KEEPING YOU INFORMED - Negotiations Update By Ruben Mancillas
What is your favorite back to school activity? Getting your room looking inviting? Updating your favorite educational apps? Greeting your students and making them feel welcome? Mine? Oh, that would be completing my annual state mandatory training, better known as Keenan SafeSchools Online Training. I just can’t get enough of that catchy tune they play after completing each section.
Seriously though, as our many reminder emails attest, it is a mandatory requirement. The ABCFT negotiating team and the district have added new language regarding the Keenan training this year which states that unit members will be given the appropriate amount of time during their duty day to complete this annual state mandatory training.
Principals have been notified to provide no less than four hours of time for staff to complete the Keenan training. At secondary sites, this time would necessarily come out of that which is currently set aside for staff meetings. At elementary schools this time could come from staff meetings or extended planning/specials/rotation time beyond the required 30 minutes of weekly planning time. So please communicate with your administration as to your site’s schedule for providing these four hours of Keenan time.
Another addition to the contract language involves elementary staff meetings. Staff meetings shall begin no later than 15 minutes after the ending bell.
Lastly, the date for administration to adjust the final class roll to its appropriate maximum has been changed from a fixed date of October 1 to a new measure of 30 school days from the first day of instruction. This year, there is a negligible impact, with the date moving from October 1 to October 3. But with our first day of instruction beginning earlier in the 2022-2023 school year we wanted to introduce the standard of 30 school days as an appropriate amount of time before final class adjustments.
In Unity,
ABCFT CELEBRATES 50TH ANNIVERSARY
REGISTRATION NOW OPEN
ABCFT became the bargaining agent for ABC teachers and nurses in 1972. We are recognizing this significant milestone by celebrating the 50th anniversary of the ABC Federation of Teachers. All ABCFT current members and retirees are invited to this special event. The evening will include a delicious selection of hors d'oeuvres. Bring your best dance moves for the D.J. as we boogie the night away! There's also a chance to win a special gift in the raffle drawing and a no-host bar.
WHO: ABCFT members current and retired
WHEN: Friday, September 30, 2022 from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
WHERE: Holiday Inn 7000 Beach Blvd. Buena Park, CA 90620
COST: $20.00 per member/retiree
Space is limited to ABCFT members and retirees. First come, first serve. Register and send payment by September 19th.
Click here to register then Click here for payment
KEEPING YOU INFORMED- Student Loan Forgiveness Webinar
Helping Teachers Afford Comprehensive Pathways into the Profession and Achieve Loan Forgiveness
The U.S. Department of Education invites you to an upcoming webinar – “Helping Teachers Afford Comprehensive Pathways into the Profession and Achieve Loan Forgiveness” – on Wednesday, August 31st from 1:00 to 2:00 PM Eastern Time. The webinar will focus on opportunities to learn about significant improvements to the TEACH Grant program and the limited time Public Service Loan Forgiveness waiver to support program affordability and decrease student loan debt for educators.
The purpose of this webinar is to discuss how educators can benefit from the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, specifically the temporary waiver, which provides time-limited changes to rules that allow borrowers to receive credit for past periods of repayment that would otherwise not qualify for PSLF. Borrowers are encouraged to act now since these changes are currently set to expire on Oct. 31, 2022. The webinar will also highlight recent improvements to the Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grant program and best practices for implementation. These changes provide greater flexibilities and address previous challenges with successfully completing the program. Respecting and honoring teachers requires that we ensure educators receive financial support where eligible from these important federal programs.
The registration link is provided below.
Date and Time: Aug 31, 2022, 1:00 – 2:00 PM Eastern Time
Register: https://TEACHANDPSLFWEBINAR.eventbrite.com
After registering, you will receive a confirmation message containing information about joining the webinar.
KEEPING YOU INFORMED - Beyond gender-neutral bathrooms: A guide to rights and protections for LGBTQ+ students
In many parts of the U.S., students returning to school will encounter a rash of new laws and regulations aimed at students who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. At least six states have recently passed laws restricting rights and protections for LGBTQ+ students, including Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law that limits discussions of sexuality and gender in the classroom.
LGBTQ+ students have far more protections in California, which has one of the highest percentages of gay people in the country at 9.1%, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. But amid the national debate, confusion persists about what laws protect LGBTQ+ students in California. Here are some common questions and answers about how schools can support LGBTQ+ students:
Who is considered LGBTQ+?
What rights and protections do LGBTQ+ students have?
Are schools in California required to provide gender-neutral bathrooms for students?
Can students use bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity?
Can students play on school sports teams that align with their gender identity?
How are gender identity and sexuality addressed in sex ed and other curriculum?
and many more….
