literacy Guide for Educators
NewsGuard Factsheet
NewsGuard: A Guide For Students
Think Like a NewsGuardian: Student Source & Claim Evaluation Exercises
ABCFT PRESIDENT’S REPORT - Ray Gaer
Communication is a union’s most important tool for advocating for its members at the bargaining table. Every conversation with the membership is focused on the end result of negotiating for the future prosperity and wellbeing of ABCFT members. This weekly report aims to keep the membership informed about issues that impact their working/learning conditions and their mental well-being. Together we make the YOUnion.
“I’m comfortable going someplace else.” - ABCFT Chief Negotiator Ruben Mancillas
No convoluted analogies today after last week's hockey rant but I do think that the Ruben quote up above speaks volumes about how to avoid “lines in the sand” or ultimatums in pressure situations that stop discussion and understanding. Communication is the number one asset of any collaboration or professional relationship and is even more important when we are trying to understand the actions and motivations of our students. Whenever possible, we model for our students how to be reasonable in conflict and how to seek clarity to fully understand a situation so that we can look for alternative solutions. Sometimes seeking clarity may not provide new solutions but with additional dialogue perhaps future situations can be avoided.
Seeking clarification, especially after something has been said or has happened is perhaps the most difficult skill to master in the lexicon of communication. The internet has had a profound impact on the way we communicate and has made it easier for us to minimize and demonize others who may not share our values or experiences. Schoolyard bullying on the internet and in other media has not only influenced the behavior of our students, or how their parents behave but have also influenced our politicians and as a consequence the legislation they propose and support. The exclusion of a swath of people or of individuals does not make a collective society stronger and it stops any chance of constructive dialogue. We live in times of great consequence.
I am profoundly disturbed about this country's current legislative campaign to demonize the LGBTQ+ community and how teachers are now being legally targeted for teaching diversity in some states like Texas, Florida, and Idaho. This kind of systematic exclusion and denial of basic human rights is a dangerous trend that is tearing at the very foundation of our country's legal decree of equal rights. These sweeping legislative changes are happening in states where teachers' unions have been systematically and politically attacked to make a path for charter schools which remain an elusive cash cow for the rich to exploit and squander our nation's public schools and the message of racial and social equity which is the most important ethical anchor for our nation. Eliminating or diminishing the rights of any group, be it teacher, student, parent, immigrant or any human being is a step in the wrong direction and we as educators need to keep a vigilant eye on these changes because we don’t need this kind of divisive action to impact our own classrooms and our students.
You are probably asking, “What does any of this have to do with Ruben’s polite way of saying no?”
Here’s my point. Anytime we don’t provide options and instead think and speak in ultimatums we strip others from being able to find dignity and the right to engage in the problem-solving process. We are stronger as individuals when we ask for clarification when we don’t understand. We are stronger as teachers when we model communication strategies that allow continued dialogue so that our students know only can see the reasoning behind our decisions but also that we take the time as humans to understand our student's realities. I don’t know about you, but I want to live in a society where I might not necessarily understand or agree with everyone but I do know that there is a common understanding that as human beings we all have the right to exist and to experience equitable treatment in the eyes of society and the law.
Food for thought. I hope you have a good weekend. Don’t forget to spring your clock forward on Sunday. Enjoy
In YOUnity,
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
Follow AFT President Randi Weingarten: http://twitter.com/rweingarten
----- NEWS STORY HIGHLIGHT - MORE ATTACKS ON TRANSGENDER STUDENT POPULATION -----
Long Beach puts gender-neutral locker room plan on hold
Following a backlash from conservative community members and media, the Long Beach Unified Board of Education voted to postpone a plan to build a gender-neutral locker room at a high school aquatics center, the Los Angeles Times reported. The plan, two years in the making, would have included a private shower and changing stalls in the locker room at Wilson High School, accommodating all students regardless of their gender identity. But after conservative news outlets publicized the plan last fall, a small group of community members protested the idea and the board voted on Feb. 2 to gather more public input before making a final decision, the newspaper reported. Students overwhelmingly support the idea, said Tiffany Brown, deputy superintendent for Long Beach Unified. The controversy has echoed in other districts in California, even though the state in 2013 passed a law allowing transgender students to use bathrooms or locker rooms of their choice.
