C.V. Educator

October 2004

Newsletter Archive

COLLAPSE OF 60 CHARTER SCHOOLS LEAVES CALIFORNIANS SCRAMBLING

Excerpted from the New York Times, September 20, 2004 by Sam Dillon

“Ben Larson was pacing the floor of his office in a tiny elementary school in Oro Grande, CA, surrounded by the chaos of fax lines beeping, three beleaguered secretaries peppering him with questions and phone lines ringing for the umpteenth time.

It had been a month since one of the nations’s largest charter school operators collapsed, leaving 6,000 students with no school to attend this fall. The businessman who used $100 million in state financing to build an empire of 60 mostly storefront schools had simply abandoned his headquarters as bankruptcy loomed, refusing to take phone calls. That left Mr. Larson, a school superintendent whose district licensed dozens of the schools, to clean up the mess.

‘Hysterical parents are calling us, swearing and shouting,’Mr. Larson said in an interview in Oro Grande last week. ‘People are walking off with assets all over the state. We’re absolutely sinking.’

The disintegration of the California Charter Academy, the largest chain of publicly financed but privately run charter schools to slide into insolvency, offers a sobering picture of what can follow. Thousands of parents were forced into a last-minute search for alternate schools, and some are still looking; many teachers remain jobless; and students’ academic records are a risk in abandoned school sites across California.”

The above excerpt helps to illustrate one of the most severe potential horror stories that can occur when public tax dollars can be used for unregulated charter schools. This is not the only example. The Edison school project, one the nations largest charter school programs is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. They have been thrown out of a number of districts where they promised to improve achievement and reduce costs but failed to do so.

The Washington Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction estimates that if the Charter School Referendum passes it has the potential to drain $35 million a year from an already stretched thin public school budget. Don’t let this happen. Urge your friends and family to reject Referendum 55.

BARGAINING TEAM VACANCIES

The Association has begun preparations for bargaining a new contract with the district. We are currently in the second year of a two year contract that expires on August 31, 2005. Before bargaining begins next spring we will need to fill six vacancies on the bargaining team. CVEA bylaws stipulate that we will have a team of twelve. Six of the positions are filled by the executive board and six are filled from the general membership. Please consider serving. Applications will be available in November through your building representative.

KNOW YOUR CONTRACT

LEAVES

The following is a summary of the leaves available to the certificated staff of the Central Valley School District as provided by the Collective Bargaining Agreement for the school year 2004-05. For full detail of these leaves, refer to the collective Bargaining Agreement, Article V, Page 26.

Personal Illness: Twelve (12) days/year accumulative to 182, for personal illness, injury, or emergency. Employees contracted for less than full time will receive a proportionate amount of leave.
(Section A, Page 26)

Emergency Leave: Four (4) days/year, non-accumulative days for illness or death of a relative or someone with whom the employee had a close, personal relationship - or for situations requiring the employee’s attention which cannot be resolved in any other way.
(Section D, Page 27)

Personal Leave: Two (2) days/year accumulative to five (5) days. One day can be used as a volunteer day. Unused days can be cashed in each year for Substitute rate of pay. Use of Personal Leave is at the employee’s discretion.
(Section E, Page 28)

Bereavement Leave: Employees shall be entitled to five (5) days per occurrence of bereavement leave for a death in the immediate family
(mother, father, sister, brother, child, spouse, grandparents) or the death of a parent of the teacher, spouse or significant other. (Section G, Page 28)

Maternity/Paternity Leave:
A. An employee shall notify the Director of Personnel, in writing, of the expected date of the birth of the child at least two (2) weeks before that date.
B. Maternity leave covers employee absence after the birth of the baby and the employee is eligible for sick leave until released by physician. If, on the advise of the physician, the employee requires leave prior to the birth of the baby, such leave will be considered medical leave. If additional time is needed/desired, the employee may request a leave of absence, without pay, for family reasons.
C. An employee, may return to the classroom from a maternity leave at any time after the birth of the child, provided she has a release from her physician.
D. A male employee, upon request, shall be granted up to five (5) days of his leave of absence for personal illness or injury on or about the date of birth of his child.(Section B. Page 27)

Unpaid Leave: Requests for unpaid leaves shall be submitted in writing to the principal/supervisor and approval shall be coordinated with the Personnel Office. Pre-approval is required. Consideration for approval will be limited to unique circumstances or opportunities and only when personal leave has been exhausted. If the leave is approved, employee pay will be deducted at per diem rate.
(Section F, Page 28)

VOLUNTARY DAYS;

Two (2) days/year. Employees who request per diem pay for voluntary days must receive prior approval by the building principal or supervisor. Credit for voluntary days may be compiled in 1/2 day increments.
(Section I, Page 39)

INSERVICE DAY SCHEDULES

The current calendar and the contract call for five (5) inservice /professional development days to be scheduled throughout the school year. Professional development days are divided equally between District, building and individual teacher time, equating to approximately 11.5 hours per category. That means that from the five inservice days teachers shall receive 11.5 hours of individual time for classroom work.
Professional Development is de-
fined as:
1. Direct instruction for teachers, either attending a workshop or learning from a consultant or other teacher.
2. Planning for and or implementation of the new knowledge or information learned.
3. Evaluation of lessons, units or strategies using the new knowledge or information to assess the effect on student learning.

Individual schools will collaborate as how to best develop schedules for the utilization of individual and building time. If staff consensus cannot be reached, a building vote will be taken with majority rule.

In other words, there should be some discussion going on in your building between staff and administration regarding where the 11.5 hours of individual time will be allocated during inservice days. We have already had 2 of the five inservice days, the first on September 7 and the second on October 8.
How much time did you get for individual classroom work on those two days? Subtract that amount from 11.5 and be sure the balance is scheduled during the remaining three inservice days. If you have questions please call the CVEA office at 926-0201.

CALENDAR

Monday, November 1
CVEA Executive Board
3:30 PM

Tuesday, November 9
SEAT Meeting
3:45PM, ESC

Wednesday, November 10
WEA-EW Cluster
5:00PM

Tuesday, November 16
CVEA Rep Council Meeting
Players and Spectators, 4:00PM

BuildingVisitation Schedule

I plan to be in the following buildings during lunch to meet members and answer questions. kr

October 25 Chester
November 1 Bowdish MS
November 8 Greenacres Elem
November 15 Liberty Lake

CVEA

Street address: 12202 E. Main,
Mailing: PO. Box 14065 Spokane, WA 99214
Phone: 926-0201
Fax: 891-9183
Cell: 990-3206
email: CVEA@aol.com