ABCFT CONVENTION DELEGATE ELECTION By Tanya Golden
ABCFT members are in the process of electing delegates to the 79th CFT Convention March 17th - 19th in San Francisco. The theme of this year’s convention is United for Justice. United for Education. The CFT state convention is a biennial event where local delegates use the democratic process to elect CFT state and division officers, pass resolutions, learn about statewide educational challenges and create solutions for educational issues affecting teachers and students. Essentially, delegates are tasked with doing the work of the union.
For the first time in decades, ABCFT will be sending just five delegates. Normally, ABCFT sends our full delegation which ranges between 35 to 40 member delegates. You may question, wow, why such a drastic reduction in the number of delegates? ABCFT has not raised local dues since 2007. Local dues are different than AFT (national affiliate) or CFT (state affiliate) dues which in part are increased automatically per local bylaws. Local dues are about 27% of the total dues collected and are used for the day-to-day operations of the local. Over the past fifteen years, operational costs have increased while the local dues have remained unchanged and the local has been conservative about its monetary obligations. However, with our limited budget, shrinking the number of convention delegates was necessary.
Recently, the ABCFT leadership has reached out to the general membership seeking volunteers to join the newly formed Local Operation Dues Committee. One of the many tasks of the committee is to evaluate the effects of dwindling local resources and its negative impact on the local’s ability to represent members. This committee will look at the long-term implications of declining student enrollment on ABCFT membership numbers, the effects of rising costs and inflation, and the impact of having members who “opt-out” of the union by becoming freeloaders who still get legal representation by law yet do not help to share the cost of keeping the bargaining power of the local. All of these factors have impacted not only the ABCFT operating budget but also the local’s ability to advocate for its members at the state and national levels.
It is unfortunate that we will have a reduced number of delegates since it decreases our voting power with topics such as CFT state dues and resolutions that guide CFT strategic policies and legislative directives. ABCFT is a consistent, fiscally prudent, conservative voice concerning state and national dues. Without a full delegate contingent, we lack the voice and necessary votes we usually have to battle against the sometimes exorbitant state and national dues increases.
Delegate nominations closed this past Tuesday. Delegate nominees have until January 23rd to accept or decline their nominations. ABCFT members will have an opportunity to vote from January 30th to February 3rd. Election results will be shared on Monday, February 6th.
Thank you to those members who have nominated ABCFT members, accepted their nomination, and to all ABCFT members who will participate in the election process by casting their vote.
ACADEMIC SERVICES UPDATE
This month’s academic service update is vital for all teachers. We hope you will take a moment to look at this monthly report which discusses changes in academic services. This document provides the union with a means of giving the District feedback on the many programs or changes they are proposing at any time. Without your feedback or questions on these changes, it is harder for ABCFT to slow down and modify the district’s neverending rollout of new projects. Please submit your comments and questions to the appropriate ABCFT liaison.
For Elementary curricular issues, please email Kelley at Kelley.Forsythe@abcusd.us if you have any questions or concerns.
For Secondary curricular issues, please email Catherine at Catherine.Pascual@abcusd.us if you have any questions or concerns.
Click Here For This Month’s Full Report
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.
“Middle schools have more administrators for the same number of students…” - ABC Elementary teacher in a conversation about a changing elementary paradigm of increased student needs and the increased demands for more services that require additional personnel to fully meet the needs of the student population.
This week EVP Tanya Golden and I spent lunch visiting with the teaching staff of Elliott. The weather was warm and dry enough for us to all visit some convenient lunch tables set out in the sun. Much of our conversations were centered around the behavioral challenges primary grade teachers are facing and how these individual situations are impacting entire student populations. Since the pandemic, as a district, we have experienced a highly challenging but a small number of students that are overextending the available support services for students at individual school sites. This alarming situation with some of our youngest pupils is not just a local issue but it is a familiar situation playing out in every school site in America.
