Tuesday night’s gubernatorial debate at Dominican College in San Rafael may have gotten a bit too confrontational for some, but despite the grenades hurled back and forth, Jerry Brown continued to show his support for California educators. That occurred when moderator Tom Brokaw asked Brown about the role of the teachers union in California. Brown responded: “It is a very important role, since they represent, through free elections, hundreds of thousands of teachers in California classrooms. They’re a very strong advocate for more money for schools. And that’s very important, particularly when you have people like Meg Whitman coming around wanting to cut the capital gains tax and put a $5 billion hole, which a certain amount of that will certainly come from schools.”
Check out "Meg for Meg," video.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Election Day Coming
Election Day is less than three weeks away, and we still have a lot of work to do! The outcome of this election will have enormous consequences for educators, students and schools, so I want to encourage you to make sure our members are doing everything we can throughout this state to make sure public education prevails on Election Day. We can’t let up now. In addition to electing Jerry Brown and Tom Torlakson, we must ramp up the effort to save schools from more cuts and layoffs by passing Proposition 24, the Tax Fairness Act. This is CTA’s initiative. We sponsored it and collected enough signatures to put it on the ballot, and now we must continue the work to make sure it passes on November 2. Passing Prop. 24 will ensure that California’s largest corporations continue to pay their fair share. It will help save 22,000 teacher, nurse and firefighter jobs, keep class sizes small, and protect education programs, public safety and other services.
To help you, we have created a new Take Action Page just for Prop. 24. You and your members can help get the word out during this final push:
First and foremost, talk to family and friends about why passing Prop 24 is so important to our schools and communities.
Share CTA’s Yes on 24 webpage with all of your members. There, they can get ideas of how to help using CTA’s social networks, get the latest on Prop. 24, and print and download posters to display and share.
Watch and share the Teachers for 24 video.
Write an Op-Ed or letter to the editor of your local paper and share your thoughts on tax fairness.
Respond online or in a Letter to the Editor to articles and blogs about Prop. 24.
Participate in a Prop. 24 “100 Grand Bar Giveaway” to parents and voters on Halloween.
Vote YES on 24 on your mail-in ballot or at your polling place on Nov 2!
It’s time to give students and educators a break, not big corporations. Let’s all make sure Prop 24 passes on November 2. Thank you for your leadership in this effort.
David A. Sanchez
CTA President
To help you, we have created a new Take Action Page just for Prop. 24. You and your members can help get the word out during this final push:
First and foremost, talk to family and friends about why passing Prop 24 is so important to our schools and communities.
Share CTA’s Yes on 24 webpage with all of your members. There, they can get ideas of how to help using CTA’s social networks, get the latest on Prop. 24, and print and download posters to display and share.
Watch and share the Teachers for 24 video.
Write an Op-Ed or letter to the editor of your local paper and share your thoughts on tax fairness.
Respond online or in a Letter to the Editor to articles and blogs about Prop. 24.
Participate in a Prop. 24 “100 Grand Bar Giveaway” to parents and voters on Halloween.
Vote YES on 24 on your mail-in ballot or at your polling place on Nov 2!
It’s time to give students and educators a break, not big corporations. Let’s all make sure Prop 24 passes on November 2. Thank you for your leadership in this effort.
David A. Sanchez
CTA President
Thursday, September 23, 2010
New Movie Slams Teacher Unions-CTA Response
I’m sure most of you have heard about the latest film attacking the teachers unions—Waiting for Superman—which opens in L.A. this Friday, and the rest of the state October 3. This is one of three movies out right now talking about teachers and public education. Like many of Arne Duncan’s education reform ideas, this movie is half-baked.
Unfortunately, traditional public schools— along with their students and their teachers— are strangely absent from this documentary. Director Davis Guggenheim attributes this partly to the fact that “a lot of schools don’t want you to shoot film in them, no matter who you are” – so instead of getting the story of what’s really going on, we get the story that Guggenheim could tell more easily. If you want to make a documentary about improving education, and if you want to make a documentary about daily feats of heroism, you shouldn’t ignore public schools.
Waiting for Superman will stir up the national discussion about public schools – following Newsweek’s shoddy report, and the L.A. Times recent attack – and it does so at the expense of public school teachers, our union and the students we serve. We can talk about what doesn’t work – slashed budgets, overcrowded classrooms, a lack of time for training and mentoring – but who would go see Waiting for a Fair and Balanced Conversation That Supports Our Students and Teachers, and Improves Learning?
