CFT Convention (March 21-23)
Manhattan Beach
Ballots for delegates to the CFT Convention will be in your boxes this week. Voting will take place on Wednesday and Thursday.
Our local has submitted a proposed resolution, to be taken under consideration at the convention next month, calling on CFT to seek changes to California’s charter school law to better protect public school students. You can read the full text of our proposed resolution at the end of this newsletter. Special thanks to Andrea Kusanovich, Gemma Abels, and Terri Eves-Knudsen for working on drafting this language.
Summer Professional Development Opportunities
The district will be offering a variety of paid staff development opportunities over the summer for K-12 teachers. Please watch your inbox for announcements from Educational Services.
All TK–2 teachers will be participating in a “literacy boot camp,” either during release time this spring or over the summer. Teachers at the Focus Academies will also have specialized training this spring or over the summer. Please watch your inbox for different choices, and sign up for the one that is most convenient for you.
There will be opportunities for everyone else as well, so please watch for those emails from the district.
Upcoming Meetings
February 24 Elementary Curriculum Council(date change)
March 3 Secondary Curriculum Council
March 5 LCAP (3:45-6:45)
March 11 School Board Meeting
March 13 MHFT Executive Council
March 21-23 CFT convention
March 25 School Board Meeting
March 27 MHFT Executive Council
Online Collaboration Survey
Thank you for taking the time to complete this survey. District administrators, site principals and leadership teams, and MHFT leadership are all in the process of reviewing the results, with the aim of maximizing the effectiveness of this time.
Summer School Teachers Needed
The district is always interested in placing outstanding teachers in our summer school programs this summer. If you are interested in one of these assignments, please watch your inbox for the announcements.
Vergara v. California
New court case challenges teacher seniority and due process rights
This court case is being brought by a coalition of pro-charter, pro-privatization, anti-union forces, bankrolled by one David Welch (Silicon Valley newcomer to education policy). At the heart of the case is the conviction that what ails schools (and children) is incompetent teachers, protected by over-powerful unions. The case seeks to end due process rights for teachers regarding termination, by throwing out the seniority system (misunderstood by so many as “tenure,” which no K-12 teacher in the state actually has).
If you want a good, quick, one-page review of what this is all about (which is also guaranteed to set your blood to boil), check out this article:
See the last page of this newsletter for a joint CFT-CTA press release regarding this case.
This topic is of paramount importance. We must all understand the issues involved, and be prepared to have discussions with our families and friends and community members. It is clear that we are facing a crusade to eliminate public education, and we are not necessarily winning. There are some people who should be on our side, who believe they care about quality public education and believe they are looking out for the best interests of children, who are on the wrong side of this issue – because they do not really understand it. We are all going to have to be part of this. If you think we exaggerate, read the link above!
The Rocketship Saga Continues...
Here is a link to a San Jose Mercury News article about the recent lawsuit filed against the County Board by four K-8 districts, over the blanket approval of 20 Rocketship schools.
Lawsuit targets Rocketship schools in Santa Clara County
One thing we have learned is that we can have an impact.
Keep Reading for an Update on Navigator’s Petition to Open in Our District Next Fall ...
Navigator Update
Navigator had indicated that, having been denied their petition at both the Morgan Hill Unified School Board and the Santa Clara County School Board, they will take their case on appeal to the State Board of Education. (That is the sound of a potential trip to Sacramento you hear.)
In the event that they gain approval there (which we hope they will not, but we must acknowledge the possibility, as the State Board has approved these appeals before), the district is holding in reserve:
• two classrooms at El Toro
• four classrooms at Walsh
These are classrooms that will be given over to Navigator if their appeal is granted.
Teachers at the Mic
Thanks to El Toro teachers for their presentation to the board earlier this month. Next up:
Walsh – March 11
Nordstrom – March 25
If you are at one of these sites, please plan to attend to demonstrate your interest in your school, and to support your colleagues who present. If you would like to be a part of the presentation, please talk to your Building Rep.