Prior to the pandemic, districts were seeing a slow increase in the number of behavioral and cognitive challenges in younger students but there has been a dramatic increase in the number of these demanding individual cases. School districts have been desperately trying to find universal solutions that would help to limit the number of chronic student behaviors that typically disrupt the learning environment. Programs such as PBIS and the addition of mental health service providers being housed at the school site rather than the district office were all steps districts have taken to address these situations. The district and school board’s progressive decision to make mental health a priority has helped the learning climate of every school site and program. I also think that adding additional site TOSAs and paraeducators has been an effective way to stay ahead of the curve as well. However, despite all of our collective efforts to be proactive on behalf of our students, nobody could have predicted the severity of a small number of students and how these individual cases make it difficult for mental health or behavior support to help the rest of the student population. If your principal is dealing with the same student for hours a day that is not an effective use of their professional expertise as they try to lead and build cohesive learning communities at their schools.
What is ABCFT doing to support members who are experiencing such severe situations? Your local ABCFT school site representatives have done a wonderful job of guiding colleagues and advocating for solutions and support from site principals. Looking for solutions takes meaningful modifications and accommodations which sometimes take a tremendous amount of time and energy to do to fidelity. Teachers are asked to maintain documentation that will help support efforts to illustrate the needs of the student. It’s typically a team effort between the teacher, principal, mental health providers, and often special education teachers and supervisors. What is happening that is different is that we have seen a small number of students who have daily volatility and these daily engagements begin to greatly impact the needs of the entire school community.
As educators, we used to to think that most students but with a few exceptions would typically not qualify for special education services or other appropriate programs until around third grade. Elementary school teachers understood these timelines and the necessity to work a process toward a school setting that best fits the needs of the student. Things were gradual in most cases and there were few surprises along the way. What’s happening now is that slow steady progress is not enough to meet the drastically elevated needs of these individual students. Gradually getting more student services is no longer working when the student's needs outstrip the resources or options being offered at the school site.
ABCFT leaders are advocating for support for teachers but also for what is the appropriate educational setting for our students so that they can be academically and socially successful. Seeing students in such distress on a daily basis is traumatic for both the students and educators. I am having meaningful conversations with district administrators about how we can be more expedient in helping to find solutions so parents, teachers, and administrators can work together to help these special students. Every student counts and every student deserves an opportunity to thrive in a learning environment that meets their needs. Let’s continue to put the human aspect into education and ABCFT will continue to advocate at the State level for additional options and resources for districts and teachers in the classrooms.
Thank you to the Elliott staff for the eye-opening conversations about supporting students and teachers when faced with behavioral challenges that stretch school site resources to the breaking point. Thank you for furthering this important discussion that throws into question how as a nation and as a district, we move forward to meet the needs of all stakeholders.
Happy Lunar New Year!!!
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
Click here for a PDF of her New York Times article.
Follow AFT President Randi Weingarten: http://twitter.com/rweingarten
----- NEWS STORY HIGHLIGHT-----
California schools face first decline in funding for ten years
Funding for schools and community colleges will fall next year for the first time in a decade, under the first pass at the 2023-24 state budget published this week. Gov. Gavin Newsom projected a drop of $1.5bn below the $110.4bn the Legislature approved last June for Proposition 98, the formula that apportions how much of the state’s general fund goes to TK-12 and community colleges. He said that the state would meet the statutory requirement to pay a projected 8.1% cost of living adjustment, the highest rate in four decades. The COLA increase would apply to general funding through the local control funding formula as well as special education and other ongoing programs. At the same time, he said he would continue the big initiatives he funded during the past two years, including $4bn for community schools, $12.5bn for learning recovery from COVID and $4.7bn for mental health needs. “We’re going to continue these commitments. We’re not backing off,” he said during a lengthy budget presentation.