MEMBER-ONLY RESOURCES
Classroom Management Strategies: Free Lesson Plans and Resources
Hone Your Classroom Management Strategies
Looking for new ideas for back to school? Or could you be looking for a way to manage classroom challenges that just won’t go away halfway through the year? Look no further, Share My Lesson has you covered with professional insight, free lesson plans and engaging resources from education’s most prominent bloggers and authors.
Learn how to develop a positive classroom starting on day one. Share My Lesson’s free resources on classroom management strategies will help you establish high expectations and standards, reward good performance and behavior, and respond appropriately when students misbehave.
ABCFT PRESIDENT’S REPORT - Ray Gaer
Consistent and regular communication is a union’s most important tool for advocating for its members at the bargaining table. Every conversation with members is focused on the end result of negotiating for the future prosperity and well-being of ALL ABCFT members. The goal of this weekly report is to keep members informed about issues that impact their working/learning conditions and their mental well-being. Our work as a Union is a larger conversation, and together we make the YOUnion.
I hope that your first week back with students was productive. This year has challenges, but it feels more familiar than the last two years. Teachers and nurses are still seeing the impact of the pandemic in their student’s behaviors and academics, and we will have these student challenges to face for years to come. Resources for teachers and support for students will help to alleviate this over the school year. Today I visited with primary teachers and child development teachers at Nixon to hear how they are doing so far. I look forward to visiting with more of you over the next couple of months so that we can have face to face conversations to discuss how ABCFT can continue help to provide what you need to be successful in your classroom.
The challenges are particularly complicated for our TK/Kindergarten teachers right now as many teachers are reporting an increase in students with disabilities or other challenges that either hasn’t been identified and addressed or that, during the enrollment process, were never mentioned by parents. Kindergarten teachers often are the first education contact with many students; therefore, few incoming students have educational records to help teachers learn about the needs or supports that are used to help these students. My focus is not only on primary grades and child development but I’m just illustrating a unique challenge for child development and primary teachers and nurses who work with students who come as unknowns to ABC classrooms. A special thank you to Nixon reps, Paula Bentley and Desi Molinar and EDP rep, Jessica Sandoval for advocating on behalf of their members.
This week the ABCFT Committee on Political Education (COPE) Committee members, led by VP of Membership and COPE Chair,Michael Hartshorn held interviews for school board candidates for the three of seven school board trustee positions that are up for election. On Monday night, the COPE Committee will send their recommendations to the ABCFT Executive Board and will then consider these recommendations before they send it on to the ABCFT Rep Council for a vote. At the Rep Council next week, your school site elected representatives will vote on the finalized endorsements for ABCFT for this School Board election cycle. My thanks to the members of the COPE Committee for the robust interview panel and the thoughtful debate and conversations centered around the endorsement process. Look for an article from Michael next week on how things played out over the next week. In the end, ABCFT needs board members who are receptive to teachers' needs and who are student focused in their efforts.
Over the past six months, I have worked closely with our school board members to get back to a place of trust and transparency. I believe that there were several factors that contributed to the overall complications during the last school year, and I am confident that ABC is now launching into a new golden age where once again, the ABC School District can be a beacon of student wellness which includes achievement with innovative support systems for parents, students, and employees. None of this would have been possible without your staunch support of ABCFT last school year as the teachers and administrators rallied together to ensure that ABC survived the school year. The bleeding has stopped and we are recovering as a District.
Next week, I’ll be interviewing the acting Interim Superintendent Toan Nguyen so that all of us can get to know who he is and what he believes are the keys to success for educators, students, and parents. For the past ten years, I have met weekly with the Superintendent, Dr. Mary Sieu to discuss the health of the district and the educational changes and challenges that we face as a district. Weekly meetings are a critical component of how our two organizations collaborate and communicate. So I’m especially looking forward to my interview next week with Mr. Nguyen because I believe that as he begins to get to know all of the certificated and classified employees in ABC, it is important that we get to know who he is along the way. I will share the interview with Mr. Nguyen in the next YOUnionews.
Have a good weekend and thank you for staying informed!
In YOUnity,
Ray Gaer
President, ABCFT
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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-----
The Gap Between Teacher Pay and Other Professions Hits a New High. How Bad Is It?
Teachers are paid less than their college-educated peers in other professions—a trend that’s only getting worse over time.
That’s according to a new analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank supported partially by teachers’ unions. The institute has been tracking the “teacher pay penalty” for 18 years, and in 2021, it reached a new high: Teachers earn 23.5 percent less than comparable college graduates.
In other words, on average, teachers earn 76.5 cents on the dollar compared with what college graduates earned working in other professions.
Teachers are paid less than their college-educated peers in other professions—a trend that’s only getting worse over time.
That’s according to a new analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank supported partially by teachers’ unions. The institute has been tracking the “teacher pay penalty” for 18 years, and in 2021, it reached a new high: Teachers earn 23.5 percent less than comparable college graduates.
