Dear Colleagues,
In addition to all the regular chaos of our profession I would like to highlight a few items of interest:
Hat and Glove Collection: At every building our members are donating hats and glove for students in need. At each building the steward will know is collecting and who is the point person for giving out the hats and gloves to kids who need them. Please consider donating something so there is a stash in your building before it gets too cold. Students do better in class when they come to school not frozen.
Union Made/Fair Trade/Student Produced: Thanks to everyone who has pre-ordered our alternative Heights Spirit wear. Kudos to Fairfax that sent in a large order as a group. Please consider doing this in you building. The fronts are already printed and we are hoping the students at Warrensville screen the back over the next few days! If you are interested in ordering the info is at: http://chtu.oh.aft.org/our-issues/union-madefair-trade. Also, they do take checks made out to: "Everything Tiger"
Calendar: VP Schaner and I met with the calendar committee last week. Thanks to close to 300 responses on our survey from you (view survey results) we went in the meeting prepared. I know it is surprising and shocking to all of you, but the district wants to start school earlier in August. We argued against this stating that 68% of our members are fine with the start of school as is it or later. Our AFT brothers and sisters in Berea started earlier and now they have "heat index days" so kids won't stick to the desks too much. My problem with starting earlier is that it confirms that our biggest interest is in getting more instructional days in before the "fill in the blank" test. I know these are important, but it is unreasonable for testmania to drive our calendar. It seems to me that if we brainstormed how to save time as a group we could probably come up with 50 good ideas to make better use of the instructional time we have. I already asked the superintendent about how we could possibly have kids tested during the summer instead of wasting the first several weeks of some classes. Imagine. We are meeting again on December 8. The conversation should be different because parents were not able to attend the last meeting and I cannot imagine that many parents will be interested in moving up the start date.
Other items from our survey were our notions about what the district might be interested in changing. We have not gotten that far yet, although some areas were investigated. I am sure your favorite would be that we start two weeks earlier and end at the same time, stretching out the year so there is less time in the summer for students to forget stuff. Great idea huh?
Crazy legislation: You might be called to call your legislature soon on a couple of crazy bills being considered in the loony house in Columbus. One allows guns into day care centers and colleges. Won't you feel safer? Another cuts unemployment benefits to the quick, in the old "let's kick 'em when they are down" mentality. Another day, another crazy bill from the House.
ER&D: We still have slots for teachers wanting to take our Reading Comprehension class that will meet every other week from January to May. More info and sign up at: http://chtu.oh.aft.org/erd/reading-comprehension-class-jan-may-2016
In Union,
Ari Klein
CHTU President