A Few Notes from January’s County Board Meeting Re: Navigator
Board President Leon Beauchman
(voted yes)
In defense of Navigator’s petition despite the lack of an ELAC committee, as required by law:
“What works is true.”
“Change never comes from within.”
Grace Mah
(voted yes)
Referenced API scores; only acknowledged Hispanic speakers; referred to an“unsound fear” on the part of Morgan Hill educators
Michael Chang
(voted no)
Indicated a willingness to vote yes in the future.
Joseph DiSalvo
(voted no)
But invited Navigator to come back asap with a petition for a countywide charter located in Morgan Hill, or next year with a cleaned up petition.
“They need to collaborate, they need to own it, or we need to do it on our own.”
“We need Navigator to help us.”
To Morgan Hill educators:
“You can’t do it alone; take the high road.”
Anna Song
(voted no)
Said it was not helpful that Navigator’s approach was to be divisive in the community. But imagines that they will be approved in the future.
Darcie Green
(voted no)
Acknowledging innovation and reform within our district:
“Why does an exchange of ideas only count if it comes from a private entity?”
Yet also expressed concerns with the status quo.
Very concerned about lack of an ELAC committee, but indicated a desire to switch her vote in the future. Saddened that the Navigator petition was too flawed to support at this time.
“There is a serious, serious issue in Morgan Hill.”
Julia Hover-Smoot
(represents Morgan Hill)
(voted yes)
Was very angry. After all the testimony, read from her prepared remarks.
“America makes a promise to its people.... We have a group of people in Morgan Hill...who are not being served by the current status quo....You had testimony from parent after parent tonight.... They’re speaking to you in Spanish.... Please vote for the powerless people.”
To listen to a recording of the exchange, go to:
http://www.sccoe.org/countyboard/Pages/2013-14.aspx
Board comments are in the last hour of Recording #2. (Hover-Smoot at 4:05:43)
Joint CFT-CTA press release regarding the Vergara lawsuit:
L.A. Trial for Meritless Lawsuit Seeking to Eradicate Teachers' Professional Rights Begins Today, Wastes Taxpayers' Dollars and Time
Lawsuit does not improve student learning and hurts students, demonizes teachers
LOS ANGELES - Two days after nearly 1,000 educators denounced the Vergara v. the State of California lawsuit, opening arguments begin today in Los Angeles County Superior Court. This meritless lawsuit, which seeks to eradicate teachers' professional rights, highlights the wrong problems, proposes the wrong solutions, and follows the wrong process while doing nothing to improve student learning. This is yet another attempt by the usual corporate special interests to undermine the teaching profession and push their agenda on California public schools and students.
The California Federation of Teachers (CFT) and the California Teachers Association (CTA) intervened in the litigation last year on the side of the state of California to actively participate in the legal proceedings in support of educators and students.
"A teacher's simple right to a hearing before dismissal is not 'unfair' to students. Students need a stable, experienced teaching workforce, not a revolving door of educators," CFT President Joshua Pechthalt notes. "So-called 'tenure'–that is, the right to a hearing before dismissal–became law because educators used to be subject to political pressures and arbitrary decisions that threatened academic freedom and robbed teachers of their ability to advocate for their students. If Vergara succeeds, all students will suffer."
Circumventing the legislative process to strip teachers of their due process rights will not improve student learning, will make it harder to attract and retain quality teachers in our classrooms, and ignores all the research that shows experience is a key factor in effective teaching. This lawsuit comes at a time when California has the largest student-to-teacher ratio in the country and ranks 50th in the nation in per-pupil spending.
"The real support our students need today is adequate resources, smaller class sizes, parental involvement and quality teacher training," said CTA President Dean E. Vogel. "We need to be attracting new teachers to the field, not driving them away. This lawsuit and trial are a waste of valuable taxpayer money that would be much better spent actually investing in our students and schools."
