I hope that you are able to support our fellow BMUST member, Lisa Shapiro, Special Ed teacher at Merrick Avenue M.S.,
and her two young children. We all share the pain of the loss of their husband/father and will do all we can to help them during this difficult time. Click here to support Remembering Josh Shapiro by Lauren Beinert Thank you for your support. In Solidarity, Dear BMUST Members,
The Robbie Levine Foundation was founded to honor the memory of Robbie Levine, a happy, healthy nine-year-old boy whose life revolved around his family, his friends and baseball. Robbie died suddenly on September 27, 2005 when his heart stopped while he was running the bases during a Little League team practice. A healthy fourth grader, Robbie had experienced a dizzy spell during practice several months earlier, but testing by a pediatric cardiologist did not detect any health problems. When Robbie collapsed on the ball field, no defibrillator was available on the scene and, although his father, Dr. Craig Levine, performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation, Robbie could not be revived. In the wake of this unimaginable tragedy in their lives, Robbie's parents, Jill and Dr. Craig Levine, created the Robbie Levine Foundation to ensure that no other parent, on the ball field or anywhere else, should have to undergo the horror that they have faced. JOIN US ON SUNDAY, APRIL 26, 2015 8:30am Fun Run • 8:50am 1 Mile Run • 9:15am 5K Race Robbie's Run Application LAKESIDE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, MERRICK, NY PLEASE RETURN ROBBIE'S RUN FORM (attached) WITH YOUR CHECK TO: BRUCE REED/JFK HS BMUST Public Relations
TO: Local Presidents, RC Pres., & PAC
FROM: Matt Jacobs, Regional Staff Dir. DATE: April 10, 2015 RE: Talking Truth to Legislators_________ Apparently the legislators who voted yes on the budget bill feel they are being wrongly attacked by our members. They pretend to feel wounded and misunderstood. They feign frustration, indignation and bafflement at our inability to understand that they actually did something wonderful for us. As our members pay visits to legislators demanding to know why they voted yes, they should be prepared to be handed a bunch of half-truths designed to make their vote for the budget bill appear to be a courageous and principled act in support of teachers, children and public education. Please share the following information with any members who are planning to contact their legislators. Legislators will argue that they succeeded in removing or mitigating the worst aspects of the governor’s reform plan. In truth, the changes they made were cosmetic at best. Here are some examples how legislators will attempt to justify their vote and what members can say in response: 1. “The governor wanted the state test scores to count 50% but we said no to 50%. Instead, we took that decision out of the hands of the politicians and put it into the hands of ‘education experts,’ the Board of Regents and SED.” While it is correct to say that the law does NOT mandate that the state growth measure must count as 50% of a teacher’s APPR rating, there are two basic problems with this statement: a) Only about half of the Regents have had actual experience as public educators. The rest have no claim to be considered education experts. More importantly, Chancellor Tisch still controls a majority of the Regents and, as we know, Tisch agrees with Cuomo on just about everything. b) Even if the Regents strongly disagree with the changes imposed by the new law, there’s not much they can do about it because they can’t change the law. Although the law technically gives the Regents and the Commissioner the authority to determine how much weight the state growth measure will have, this has been rendered meaningless by the provision in the law that any teacher who gets an ineffective state growth score CANNOT receive an overall rating of effective or better. So, whether the state growth measure counts 1% or 50%, an ineffective state growth measure really counts 100%. 2. “The legislature preserved local control by maintaining the right to collectively bargain portions of the APPR plan.”This one is almost too silly to deserve an answer. a) While the old APPR law really did allow 80% of the plan (or much of the 80%) to be collectively bargained, the new law limits collective bargaining to exactly two minor portions of the APPR plan. You can bargain whether or not to have a second state test score as part of the overall rating (but the second test must be chosen from a list of tests approved by SED) and you can bargain who the outside observer will be. In other words, pick your poison. Everything else about the APPR is mandated by law or regulation. b) The new law removes almost all control over teacher evaluations and tenure from superintendents and boards of education by dictating which teachers may or may not receive tenure, forbidding districts to consider anything other than state growth scores and observations in evaluating teachers, and mandating that districts must bring charges against teachers who receive three consecutive ineffective ratings, no matter how highly they regard those teachers. c) Rather than providing more resources and training to help low-performing schools improve, the new law mandates that such schools be placed in receivership. This means that the outside receiver gets to call the shots, not the superintendent or the elected board of education. The receiver can fire up to 50% of the teachers, abrogate the collective bargaining agreement and disregard any or all district policies. 