Transgender girls to be banned from female sports in Iowa
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds has signed a bill into law that bans transgender girls and women from playing on school-affiliated female sports teams, effective immediately. According to the new law, athletic events sponsored by public and private schools, community colleges, and NCAA and NAIA-affiliated colleges and universities must be designated as either female, male or coeducational, based on the sex at the birth of the participating students. "Forcing females to compete against males is the opposite of inclusivity and it's absolutely unfair," Reynolds said in a statement.
----- Teacher Strike In Minneapolis -----
Minneapolis teachers' strike continues
School was canceled for a third day in Minneapolis on Thursday, as teachers continue to strike. The union and school district have repeatedly failed to negotiate a deal that would return nearly 30,000 students to class. It's the city's first educators' strike in 50 years. The union is pushing for a 12% pay raise for teachers, a higher starting salary for education support professionals, and smaller class sizes. Ma-Riah Roberson-Moody, who works at a Minneapolis high school, says her $24,000 salary leaves her struggling to make ends meet. "I’m fighting to stay at this job because I really, really love what I’m doing. But I just do not make enough money. I can make more money right now going to work at Target than I do working for Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS), and that is difficult." MPS superintendent Ed Graff says that while he shares the same goals as the union, the district simply cannot afford what it is demanding. “We have all these priorities that we want to have happen, and we don’t have the resources for it,” he laments.
Minneapolis educators to strike Tuesday for safe and stable schools
MINNEAPOLIS, March 7, 2022 – The educators of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers and Education Support Professionals will go on strike Tuesday for the safe and stable schools students deserve. Despite days in public bargaining and mediations, including more than 65 hours in the last week, the district continues to refuse to work with MFT to create systemic change and remains entrenched in the unacceptable status quo.
President Greta Callahan of the MFT teachers chapter, President Shaun Laden of the MFT ESP chapter and the presidents of Education Minnesota, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association will attend a news conference at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday outside Justice Page Middle School, 1W. 49th S., Minneapolis.
Callahan said: “For almost two years, we’ve been trying to reach agreements around safe and stable schools for students and those closest to them, but the administration has stubbornly defended an unacceptable status quo. We are the defenders of public education and we’re not going to slow down, or give up, until we make real progress addressing the mental health crisis in our schools, reducing class sizes and caseloads so students are receiving the individualized attention they need, and increasing educator compensation so that we don’t continue to lose staff, especially educators of color, to surrounding districts and other professions.”
The union’s safe and stable schools agenda includes:
• Paying a living wage for education support professionals to stabilize this critical workforce, because students need the stability of working with one paraprofessional throughout the school year. For ESPs, this means raising the starting salary from about $24,000 a year to $35,000 through increases in hours and rate of pay.
• Making systemic changes to improve the recruitment and retention of educators of color, which benefits all of MPS.
• Improving student-to-mental health professional ratios because students shouldn’t have to wait weeks for an appointment with a counselor or social worker.
• Lowering class sizes because students learn best when their classrooms aren’t overcrowded and underfunded.
• Paying competitive salaries for licensed staff to stop the exodus of teachers from MPS. State data show the average salary of Minneapolis teachers is ranked 28 out of 46 districts in the seven-county metro area.
----- NATIONAL NEWS -----
New spending package includes $76.4bn for Ed. Dept.
House Democrats have cleared a $1.5tn spending bill, sending it to the Senate, where it is also likely to be voted through over the weekend. The House made this possible by approving a four-day short-term funding patch to avoid a lapse in funding that would lead to a partial government shutdown. The package, which funds the federal government for the rest of the fiscal year, includes $76.4bn for the Education Department, short of the $102.8bn President Joe Biden had originally proposed, and focuses on increasing federal dollars for programs intended to advance equity for low-income students and students of color. It allocates $42.6bn for K-12; from this $17.5bn has been earmarked for Title I schools, $14.5bn for special education, $75m for full-service community schools to provide comprehensive services, and $1.28bn for the Bureau of Indian Education. For Pre-K, it locks in funding increases of $558m for early childhood education programs above the 2021 enacted level. Head Start will receive $11bn, an increase of $289m, the Child Care and Development Block Grant will be given $6.2bn, a $254m increase, and Preschool Development Grants will get $290m, a $15m increase. The bill also provides $2.1bn for technical and adult education programs, and $111m to Education Department school mental health grants that can help districts hire specialized personnel.
