Dear Colleagues:
A few updates:
-Community Book Discussion - the second session to discuss Ravitch’s Reign of Error is set for this Wednesday (hopefully we will still be able to hold it even if school is closed). Last week there were almost 100 people attending. Fascinating discussions. Great teachers facilitating at each table. If you teach high school please feel free to encourage interested students to attend. More info at chtu.oh.aft.org/news
-SLOs - I had a chance to read your feedback around SLO training. It confirmed what I suspected; this is new, difficult, cumbersome, and in most teacher's minds not a great use of time. Unfortunately, we are mandated to do them. The only possible way to change things is to become politically active. For this year the focus really needs to be on the common parts; what are you going to teach (standards and content) and what assessments will be used? None of the rest of it (baseline data, trends, population, growth targets, etc) can be done until we use them for real next school year. The whole SLO process seems full of unknowns, from who will have to use them to how they will figure into evaluations. It is a mess, when in a perfect world this information might actually be helpful to our instruction. Luckily, we are not counting this as part of our evaluation this year, so we can try our best to figure out how it works.
-Elementary Survey - the results are posted at http://chtu.oh.aft.org/our-issues-1. I was most struck by the number of teachers who secured training outside the District to ensure that they knew what to do. The meeting on Friday to discuss these issues went well. Much of the discussion had to do with the timing of when different assessments are and how they coincide with our other duties, like report cards and conferences. Beth Rae and Tina Reynolds will put together a team to work with Allison Byrd and Octavia Reid around ensuring this schedule makes sense for each grade level. Thank you so much for your participation in the survey (133 of around 215 people).
-Thinking of Retiring? I usually meet with members contemplating retirement to make sure they have all the information needed. If you are eligible for the $12,000/$12,000 incentive we need to get a letter to the Board by March 1. I suggest it would be a kindness to our newer hires to notify the Board sooner than later about retirements, resignations, or leaves of absences. With the closing of Wiley at the end of the school year, there will be more movement than usual and possible reductions. It would help administration better determine their needs if they knew who was separating from employment. Give a call to our office (321.0020) or email me if you want to set up an appointment.
-Union Banquet - March 21. Save the date. We will have info soon for those who want to rent a room to take a little mini-vacation.
Fraternally,
Ari Klein
CHTU President
