Reform Group? - Amityville Teachers Association

The union that cares
Vol. 13 Issue 1
October 2012
the
Scribe
The Award Winning Newsletter of the Amityville Teachers Association • Local 2466 • NYSUT • AFT • AFL-CIO
Inside
Grievance
Report
Reform
Group?
ATA
Happenings
Every
Friday
wear your
red
ATA shirt
OCTOBER 25, 2012
STOP THE CAP, CLOSE THE GAP
Greetings everyone! I am really
glad that my transition to president has
been uneventful! Kidding. I have walked
right into a negotiations breakdown locally,
an APPR fiasco state-wide, and an overall
attack on the teaching profession nationally.
Each one of these issues by itself is a large
problem. Collectively they have been taking
up much of my time and I promise to be
more visible in the future.
First let’s start with negotiations.
Without getting into specifics because they
will be covered in a general membership
meeting (or may have already) the
negotiations team ultimately thought that
too much was being asked for by the BOE. I
thank you all for your patience during
the first couple of weeks
of the year because
we were very close.
We must now start the
process again. With the
new website I intend on
performing our polls and
questionnaires on the secure
Moodle section. That should
be more efficient and allow
members to have discussions
about things without all having
to be in
the same place or more importantly, through
the grapevine.
Regarding APPR, I have allowed the
Mandatory Professional Developments to fall
within the 30 day window because I believe
they benefit the members. Any PD that does
not deal specifically with APPR or SLOs and
does not follow contractual language should
be reported to your Building Vice President
at once.
Let’s discuss the assault on the
teaching profession. Part of this assault is
the Tax Cap. Placing a 2% (or less) cap on a
district when much of the budget is teachers’
salaries speaks volumes. This in addition to
the decrease in state funding and fictitious
Race To The Top money is turning out to be
disastrous to our district. Really? No Business
Department? Also, the super-majority vote
means that the minority of residents could
rule the majority.
It will be near impossible to regain
the programs, maintain the buildings, and
fully staff the district as long as there is this
Tax Cap. Our first step as an Association
should be to join our forces to help in any
way we can to destroy it. One reason it is
even around is because we didn’t fight it
when we could. Out of nearly 600,000 NYSUT
members in New York, elected officials looked
at only 15,000 letters, faxes and emails from
them. I have been in the audience of a few
politicians who have reminded us that they
have been inundated with phone call letters,
and emails from those in support of the tax cap.
If they
don’t honor those constituents,
they lose those votes. So, if WE
are LOUD and VOCAL, they will
have to honor our point of view
and VOTE OUR WAY! Your voice
matters! There was no support
for those politicians who were
against it. Further, NYSUT
reported that nearly 84% of
Long Island NYSUT members
supported a tax cap! Wow!
As a result across New York State
30,000 educators have lost their jobs. I
still can’t believe that number! Make no mistake
about it, it is affecting us in Amityville.
What we are doing to fight the
Cap is supporting the group EDUCATE NY
NOW. This purpose of this group is to ”unify
parents, students, educators, administrators,
unions, school board members, community
organizations, civil rights groups, education
advocates and others statewide around
a broad-based campaign to demand that
our state government fulfill New York’s
constitutional obligation to provide all students
with a quality education”. On October 25, 2012
we are going to have a rally at the High School
from 4-4:45PM called “Stop The Cap, Close The
Gap”. We will have speakers there to talk about
the potentially disastrous effects of the Tax
Cap. Your presence is urgently needed! Please
make time to support our union and this cause
by joining us for just 45 minutes on October 25.
Visit http://educatenynow.org for more ammo.
Very Truly Yours,
Robert Claps
2
Scribe
October 2012
Grievance Report
ATA HAPPENINGS
Grievance #2011-01 Issue:
Summer ELA Program, no compensation for 3 hour
scheduled orientation period.
- Filed Step 1 on September 1, 2011
- Filed Step 2 on October 6, 2011
- Filed Step 3 on November 1, 2011
- Hearing at BOE meeting December 8th, 2012
- Waiting for BOE response
- Arbitration Date: October 16, 2012
Saturday September 15, 2012 the Copiague Chamber of Commerce held its Family Festival. The Amityville Teachers’ Association was represented by Lynda Mussen,
Nancy Finizio, Colleen Kretz and Bob Claps to promote public awareness to our issues.
Grievance #2011-3 Issue:
Teacher was sent home for violating a non-existing
dress code.
- Filed Step 1 on September 1, 2011
- Filed Step 2 on October 6, 2011
- Filed Step 3 on November 1, 2011
- Hearing at BOE meeting December 8, 2012
- Waiting for BOE response
- Waiting for arbitration date.
