The Springfield Teacher Vol. 43| Issue No. 5|

January 2017

Welcome back! I hope everyone had a peaceful, restful and rejuvenating time with family friends and extended family. As we approach the legislative session in the New Year, it is clear from the results of last November’s election that the people of the commonwealth want their public schools appropriately funded. The Governor and Legislature should be taken to task for letting our schools be short-funded by one billion dollars a year for the last several years and for doing nothing to correct this situation. The Legislature should also address the fact that the 1993 Ed Reform Act and subsequent Ed Reform Bill have curtailed our collective bargaining rights over the last several decades but have done nothing to close the achievement gap (which should be rightly named the “opportunity gap”). We need an accountability system that is no longer based on a criteria reference test (a fixed target) but one that measures the growth of students (which is the true measure of the work we do in our schools). We need an accountability system that is no longer about shame, blame, and punishment but one that is about studying, learning, and supporting our school district, our schools, our teachers, and most importantly, our students. The right wing privatizers for years have starved our public schools, called them failures, and blamed teachers. Teachers and educators in our schools are not the problem. The lack of teachers’ and educators’ voices in the fashioning of education reform is the problem. I have seen education reform come and go in my 43 years as an educator and it has never achieved its goals. Teachers and educators have always been the object of those reforms but it won’t be until teachers have a legitimate and major voice as the architects of Ed Reform that we will address the opportunity gap and achieve education reform that benefits all students in the commonwealth. Raise your voices once more and we will make a difference!

Yours in solidarity,

A NEW YEAR IS LIKE A BLANK BOOK. THE PEN IS IN OUR HANDS. IT IS OUR CHANCE TO WRITE A BEAUTIFUL STORY FOR OURSELVES.

Timothy T. Collins President

Visit us on the web at www.seateachers.com and on Twitter at @SEAspringfield

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Know your contract! Happy New Year! I hope you’ve all had time with family & friends over the holiday break. Let’s keep this one short and to the point. I’d like to revisit some key working condition concerns.

Peter J. Reese SEA Grievance Chair School Committee Meeting Dates Below are the School Committee meeting dates. Unless otherwise indicated, all regular meetings will be held in Room 220, City Hall, 36 Court Street; Springfield, MA. Working Sessions will be held at a location of the committee’s choice. The regular meetings will begin at 6:30 P.M. Working Sessions, Speak Outs, and Meetings with Student Representatives will begin at 6:00 P.M. January 19, 2017- 6:00 PM Working Session School Dept. 1550 Main Street

February 2, 2017— 6:00 PM Middle School Reps. (Balliet MS, Public Day Middle, Zanetti, Conservatory, Renaissance, South End MS, STEM Middle Academy 6:30 PM - Regular Meeting City Hall Room 220

Article 5.J: Read this, as it outlines your required time at your job site. I will use 7 hours as the work day for this purpose – there are schools that have been, are, and may be required to work longer days (e.g. Level IV schools). Basically, you are to report 15 minutes before the start of the student instructional day and be available for duty. If you are required to perform a duty, it shall not exceed 15 minutes. Your principal can use the 15 minutes creatively (such as 10 minutes in the morning and 5 minutes at dismissal). Any combination of duties such as this shall not exceed 15 minutes total. Bottom line: required to be at school for 8:30 means the required 7 hours at the job site ends at 3:30. Article 5.E: I receive numerous communiques expressing concerns about lesson plans: in particular, the submission and feedback protocol. This section of the contract defines the responsibilities of management if management asks for the submission of plans. The administrator must give feedback and suggestions and may require modification of the plans. “A follow-up review will occur to ensure that suggestions have been considered and that any required modifications have been made.” This means that the administrator will be the recipient of your plans, the administrator will furnish the feedback and suggestions, and the administrator will follow up with you to ascertain if your plans have been modified, suggestions considered, etc. This DOES NOT mean the ILS receives your plans, critiques your plans, gives the feedback, etc. as a matter of course in the collecting of lesson plans. It is the administrator’s responsibility. He/she wants them; he/she can do the work to read, analyze, respond, and follow up. I have reports from some ILS stating they are quite uncomfortable being put in an evaluative position such as this. Unit A members do not evaluate Unit A members. Article 27.F: I want to give you all a heads-up on the process to apply for advancement on the salary schedule based on any advancement you’ve made degree-wise. There are two important dates for applying for advancement on the schedule: September 20th and February 20th (there is usually a reminder of the September date in the 1st Newsletter of the school year). Here’s an example: a teacher with an initial license has just earned her Master’s degree. She wishes to be paid more money now that she has the new degree. This will not happen automatically. She must fill out the appropriate form and include all official transcripts germane to the newly acquired degree. She must file the application with Human Resources prior to the cut-off date (next one is February 20th). If all is in order, the advanced pay will begin from February 1st and be paid pro rata from that date. Although some of this is redundant, I hope it helps.

