August 2002
the e-publication of OCEA
First Quarter Edition 2002 Volume 2, Number 1
Welcome back!
In this issue (click on the links below):
Negotiation Update
NEA Representative Assembly 2002
Reggie Weaver (Remarks to NSEA Delegate Assembly 2002)
Schools v. Prisons
Insurance Issues
American Education Association
Campaign 2002
Celebrate Education Fair (September 18)
UCN/WEA Summer Leadership Conference
12 Commandments for Public Education
Teacher/Administrator Parable
Web Links
VOTE! FREEDOM DEMANDS RESPONSIBILITY! VOTE!
OCEA’s Negotiation Team continued to work on reaching a settlement with the District through the summer. The team met with the District in June and August. In June there was, at best, limited progress.
At the August 13th School Board Meeting, OCEA President Jeff Greb made the following statement to the Board:
Once again this summer this district was in the unfortunate position of needing to replace about 10% of its teaching force. To annually lose between 7-15% of Carson teachers cannot be in the long-term educational interest of our children. OCEA believes there is a direct correlation between this attrition number and our salary position relative to our neighbors.
Our membership has been unequivocal when indicating its priorities. During a decade of unprecedented prosperity, our salaries here in Carson did not even keep pace with inflation. Consequently, long time teachers lose money every year they stay here to teach.
OCEA holds a position that money for salary increases needs to become a budgeting priority. Regrettably, once again this is not the case for the proposed budget for 2002-2003. Historically, when this district has set new priorities to meet financial obligations, it has been able to adjust the rest of the budget accordingly and successfully. Our members have made it clear that they feel the time has come for salary to be such a budget priority.
Our members have also expressed unhappiness regarding the negotiation process. They have indicated that the Association should do everything in its power to prevent negotiations from being unnecessarily protracted. Toward that end, we will be meeting with the district’s team tomorrow afternoon. OCEA will have counter-proposals and be prepared to negotiate settlements in an effort to reach a final agreement, and it is OCEA’s desire that the district come with the same mindset.
At the August 14th meeting with the District, both sides made concessions and found by the end of the meeting that there was agreement on all the issues except salary and insurance. Both sides are analyzing counter-proposals and plan to meet Wednesday, August 28. This meeting should determine whether or not we are at impasse over those final two issues.
If you want to ask questions of the Negotiation Team, please attend the Celebrate Education Fair on September 18th.
(Also in Quest: Celebrate Education Fair (September 18))Contact Quest: JGREB@carson.k12.nv.us
NEA Representative Assembly 2002
Nearly 9,000 delegates attended this year’s NEA Representative Assembly in Dallas, the first week of July. When NEA staff, guests, presenters, and host committee were added, the convention featured nearly 15,000 educators working together. (It is a wonder anything got done!) The Nevada delegation was made up of 85 teachers and support staff. OCEA sent Jeff Greb, Warren Wish and Steve Fargan. Gaylea Manning represented UCN. One of the main points of business for this year’s RA was to elect a new set of officers for the NEA. President Bob Chase reached the end of his term limit, so among the officers elected was a new president. Reggie Weaver, NEA Vice President and a middle school science teacher from Illinois, beat out Dr. Denise Rockwell from California. (Also in Quest: Reggie Weaver) New NEA President Reggie Weaver
Dennis Van Roekel, NEA Secretary-Treasurer, ran unopposed for Weaver’s vacated position. There were four outstanding candidates for secretary-treasurer, but Lily Eskelsen ran away with the election with 75% of the vote. Eskelsen is an elementary teacher from Salt Lake City. Sec-Treas Lily Eskelsen
Besides electing new officers, delegates had to contend with the other work of the assembly: considering the budget, bylaw amendments, legislative program, resolutions, and new business items (NBI). Delegates set aside $4 million to “expand awareness, help shape implementation, and advocate for improvements” in the ESEA newly reauthorized by Congress in January. Besides this decision, other NBIs directly relating to Nevada included those concerning Yucca Mountain and the Social Security offsets. NSEA President Terry Hickman proposed NBI 43, which was passed by the assembly and said that NEA will help oppose the nuclear dump in southern Nevada. There was also a NBI directing the NEA to link up with police and fire organizations in its continued fight against the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset, two current laws that prevent Nevada teachers eligible for Social Security benefits from receiving their full entitled amount.
Next year’s RA will be held in New Orleans.