The ATA had a vendor spot for Amityville’s Applefest October 6, 2012. Bob set the table up
at 8:30am for the 10am start. Applefest is run
by the Amityville Rotary Club and the Amityville
Chamber of Commerce and Amityville Historical Society joined in to make it a huge success.
Grievance #2011-6 Issue:
Additional 6th class assignments were given to staff
members through virtual electives.
- Filed Step 1 December 8th, 2011
- Denied by district December 23, 2011
- Filed Step 2 January 9, 2012.
- Step 2 denied on January 24, 2012
- Program was cancelled during school hours.
- Program was offered to to staff after school.
- Grievance is in abeyance as of March 20, 2012.
- Filed Step 3 February 7, 2012
- Step 3 denied April 26, 2012
- Waiting for BOE response.
GO TO:
Our annual “Back To School Bash” was held August 22, 2012 in the
Park Avenue Memorial Elementary School. We handed out hundreds
of school supplies to the children of the Amityville Schools.
http://amityvilleteachers.org/wordpress
Teacher savings
Check out NYSUT Member Benefits for discounts on
travel, car rentals, movies, museums, books and more.
Go to NYSUT.com and click on “Member Benefits” or
directly to http://www.nysut.org/cps/rde/xchg/nysut/
hs.xsl/49.htm
The
Scribe
is published four times a year by the Amityville Teachers Association
74 Merrick Rd.
Amityville, NY 11701
(631) 691-0021
www.amityville teachers.org
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and may be addressed to:
The Scribe
Amityville Teachers Association
74 Merrick Rd.
Amityville, NY 11701
or e-mail - atascribe@yahoo.com
Grievance #2011-2 Issue:
Teacher was sent home for violating a non-existing
dress code.
- Filed Step 1 onSeptember 1,2011
- Filed Step 2 on October 6, 2011
- Filed Step 3 on November 1, 2011
- Hearing at BOE meeting December 8, 2012
- Waiting for BOE response
- Waiting for arbitration date.
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Scribe 3
October 2012
REFORM GROUP? DON’T BE FOOLED!
By Sylvia Saunders and Darryl McGrath - NYSUT United - September 24, 2012
Their names may sound positive, but don’t be fooled. Big-money groups with anti-union, anti-public education
agendas are cropping up and mobilizing around the state. Here’s what you need to know about some of the
major groups:
StudentsFirst NY
DFER
StudentsFirst NY, an arm of the national StudentsFirst
organization headed by former Washington, D.C.,
Chancellor Michelle Rhee, was officially formed this
spring “to counter the influence of the teachers’ union
in New York,” according to a headline in The New York
Times. State Director Micah Lasher, the former director of
state legislative affairs for New York City Mayor Michael
Bloomberg, said the group’s aim is to raise $10 million
annually for five years.
Democrats for Education Reform is a secretive,
corporate-backed political action committee that attacks
retirement security and public education.
On the board are some polarizing figures in public
education including Rhee, former chancellor Joel Klein
(now a News Corp executive) and Eva Moskowitz, a
former New York City councilwoman who now runs
charter schools.
Other board members are hedge fund managers Daniel
Loeb and Paul Tudor Jones, founders of the Robin Hood
Foundation. Once Obama supporters, Loeb and Jones
have crossed party lines to help the Republicans defeat
him in this year’s election. One of the group’s first actions
in New York was to urge people to call for an end to
senority-based layoffs for teachers.
NYCAN
The New York Campaign for Achievement Now, or
NYCAN, opened in New York this year thanks to $1.2
million in backing from the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation.
NYCAN is based on existing models in Connecticut,
Minnesota and Rhode Island, where the group took
credit for a 20 percent increase in state funding for
charter schools, winning two new alternate certification
routes for teachers and principals, and overhauls of
teacher evaluation systems.
Here in New York, NYCAN Executive Director Christina
Grant is pushing “parent trigger” legislation that
would allow a majority of parents at chronically
underperforming schools to choose from several reform
options, including converting the school into a charter
school, firing the school administration or closing the
school outright. Grant previously worked for Teach for
America, a KIPP charter school and Uncommon Schools.
NYCAN’s national affiliate, 50CAN, reported retaining an
Albany lobbyist, Vincent Marrone, for $4,100 per month.
Marrone represents a wide range of clients including the
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and NYC Charter School
Center.
In New York, DFER pushed the ill-conceived tax cap that
is crippling schools.
The group’s New York branch is headed by Elizabeth
Ling, a board director in the Harlem Success Academy
charter school network and former banking financier.
The group’s chief aim is to push aside teacher unions
and advocate for vouchers, merit pay, nonunion charter
schools and curbs on tenure.