----- STRIKE LOOMING IN LA UNIFIED OVER WAGES -----
SEIU Local 99 to vote on strike authorization in two weeks
Cafeteria workers, special education assistants, bus drivers and other essential workers will vote to authorize a strike against Los Angeles USD in two weeks on behalf of SEIU Local 99. The union is pushing for increased wages, sufficient staffing and resources for each school and expanded health care benefits as it continues to negotiate its new contract with the district after its last contract expired in 2020. The voting period for members will last between January 23rd and February 10th, and will give the bargaining team the power to declare a strike if the union and the district do not reach an agreement through the impasse process. Last week, Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said that the negotiations were one of the district’s top priorities during the new year. “We have more to put on the table, but we need the table to be populated with people willing to negotiate,” Carvalho said. “We are willing and I know our colleagues in labor are willing.”
----- NATIONAL NEWS -----
Teachers’ pension under pressure
Unfunded liabilities at K-12 pension plans topped $816bn in 2022, according to figures prepared for Education Week by the Equable Institute nonprofit, with much variation among individual states and providers. Unfunded pension liabilities arise when money in the pension bank account falls short of what the fund has committed to paying the employees who access it and Equable’s report paints a bleak picture. The $816bn figure for 2022 exceeds the annual amount America collectively spends each year on K-12 public education. Nationwide, teacher pension plans were 75.7% fully funded in 2022, marking a drop of more than 8 percentage points from the year prior. In two states and the District of Columbia, public pensions - most of which are for school employees - are funded at more than 100% of existing liabilities. In 20 more states, public pensions are 80% funded or better. In six states however - Connecticut, Illinois, Kentucky, Mississippi, New Jersey, and South Carolina - pensions are funded between 47% and 59%. More specifically, three pension plans that cover teachers are among the 15 lowest-funded public pension plans in the nation. Chicago Teachers Fund is 45% funded with $14bn in unfunded liabilities, the New Jersey Teachers Pension Annuity is 37% funded with $47bn in unfunded liabilities, while the Indiana Teachers Pre-96 Plan is just 28% funded with $10bn in unfunded liabilities. Anthony Randazzo, executive director of Equable, warns that a potential recession and the oncoming expiration of the federal COVID relief funds that have helped keep many districts afloat during the pandemic could create even steeper financial pressures on K-12 pensions in the coming years.
Growing support for universal pre-K provision
Statistics indicate growing bipartisan support for state-funded pre-K efforts across the United States. As of 2021, Florida, Iowa, Oklahoma, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia had achieved the benchmark of enrolling at least 70% of the population of four-year-olds in prekindergarten - which is widely held as "universal provision." According to the NIEER’s 2021 State of Preschool Report, the most recent report of its kind, ten other states - Arkansas, California, Georgia, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, New Mexico, New York, South Carolina, and Texas - had at least 45% of students enrolled in prekindergarten. Over the last 20 years, researchers have found that early childhood education can lead to a “laundry list of gains’ for students, including improved standardized test scores in elementary school, a greater tendency to enroll in honors and AP classes in middle and high school, fewer course failures throughout the education system, and improved attendance. William Gormley, a professor of government and public policy at Georgetown University and a co-director of the University’s Center for Research on Children in the U.S., comments: “Unlike many other issues in our society, universal pre-K is not as polarizing an issue in part because it delivers immediate benefits to children, it provides reassurances to parents, not to mention the rough equivalent of child care, which is sorely needed these days.”
U.S. schools moving to ban TikTok
A growing number of public schools and colleges in the United States are moving to ban Chinese-owned social media app TikTok over data privacy concerns. Public schools in Virginia’s Stafford, Prince William and Loudoun counties have banned TikTok on school-issued devices and schools’ Wi-Fi networks. Louisiana’s state superintendent of education recommended that schools in the state remove the app from public devices and block it on school-issued devices. Notably, the version of TikTok that is raising concerns is not actually available in China itself. In an effort to protect Chinese students from the harmful effects of social media, the Chinese Communist Party has issued a rule that limits the time students can spend on TikTok to 40 minutes a day and they can view only videos with a patriotic theme or educational content.
