As many of you have seen in the news, Detroit teachers staged a walkout based on not being assured they would be paid through the summer. The district was going to run out of money. This was one of the arguments that Schmida and I made against going to year round pay. The bargaining poll at the time let us know that members wanted year round pay so we negotiated it, but this business in Detroit brings back some of my fears around the issue.
Special Olympics for the area will be held this Saturday, May 7. Help is needed. Contact Dan Russell, intervention specialist at Gearity to take advantage of this chance to see special needs kids in a different light. D_Russell@chuh.org
At last night’s Board of Education meeting there was a report from BOE member Ron Register that showed that his participation in the Heights Coalition book discussion must have made an impact. Register did further homework to learn as much as he could about the intricacies of state funding and how CHUH is losing millions of dollars each year to charters, Ed Choice vouchers and John Peterson vouchers. He will be heading up an effort to draft an invoice to the state for the monies lost in the last 5 years, which he has estimated to be over $20 million. Register is also interested in the Board being more engaged with the Heights Coalition as well as with a consortium of 17 east side Boards of Education. He hopes that this work will lead to changing state funding laws. All very positive big picture stuff.
13 Local 795 members received recognition for earning tenure at the board meeting as well. Ironically, several had also been RIFd. This year there were incredibly hurtful mistakes made around tenure. Some members did not get tenure in April and had to wait until May. Two members had tenure rescinded because of clerical errors in HR because of the failure to consider the change in tenure laws that we incorporated into our contract in 2013. For teachers initially licensed after January 2011, seven years of teaching experience in the district is required.
If I knew how to do it, I would put one of those goal thermometers on our website to show the count down. Out of the 57.5 positions that were eliminated, the administration has recalled 12. This puts our net loss of positions at 45.5. Is anyone else wondering how this is going to work out? I am still concerned that we will be unable to serve our students properly. You may have noticed administration posted two new positions – district wide instructional specialists in Social Studies and Science. Two existing members will be hired to fill these slots, so two of our people will be recalled to fill their spots putting us at 43.5 lost positions. Additionally, our members are protecting themselves by securing jobs elsewhere – they have to do it, but still a blow to the district and to collegial friendships that have developed over years.