In other words, on average, teachers earn 76.5 cents on the dollar compared with what college graduates earned working in other professions.
School district leaders and policymakers have been sounding the alarm that there’s a strong need to bring new teachers into the profession. One new analysis conservatively estimates that there are more than 36,500 teacher vacancies across the United States, and the majority of states are experiencing teacher shortages.
Yet teacher-preparation enrollment has been declining steadily by about a third in the past decade, which some experts attribute to the low pay and perceived lack of respect.
“You have to do something very bold and sustained to really start reversing these trends that are making the teaching profession unattractive even for students who want to be teachers but choose not to because they know ... this is the lay of the land,” Allegretto said.
----- STUDENT LOANS -----
The Biden administration has announced a new student loan debt forgiveness plan, extending the pause on repayments for all borrowers until December 31. Borrowers with an individual income of less than $125,000, or $250,000 for households, and who received Pell Grants, are eligible for up to $20,000 in federal loan debt cancellation. Borrowers with an individual income of less than $125,000, or $250,000 for households and who did not receive Pell Grants, are eligible for up to $10,000 in federal loan debt cancellation. Nearly 8m borrowers may be eligible to receive relief automatically, according to projections by the U.S. Department of Education, but for others an application to provide income data to the department for eligibility will be made available shortly. In addition to the new relief package, many teachers will also be eligible for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which promises to forgive the federal loans of teachers and other public service workers if they make 120 on-time monthly payments toward their loan. A National Education Association report last year found that 53% of pre-K–12 teachers and specialized instructional support personnel surveyed took out student loans to fund their own education, and over half of educators who took a student loan and still had a balance by 2021 had an average debt amount of $58,700. Notably, the NEA survey found that 56% of all Black educators have taken out student loans, compared to 44% of white educators, and Black educators took on significantly more debt than other racial and ethnic groups, with an average initial total of $68,300 among those who took out loans, compared to $54,300 for white educators and $56,400 for Latino educators.
Education Week The White House
----- NATIONAL NEWS -----
Miguel Cardona interviewed
U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona champions greater respect for teachers, mental health and social support for students, and partnerships between parents and educators as key to navigating the complex challenges currently facing schools. Asked how he thinks school districts have done so far with prioritizing and spending federal COVID relief funds, Cardona says: "They are ensuring, number one, that their buildings are safe," and that "infrastructure needs are being met to safely open, that they have masks and vaccines, that they have everything they need to be safe in schools." He also notes that school leaders are spending wisely on academic recovery and mental health support. Asked what he's going to do to ensure teachers' voices are a part of the decisions being made by the Education Department, Cardona asserts: "In order for us to address the teacher respect issue, we have to provide better salaries, better working conditions for teachers, and have teacher voice be a bigger part of our reimagining of education." I’m an educator, he concludes, "that’s why I’m fighting really hard to lift up the profession."
Parents learned more about education during pandemic, poll reveals
A new survey by The Harris Poll, commissioned by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, reveals that schooling during the coronavirus pandemic forced parents to take a closer look at how their children were being educated, and that many parents became more concerned about their kids' schooling as a result. Eighty-four percent said they learned more about their children's education during the pandemic, while 79% of parents said they became more interested in their kids' education because of what they saw when schooling became virtual and home-based during the pandemic. Lower-income parents and parents of color were more likely to agree with those statements.
----- STATE NEWS -----
Californians see debt cancellation as a first step; some say more is needed to make an impact
Many concerned that student loan debt crisis will continue
Helpful, but not enough.
That’s how many Californians have described news of President Joe Biden’s plan to cancel $10,000 of student loan debt for borrowers making less than $125,000 a year or families making less than $250,000. Those who received federal Pell Grants as low-income students qualify for $20,000.
Meghan O’Donnell spent about six years earning her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Chico State University – one of the California State University campuses. O’Donnell graduated in 2011, and in that time, accumulated more than $70,000 in student loans.
“We really need full debt cancellation for the real impact to be felt amongst the most vulnerable,” said O’Donnell, a history professor at CSU Monterey Bay. “For people like me with $70,000, a $20,000 cancellation isn’t going to be enough to get that mountain of debt off people’s backs. It’s really not going to free them or liberate them to go buy a house or start a family,”
Biden’s announcement Wednesday also included news that borrowers who received Pell Grants, which are awarded to low-income students, can receive an extra $10,000 in forgiveness – totaling $20,000.