3. “If we didn’t meet the April 1st budget deadline, the state constitution would have allowed the governor to force us to choose between accepting his proposal in its entirety and shutting down the government.” The governor is a bully but he’s not an idiot. Surely he remembers how well Newt Gingrich’s forced shutdown of the federal government went in 1994. Forcing a government shutdown would have sent his already sagging poll numbers plummeting through the floor. Cuomo’s enormous political vanity very much wanted a fifth consecutive on-time budget, but if the legislature had had the courage to stand up for what was right, he would have been forced to sit down and bargain a real compromise. 4. “The new law preserves tenure and due process rights for teachers.” Technically, tenure and due process have not been abolished altogether, but they have been so contorted as to be almost unrecognizable and meaningless. Two consecutive ineffective ratings are considered presumptive evidence of incompetence and a teacher who is brought up on 3020-a charges after receiving two consecutive ineffective ratings must prove herself/himself competent. How exactly does one do that before an impartial hearing officer who has no firsthand knowledge of that teacher’s performance? And the only permissible defense for a teacher who has been mandatorily brought up on charges after receiving a third consecutive ineffective rating is to prove fraud or mistaken identity. This is a form of due process Vladimir Putin would feel right at home with! Jeff Friedman, Long Island's Regional Political Organizer for NYSUT, sent the following message to Suffolk RSD Peter Verdon and me this morning:
Matt and Peter, I am writing to ask you to relay a message to all the local presidents, PAC, and all members for their herculean efforts these past few weeks. As the new LI political organizer for NYSUT, I am humbled seeing how motivated and organized much of the Long Island is. We collected 10,000 post cards in a three week time span, made dozens of lobby visits, organized forums and made thousands of phone calls. And members still want to do more! I thank them for their activism and dedication. I am honored to work for such a great organization with some many amazing people. Jeff Please call your legislators right now, and urge them to vote NO on any budget that ties education aid to teacher evaluation, and teacher evaluation to test scores. Find your Assemblymember hereand your Senator here.
It appears that Cuomo’s budget bill doubles-down or triples-down on testing in the following ways:
Thanks, Leonie Haimson Executive Director Class Size Matters 124 Waverly Pl. New York, NY 10011 212-674-7320 As you have probably heard by now, Karen Magee yesterday took a public position in support of encouraging parents to opt their children out of the Common Core state tests.
This is a major policy change for NYSUT which has potentially significant implications for members who wish to support this position. It is possible that NYSUT will issue further guidance for local leaders and members regarding the implementation of this policy. Until such time as such further guidance may be forthcoming, however, I want to remind you that NYSUT has already promulgated guidance on what members need to be aware of when speaking or writing publicly about the opt-out issue. A copy of that Fact Sheet is attached and should be reviewed. Of course, do not hesitate to consult with your LRS if you or your members have questions about this. Opt-Out Facts Sheet Reclaiming Public Education in NYS: Forum to be held at Brookside on March 31. Please see the attached flyers.
Community Education Forum Reclaiming Public Education Dear Friends and Colleagues,
We will be attending the Rally together on Saturday, March 28th. Please join us. There will be many speakers including Zephyr Teachout, Senators, Assembly, NYSUT President Karen Magee, and more. ALL WE NEED IS YOU! PLEASE MEET AT THE MERRICK TRAIN STATION (MERRICK AVE AND SUNRISE HIGHWAY) AT 10:00 AMSATURDAY. WE WILL TAKE THE 10:25 AM TRAIN TO PENN STATION. WE NEED YOU TO BE THERE ----- BRING FAMILY AND FRIENDS. Thank you, Paul This is the Final Week of the State Budget negotiations. We are winning the battle!!! WE NEED EVERY PUBLIC SCHOOL EMPLOYEE, EVERY PARENT, EVERY STUDENT, EVERY CONCERNED CITIZEN TO PUSH THIS ACROSS THE FINISH LINE! Huge Rally this SATURDAY MARCH 28 - 12:00 NOON - in front of Governor Cuomo's Midtown Office - 633 3rd Avenue (at East 41 St.) (8 blocks from Penn Station) Take the train, bring the family, join your friends and colleagues, make it a day to remember. Your child's education is on the line, your job is on the line, the future of Public School Education is on the line. BE THERE ---- NO EXCUSES --- THIS IS IMPORTANT. Wear your shirts, bring signs, more signs will be distributed. Governor Cuomo is wrong about education. He needs to hear it from YOU. Our schools need to be fully funded. RETURN OUR TAX DOLLARS TO OUR SCHOOLS. If there is no Budget Gap, THERE IS NO NEED FOR A GAP ELIMINATION ADJUSTMENT!!! See the attached flyer. |
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