----- DISTRICTS -----
School board OKs 7% raises for teachers and other school staff
Palo Alto USD teachers, and other employees, will be getting a 7% raise retroactive to the start of this academic year as a result of union agreements that the school board approved on Tuesday. The board unanimously approved agreements with the Palo Alto Educators Association, which represents teachers, and the California School Employees Association, which represents other school staff, as well as the same salary increase for management and confidential/supervisory employees. In a separate vote, the board unanimously approved 5% raises, plus 2% one-time payments, for each of the district's six top administrators. "I think they're healthy raises that reflect the economic conditions of both the district and the marketplace," board member Todd Collins commented.
LA Board of Education elects Jackie Goldberg as president
Jackie Goldberg, who served as the Los Angeles Board of Education president 40 years ago and also served on the L.A. City Council and in the state Legislature, was elected president again Tuesday. Her election also signals a potential school board majority shift to priorities of the teachers union amid increasingly contentious contract negotiations with it and the district's service workers union. Teacher-union-backed candidates now hold a majority of the seven seats. In an interview, Ms. Goldberg said that she will work “to recover the losses of academic achievement for the kids...We need to be doubling down on how we get to them to be at grade level by fifth or sixth grade so that they don't end up dropping out by the time they get to high school." She also said she will add two nonvoting subcommittees of board members — one on procurement and facilities, and another on climate and greening. She also said she wants to increase the influence of board committees to be “more in tune with making changes, suggested changes to the superintendent and his staff on policy issues, rather than having us be mostly hearing wonderful information, but not actually taking steps.”
Los Angeles Times
Ojai USD at 'high risk' of insolvency, state fiscal review claims
Ojai USD is at "high risk" of insolvency and is on track to "deplete all cash" by July 2024, according to a pair of warnings delivered to the district by state and county education officials. César Morales, the county superintendent of schools, delivered the results of a budget analysis that claimed the district had overstated a three-year budget projection by $5.6m and forecast the district would run out of money by the end of next fiscal year. His report was followed by one from the the state's Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team that found the district at "high risk of insolvency" and flagged eight "significant risk factors" in its budget management.
Sonoma Valley Unified considers closing schools amid declining enrollment
The Sonoma Valley Unified School District may consider closing and consolidating schools to address a drop in enrollment, The Press-Democrat reported. Another option the district could consider is reconfiguring schools, such as establishing grades K-8 and 9-12 schools rather than the current configuration of grades K-5, 6-8 and 9-12. The district’s board will likely decide what steps it will take during meetings in April, according to the Press-Democrat.
“This isn’t the most fun conversation that we’re going to make as a community,” Trustee Celeste Winders said. “This isn’t a decision that any of us love. This isn’t a conversation that we’re looking forward to when we talk about definitely reconfiguring schools and potentially closing them due to declining enrollment.”
Oakland school board overturns vote to shutter schools
A year after voting to close several schools to address overspending and empty classrooms, a new majority on the Oakland USD school board has reversed the decision. The board voted last year to close or merge 11 schools across the district over two years in the face of tough budget decisions, plummeting enrollment and a cluster of tiny schools that were costly to keep open. Families and the teachers union pushed back on the controversial decision, pointing out that many of the schools being shuttered had a high share of low-income students of color. Nevertheless, the decision could still be undone. The district is still under state receivership after running out of money in 2003, and remains under authority of a fiscal trustee, who has the power to nullify the Wednesday night vote based on the district’s financial outlook.
East Bay Times San Francisco Chronicle
Retired superintendent takes Orange USD reins
A retired Southern California school superintendent living in Idaho took the helm of Orange USD this week, following the firing of the district’s top administrator. Edward Velasquez came out of retirement at the request of the School Board majority, which fired Superintendent Gunn Marie Hansen during a hastily called meeting last week while families and staff — including Ms. Hansen — were still out during winter break. Board members voted 4-3 to fire Hansen and place an assistant superintendent, Cathleen Corella, on leave. It is not the first time that Mr. Velasquez has been called to serve as an interim superintendent. This isn’t the first time that Velasquez has been called to serve as an interim superintendent. In the past decade, since he retired in 2013 from Lynwood USD in Los Angeles County, he has worked in the interim role for the Alpine and San Ysidro districts in San Diego County as well as the San Diego County Office of Education. His resume includes three years with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department as well as chief of school police at Montebello USD, where he rose through the ranks from teacher to superintendent in 2004.