Politico Pro Chalkbeat Politico
School lunch challenges continue as federal waivers end
School meal programs have faced a host of challenges this year, from the limited availability of items such as chicken, pizza and muffins and late food deliveries, to high inflation and a shortage of cooks and drivers. A new test emerged this week, with the omission of the waivers that keep school meal costs down from the latest federal budget deal. Early in the pandemic, federal officials issued several waivers that allowed schools to serve meals in ways they typically wouldn’t be able to under federal rules. Those allowances, extended through this school year, permitted schools to continue to do things like hand out grab-and-go meals when students had to quarantine or temporarily return to virtual learning, and serve meals in classrooms to allow for more social distancing. Those provisions also meant schools got back more money per meal than they typically would during the school year. When the waivers expire, schools will take in $1.65 less per meal on average, a 36% drop, according to a federal estimate. “School nutrition directors are really worried about what happens next, summer food sponsors are really worried about how they’re going to operate their programs,” said Crystal FitzSimons, the director of school programs for the nonprofit Food Research & Action Center. “We think it’s going to be a crisis.” When the waivers expire, schools will also again face financial penalties if they can’t meet the usual national nutrition standards, which can happen when schools have to substitute food items if an order gets canceled or arrives without certain ingredients. Advocates are also concerned the end of the waivers will make it harder to serve food to children over the summer, which is usually a difficult time to reach families.
Extension to universal school meals rejected
The bipartisan omnibus package Congress unveiled Wednesday to keep the government running does not extend child nutrition waivers that have allowed schools to serve free meals to all students and played a major role in curbing child hunger during the pandemic. The first COVID-19 aid package, which was signed into law by then-President Donald Trump, gave USDA the authority to waive a slew of regulations, allowing schools for the first time to serve free meals to all students, regardless of income. That authority is now set to expire on June 30th. Around 30m students now receive free meals at school, according to the USDA, up from about 20m children who qualified based on their household income prior to the pandemic. Some of those students now eating free meals are in households that can afford to pay for the breakfast and lunch. Others, however, are in families that are just above the income threshold but still struggle to put food on the table, said Crystal FitzSimons, director of school programs at the Food Research & Action Center, an anti-hunger group. Also, prior to the pandemic, some children who were eligible for free meals missed out because their parents may not have received, understood or filled out the required forms. Virginia Rep. Bobby Scott, who chairs the House Committee on Education and Labor, is pushing to extend the waivers for another year to give schools and students more time to transition back to pre-pandemic requirements. "I would rather provide free school meals to students who might otherwise be able to afford it than deny hungry students a school meal just because they did not complete the necessary paperwork," he said.
US News and World Report Politico
Teacher turnover returns to levels seen before pandemic
Teacher turnover going into this school year was comparable to rates before the pandemic, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of data obtained from five states and 19 large U.S. school districts, including New York City and Houston. In Washington state, 9.2% of teachers left teaching in public schools in the typical year before the pandemic. In 2021, that rose only slightly to 10%. Recent turnover figures were also comparable to pre-pandemic numbers in Hawaii, Massachusetts and South Carolina. That was true of a number of large school districts too, including Dallas, Houston, and Clark County, Nevada, which is home to pupils in Las Vegas. In Maryland, teacher attrition hovered between 9% and 10% between 2011 to 2019. In 2020, it fell to 7.3%, but ticked back up to 9.3% ahead of this school year. In New York City, about 6% of teachers left the district in each of the three years before the pandemic. After the pandemic hit, turnover fell, then rebounded to 5.8% in 2021. In Philadelphia schools, the teacher turnover rate was 9.3% in 2021, up from 2020 but slightly lower than it was in 2019. Separate survey data however shows that more teachers have considered leaving the classroom during the pandemic than before it began. One recent poll by the National Education Association found that more than half of its members said the pandemic made it more likely they would leave the profession early. “I still worry,” says Gema Zamarro, a researcher at the University of Arkansas who has studied teacher turnover. “Teachers are stressed and burned out. Even if they don’t leave, that could be bad.”