Contact Quest: JGREB@carson.k12.nv.us
(Remarks to NSEA Delegate Assembly 2002)
When he was NEA Vice-President, Reggie Weaver addressed the 2002 Delegate Assembly last April. What follows is an abridged version of those remarks.
I give hundreds of speeches a year to teachers and support professionals, and wherever I go, it seems, our folks are suffering from low morale. So job number one, for me, is to lift up your spirits and to make you feel appreciated. But do you know what? It is you who lift up my spirits. You make me feel appreciated. I can’t tell you how much that means to me.
My friends, I – like you – have a vision. It’s a vision in which every child in America receives a top-notch public school education. No matter where they live, no matter what their background or their tax bracket is, every single child in the country is entitled to have a good public school right in their neighborhood – a school where they have caring teachers, a great curriculum, plenty of supplies, where they’re free from fear or harassment, where the atmosphere is conducive to learning and children are held to high standards, and supported, and inspired.
And every teacher and support professional in this country is entitled to work in these quality schools, too.
Yet when it comes to making public education the best it can be, Congress and the President lose sight of any real vision. Instead, they talk about tests, tests, tests. They talk about punishing teachers and schools that don’t raise tests scores fast enough.
What they don’t seem to understand is that test scores are outputs. And you can’t legislate outputs. You cannot – by edict or law – say that all children will magically achieve at high levels. The politicians just don’t get it. It is necessary to focus not just on outputs, but also on inputs. We’ve got to focus on the building blocks – the proven building blocks – of great public schools, because every student deserves one. Start with modern facilities and excellent teachers. This requires resources. It requires huge amounts of hard work and engagement. And it requires supplies and schools that are safe and orderly.
Our voice and our expertise are absolutely critical to the success of education reform. Why? Two reasons:
Reason number one is that no reform is going to work that doesn’t have the support and active engagement of America’s 3.1 million public school teachers and 2.1 million K-12 support professionals. This is just common sense.
Back in 1989, the first President Bush and all the nation’s governors held the first national education summit down in Charlottesville, Virginia. Each governor brought along a big-shot business executive . . . and just a token handful of teachers. And, together, they cooked up a report and a series of grand education goals for the nation to reach by the year 2000. This report ran on for dozens of pages, and not once in the entire report were teachers even mentioned! And guess what? Nothing ever really came of it!
There is a second reason why we need to be involved in education reform: we are the experts! We’re the ones who actually work in the schools! And so we know better than anybody what works and what doesn’t!
We are the professionals on the front line: in the classroom, on the bus, in the front office, dealing directly with students and parents. Reform will succeed if it is done by us and with us.
Folks, we know what it takes. We know what makes a great public school. It’s not some secret formula. It’s not like the Colonel’s recipe for Kentucky Fried Chicken, locked in a safe somewhere.
It is a matter of choices – political choices made in Washington, D.C., and Carson City. And it is our job to make sure our political leaders make the right choices.
Take the issue of teacher quality. The education reform bill signed into law in January says that by the year 2006, every teacher in every school in America will be certified and “highly qualified.” President Bush is traveling around the country giving speeches promising that there will be a quality teacher in every classroom by 2006.
But at the same time, President Bush has proposed a budget for next year that cuts funding for teacher quality programs! The Administration says there is no more money!
Don’t tell me there is no money to pay for education reform.
When the politicians wanted tax cuts last year – poof! – they came up with $1.3 trillion to make it happen.
When the politicians wanted to bail out the airline industry last fall – poof! – they came up with $15 billion in a heartbeat.
When the politicians wanted to boost military spending after 9/11 – poof – they came up with an extra $48 billion just for next year.
When the politicians in Congress wanted an economic stimulus package last week – poof! – they came up with another $51 billion!
Add all of these things up – tax cuts, the airline bailout, more for the military, and stimulus package – it comes to a whopping total of more than $1.4 trillion!
And then these very same politicians – after passing the “No Child Left Behind Act” and promising a “highly qualified” teacher in every classroom – dare to claim that there is no new money to pay for teacher quality programs! This is just unacceptable.
The politicians and policymakers may try to avoid responsibility. They may say there is not money for teacher quality and school reform. They are going to call us names: they are going to call us a “special interest.” Are we a special interest in Carson City and on Capitol Hill? Darn right we are! And our special interest happens to be children and quality public education.
We need to educate these politicians and policymakers – and the public, too! Do not allow them to challenge and bait you, or take you to task. Do not allow them to tell us that we need to be challenged in order to do a better job.