----- CLASSROOM -----
Preschool suspensions negatively impact students
Preschool expulsions and suspensions can impair children’s cognitive and social development, panelists agreed during a webinar hosted this week by The Hunt Institute education policy nonprofit. Such practices can also cause long-lasting trauma to children and families, experts warned. Instead, panelists suggested, policies which support better compensation and preparation for early educators, more training in cultural responsiveness and racial biases, and a stronger focus on play-based learning and social development for young children should be encouraged.
Gardening classes help boost elementary students' health
A Texas-based education initiative has found that enrolling children in poor communities in gardening and cooking classes may help boost their long-term health. The Texas Sprouts program covered one full academic year and exposed elementary school children in 16 low-income schools access to outdoor gardening instruction, nutrition information and cooking lessons. Parents were offered similar classes. At the end of the course, there was a notable drop among the children in the risk for becoming pre-diabetic and diabetic, as measured by lower blood sugar levels, and lower "bad" cholesterol levels. All of the children were between the ages of 9 and 13, and all were enrolled in elementary schools in the Austin, Texas, area. Kids in the program were offered a total of 18 one-hour classes throughout the school year during school hours, averaging out to two classes per month, covering topics such as gardening/planting rules in a quarter-acre outdoor setting; kitchen safety; the difference between processed foods and real food; information on the ins and outs of sugary drinks, dietary fiber, food groups, food portions, vegetables, fruits and water; and how to eat healthy while both at school and “on the go.” At the program’s end, the study team analyzed blood samples taken from almost 700 children, nearly 500 of whom were Hispanic. Roughly 450 were also from low-income households, based on eligibility for a free or reduced-cost school lunch. The investigators found that, when compared with students who had not yet participated in the program, those who had already completed the Texas Sprouts program saw a drop in blood sugar levels. Blood analyses identified a notable 0.02% drop in HbA1c level over the three months prior to testing; an HbA1c test is a standard indicator of blood sugar patterns. The goal, said study author Jaimie Davis, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Texas at Austin, was to influence dietary habits by “essentially teaching kids where their food comes from and how to grow and cook with it.” The idea is that “if kids have ownership and autonomy over what they eat, they are more likely to have increased preference for that food and this preference can last a lifetime,” she added.
----- FINANCE -----
LAO warns that Newsom’s revenue projections may be overly optimistic
The Legislative Analyst’s Office doubled down last week on their earlier prediction that California would generate less revenue than Gov. Gavin Newsom is projecting for the 2023-24 state budget.
There is a “good chance” that revenues would be lower for the rest of the 2022-23 and next year, the LAO said in its budget overview. As a result, the Legislature should “plan for a larger budget problem” and deal with it by cutting more one-time and temporary spending than Newsom proposes, it said.
In November, the LAO projected a General Fund revenue shortfall of $25 billion in 2023-24; using updated revenue estimates, Newsom last week projected a $22 billion deficit for the General Fund. Both estimates could be off by the end of the year, but with a risk of a recession lurking, the Legislature should proceed cautiously, the LAO indicated.
https://edsource.org/updates/lao-warns-that-newsoms-revenue-projections-may-be-overly-optimistic
----- LEGAL -----
School lawsuits over social media harm face difficult legal routes
Gene Johnson argues that lawsuits seeking to hold the big U.S. social media companies accountable for the youth mental health crisis, like the one filed by the public school district in Seattle last week, face an uphill battle. Federal law - Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 - helps protect online companies from liability arising from what third-party users post on their platforms, but the lawsuits argue the provision, which predates all the social media platforms, does not protect the tech giants’ behavior in this case, where their own algorithms promote harmful content. “The underlying argument is that the tech industry is to blame for the emotional state of teenagers, because they made recommendations on content that has caused emotional harm,” says Carl Szabo, vice president and general counsel of the tech industry trade association NetChoice. “It would be absurd to sue Barnes & Noble because an employee recommended a book that caused emotional harm or made a teenager feel bad. But that’s exactly what this lawsuit is doing.” The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments next month over the extent to which federal law protects the tech industry from such claims.