----- STATE NEWS -----
Thurmond files for re-election to top schools post
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond announced on Twitter Tuesday that he’s running for a second term, with a focus on students’ mental health and literacy skills.
“I hope to serve the next 4 years with a focus on recruiting 10,000 new counselors to support our students, ensuring our children can read by the 3rd grade, and preparing our children for jobs of the future,” Thurmond wrote.
Before being elected in 2018 to the state’s top education post, Thurmond represented the Richmond area in the state Assembly and served on the West Contra Costa Unified school board and the Richmond City Council. As state superintendent, Thurmond oversees California’s 10,000 public K-12 schools and 6.2 million students.
Thurmond is a Democrat, although the position of state superintendent is nonpartisan.
Newsom draws contrast with other states on new education reforms in State of the State Address
In a brief mention in a short State of the State Address on Tuesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom contrasted “reforms” in other states to prohibit the teaching of race and gender in schools to the “real transformation of our public education system” by “creating choices, real choices for parents and unprecedented support for their kids.”
Newsom did not single out Texas, which passed a law banning teaching of critical race theory, or Florida, whose governor is poised to sign a bill dubbed “Don’t Say Gay” that bars educators from discussing sexual orientation with young students.
Instead, he chided the faux reforms “being promoted in some states where…they’re banning books, where…you can sue your history teacher for teaching history and where you can’t even say you, the word ‘gay,’” he said.
Advocates of broadening taxpayer-supported school choice are collecting signatures to put an initiative on the November ballot that create education savings accounts. Families with children in school would get $15,000 per year that they could spend on a private or religious school or choose a school district or charter school. Newsom is expected to oppose that measure if it makes the ballot.
Newsom’s reference to “real choices” were to newly enacted programs that will expand options for parents in public schools: transitional kindergarten for all 4-year-olds, before and after-school programs and summer school guaranteed for all low-income children, universal school breakfasts and lunches, child savings accounts for college seeded by a $500 contribution by the state, and free tuition to community college.
“That’s the California way,” he said.
During his 18-minute speech from a state office building in Sacramento, his fourth State of the State, Newsom touted California’s innovative economy, commitment to health care for low-income families and housing for the homeless, and the state’s embrace of diversity. He indicated, without giving details, that he would propose ways to reduce the impact of soaring gasoline prices.
“People have always looked to California for inspiration,” he said. Now in the, the midst of turmoil and war in Ukraine, he said that California is “doing what we’ve done for generations – expanding the horizon of what’s possible.”
----- DISTRICTS -----
LA schools report dramatic declines in enrollment
With state funding based on the number of students in the classroom, districts across California are bracing for the effect of declining enrollment, the result of falling birthrates, out-of-state migration, the high cost of living and the growth of charter schools, along with the pandemic. Los Angeles USD, the second-largest school district in the U.S., has seen a 40% drop in the number of students in the last 20 years. It currently has 437,358 students; however, a district financial forecast estimates that enrollment will dip below 400,000 for the first time in decades in the 2023-24 school year. Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said the district needs to begin examining enrollment trends to prepare for potential shortfalls in funding, and "make decisions in the way we staff schools."
Sacramento teachers and staff authorize strike action
Members of two unions representing teachers, maintenance workers, bus drivers and other staff in the Sacramento City USD voted Thursday to authorize a strike if district officials continue “to negotiate in bad faith on key issues related to staffing, the quality of instruction, and health and safety protocols,” the labor organizations announced. The vote gives union leadership the green light to call a strike in the future if they believe no progress has been made in their months-long negotiations with district officials. Officials with the Sacramento City Teachers Association and SEIU Local 1021 cited several issues behind the call to strike, including staffing shortages, inadequate independent study programs, and a district proposal that the labor group characterized as seeking “a five-year wage freeze for certificated staff and a $10,000 cut in the average educator’s annual take-home pay ... through cuts to health benefits targeting SCUSD employees with families.”
