President’s Report to Rep Council, January 4, 2010

President’s Report to Rep Council

January 4, 2010

Happy New Year

I hope each of you had a restful, restorative holiday break. Mine was far different from what I had planned or hoped for – leading me to reflect on how often our expectations and our reality don’t match, and it then becomes important to work with whatever “blessings in disguise” present themselves. We are faced with huge challenges this year – and it will be up to each and every one of us not just to set our expectations high, but to work hard together to ensure that we gain the best possible contract in a tough economic climate, and that we continue fighting to defend poublic education against growing attacks.

Welcome to Gina Parish

We are very happy to announce that OEA is fully-staffed once again – Gina Parish has joined us as our newest Executive Director. She comes from an ESP local in Hayward, and became quite familiar with OEA by shadowing Nicole during the past year.

District Updates

Bilingual Stipends: As of 12/28/09, HR says they had received approximately 100 complete and signed forms for the approximatelyy 210 OEA members eligible for the first semester bilingual stipend.  The letter and form was mailed via certified mail to each eligible OEA member. HR has received incomplete/unsigned forms and these will not be processed unless they are submitted complete and signed by the due date of   01/06/10. Please be sure to ask your colleagues if they have turned in a completed form.

EL Certification: There are still 173 teachers without EL certification, per HR. Certified letters were sent to all of them, including: “The district is requiring that all teachers obtain EL certification and demonstrate their compliance by January 29, 2010.  Continued failure to do so will subject you to potential employment action, including without limitation, the following:  (1) a layoff based on elimination of all non-English language classes in the District in the 2010-11 school year; (2) suspension without pay, effective July 1, 2010; and/or (3) dismissal from employment.” Please urge any teachers on your staff who do not yet have EL certification to get the process underway immediately.

Membership Meeting

It is absolutely critical that we have a large showing at our January 20 general membership meeting at Oakland Tech. Be sure to ask every one of your colleagues to be there! As we move into fact-finding, we need to keep the pressure on the district to put some money on the table, keep class sizes from increasing, stop dismantling the Adult Ed program.   We know it’s a question of priorities, and we need to make sure our voices are heard loud and clear!

Parcel Tax Coalition Update

At this afternoon’s Board of Education Finance and Resources Committee, a motion will be introduced by David Kakishiba directing the Superintendent and General Counsel to prepare two parcel tax proposals to Recruit & Retain Excellent Teachers for the Committee’s consideration at its February 1, 2010 meeting (see attached). OEA was one of the conveners of the Parcel Tax Coalition in December of 2008, but withdrew in October, 2009 when agreement could not be reached on charter school participation in parcel tax revenues. As you will see from the attachment, the proposals would direct expenditures to be divided as follows:

a. 80% of parcel tax revenue to be used to increase compensation for teachers and school

employees employed by the OUSD.

b. 15% of parcel tax revenue to be used to increase compensation for teachers and school

employees employed by charter schools.

c. 5% of parcel tax revenue to be used to fund effective professional development for new

teachers (first five years) employed by the OUSD and charter schools.

Office and Grievance Squads

Our new Office and Grievance Squads began operating weeks before the winter break, and will meet this week to assess progress. Response so far has been enthusiastic from members who have worked with members of the Office Squad and gotten answers to their questions in a very short time period. It is proving to be an excellent way to get more members involved in making OEA a more responsive organization with a focus on organizing!

GO Public Schools

We have been getting reports from OEA members that GO (“Great Oakland”) Public Schools (GOPS) is trying to recruit our members to be “teacher ambassadors” for GO via the Oakland Teaching Fellows internship program. GOPS, funded by the Rogers Foundation and headed by Jonathan Klein, makes no secret of their fondness for charter schools and for “autonomy with accountability,” i.e. if you raise your test scores, you get more “freedom” to teach beyond the script. Principals have also been sending GOPS newsletters to their staffs. GO Public Schools was represented by Brian Rogers in the Parcel Tax Coalition, and will undoubtedly be lobbying our members to support the parcel tax in the coming months. Check out their website at http://gopublicschools.wordpress.com/. I have been asked what our response should be to efforts to recruit our members to be spokespersons for this organization. While OEA is open to working with any organization that shares a vision for excellent public education, and we welcome and encourage an open and frank discussion of varying points of view, we have taken clear positions against the proliferation of charters and against using test scores as a measure of student and school success. Our OEA vision, “Create Success!” is clear on what needs to be done to ensure an excellent public education for all students!

Let’s make this the year that we focus on organizing our members, find more ways to involve newer, younger teachers, and continue to defend public education from attacks on all sides! On to a new and better contract!

In unity and hope,

Betty