Supreme Court takes up disabled students' rights case
The Supreme Court will hear a case today that could significantly impact the rights of students with disabilities in disputes between their parental guardians and schools. The case, Perez v. Sturgis Public Schools, which is in Michigan, will raise two key questions under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act; whether families can initiate claims if they have already settled under IDEA proceedings and whether a family must exhaust IDEA proceedings when pursuing non-IDEA claims for money damages under other federal disability laws. The case involves deaf Michigan student Miguel Luna Perez, whose immigrant parents sued Sturgis Public Schools for failing to provide him with a qualified sign language interpreter for 12 years. His parents believed upon graduation that Perez would receive a diploma, but he instead received a certificate of completion. A decision in the case is not anticipated until at least June.
----- WORKFORCE ----
Most school districts face teacher shortages
More than half of school districts across the country have reported shortages in teachers, according to researchers who attended an event hosted Thursday by the U.S. Department of Education. No national database tracks the issue of how many U.S. classrooms are short of teachers for the 2022-23 school year, yet states self-report "critical" shortages. Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin appear to be the only states to reduce shortages statewide this year compared to 2020-21, according to data from the National Conference of State Legislators.
----- CHILD DEVELOPMENT ----
Preschool suspensions 'not the way'
ormer teacher Tara Kirton, who is now a doctoral student in early childhood education at Teachers College, Columbia University, underlines the problems pre-school suspensions can cause further down the line. The National Survey of Children’s Health found that 250 U.S. students a day are suspended or expelled from their preschools and, according to federal data, preschoolers are expelled three times more often than their K-12 counterparts, while Black, Indigenous, and multiracial preschoolers receive a disproportionately high number of suspensions. Zero-tolerance policies are not interventions, Kirton warns, they simply remove children from the learning environment. Thankfully, she adds, states including California have moved to ban preschool suspensions and expulsions. "Families deserve respect, care, and support when working with their preschools to make a decision that is best for their child and family — not one based on biases or a desire for a temporary solution in the form of a suspension or expulsion," Kirton cautions.
----- HEALTH & WELLBEING -----
Vaccination rates dip among youngest students
Vaccination rates among kindergarten children fell in the 2021-2022 school year, a U.S. government study showed on Thursday, extending the previous year's slide from pre-pandemic levels. The fall in rates for the four most-commonly required childhood vaccines reflects the disruption caused by COVID-19 on healthcare and the need to restore vaccination coverage to pre-pandemic levels, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said of its data. Overall, those receiving state-required vaccinations declined to about 93% last year, down from 94% in the previous school year and 95% in the 2019-2020 school year, according to the CDC report. All U.S. states require the vaccine against measles and rubella and all but Iowa require a shots against mumps. All states also require the combined diphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis shot and the vaccine against poliovirus, while 49 states require inoculations against varicella, or chickenpox. Exemptions for vaccinations, which may be granted by states in cases where parents request them for their children remained low, at 2.6%.
----- SOCIAL & COMMUNITY -----
Most parents have considered changing schools
A new survey by the National School Choice Awareness Foundation indicates that over half (53.7%) of parents have considered or are considering enrolling their child in a new school. Black, Hispanic and young millennial parents were more likely to think about changing their child’s school than were White or older parents. For instance, 64.5% of Black parents and 64.6% of Hispanic parents said they’ve considered a change, compared to 46.2% of White parents. In considering education options for their children, 45.6% of parents said they mulled over traditional public schools in their neighborhoods, and 38.2% weighed putting their children in a public school outside their zone or district. The options considered by parents also included public charter schools (31.5%), private or religious schools (29.1%), homeschooling (22.9%), full-time virtual instruction (20.8%), or microschooling or learning pods (4%). A significant majority (67.9%) said they were largely satisfied with their children’s school however.
----- OTHER -----
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.com
Click here to schedule an appointment