Parents brace for Cotati-Rohnert Park teacher strike
With the largest teacher strike to hit Sonoma County in five years looming this week, parents of thousands of children in Cotati-Rohnert Park USD are bracing for the latest potential disruption of classroom instruction two years into the coronavirus pandemic. More than 300 teachers who are pressing the district for better pay are set to begin a strike Thursday if no deal is reached. Some campuses have announced plans for shorter school days, and the district is planning to bring in substitutes and lean on other school employees to keep classrooms open and safe. Monday’s strike announcement came days after the release of an independent fact-finder’s report, in which a state-appointed neutral party recommended a three-year agreement with wage increases of 6%, 5% and a cost of living bump of 3.6% in the third year. Teachers, represented by the Rohnert Park Cotati Educators Association, have been asking for the district to meet that recommendation of an approximate 14.6% raise over three years. But meeting that proposal, while giving matching raises to the other unionized employees and district administrators, would drain district reserves and force it into a deficit within two years, said Superintendent Mayra Perez. The district's latest offer is a 3% ongoing wage increase in the current year, plus a bonus equivalent to an additional 3% wage bump, for a total 6% increase. The district also offered 5% in 2022-23 and a wage increase equivalent to cost of living increases in ‘23-’24.
Chicago super looking to boost access to selective enrollment schools
In one of his first big plays in the role, Chicago Public Schools superintendent Pedro Martinez is proposing that the district drop part of the current system that awards 30% of seats at selective enrollment schools strictly based on a student's seventh grade marks and test scores. Such a move would almost certainly open up more seats to a more diverse student population and make it more difficult for students from the city's upper-income neighborhoods to get in. Most of the seats at these selective schools (70%) are divided among four groups of students based on the socioeconomic characteristics of where they live. Students earn a score out of 900 based on their grades and test scores, and then compete for seats against students in their same socioeconomic group. Another 30% of the seats are awarded exclusively to students who earn the most points in the admissions system, and those seats mostly go to higher-income students. Officials are proposing either getting rid of the rank order set aside, or reserving more spots for students for lower-income communities.
----- TRANSPORTATION -----
Driver shortage leaves some California kids waiting at the bus stop
A severe shortage of school bus drivers, compounded by pandemic and competition from commercial businesses, has districts combining and collapsing routes and scrambling to find enough drivers for the ones that are left. New legislation could make matters worse. Although California has had an acute shortage of school staff throughout the pandemic, school officials cite the lack of bus drivers as one of their biggest problems. “We are trying everything — shaking the trees and looking for candidates,” San Diego USD operations support officer Marceline Marques said. “We are competing with all the school districts, as well as MTS,” or San Diego’s Metropolitan Transit System. “I’ve been a bus driver for nine years, and I’ve been a scheduler for a year, and it has never been this bad,” said Olivia Minor, who works for Sacramento City USD. “Wages aren’t there. They can’t afford to be a bus driver anymore. They can’t actually survive and feed their families and make ends meet.” The school bus driver issue hasn’t received a lot of attention because only a small percentage of California students ride a bus, said Troy Flint, chief information officer for the California School Boards Association. California is one of the few states that does not require districts to provide transportation to students who don’t have special needs. However, a new law proposed by state Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) would require transportation for pre-K through eighth graders who live over a half-mile from a school and high school students who live more than a mile from their neighborhood school. Ms. Marques said she likes the idea of giving every student a ride to a school, but added San Diego doesn’t have the staff or vehicles to make it happen. Currently, the school district provides rides to about 8,000 students. “To project being able to do that for 100,000 students, I don’t know that the transit system in San Diego could manage that amount of school buses on the road,” she said.