The board includes a “who’s who” of superrich hedgefund managers and charter school proponents, including
Whitney Tilson, a board member of the National Alliance
for Public Charter Schools and New York’s KIPP Academy
Charter Schools. Tilson has called charters “the perfect
philanthropy for results-oriented business executives ...
Hedge funds are always looking for ways to turn a small
amount of capital into a large amount of capital.”
Philanthropist Eli Broad, whose foundation gave more
than $500,000 to plug advocacy related to the pseudodocumentary “Waiting for Superman” and the procharter film “The Lottery,” is a major backer of Education
Reform Now, DFER’s nonprofit sister organization.
Committee to Save New York
The very name of the group is deceptively appealing.
Hasn’t the state been in dire financial straits for the last
three years? Isn’t there a real need to right a number of
fiscal wrongs in New York and fix a political system many
astute observers say is broken?
The answers to those questions are yes and yes. But the
answer to New York’s problems is almost certainly not
the Committee to Save New York, a well-funded lobbying
group that has spent millions on television and print ads
this year to promote Gov. Cuomo’s political agenda.
The group’s website, www.letsfixalbany.org, lists a “great
education” among the assets of a strong state, and cites
the property tax cap as one path to political and fiscal
reform.
NYSUT agrees that a great education for all New Yorkers
is a hallmark of a strong state economy. But what the
Committee to Save New York website doesn’t tell you
is that the property tax cap — which NYSUT strongly
opposed — is depriving public schools of the funds they
need to meet more rigorous standards.
24
Scribe
October 2012
Mark The Date
Congratulations to:
John and Janine Katsigiorgis on the birth
of their son Stelio.
UPDATE
Local
Action
Project
LAP Objectives:
LAP is designed to develop strong programs in
membership involvment, communications,
media and public relations, community outreach,
coalition building and political action.
October 27th is the Homecoming
Parade at 12:15
October 23rd
AMHS Newsday Marching Band
Festival 7pm @ Hofstra
November 9th
End of First Quarter
December 13-21
Music Winter Concerts
Helping To Build A Better Union
Planned LAP activities:
- Union sponsored TGIFs,
- Recognize honor roll students grades 1st-12th,
- ATA awards night,
Watch for dates on upcoming events.
- Police and Fire-Department recognition
- Making Strides Breast Cancer Walk
- ATA outreach programs
Participate and Stand United!
Register now for Share My Lesson
By Sylvia Saunders - NYSUT United - September 24, 2012
There’s a trusted place for educators to turn for a fresh approach to an old
lesson, a place that’s a little like a desktop faculty room to share great ideas and
create a community.
Developed by teachers, for teachers, Share My Lesson was launched over
the summer by the American Federation of Teachers and TES Connect, and
already has more than 250,000 resources. It’s a free digital platform that allows
educators around the country to collaborate and share teaching resources and
innovative ideas.
AFT’s Heidi Glidden said content will be supplemented by tens of thousands of
contributions from hundreds of content partners, including Sesame Street and
Encyclopedia Britannica. Users are also encouraged to form special interest
communities, such as music teachers or English-as-a-Second-Language
educators.
“It provides an instant practitioner-based way for teachers to collaborate on a
national and global level.” “We encourage all our members to register and join
in this professional community,” said NYSUT Vice President Maria Neira. For a
limited time, registrants at www.sharemylesson.com are eligible for a number of
prizes, including a grand prize of $5,000 toward a student loan or a $3,500 gift
card.
Contact your ATA
ATA Office hours Monday thru Friday from 1:00 - 4:30
74 Merrick Rd (above Key Computing )
Please call 691-0021
Robert Claps - President
atapres@yahoo.com
Legislative Council
Robert Claps
ATA President - NE
Carol Seehof
Vice President -NW
Marc Engler
Secretary - PAMES
George Alexander
Treasurer - PAMES
Northeast
Colleen Kretz - BVP
Dyan Aversa - Asst.
Northwest
Franca Adams - BVP
Jennifer Callahan - Asst.
Park Ave.
Donna Sohm - BVP
Kerry Moore - Asst. BVP
EWMMS
Beth Cunningham - BVP
Lynda Mussen - Asst.
Karen Starkey - Asst.
AMHS
Jenn Trotman - BVP
Andrew Akapnitis - Asst.
NYSUT/AFT Rep
Lynda Mussen
Tina Smith
Webmaster
Shannon Reilly
Sick Bank Chair
Linda Pfaffe
LAP Coordinators
Kathleen Thorn
Marisa Krepil
E lections
I rene W inter
E ditor
Jolene Maccarone