Keep Smiling, Peter Reese

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(Open to all members)

Saturday, January 28th 2017 SEA office – 1000 Wilbraham Rd, 2nd floor

9am – 12pm (Hot breakfast 8:30-9am) For new (or aspiring) reps, come learn about: What’s in the contract Tips on handling meetings with administration Helping teachers with the SEEDS process The difference between a gripe and a grievance For veteran building reps, come learn about: Increasing membership participation in your building And get your questions answered! Presenters will include SEA Vice President Maureen Colgan-Posner, SEA Professional Relations Specialist Peter Reese, MTA Regional Rep Arlindo Alves, SEA Member Engagement Specialist Sandy Pellegrini For more information, call the SEA office at 413-782-8300 To register, email [email protected]

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What’s Our Union Doing For Us? Maureen Colgan Posner SEA Vice President

I recently came across an article in The Atlantic magazine that confirmed something I have thought for a long time. We hear repeatedly from those who have no direct involvement in education that the system is broken and that our schools are failing. We certainly heard that mantra during the No on #2 campaign and now we have a nominee for Secretary of Education who has made a career off of that mantra. Betsy DeVos has no experience with public schools; she never attended one nor have her children, and yet she somehow knows how to “fix” them. As Jack Schneider, the author of the Atlantic article, points out, our schools actually have been improving (graduation rates are up, more students than ever are attending college, etc.) So, the question becomes, why do people continue to believe in the myth of the dramatic demise of our public school system? Perhaps they believe it because they’ve heard it so often it must be true. Or perhaps people like DeVos are using that narrative to generate an environment that will support their pet projects like charter schools and vouchers. The author accurately points out that this “broken system” narrative has had devastating consequences for public education. It has created a tolerance for “half-baked plans” that denigrate teachers, schools, and communities. According to Schneider, “Teachers, for instance, have seemingly never been more disillusioned. Roughly half of teachers report feeling under great stress several days a week, job satisfaction is at a 25-year low, and almost a third of teachers say they are likely to leave the profession within the next five years.” That is certainly true for teachers in the Springfield Public School system. We lose hundreds of teachers every year due to the stressful working conditions that are created under the guise of “fixing” our underperforming school system. Schneider points out that this “broken system” narrative distracts from the real problems our schools face and that our nation has thus far been unwilling to address. Blaming teachers, teacher training, the curriculum, or lack of teacher accountability perpetuates the fiction that all schools can be made great without addressing issues of race, class, and power. “Funding inequity and racial segregation, for instance, aren’t byproducts of a system that broke.” And yet we don’t want to talk about that. In fact, when those inequities are brought up, the response is often that teachers are just making excuses. As teachers we know there is much that can be “fixed” in education. We also know what works, what doesn’t, and what’s a waste of time. We know teacher retention, full time librarians, small class sizes, less paper work, more time teaching, less time testing, and support services for all of our students are just a few of the things that will improve our schools. The fight for a contract that creates those working conditions that we know will positively impact our students’ learning conditions continues. As we fight for that contract, we must create a new narrative. Our schools are not failing because teachers aren’t testing enough or analyzing data enough or not posting objectives, agendas, or word walls often enough. Our schools are failing because of mandates that drive teachers out, denigrate our profession, leave us and our students without the tools for success, and prevent us from doing the only thing we ever wanted to do: teach. Our mantra as teachers has to be “Respect us, support us, and let us teach.” The link to Jack Schneider’s article can be found on the SEA website.

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Professional Development Recently, I read a great review of Diaz-Maggioli's (2004) book Teacher-centered Professional Development from which the following summary is derived. Traditional professional development is plagued with barriers. Specifically, there is the obstacle of top-down decision-making in the type of professional development teachers receive. This is followed by the supposition that poor student outcomes are a result of ineffective or poorly qualified teachers. As life-long learners, Springfield Public Schools have highly qualified teachers who know what types of PD are most beneficial to their professional growth. I would strongly recommend that you go to the SEA website and read the book review article in its entirety. DiazMaggioli, G. (2004). Teacher-centered professional development. ASCD. ISBN: 0871208598. The Professional Development Committee has funds that can be used to attend conferences, workshops, and classes. Each SEA member is entitled to $300.00 every other year. If you are interested in using the funds, you must complete and submit the “Application for Profession Development Funds” form. Once you have been approved for funds and have attended the event, you need to submit the “Request for Payment” form. Both forms can be found on the SEA website, www.seateachers.com. You can either mail the forms to the SEA office or email them to me at [email protected]. Respect US…. Support US…. Let US Teach A.Murph Professional Development

FREE! New classroom supplies and gently used educational materials That’s right, ABSOLUTELY FREE!