----- FINANCE -----
Officials ask teacher pension funds to divest from Russia
Many public employee pensions, including those covering teachers, are significantly exposed to a Russian financial market that has taken a drubbing in response to Western sanctions this month. Legislators and governors in states from Massachusetts and Illinois to Washington State and California have proposed bills to liquidate Russian holdings, or to at least review the contents of their portfolios. The sudden push has been framed as a blow against military aggression. But disentangling public funds from foreign entities in countries like Russia may also pose further challenges to their short-run health of already stressed retirement systems. Given the ruble’s precipitous decline in value, states must decide whether to sell off their control over assets at major losses. Even amid a wave of divestment from Russian industry, it may be difficult for teachers’ pension funds to distance themselves, with lock up fees from fund managers for canceling their investments early coming on top of their market losses.
----- WORKFORCE ----
Teacher turnover comparable to pre-pandemic rates
Teacher turnover going into this school year was comparable to rates before the pandemic, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of data obtained from five states and 19 large U.S. school districts, including New York City and Houston. In Washington state, 9.2% of teachers left teaching in public schools in the typical year before the pandemic. In 2021, that rose only slightly to 10%. Recent turnover figures were also comparable to pre-pandemic numbers in Hawaii, Massachusetts and South Carolina. That was true of a number of large school districts too, including Dallas, Houston, and Clark County, Nevada, which is home to pupils in Las Vegas. In Maryland, teacher attrition hovered between 9% and 10% between 2011 to 2019. In 2020, it fell to 7.3%, but ticked back up to 9.3% ahead of this school year. In New York City, about 6% of teachers left the district in each of the three years before the pandemic. After the pandemic hit, turnover fell, then rebounded to 5.8% in 2021. In Philadelphia schools, the teacher turnover rate was 9.3% in 2021, up from 2020 but slightly lower than it was in 2019. Separate survey data however shows that more teachers have considered leaving the classroom during the pandemic than before it began. One recent poll by the National Education Association found that more than half of its members said the pandemic made it more likely they would leave the profession early. “I still worry,” says Gema Zamarro, a researcher at the University of Arkansas who has studied teacher turnover. “Teachers are stressed and burned out. Even if they don’t leave, that could be bad.”
More teachers are quitting mid-year, suffering pandemic burnout
There is growing evidence to suggest that pandemic-related burnout may be the driving force behind a spate of midyear teacher resignations. The National Education Association this February released a nationwide survey of teachers in which 55% said that the pandemic is pushing them to plan on leaving the profession sooner than they’d originally planned. Unlike years past, teachers acting on their frustration aren’t just those new to the profession and feeling overwhelmed. Nor are they necessarily veterans who’ve taught for decades and are on the verge of retirement. The dynamics of the labor market have created the ideal time for teachers to leave and try out jobs in other industries. “It’s an employee’s market,” said Amber Clayton, knowledge center director for the Society for Human Resource Management. “With teachers’ transferable skills, I imagine that many employers are looking to teachers to fill these holes.” Effective teachers know their students thrive on the comfort of routines and stability developed over the course of the school year. And generally, they care deeply about their students’ success. So when such teachers are compelled to leave midyear, they may feel as if they’re no longer able to be effective at their profession. SHRM’s Clayton urges employers to proactively get to the “whys” behind these feelings, especially those that grip their most valued teachers. She points to the “stay interview,” in which employers have conversations with individual employees they value to learn how they perceive their jobs, what they value and what they feel could be improved upon, as an important tool to use
----- HEALTH & WELLBEING -----
Does allowing students ‘mental health days' encourage absenteeism?
Some academics are concerned that absence from school may not be a useful tool to address the issues facing troubled young people. The prospect of time off, some fear, might even encourage some students to miss class who otherwise wouldn’t. With states increasingly allowing students to take time off from school through "mental health days," legislation supporting which has already been enacted in nine states, while several others, including Kentucky and Maryland, are actively considering doing so, Paul Hill, founder of the Center on Reinventing Public Education and a professor emeritus at the University of Washington Bothell, comments: “It seems perfectly reasonable, and nothing new, for parents to decide their kids can stay home from school for a day because they’re tired or don’t feel well. But I just don’t see a reason to make it some official category, or give kids a number of days they can tap into. All that does is encourage absenteeism.” For her part, Barbara Solish, director of youth and young adult initiatives at the National Alliance on Mental Illness, counters that mental health days offer students “the opportunity to pause, check in, and recharge physically and emotionally.”
