KEEPING YOU INFORMED - Negotiations Update By Ruben Mancillas
We have a ratified contract!
The crucial next step is that it will be taken to the ABCUSD school board during their meeting on February 21st for approval. If a majority of the board votes to approve then we can expect to see the new raise on our April paychecks.
We are still working with the district to get a more definite timeline for when the retro check and the off schedule payments will be available.
Thank you to all of our members who participated in the process.
In Unity,
KEEPING YOU INFORMED - Special School Board Meeting
Special Board Meeting Recap
The ABCUSD Board of Education held a special meeting on Tuesday, January 31, 2023, to learn more about the search process for the District’s new superintendent. Leadership Associates, the search firm hired by the Board to assist with finding the new superintendent, provided an overview of the process, including timelines. You can watch a recording of the special meeting here.
MEMBER-ONLY RESOURCES
Black History Month Lesson Plans and Resources
Black History Month isn’t only about pain—it can be a full-fledged celebration of accomplishments that have shaped America. Click on this article from Edutopia - Connecting Black History to Joy to find more resources.
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.
I’m struggling to find a quote this week that can encompass the entirety of this week but I do know that dialogue, even when it is heated or difficult, is a necessary part of a healthy organization. This week was a good week for ABCFT on many levels. Not only did we pass the largest compensation package in over two decades, but we also ratified a contract that was the culmination of five years of hard work by the negotiating team. Over the week, we could see the membership was debating the tentative agreement and its many parts. At some point, someone wrote to me directly to ask if the union could chime into the ongoing email chain that made people think deeper about what they were being asked to vote upon. One of the reasons we didn’t engage was because we felt that we had presented as much information as we had for members and that your staff conversations about the TA were important and should not be overlooked or minimized.
Over 549 ABCFT members (out of 994) read the frequently asked questions document we put out at the beginning of the week. We hope that this information helped you to make a decision for your vote on the contract agreement. In addition, 754 votes were cast over the week as the conversations in the lunch rooms went back and forth to the pros and cons of key pieces of the agreement. Is there controversy, absolutely there was but this important dialogue will help to strengthen our resolve as a union for future negotiations? ABCFT is always learning and will continue to dialogue with members on how we can improve going forward.
The only thing that I’m concerned about is that I have heard that some people contemplated leaving the union because there was something in the TA that they didn’t agree with. It’s healthy to have strong values and opinions but when someone leaves the union it only makes our collective voices weaker at the bargaining table. Every two years we go through the democratic process of voting for ABCFT leadership positions. We encourage you to vote for the type of leadership you want. Every opt-out of the union only hurts the organization's ability to represent your voice. Don’t leave your union over an issue. Instead, get involved in your union to make your voice heard. What is important is that the collective voice of the ABC Federation of Teachers stays STRONG. There will continue to be more challenging situations for ABCFT to navigate in the future and with your continued support and guidance we will be able to overcome those challenges.
Thank you for all you do in the classroom and in your continued feedback to ABCFT. A special thanks to those of you who attended the general meeting on Monday. Your conversation was a vital part of how we learn as an organization. Thanks to all of you for the emails, texts, and phone calls.
In YOUnity,
Ray Gaer
President, ABCFT
CALIFORNIA FEDERATION OF TEACHERS
CFT celebrates Black History Month
As February gets underway, CFT joins communities across the country in celebrating Black History Month. This month is an opportunity to recognize the critical contributions African Americans have made to our country and our communities, and an opportunity to reflect on the work that is ahead of us in the ongoing fight for racial justice.
Through their Share My Lesson web page, the AFT has put together a great set of lesson plans and resources to help you celebrate Black History Month. These resources are free and are appropriate for all ages and grade levels.
But Black History Month is not just about looking to the past. Every day we are reminded of how much work that remains to be done. The cruel murder of Tyre Nichols at the hands of the Memphis police, and recent news of the College Board giving in to the pressure of
conservative activists to dismantle AP African American Studies are but two examples of how the struggle for freedom and equality is far from over.
So as we celebrate Black History Month, we embrace our role as a union that prioritizes racial and social justice and recommit ourselves to the fight for fair and equitable schools and communities.