We will be covering this issue in the upcoming October issue of the California Educator magazine. Until then,
Take a sneak peek at our interview with Guggenheim
Read NEA’s response
Join the NOT Waiting for Superman Facebook Page
Read one USF Professor’s Response
And be sure to tell your own stories about public education to all who will listen. When your friends ask you about this movie, or even your day, tell them! You don’t have to see this movie to let your friends and neighbors know about the challenges, the rewards and the realities you encounter every day that you go to work in a California school. We can’t wait for Guggenheim or the L.A. Times to tell the complete story. We must speak up. We must speak out. We must stand together.
Join us on the CTA Facebook page where we are discussing this and much more.
David A. Sanchez
CTA President
Unfortunately, traditional public schools— along with their students and their teachers— are strangely absent from this documentary. Director Davis Guggenheim attributes this partly to the fact that “a lot of schools don’t want you to shoot film in them, no matter who you are” – so instead of getting the story of what’s really going on, we get the story that Guggenheim could tell more easily. If you want to make a documentary about improving education, and if you want to make a documentary about daily feats of heroism, you shouldn’t ignore public schools.
Waiting for Superman will stir up the national discussion about public schools – following Newsweek’s shoddy report, and the L.A. Times recent attack – and it does so at the expense of public school teachers, our union and the students we serve. We can talk about what doesn’t work – slashed budgets, overcrowded classrooms, a lack of time for training and mentoring – but who would go see Waiting for a Fair and Balanced Conversation That Supports Our Students and Teachers, and Improves Learning?
We will be covering this issue in the upcoming October issue of the California Educator magazine. Until then,
Take a sneak peek at our interview with Guggenheim
Read NEA’s response
Join the NOT Waiting for Superman Facebook Page
Read one USF Professor’s Response
And be sure to tell your own stories about public education to all who will listen. When your friends ask you about this movie, or even your day, tell them! You don’t have to see this movie to let your friends and neighbors know about the challenges, the rewards and the realities you encounter every day that you go to work in a California school. We can’t wait for Guggenheim or the L.A. Times to tell the complete story. We must speak up. We must speak out. We must stand together.
Join us on the CTA Facebook page where we are discussing this and much more.
David A. Sanchez
CTA President
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
RCTA Asking About Teacher Evaluations
RCTA President asked for input from members, "What are your thoughts about beginning a dialogue with the district concerning the use of student achievement data in a responsible, fair, and accurate manner as one component of the teacher evaluation system?
I would hope that members that give input would keep in mind the following CTA Policy on teacher evaluations.
I encourage everyone to go to http://www.rcta.groupsite.com/ and give him input on what you think about evaluations.
CTA Policy on Teacher Evaluations
Evaluation and Due Process (Policy manual pages 144-145)
CTA believes evaluation is the key to excellence. Well-planned evaluation programs based on policies cooperatively developed by staff, administration, and board assure that evaluation will serve its primary purpose of benefiting bargaining unit members, students, and community.
These principles apply to all bargaining unit members, whether full-time or part-time, regardless of the age of their students. Their implementation should be bargained by the appropriate bargaining unit and should apply uniformly within the employing unit.
1. Evaluation and Due Process protects:
a. Children and society against incompetent or unfit professional staff members.
b. Bargaining unit members against disciplinary or dismissal proceedings without just cause related to the quality of instruction.
c. Bargaining unit members against disciplinary or dismissal proceedings for arbitrary, capricious, unsubstantial or unsubstantiated reasons.
d. Academic freedom.
2. Due Process for certificated employees provides:
a. For a procedure by which an individual subject to dismissal may obtain a fair and full hearing before a group of his/her professional peers.
b. For judicial recourse or appeal if a school board or a bargaining unit member feels aggrieved at dismissal or disciplinary actions.
3. The California Teachers Association recognizes:
a. Bargaining unit members are professionally competent and can be counted upon to initiate self-discipline within their own ranks,
b. An adequate probationary period is necessary and that no dismissal action should be initiated unless the bargaining unit member has been informed of his/her alleged deficiencies and given time and assistance for their correction.
Evaluation of instruction refers to those procedures in a school district which assess the effectiveness of the school in meeting the goals and expectations it has agreed upon for itself. This includes, but is not limited to, evaluation of the performance of individual certificated personnel. Effective evaluation of instruction requires that procedures be designed to focus on the improvement of educational services to pupils. CTA believes that the preparation and dissemination of observations, evaluations, or any data concerning unit members shall be confidential. Once a hard copy of the information has been generated and disseminated, the computer memory of the information shall be erased.