Educate them! They say we need challenges. I’d like to see those folks deal with the challenges that we confront every day: Large class sizes, disobedience and disrespect, kids from broken homes, rundown facilities, out-of-date textbooks, no supplies. We don’t need lectures about challenges!
Let’s educate these politicians and policymakers – and the public, too! We are challenged by having to accept salaries and working conditions that in no way represent our professionalism and our worth.
Educate them! We are challenged by too many teachers – including right here in Nevada – who lack full certification. We don’t need talk about a “quality teacher in every classroom.” We need the reality of a quality teacher in every classroom. So show us the money, so we can recruit and retain more of the kinds of people we want working with our kids!
Let’s educate these folks! Mr. and Mrs. Politician and Policymaker, Mr. and Mrs. Public, we need to see you standing side-by-side with us at the schoolhouse, at the state house, and, yes, at the White House.
Educate them! Tell these folks that it is neither reasonable nor responsible to expect us to walk into a school building that is obviously substandard, and to deliver an education at the highest standard, but to be given support and salaries that are below standard!
Educate them! I know we can do it! If we can teach fidgety first-graders, if we can teach hormone-crazed tenth-graders, then I know that we can teach the politicians.
And I also know this: they need our advice. They need our insights. They need our expertise.
So my friends, remember that you are not only a special interest with a special responsibility, you are very, very special people. You teach the students. You care for the students.
So wear that label “special interest” with pride. We are a special interest, because the interests of children and public education are as special as you get!Contact Quest: JGREB@carson.k12.nv.us
This summer it was announced through the news media that Nevada leads the nation in the percentage of state and local employees who work in jails and prisons but ranks near the bottom for percentage of teachers. This data came from the U.S. Census Bureau.
These statistics certainly seem to support the contention of NSEA and others that the state’s budgeting priorities are misplaced. “It’s the old saying of pay now or pay later,” NSEA Executive Director Ken Lange said. “When you put fewer resources into public schools, you generally end up with higher costs of prisons, whether that’s building prisons or staffing them.”
“It’s a stark reminder about our priorities, that we would rather pay to lock people up than we would to educate our kids,” added Bob Fulkerson, Executive Director of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada.
Nevada ranks 49th in the percentage of public employees who are teachers, and first in the percentage who are jailers.
NSEA will be lobbying the Legislature this session to raise the amount allotted per pupil in the state to the national average. The per pupil amount was raised for 2002-03, moving Nevada from 45th in per pupil spending to 43rd. To NSEA, neither amount is acceptable. Nevada’s children are worth at least the average amount spent in this country. Please do all that you can to support this effort when the Legislature begins meeting in 2003!(Also in Quest: Campaign 2002)
Contact Quest: JGREB@carson.k12.nv.us
This summer there was a well-publicized case of a non-member who made an error when enrolling for insurance coverage on-line and quit his job when the District could not rectify his mistake. OCEA did not learn of this case until just prior to the non-member’s resignation. The District’s position is that benefits under IRS Schedule 125 cannot be changed once the enrollment window has closed. OCEA is in the process of verifying this assertion.
There have been a couple of other people who have come forth with errors; however, no one is certain if these are isolated events or if it is a widespread problem. If you have not used your insurance since July 1, please verify your coverage. (The simplest way to do so is to check the new cards sent to you this summer. You should have received a card for each element, except life insurance, and for each person covered.) If you discover discrepancies, please contact OCEA. Please spread the word to non-members so we can get an accurate picture of the situation district-wide.
Remember: we are not looking for people unhappy with their coverage, rather only those who made errors when enrolling. Also, please to not send second-hand reports, only contact OCEA if you had a problem, not someone you heard about.Contact Quest: JGREB@carson.k12.nv.us
American Education Association
Toward the end of last school year, flyers appeared in some school mailboxes advertising the American Education Association. The flyers touted full insurance coverage and representation for only $185 per year. These claims were investigated by NSEA, and it was discovered that the AEA is a fraud. (Please do not confuse the AEA with a legitimate organization: the American Association of Educators.) There is no such business registered to offer insurance benefits in the state of Nevada, and the “organization” seems to have disappeared. If you know anyone taken it by this scam, please warn him or her they are not covered by any liability insurance. Remember: if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.Contact Quest: JGREB@carson.k12.nv.us
Beginning in June, the NSEA Government Relations Committee has been busy interviewing candidates for possible endorsement for the fall election. The criteria for being considered for endorsement were simple: candidates had to answer “yes” to the first two questions on the candidate questionnaire. These questions asked whether the candidate supported raising the per pupil amount in Nevada to the national average and changing the revenue structure to provide an adequate and stable funding source. If the candidate answered these questions in the affirmative, they were provided an opportunity to be interviewed regardless of their party affiliation.