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-----
Much for education in Biden's Schools in State of the Union speech
President Joe Biden emphasized schools' role in supporting student mental health during his State of the Union address in Washington on February 7. Rising rates of anxiety and depression among children and teens should be a top concern for the nation, he asserted. The president used his speech to call for more funding to support preschool for three- and four-year-olds and provide two years of community college for free for all students, to call on Congress to restore an expansion of the Child Tax Credit that was in effect for a year under the American Rescue Plan and provided support to families struggling to afford childcare during the pandemic with monthly payments of $300 per child younger than six and $250 for each older child, and to champion the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. That law is the most comprehensive gun safety legislation in 30 years and provided $1bn for schools to support student mental health and well-being. The president also called for bipartisan support from Congress to ban online advertising targeted at young people and children and enact strong protections for youth and children's privacy, health, and safety online. In advance of Biden's speech, the White House announced a number of steps to help support children's mental health. The White House directed the U.S. Department of Education to establish a $280m grant program to increase the number of mental health care professionals in high-need districts and strengthen the school-based mental health professional pipeline. The Education Department and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will issue guidance and propose a rule to “remove red tape” so schools can more easily provide health care to students and bill Medicaid. The health and human services department will also launch a Children and Youth Resilience Prize Challenge, awarding $750,000 to a pilot program that promotes resilience among young people.
----- TEACHER SHORTAGE TRENDS -----
Elementary teacher-prep programs falling short, report claims
With most colleges and universities requiring future elementary school teachers take social studies and science classes, a new report argues that such requirements may not be well aligned to what they'll actually be teaching their students in class. In essence, analysis from the National Council on Teacher Quality, a research and policy group that advocates for more rigorous teacher preparation, says programs should instead better guide future teachers toward courses that give them the best base of knowledge for teaching young children the basics. The 2018 National Survey of Science and Mathematics Education found that only 42% of elementary teachers felt very well prepared to teach social studies and 31% felt the same for science, compared with 77% in reading and 73% in math.
Staffing challenges shadow Michigan's universal Pre-K ambitions
A familiar shortage of teachers is shadowing efforts to expand Michigan’s free preschool program. While Gov. Gretchen Whitmer got plenty of applause last week when she announced plans for another expansion of the Great Start Readiness Program, this time opening it to every four-year-old in the state regardless of family income, early educators will be watching closely to see how she plans to draw more teachers into the workforce when she gives a budget presentation next week. Michigan’s preschool pay gap is among the widest of any state-funded program in the nation and it fuels a high rate of teacher vacancies. In 2020-21, centers had 89 unfilled positions for lead teachers, or 4% of the workforce, a vacancy rate that doesn’t include classrooms that never opened because of hiring challenges. Also, because GSRP is funded by the state, closing the pay gap for preschool teachers would require an increase in per pupil funding for the program. Funding for GSRP increased rapidly in recent years to $9,150 per pupil, but that’s still well below the true cost of the program, which state officials peg at $12,700.
----- NATIONAL NEWS -----
Hundreds of thousands of missing students post-pandemic
An analysis by The Associated Press, Stanford University’s Big Local News project and Stanford education professor Thomas Dee has found hundreds of thousands of students in 21 states whose absences from school could not be accounted for. Overall, public school enrollment fell by 710,000 students between the 2019-20 and 2021-22 school years in the 21 states plus Washington, D.C., that provided the necessary data. Those states saw private-school enrollment grow by over 100,000 students. Home-schooling grew even more, surging by more than 180,000. But the data showed 240,000 students who were neither in private school nor registered for home-school. Their absences could not be explained by population loss, either — such as falling birth rates or families who moved out of state. States where kindergarten is optional were more likely to have larger numbers of unaccounted-for students, suggesting the missing also include many young learners kept home instead of starting school. California alone showed over 150,000 missing students in the data, and New York had nearly 60,000. The true number of missing students is likely much higher however, as the analysis doesn’t include data from 29 states, including Texas and Illinois, or the unknown numbers of ghost students who are technically enrolled but rarely make it to class. Some are still afraid of COVID-19, are homeless or have left the country, some students couldn’t study online and found jobs instead, but each student represents money from the city, state and federal governments.
School voucher programs gaining momentum
States are increasingly considering school voucher programs that provide students with money for private-school tuition or home schooling in the wake of the pandemic, which forced many families to reconsider schooling choices for their children. At least 19 states are currently weighing legislation related to vouchers, or education savings accounts, according to the National Council of State Legislatures. Following in Arizona’s footsteps from summer 2022, Utah and Iowa in January passed laws to create education savings accounts for thousands of students in those states, while new bills are gaining momentum in Florida and South Carolina. The governors of Arkansas and Oklahoma have indicated their support for enacting such programs. At least 27 voucher programs, with varying restrictions, exist in at least 16 states and the District of Columbia, according to the Education Commission of the States.
HHS launches early education workforce initiative
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has created a National Early Care and Education Workforce Center to boost recruitment and retention of early childhood professionals. The ECE Workforce Center is beginning with a $30m investment for research and technical assistance to states, communities, territories and tribal nations. Focus areas will include strengthening career pipelines and identifying and implementing sustainable ways to raise pay and benefits. According to HHS, the child care sector lost 80,000 jobs or about 7.5% of its workforce during the pandemic. These professionals tend to be among the lowest-paid employees in the country despite the skills needed to support young children’s development.
