“Wouldn’t it be great to have classroom teachers across the state talking collaboratively about how to improve the culture and learning climate in their schools?” asks Perth Amboy High School language arts teacher Stacy Lemongelli. Now the National Board Certified Teacher (NBCT) is a step closer to that aspirational goal with her selection to a teacher leadership advisory board, newly created by state legislation.
The University of Connecticut Professional Employees Association came to a contract agreement with the University in late December. The members voted in favor of the contract 3:1 in mid January and the University's Board of Trustee's approved the contract last week. While it is good to see a contract move forward, this agreement has limited cross-over for A&R for many reasons. Foremost, UCPEA negotiates with the University, they do not negotiate with the State in the same manner that we engage the State. Our negotiations are tied directly to the Governor's/Legislature's personnel c
After state-led mediation, the Part-time Faculty Association of Maine (PATFA) and the University of Maine System (UMS) have reached tentative agreement on a new two-year contract for part-time faculty members at all seven System universities.
The proposed contract (Sept. 1, 2015-Aug. 31, 2017) includes a 2 percent raise as of Sept. 1, 2016, in the per-credit-hour pay scale for part-time faculty and an additional 1 percent raise for those with 13 or more service units.
The 2016 General Assembly session opens Wednesday Feb 3 and the Governor will present his budget to the legislature. The "leaked" budget (there are no accidental leaks) calls for layoffs and collective bargaining gains (page 27 of the pdf numbered as page 30...my apologies for the awful copy attached here).
A&R held its 3rd Contract Negotiations meeting with the State on January 27th. This meeting was very similar to the other meetings where proposals from both sides were introduced by the respective parties. This session completed the process for new proposals and the negotiations will commence utilizing the proposals submitted at this point. The discussions that followed were brief and limited to clarification rather than searching for common ground. As examples: A&R questioned why the State proposes a switch to utilizing the State Mediation/Arbitration Board rather than OLR, w
Our strength as a union is in our numbers. What would 100% membership mean at your worksite?
The Higher Education Transition Team Committee released its report last week on the strategies for saving higher education from the years of devastating cuts. Read the article here: http://gov.louisiana.gov/news/transition-committee-on-higher-education-releases-final-report
The Advocate
January 2016
NDU President Visits
Nick Archuleta, president of North Dakota United, visited our rep assembly last week. He spent about 20 minutes discussing concerns and initiatives from the state perspective. Highlights included:
· NDU has gained 125 K-12 members in the state and continues to work on membership growth and increasing the number of active members.
PWFT Advocate
Prince William Federation of Teachers
Reclaiming the Promise of Fairness by Bill Hosp, PWFT President
The PWCS PPP Core Committee met January 15th at the Kelly Center. We heard an administration report on what progress administration had made training assistant principals and administrative interns to faithfully implement the PPP in their supervision of teachers and staff as well as training opportunities that had been offered during back to school events prior to the school year. One important point that we learned was that if administrators alter the prescribed format of the PPP they invalidate it, no matter how well intentioned the change may be.
It is important that our members understand that while we have no problem with the ideals of the PPP, teaching you to do your job better, we do have a problem with the lack of uniformity in implementation. Some of this is due to the relay method of training teachers and staff where central office personnel train administrators, administrators train staff members and some things get lost in the retelling. The other aspect of this issue is more serious.
After nearly a decade of phasing in and implementing this method of evaluation we still have administrators who do not practice what this system preaches. Instead of using this as a tool for professional growth they are using it to promote their friends and document their perceived enemies for dismissal. I had the unpleasant duty to confront the committee with these realities, such as a teacher who reached out for help with a challenging class only to end up on an improvement plan or the teacher who was put on improvement plans in May (yes, May!) when he met any goals of his previous plan. If you face something similar we need to know about it!
Until these abuses of authority are meaningfully addressed we will have to decline any administration entreaties to hold PPP workshops for our members. Let’s keep them honest.
Member Engagement
The new School Board is having a serious discussion about rolling back the length of the teacher workday adopted four years ago and amended in 2014. Teachers, PWFT needs you to make your voice heard on this important step toward restoring teacher morale. Do you prefer getting back the time that was added or finally getting paid for it? Please send your response as a reply to the e-mail containing this newsletter. Tell us “time” or “pay.” Thank you in advance.
School Calendar for 2016-2017
The School Board voted on December 16th to begin the next academic year the Monday before Labor Day, 2016. They had considered two options, opening school prior to Labor Day or after Labor Day. The end of the school year was counted from opening day in each plan.
PWFT had polled members in conjunction with the December newsletter and two thirds of the members who responded voted for the pre-Labor Day option.
Member of the Month
Congratulations to Wendy Marr for being our January Member of the Month! Since joining us last fall Wendy has become a member of our team of advocates before the Prince William County School Board. Most recently she attended the January 13th CIP work session to represent PWFT. Wendy teaches Math at Potomac Middle School.
All Emotional Distress/Punitive Damage awards of PL and Vacation time should have been applied in the 1/8/16 paystub or the 1/22/16 pay stub.
If you were employed on 11/17/2002 and suffered no ecomonic loss you should have recieved 10hrs PL.
If you bumped down you should have received 32hrs Vacation and 24hrs PL.
If you were laid-off you should have received 80hrs Vacation and 40hrs PL.