U.S. mask mandates are lifting quickly, with notable exceptions
Mask mandates have disappeared rapidly in the last few weeks in the United States as Omicron cases have receded. But some school districts, cities and one state are holding out, and some teachers, parents and students fear that dropping mask mandates in schools is premature. Hawaii remains the only U.S. state that isn't lifting its indoor mask mandate. Several school districts have their own mask mandates, independent of their cities or states. Public schools in Boston, Washington and Seattle continue to require masks at school, even though officials in most of those cities have ended indoor mask rules. In Los Angeles County, school districts will set their own rules about masks starting on Friday, when the county’s mask requirement ends. But the City of Los Angeles, the country’s second-largest district, will continue to require masks at its schools. Experts have pointed out that while the risk COVID poses to children is real, it is now about the same as the risk of the flu, and many doctors cite the mental health strain that children have faced during the pandemic and the educational value of seeing full faces. Other studies, such as a recent one from the US Centers for Disease Control and the Arkansas Department of Health, have found that schools that require masks have fewer COVID cases on average - in this case, 23% - than those that didn't. Mask policies had the most effect for older students and in combination with higher vaccination coverage.
Concerns about bullying, anxiety follow loosening of mask mandates
As COVID-19 cases continue to decrease, school systems are urging compassion and understanding for staff and students who choose to continue to wear face masks even if the district has dropped its masking requirements. Emphasizing the need to respect individuals' mask-wearing choices is one way school leaders can help their communities adjust to changing policies, school psychology experts say. Jessica Dirsmith, a clinical assistant professor of school psychology at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, who also works as a consultant to several school districts, said schools can be proactive by being explicit with this messaging through professional development and in classroom lessons. "We have to ensure that our kids are able to be set up for success, to be kind to others and empathetic to others’ choices, and respectful of those choices," Dirsmith said. She also recommends school staff recognize when students are being kind and understanding to those choosing to wear masks even when they are not required. Dirsmith said using social stories with visual or audio narratives of social situations can help students with autism better understand the changes in policies.
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Controversial education bills passed by Wisconsin Senate
Senators in Wisconsin have passed bills to dissolve Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) into smaller districts and overhaul many aspects of the state's K-12 education system. Other bills approved would offer private-school vouchers to more students, expand pathways for charter schools and "micro education pods," establish a "parental bill of rights," allow parents to opt their children out of mask requirements, and change the way the state assesses school performance. Lawmakers from Milwaukee were quick to rubbish the bill, complaining that the authors did not consult them or leaders from MPS in crafting it. Jill Underly, state superintendent of schools, laments: "Teachers, district administrators, families – even students themselves – are telling us what they need: sustainable funding and moral support. Instead, their pleas are ignored, and they're given radical, divisive policies designed to drive a wedge between families and their schools."
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NTA Life Insurance - An ABCFT Sponsor
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.
To All Members of the ABC Federation of Teachers,
National Teacher Associates (NTA) is committed in our efforts to helping educators through tough times. It’s what we do. After all…in our eyes, you are the heart and soul of our communities.
Protecting you and your families has been our goal for over 45 years. Despite the current global pandemic, we are not about to slow down now. We know that many of you have had our programs for years and sometimes forget the intricacies of how they work. NTA wants to help facilitate any possible claims for now and in the future. Fortunately, all claims and reviews can be done by phone and online. I personally want to offer my services to guide you in the right direction with your NTA benefits.
We also apologize for not being able to finish the open enrollment for those of you who wanted to get our protection. We are still able to help by extending our enrollment window for the near future. Again, this can be done over the phone, email, or online.
Please contact Leann Blaisdell at any time either by phone or email.
562-822-5004
Leann.Blaisdell@horacemann.
Click here to schedule an appointment
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