Endorsement from NSEA is a two-step process. After the interview committee has considered the eligible candidates, they make a recommendation to the NSEA Board of Directors. The Board must agree with the committee for an endorsement to be made; neither group can unilaterally make an endorsement. This process is thorough and thoughtful, and NSEA encourages its members to consider the endorsed candidates when at the voting booth. The upcoming legislative session is crucial to funding our schools properly. The endorsed candidates have pledged to do just that, and our support is critical. In order to enact laws that will stabilize the revenue base, a two-thirds majority will be needed. We will need friends on both sides of the aisle to accomplish this.
Locally, NSEA has endorsed Mark Amodei and Stacie Wilke. Amodei (R) is the incumbent for the Capital Senate District. He has children in the public school system and worked with Senator James last session to find funding for education. Wilke (D) is currently a member of the Carson City School District Board of Trustees and is running for AD 40, the assembly seat being vacated by Bonnie Parnell. Wilke, too, has children in our schools, and she has been an advocate on the Board for local teachers. The endorsement for AD 38 was still pending at press time. If you live in that district, check the NSEA web page for current information.
As reported in Quest last spring, NSEA endorsed Governor Kenny Guinn (R) for re-election. Other candidates for statewide offices endorsed by NSEA include:
§ Erin Kenny (D) – Lieutenant Governor
§ Dean Heller (R) – Secretary of State
§ John Hunt (D) – Attorney General
§ Brian Krolicki (R) – State Treasurer
§ Bill Maupin (non-partisan race) – Supreme Court Justice
For a complete list of candidates endorsed by NSEA, go to http://www.nsea-nv.org. If you would like to help with the AD 40 race (displaying a sign, canvassing your neighborhood, making calls), please contact Quest at the link below.
It is not too late to register to vote. October 5 is the deadline for voter registration for the general election. For assistance in registering, please contact Quest at the link below.
Contact Quest: JGREB@carson.k12.nv.us
Celebrate Education Fair (September 18)
OCEA, in conjunction with CCSD, will be presenting a Celebrate Education Fair the evening of Wednesday, September 18. The fair will be held in Senator’s Square and the small gym at CHS from 6:00 to 8:30 P.M. Over 50 groups and organizations have expressed an interest to have an opportunity to present information to teachers and parents.
Some of the booths at the fair will be specifically for parents. For example, teachers will be on hand to give tips how parents can help with a child’s homework. Many of the booths, however, will be for teachers. Warren Wish, OCEA Grievance Chair and member of the State PERS Board, will be on hand to discuss PERS, how you may be affected by Social Security offsets which relate to PERS, and what you can do to help change these bad laws. OCEA’s Negotiation Committee will be there to answer questions about the status of negotiations.
Of course, some of the available information relates to both teachers and parents. Mike Mitchell will answer questions about the school bond work just completed and about the new bond on the ballot for this year. Information will be presented about the implications of HR1, the renewal of ESEA (the so-called “No Child Left Behind Act”), and how it will and may affect local schools. In addition, some student groups will be on hand to tell about their programs.
Please set aside some time to come by and support this exciting new event!Contact Quest: JGREB@carson.k12.nv.us
UCN/WEA Summer Leadership Conference
UCN and WEA held a Summer Leadership Conference at the Carson Valley Inn in Minden the first two days of August. UCN stands for UniServ Council of Nevada and is a confederation of the NSEA organizations in the 15 rural counties. OCEA is a member of UCN. WEA is the new name for the WCTA, the teachers from Washoe County. This conference replaced the NSEA Summer Leadership normally held at Lake Tahoe, but cancelled due to budget constraints. A UCN board meeting was held the afternoon and evening prior to the conference.
OCEA members attending were Jeff Greb, Steve Fargan, Chris Mannschreck, and Shawn Schnieder. Among the issue sessions they attended were: “Legal Trends: What’s New – What’s Not!” “Dealing with Behaviors You Can’t Stand, or How to Bring Out the Best in the Worst People,” “Bullying: The Real Dangers,” “NSEA Reps/NSEA Membership: How to Capture the Market Share,” “Retirement Planning: We’ll All Be There Someday!” “HR 1/ESEA: Will There Really Be No Child Left Behind?” and “Campaign 2002: What’s at Stake?” A wealth of information on these and other topics was disseminated at the conference. If you are interested in finding out more, please contact one of our attendees.Contact Quest: JGREB@carson.k12.nv.us
12 Commandments for Public Education
A couple of years ago Congress cut spending for public education and instead approved putting a copy of the Ten Commandments in every classroom. At the time, Reggie Weaver (NEA’s new president) proposed his own ten commandments for education, then added two more.