Tools 4 Teaching The Recycling Store for Springfield Public School Teachers When: The 2nd and 3rd THURSDAY of each month (except July) 3:00-5:30 . We follow the SPS schedule for school closings (snow days and/or emergencies). An SPS ID is required for shopping.

Where: 70 Tapley St. in the Congressman Richard E. Neal Municipal Operations Center across the street from Oak Grove Cemetery at the traffic light. Please use glassed-in front entrance and follow signs for Tools 4 Teaching. Who: The SEA Committee of Retirees; we also welcome volunteers from the community. For more information email Chris Williams at [email protected] . How can we better meet your needs? Let us know.

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News from the Empowerment Zone In the fall of 2014, the SEA and the District negotiated a contract that covers Chestnut North, Chestnut South, Chestnut TAG, Duggan, Forest Park, Kennedy, Kiley, and Van Sickle in order to avoid a state takeover of six of those schools. Subsequent to the contract settlement, DESE, the District, and Empower Schools (a non-profit headed by former gubernatorial candidate and philanthropist Chris Gabrieli) signed an Agreement to set up the Springfield Empowerment Zone Partnership (the Zone) to manage these schools. The Zone is governed by a board consisting of three people appointed by the Springfield School Committee and four people appointed by DESE. The current Board Members are: Mayor Sarno, Superintendent Warwick, and Chris Collins (Vice Chair of the School Committee) appointed by the School committee, and John Davis (Senior Trustee, Irene E. & George A. Davis Foundation), Beverly Holmes (local business woman and former DESE Board member), James O'S. Morton (former Springfield resident, President and CEO of the YMCA of Greater Boston and current DESE Board member), and Chris Gabrieli, who chairs the Board.

Critical Needs Stipend

This past fall, some teachers in the Empowerment Zone were surprised to see no critical needs pay included in their paycheck. The SEA immediately filed a grievance with the Zone leadership. The Zone leadership immediately agreed with the SEA that the TLTs at each school should have voted on the changes and that teachers should be aware of their school’s working conditions prior to the transfer process in March, but we have not been able to agree on the financial remedy, so the grievance will be heard by the Zone Board at the January 11 th Board meeting.

Working Conditions available by March transfer process To ensure that teachers are aware of the working conditions in Zone schools prior to the transfer process, the development of the School Operational Plans will be split into two time frames. Phase 1, which includes School Priorities, Student Calendar, and Educator Working Conditions (as defined in Article 42 of the contract) will need to be voted on at the TLT prior to the transfer process in March. Phase 2, which includes the Strategic Implementation Plan, and School Budget & Staffing, including staffing plan and purchases, will be due in May.

Bargaining for a new contract The zone contract is up at the end of June 2018. During the month of January and into early February, SEA leaders and staff we will be coming around to schools to talk with people about the issues that you're facing in your schools. This information will be used to create the bargaining survey that will be available for all Zone teachers to complete during the two weeks after February vacation. We will then convene a team to review the results and develop bargaining proposals. It is our goal to begin bargaining for the new contract in the fall of 2017.

Commerce joins the Empowerment Zone Commerce is the first high school to be covered by the Zone contract. The teachers at Commerce felt that the TLT configuration that is delineated in the contract, while appropriate for middle schools, was not appropriate for a high school. Prior to the TLT elections, the SEA leadership, the building reps and the Commerce Principal worked out an alternative TLT configuration based on the needs of a high school. The zone leadership agreed to accept the new configuration if the faculty approved it. The full faculty was then given the opportunity to vote on whether to keep the TLT as delineated in the contract (reps from each grade, and “others”) or to elect reps by academic areas (ELA, Math, Science, Social Studies, and “others”). The decision was made to organize the TLT by academic areas and a new TLT has been elected.

The Building rep meetings for the rest of the year are: Thursday, January 26 Wednesday, February 15 Thursday, March 16 Wednesday, April 12 Wednesday, May 17 Wednesday, June 14 Please ensure that your building reps are attending these meetings.

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Liaisons for Bargaining Support Team As bargaining moves forward, we want to have a structure that ensures that every school and worksite is getting information from bargaining and is able to communicate back to the bargaining team in a timely manner. To do this, we are looking for each school to have a bargaining liaison. We are developing a Bargaining Support Team consisting of Bargaining Liaisons from each school or program who will meet with the bargaining team to discuss issues and carry information back and forth to their school to increase engagement and provide another level of leadership to support two way communications in buildings. Responsibility and Time commitment of a Bargaining Liaison: Up to 1 hour meeting a few days after each bargaining session to hear about what happened at bargaining, to bring feedback to the committee and to pick up Table Talk. Work with the school building rep to develop a school communication network that will provide an opportunity for two way communication Distribute Table Talk at the school through a communication network at the school.