California schools back with fewer COVID rules
California schools reopened for the fall semester with loosened COVID-19 protocols and low student vaccination rates among younger children, presenting a new test for the trajectory of the pandemic. The general move away from expansive masking and testing requirements comes as California is enjoying sustained drops in newly reported infections and coronavirus-positive hospitalizations. Health experts are however watching to see how schools do in the coming weeks, especially given how many youngsters remain unvaccinated. Only 37% of children ages 5 to 11 have completed their primary vaccination series in California, quite low compared to the 67% vaccination rate for adolescents 12 to 17 and 78% for adults 18 to 49, according to the state Department of Public Health. In Los Angeles County, 35% of children ages 5 to 11 have completed their primary vaccination series, as have 79% of those ages 12 to 17. By contrast, in Northern California's most populous county, Santa Clara County, 63% of younger children have completed their primary vaccination series and 94% of adolescents have.
Los Angeles Times
----- FINANCE -----
Finance experts warn over school district budgets
Education finance experts have warned that, beginning in the 2024-25 school year, school districts nationwide will experience a negative impact on finances due to four “atypical financial shocks.” Marguerite Roza, director of Georgetown University’s Edunomics Lab, and her peers, in a webinar Thursday, agreed that events putting districts most at risk are the ESSER "funding cliff," whereby officials using ESSER money for recurring financial commitments via budget backfilling, new hires or permanent raises are most likely to be impacted, and enrollment declines leading to fewer revenues, whereby urban districts, those closed longer during the pandemic, and districts in Northern states are most at risk. Inflation, labor scarcity and new hiring leading to recurring financial commitments were also all underlined to present significant challenges, and districts offering permanent raises that are larger than the usual 1-2% on top of 3% through step or column increases, and those growing their staff rolls, are most vulnerable. An economic slowdown affecting state revenue growth was also presented as a huge risk for districts, and those more dependent on state revenue, or in states more affected by economic slowdowns, will be most impacted by this. “This is where things get really pretty ugly,” Roza said.
----- LEGAL -----
Uvalde families to file huge civil lawsuit
The families of the victims and survivors of the Robb Elementary School massacre in Uvalde, Texas, are preparing to file a $27bn civil rights lawsuit against the local and state police, the shop that sold gunman Salvador Ramos his weapon and the manufacturer who made the gun. Attorney Charles Bonner announced that he will file in September against the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Department, school police chief Pete Arredondo, sheriff's offices, the Texas Rangers, the Texas Department of Public Safety, Border Patrol, the Uvalde ISD school board, the Uvalde City Council and the city of Uvalde. Also listed in the lawsuit are gun manufacturer Daniel Defense and Oasis Outback, where Ramos bought the gun.
----- WORKFORCE ----
Teacher ‘pay penalty’ hits new high
Average weekly wages of teachers increased just $29 from 1996 to 2021, according to a new report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), which contrasts a $445 increase in weekly wages for other college graduates. Notably, the figures were adjusted only for inflation. The “teacher wage penalty” grew to a record high of 23.5% in 2021, meaning teachers earned almost one quarter less than other college graduates. Rhode Island (3.4%), Wyoming (4%), and New Jersey (4.5%) have the smallest pay penalties, while Colorado (35.9%), Oklahoma (32.8%), and Virginia (32.7%) have the largest. “Over these nearly two decades, a picture of increasingly alarming trends has emerged. Simply put, teachers are paid less (in weekly wages and total compensation) than their non teacher college-educated counterparts, and the situation has worsened considerably over time,” the report concludes. Sylvia A. Allegretto, a research associate with EPI who worked for 15 years at the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment at the University of California at Berkeley, where she co-founded the Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics, asserts: “This profession needs to be elevated to the status it deserves and importance it holds.”
----- HEALTH & WELLBEING -----
California invests billions for youth mental health services
The “Master Plan for Kids’ Mental Health” is aimed at helping kids and other Californians up to age 25.
The plan, announced Thursday, includes training for 40,000 behavioral health professionals, creating an online platform for mental health assessment and intervention, and a suicide prevention program.
“The idea of ‘How do we get ahead of this? How do we prevent things from getting worse? How do we change the trajectory of kids' lives?’ That's what I really like about this plan,” said Dr. Ben Maxwell, interim director of child and adolescent psychiatry at Rady Children's Hospital-San Diego.
“Even before the pandemic, we were seeing increased rates of anxiety and depression in kids,” Maxwell said. “Some of those reasons that have been thought through are different sorts of stressors kids experience these days than they did in the past – things like social media, different sorts of school pressure, athletics or pressures at home.”
The kids' mental health plan also calls for doubling the number of school counselors, with a state-funded incentive of helping to pay for their education.
“The last two years, there's been a stacking of stress, the likes of which none of us could have conceived of and none of us hope for in the future,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said. “And that stacking of stress comes from years and years where we’ve neglected your mental health, neglected investing.”
https://www.kpbs.org/news/health/2022/08/19/california-invests-billions-for-youth-mental-health-services
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