Commandment Number One: Thou shall not pretend to reform schools by passing some bogus Ten Commandments law that will most likely be declared unconstitutional.
Commandment Number Two: Thou shall not say that children are America’s top priority when 20% of America’s children live in poverty, 15% have no health insurance, and 13 children are killed by gunfire every single day.
Commandment Number Three: Thou shall recognize that only public education has the potential to provide each and every child in America with a quality education, and therefore, thou shall not abandon public schools, but redeem and enhance them.
Commandment Number Four: Thou shall not spend more money on prisons than schools. The more quality schools you have, the less prisons you’ll need.
Commandment Number Five: Thou shall not kid thyself that paying starting teachers $19,000 a year is any way to attract and retain the best and brightest educators for our kids. Thou shall support teachers – not insult them.
Commandment Number Six: Thou shall respect every child as precious and capable of learning – regardless of their background – and treat them as the valuable natural resource that they are.
Commandment Number Seven: Thou shall not bash teachers – especially when thou has not been in the classroom for thyself for the last 35 years.
Commandment Number Eight: Thou shall honor not only teachers, but the people who drive the busses, clean the hallways, serve the lunches, counsel the students, take the attendance, nurse the injured, assist in the classrooms, and run our nation’s schools with dignity and dedication and grace.
Commandment Number Nine: Thou shall recognize that quality education requires everybody in the education community to work together cooperatively – from retired teachers to new administrators to parents – and engage them accordingly.
Commandment Number Ten: Thou shall remember that public education must always be an immediate priority and a long-term investment. Schools must not be subjected to quick fixes or get-rich-quick schemes.
Commandment Number Eleven: Thou shall not determine a student’s entire future by the results of a single ultra-high stakes test – especially if that test is inherently flawed and unfair!
Commandment Number Twelve: Thou shall not establish a whole new set of standards in schools without aligning them with the curriculum! Or without aligning them with the tests! Or without any input from the teachers who are actually going to have to teach them! And thou shall certainly not hold schools accountable to these standards without giving them the help and the resources they need to meet them!
Now those are Twelve Commandments that will make a truly extraordinary difference for children all across America! If America lived by these commandments, the fabulous work that you do as teachers would finally get the support and respect it deserves.
Contact Quest: JGREB@carson.k12.nv.us
A man in a hot air balloon realized he was lost. He reduced altitude and spotted a woman below. He descended a bit more and shouted, “Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don’t know where I am.”
The woman replied, “You are in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You are between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude.”
“You must be a teacher,” said the balloonist.
“I am,” replied the woman. “How did you know?”
“Well,” answered the balloonist, “everything you told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I am still lost. Frankly, you’ve not been much help so far.”
The woman below responded, “You must be an administrator.”
“I am,” replied the balloonist, “but how did you know?”
“Well,” said the woman, “you don’t know where you are or where you are going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise that you have no idea how to keep. You expect someone else to solve your problem. And the fact is you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it’s my fault.”Contact Quest: JGREB@carson.k12.nv.us
The first person to e-mail Quest with the correct answer will win a $10 gift certificate. Also, if you’d like to submit a possible contest question, you could be eligible for the same prize.
Contest rules:
¨ Only OCEA members are eligible.
¨ Current OCEA officers are not eligible.
¨ Answers must be submitted by e-mail to the address below. On the subject line type “Contest.”
¨ The winner will be the first e-mail received by the editor with the correct answer. (E-mails are automatically date and time stamped upon receipt by the computer.)
¨ The editor shall be the sole arbiter of what constitutes a correct answer.
This issue’s question:
Name level taught by the new NEA President Reggie Weaver prior to being elected and the state from which he came.
Send your answers to: JGREB@carson.k12.nv.us
¨ OCEA – local information; e-mail officers; education links http://home.pyramid.net/ocea/index.html
¨ NSEA – statewide information; legislative updates; member benefits http://www.nsea-nv.org
¨ NEA – national information; numerous links to many education sites http://www.nea.org
¨ NEA Member Benefits – lots of connections to other sites and free stuff http://www.neamb.com