Parent and Community Liaisons As SEA begins to reach out to parents and the community to get more funding for our schools, we are looking for members who are interested in representing the SEA in the community. School Committee Liaisons for the School Committee Outreach and Engagement SEA is looking for at least 8 people (at least 2 per school committee members who are ward representatives) to develop a relationship with the School Committee members who are elected from the wards where their schools are. Currently four school committee members are elected from the eight wards as follows: The combined Wards 1 and 3 The combined Wards 4 and 5 The combined Wards 6 and 7 The combined Wards 2 and 8 In addition, liaisons are needed to develop relationships with the two at-large School Committee members

Parent Ambassadors The parent ambassadors will help identify parent leaders in the community and work with the Pioneer Valley Project and SEA to bring those parents together in support of Springfield Schools. Activities may include: Teaming up with the PVP organizer to talk to parents in the community Having 1:1 conversations with parents who are potential leaders Attending meetings hosted by PVP of parents and educators to build power to demand the schools our students deserve Neighborhood Ambassadors We are looking for members to be Neighborhood ambassadors who will attend Neighborhood council meetings to bring educational issues to the meetings. Responsibility and Time commitment: Neighborhood Ambassadors will be expected to attend the Neighborhood Council meetings in the neighborhood where they work or live to begin to build a relationship between SEA and the council, many of which have education committees. Once a parent has been identified, Neighborhood Ambassadors will bring the parent to their Council meetings to bring a public school parent voice to the councils. Neighborhood Ambassadors will attend the monthly Neighborhood Ambassador meeting. They will also keep up to date on issues that are of concern to SEA through attending Community Ambassador briefing meetings (which will be called as needed), reading materials provided by the SEA leadership, and talking with the building rep and Bargaining Liaisons in their schools or programs. If you would be interested in any of these opportunities or know someone who would, please contact Maureen Colgan-Posner or Joanna Ferrentino at the SEA office (413-782-8300), or email Maureen with a cc to Joanna at [email protected] and [email protected] .

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I’m Your Handyman! Plumbing Electrical

Carpentry Large or small, I do it all!!

Bud Wagner (former Putnam Vocational Teacher) 860-657-5709

Hide-A-Barrel Tired of those unsightly barrels ? Hide them in this custom built enclosure. Access them without opening doors. Constructed with pressure treated posts and sturdy lattice panels-paintable or let it weather Built and installed for $399 (10% discount for teachers) call Ed Haley 575-2406

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Parent Teacher Home Visit Project Trainings January 21, 2017 9:00 AM-1:00 PM FOR: Teachers and School Staff (Especially for Elementary and Magnet Schools)

Location: Parent and Community Engagement Center 91 School Street

February 4, 2017 9:00 AM-1:00 PM Location: Parent and Community Engagement Center 91 School Street **Registration can be completed through My Learning Plan (MLP)** For more information contact PACE Center office (413) 787 - 7636

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2016 SEA Annual Children’s Holiday Party

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Piano & Guitar Lessons: all levels and all ages

TRADITIONAL PAINTERS

$25.00 1/2 hour

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Interior and Exterior repairs-walls, floors, doors, trim

Piano tuning $125

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Windows glazed, porches, decks repaired

Nic Z—413-626-4215

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Pipe railings fabricated and installed

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Wooden shakes replaced

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Broken ropes replaced on old windows

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Paint interior and exterior

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Clean Gutters

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10 Year Guarantee

References

Storytelling for grown-ups!!! Who: The Springfield Storytellers - Keeping the tradition alive! For more information call Dan: 508-280-4666

Reasonable, Reliable, References

Where: SEA Community Room, 1 000 Wilbraham Road Springfield, MA 01109

Call Edward Haley III

When: 7P.M. Friday (the third Friday of every month)

10% labor discount for teachers

President Timothy Collins Vice President Maureen Colgan Posner

Treasurer Kelli Nielsen

At-Large Members

(413) 654-6120 or 575-2406

SEA E-mail Addresses

Luis Fialho Marianne Gleason Stephanie Greenberg Gisella Grimaldi Ivelisse Lescano Rebecca Rowland

Timothy Collins [email protected]

Peter J. Reese [email protected]

Joanna Ferrentino [email protected]

Maureen Colgan-Posner [email protected]

Charlene Lonczak [email protected]

Paige Lawor [email protected]

Charlesetta Smith

Secretary Brenda Dunn

Josie Stellato David Tilley Lynn Russell

Email General Information or Questions to: [email protected] or visit www.seateachers.com

Springfield Education Association @ 1000 Wilbraham Rd, Springfield, MA 01109 TEL: 782-8300 | FAX: 783-8812 | E-MAIL: [email protected] | WEB: www.seateachers.com

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