Basic Principles for certificated personnel
Evaluation of instruction is the key to a successful educational program. It provides:
1. For the improvement of instruction through interaction among all concerned parties.
2. For a planned program to keep certificated personnel informed of respective strengths and weaknesses and for appropriate professional growth activities to meet identified needs.
3. For the continued services of certificated personnel who strive to demonstrate professional competence.
4. For capable, qualified, certificated personnel to achieve and retain permanent status.
These principles are dependent upon the following guidelines relevant to both certificated and classified employees:
1. Bargaining unit members shall participate with their evaluators in the development of criteria for satisfactory performance. These criteria shall be mutually agreed upon by both bargaining unit members and evaluators and shall be subject to periodic review.
2. The criteria, procedures, and form relating to evaluation shall be fully publicized and available to all concerned.
3. Procedures for collecting, processing, and interpreting data shall be objective and uniform.
4. Evaluation shall include a conference between the evaluatee and the evaluator(s) at which time information relating to the individual's strength and weaknesses should be discussed openly and frankly with the individual being evaluated.
5. The availability of needed resources and other factors unique to the individual assignment which might affect the program of instruction shall be identified and considered in evaluation conferences.
6. Help and assistance to bargaining unit members in areas indicated as not meeting district standards shall be provided, and a record of such assistance shall be maintained for review in subsequent evaluation conferences.
7. Evaluations shall be recorded and signed by both evaluatee and evaluator(s), a copy provided to the evaluatee and a copy retained in the district files to provide a continuous record of the individual's service.
8. Provision for appeal on items of disagreement shall be available.
9. Provision shall be made for self-evaluation or other action programs for the benefit of all bargaining unit members to upgrade their professional performance.
10. Provision shall be made to remedy deficiencies in the conditions under which bargaining unit members perform their services.
11. No standardized test norms shall be used to assess teacher performance.
12. Certificated bargaining unit member assessment based on non-instructional duties shall be minimal. These duties shall be specified in advance of any utilization of for evaluation purposes.
13. Bargaining unit members shall evaluate administrative and support personnel and shall have the option of evaluation by their professional peers.
14. No student assessment shall be used in the evaluation of bargaining unit members.
15. A beginning bargaining unit member shall be evaluated as is every other member of the staff. Work with a mentor bargaining unit member shall not be within the realm of evaluation.
16. The findings of any practice evaluation shall not be made accessible to anyone outside the administrative training programs
17. Bargaining unit members shall be evaluated based on their individual performance. Teaching strategies such as team teaching, core groups, and others shall not be the basis for the evaluation of an individual bargaining unit member's performance.
18. District standards for evaluation purposes must be clearly stated and attainable by the evaluatee.
I would hope that members that give input would keep in mind the following CTA Policy on teacher evaluations.
I encourage everyone to go to http://www.rcta.groupsite.com/ and give him input on what you think about evaluations.
CTA Policy on Teacher Evaluations
Evaluation and Due Process (Policy manual pages 144-145)
CTA believes evaluation is the key to excellence. Well-planned evaluation programs based on policies cooperatively developed by staff, administration, and board assure that evaluation will serve its primary purpose of benefiting bargaining unit members, students, and community.
These principles apply to all bargaining unit members, whether full-time or part-time, regardless of the age of their students. Their implementation should be bargained by the appropriate bargaining unit and should apply uniformly within the employing unit.
1. Evaluation and Due Process protects:
a. Children and society against incompetent or unfit professional staff members.
b. Bargaining unit members against disciplinary or dismissal proceedings without just cause related to the quality of instruction.
c. Bargaining unit members against disciplinary or dismissal proceedings for arbitrary, capricious, unsubstantial or unsubstantiated reasons.
d. Academic freedom.
2. Due Process for certificated employees provides:
a. For a procedure by which an individual subject to dismissal may obtain a fair and full hearing before a group of his/her professional peers.
b. For judicial recourse or appeal if a school board or a bargaining unit member feels aggrieved at dismissal or disciplinary actions.
3. The California Teachers Association recognizes:
a. Bargaining unit members are professionally competent and can be counted upon to initiate self-discipline within their own ranks,
b. An adequate probationary period is necessary and that no dismissal action should be initiated unless the bargaining unit member has been informed of his/her alleged deficiencies and given time and assistance for their correction.
Evaluation of instruction refers to those procedures in a school district which assess the effectiveness of the school in meeting the goals and expectations it has agreed upon for itself. This includes, but is not limited to, evaluation of the performance of individual certificated personnel. Effective evaluation of instruction requires that procedures be designed to focus on the improvement of educational services to pupils. CTA believes that the preparation and dissemination of observations, evaluations, or any data concerning unit members shall be confidential. Once a hard copy of the information has been generated and disseminated, the computer memory of the information shall be erased.