The Vergara lawsuit is backed by a conservative Silicon Valley millionaire and charter school proponent, David Welch, who started a group called "Students Matter" to pursue the suit. It also wrongly proposes that seniority rules mean that when layoffs occur bad teachers stay and good teachers are forced to leave. But the problem with layoffs is not seniority. The problem is the underfunding that causes layoffs–lack of revenues, exacerbated by the ongoing aftereffects of the economic recession. Seniority simply provides for fair, transparent rules to administer layoffs if they occur.
"The best way to avoid losing good teachers to layoffs is to find the funding to prevent layoffs," says Pechthalt." CFT and CTA led the campaign in 2012 to pass Proposition 30, which, by bringing new revenues to the schools, stopped layoffs in their tracks."
"Not one of the Vergara backers was anywhere to be seen during the campaign to pass Prop 30, which, by filling in part of the hole ripped in education funding over the years, stopped layoffs this year, and did more to support equal access to education for all students than anything proposed in this lawsuit," added Vogel.
More background and facts about the deceptive nature of this lawsuit are available online:
http://www.cta.org/en/Issues-and-Action/Ongoing-Issues/Vergara-Trial1.aspx
The trial is expected to take a few months.
Resolution: Change CA Charter School Law
Submitted by: Morgan Hill F. T., local 2022
Whereas the Charter Schools Act of 1992 requires that “the governing board of a school district shall not deny a petition for the establishment of a charter school” unless the charter school petition fails to meet a narrow set of criteria that does not include segregation, regardless of the needs of the community; (CA Ed Code 47605) and
Whereas charter schools can appeal to the county school board and if denied there, at the state-wide level, where county and state boards also do not consider the divisive practices of many charter schools of segregating by race, income level, and ability level as grounds for denial of their petition; and
Whereas UCLA research reveals that charter schools are more racially isolated than traditional public schools, in virtually every state and large metropolitan area in the nation (Choice Without Equity: Charter School Segregation and the Need for Civil Rights Standards UCLA Civil Rights Project, 2010); and
Whereas charter schools are considered public schools but some operate as non-profit corporations, yet are exempt from following much of the California Education Code and consistently collaborate with for-profit software and construction companies and receive money from tax-exempt venture funds; and
Whereas some charter school corporate management groups are formed for the expansion of their brand and often include using city and state tax dollars to expand into other districts, counties, and states, thereby redirecting local tax dollars to such entities (Richards, Erin. Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel, October 30, 2013, Under Enrollment May Bring $1.4 million Loss for Milwaukee); and
Whereas some charter schools require parent participation, which further segregates neighborhood schools and by de facto, violates the right of students to a “free public education;” and
Whereas CFT is a union of educators who believe that well prepared teachers know both the content and the pedagogy of teaching and some charter schools hire a disproportionate amount of teachers who have not completed a rigorous credential program through a university; and
Whereas our public education strives to provide our neediest children with guidance counselors, libraries and librarians, social workers, psychologists, nurses, after-school programs and summer programs (Ravitch, LA Times, October 2013, The Charter School Mistake); and
Whereas public education thrives on teaching all students a core curriculum that is expanded and enhanced by a wide range of subjects such as art, music, computer science, physical education, and foreign languages and does not believe that narrowing the curriculum to achieve higher standardized test scores is in the best interest of our students and communities,
Therefore be it resolved that the California Federation of Teachers will sponsor legislation that increases the standards necessary for charter school approval and insure equal access and non-discriminatory practices by preventing student segregation and social stratification.
Therefore be it further resolved that the sponsored legislation will allow districts, counties and the state to deny or revoke any charter petition that promotes or allows segregation by race, income or ability level within the authorizing jurisdiction.
Be it finally resolved that CFT work with our allies to lobby state officials to stop or limit the unchecked proliferation of charter schools and work to pursue this goal.