----- STATE NEWS -----
Over 150,000 California school-age children unaccounted for
An estimated 152,000 school-age children expected to be in California classrooms are unaccounted for in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to new research, an indication of the lingering disruption affecting students, their families and schools. In all, the analysis tallied 240,000 unaccounted-for public school students in 21 states and the District of Columbia, with the greatest number in California, the nation’s most populous state. Data were not available for 29 states in research conducted by the Associated Press, Stanford University’s Big Local News project and Stanford education professor Thomas Dee. The new research focuses on the totality of enrollment drops during the pandemic years and attempts to determine what happened to these students to the extent possible, bringing in data from private school enrollment and also figures for students being home-schooled. In California, about 56% of the enrollment decline of about 271,000 students across three school years cannot be explained alone by shrinking birth rates combined with more students in home-schooling and private schools. From 2019 to 2022, California’s school-age population dropped about 96,000, according to Census data, while the number of home-schoolers increased by 14,000 and private school enrollment grew by 9,500. This accounts for 119,500 students of the total decline of 271,000. That leaves about 152,000 students unaccounted for.
California drops school COVID vaccine mandate
Children in California won't have to get the coronavirus vaccine to attend schools after February 28, state public health officials confirmed Friday, ending one of the last major restrictions of the pandemic in the nation's most populous state. Gov. Gavin Newsom first announced the policy in 2021, saying it would eventually apply to all of California's 6.7m public and private schoolchildren. California has previously enjoyed much influence over the nation's pandemic policies. It was the first state to issue a statewide stay-at-home order for example, and other states were swift to follow. Most states did not however follow California's lead when it came to the vaccine mandate for public schools. Officials in Louisiana announced a similar mandate but later backed off, though schools in the District of Columbia plan to require the COVID-19 vaccine starting this fall.
----- DISTRICTS -----
SFUSD to propose largest bond in city history
San Francisco USD plans to present voters with a $1bn general obligation bond as soon as November, the largest bond in the city’s history. According to a district-wide facilities condition assessment that analyzed 148 public school, charter school and administration sites, SFUSD needs $1.7bn to fund building repairs and upgrades over the next five years. A recent assessment scored building conditions, and identified Rooftop Elementary and Middle School’s Mayeda campus, Mission High School, Balboa High School, Everett Middle School and George Moscone Elementary School — all deferred from the 2016 bond — as having the greatest need for improvements.
Study of LAUSD confirms benefits of four years of math
New research that tracked high school juniors in Los Angeles USD found that those who took math as seniors — from algebra to advanced calculus — were better positioned to enroll and stay in college than those who didn’t. Twelfth Grade Math and College Access, a report from UCLA’s Los Angeles Education Research Institute, followed 45,400 students through high school graduation and then two years beyond. Even though those who took math as seniors experienced a slight drop in their overall grade point average, from 3 to 6 hundredths of a point, they were significantly more likely than their peers who skipped math to enroll in a four-year college and to re-enroll for a second year. This was especially true for those juniors who had a D in a prior math course and needed a higher grade to be eligible for admission to UC and CSU. LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said the district plans to “explode the information” about the study on social media sites and to look closely at where to expand and diversify math courses among high schools. He has brought the findings to his Cabinet and plans to raise the issue with counselors and principals in summer professional development sessions, he said.
----- INTERNATIONAL -----
PISA's global testing reach challenged
Former secretary of state for education in Spain Montse Gomendio, now deputy director for education at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and co-author of "Dire Straits: Education Reforms, Ideology, Vested Interests and Evidence," underlines what she sees are the failings of the Programme for International Student Assessment, or PISA, which has tested 15-years-olds throughout the world in reading, math, and science since 2020. Developed by the OECD and administered every three years, PISA is designed to yield evidence for governments on which education policies deliver better learning outcomes as students approach the end of secondary school, yet, she notes, according to PISA’s own data, after almost two decades of testing, student outcomes have not improved overall in OECD nations or most other participating countries. PISA’s two assumptions, Gomendio suggests, that its policy recommendations are right and that the evidence provided by PISA data is enough to minimize the political costs of attempting education reform, are flawed. Most policy recommendations are strongly context-dependent, she claims, and PISA’s recommendations may be difficult for policymakers to interpret correctly if they lack precise knowledge of their education system’s state of maturity. Making universal policy recommendations has dire consequences for many countries, particularly those most in need, Gomendio adds, so it would be much more helpful for PISA to look at countries that have achieved gains and try to extract lessons for other countries that had similar starting points when they joined PISA but have not improved.
----- 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
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