Basic Principles for certificated personnel
Evaluation of instruction is the key to a successful educational program. It provides:
1. For the improvement of instruction through interaction among all concerned parties.
2. For a planned program to keep certificated personnel informed of respective strengths and weaknesses and for appropriate professional growth activities to meet identified needs.
3. For the continued services of certificated personnel who strive to demonstrate professional competence.
4. For capable, qualified, certificated personnel to achieve and retain permanent status.
These principles are dependent upon the following guidelines relevant to both certificated and classified employees:
1. Bargaining unit members shall participate with their evaluators in the development of criteria for satisfactory performance. These criteria shall be mutually agreed upon by both bargaining unit members and evaluators and shall be subject to periodic review.
2. The criteria, procedures, and form relating to evaluation shall be fully publicized and available to all concerned.
3. Procedures for collecting, processing, and interpreting data shall be objective and uniform.
4. Evaluation shall include a conference between the evaluatee and the evaluator(s) at which time information relating to the individual's strength and weaknesses should be discussed openly and frankly with the individual being evaluated.
5. The availability of needed resources and other factors unique to the individual assignment which might affect the program of instruction shall be identified and considered in evaluation conferences.
6. Help and assistance to bargaining unit members in areas indicated as not meeting district standards shall be provided, and a record of such assistance shall be maintained for review in subsequent evaluation conferences.
7. Evaluations shall be recorded and signed by both evaluatee and evaluator(s), a copy provided to the evaluatee and a copy retained in the district files to provide a continuous record of the individual's service.
8. Provision for appeal on items of disagreement shall be available.
9. Provision shall be made for self-evaluation or other action programs for the benefit of all bargaining unit members to upgrade their professional performance.
10. Provision shall be made to remedy deficiencies in the conditions under which bargaining unit members perform their services.
11. No standardized test norms shall be used to assess teacher performance.
12. Certificated bargaining unit member assessment based on non-instructional duties shall be minimal. These duties shall be specified in advance of any utilization of for evaluation purposes.
13. Bargaining unit members shall evaluate administrative and support personnel and shall have the option of evaluation by their professional peers.
14. No student assessment shall be used in the evaluation of bargaining unit members.
15. A beginning bargaining unit member shall be evaluated as is every other member of the staff. Work with a mentor bargaining unit member shall not be within the realm of evaluation.
16. The findings of any practice evaluation shall not be made accessible to anyone outside the administrative training programs
17. Bargaining unit members shall be evaluated based on their individual performance. Teaching strategies such as team teaching, core groups, and others shall not be the basis for the evaluation of an individual bargaining unit member's performance.
18. District standards for evaluation purposes must be clearly stated and attainable by the evaluatee.
Friday, September 10, 2010
A New Year and New Blog
Well, here we begin a new school year. Since I am no longer RCTA President, I intend to be involved in the union. So, I will post my thoughts on things that are going on in both the District and RCTA. My thouhgts are my own and do not reflect any official RCTA views.
Some have wondered what I will be doing after 6 years as RCTA President. Currently I am at Summit View independent study. This is a new adventure for me, after 28 years in the classroom, but I am doing well and learning a whole new program. I am running for RCTA site rep here as their previous rep retired.
I will continue to be involved with RCTA and CTA. I have offered Tim any advise on issues that have come up over the years, and I know the Exec Board will always be there to help in his transition. I continue to be on the CTA Elections and Representation Committee, and will be attending all State Council meeting in that capacity.
If anyone wishes to contact me with a question, I will try to answer it to the best of my ability.
Wishing you a great year!
Mark
Some have wondered what I will be doing after 6 years as RCTA President. Currently I am at Summit View independent study. This is a new adventure for me, after 28 years in the classroom, but I am doing well and learning a whole new program. I am running for RCTA site rep here as their previous rep retired.
I will continue to be involved with RCTA and CTA. I have offered Tim any advise on issues that have come up over the years, and I know the Exec Board will always be there to help in his transition. I continue to be on the CTA Elections and Representation Committee, and will be attending all State Council meeting in that capacity.
If anyone wishes to contact me with a question, I will try to answer it to the best of my ability.
Wishing you a great year!
Mark
Thursday, June 17, 2010
2010-2011 Salary Schedule
This schedule is for one year only, unless it is negotiated to extend it.
This image is the best I could do on this blog.
Click image to see clearer image.
This image is the best I could do on this blog.
Click image to see clearer image.
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