OCEA Quest - November 2002

In this issue (click on the links below):

Negotiation Update

Campaign 2002

UCN Fall Leadership Conference

Governor ’s Task Force

Important Facts about Nevada Schools

Television Violence

Cool Idea

Contest

Web Links

GIVE LIFE! GIVE BLOOD!

Negotiation Update

The negotiation team has remained in contact with the District’s team; however, neither side has as yet made a proposal acceptable to both. Although both sides remain available for discussion, an arbitration hearing is scheduled for December 6 and 7. If it reaches that stage, this arbitration will settle our 2002-2003 contract.

In Nevada this third-party arbitration is binding, meaning both sides must abide by the decision of the arbitrator. The arbitrator is provided by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, a federal agency, and must be mutually agreed upon. The arbitrator will receive a package of proposals from each side and hear testimony supporting each side’s position (with time for cross-examination provided). The arbitrator will then select one of the two sets of proposals; he cannot mix proposals from opposing packages.

OCEA will soon be preparing for contract negotiations for 2003-2004. The negotiation team will be preparing a survey to the membership as to priorities for this process. It is important for members to inform the team as to what those priorities are so that they can effectively represent you. Watch for this survey before February and please return it in a timely manner so your opinions can be heard.

Contact Quest: JGREB@carson.k12.nv.us

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Campaign 2002

The challenges facing public education during the upcoming legislative session are enormous, and given the results of the election, the road has only gotten tougher. (For some of the issues facing public education in Nevada, see Governor’s Task Force and Important Facts about Nevada Schools in this edition of Quest.) Many of the candidates who pledged to work to close the gap between the national average per pupil amount and the amount at which Nevada current funds its schools were not elected. Since a two-thirds majority in both the assembly and the senate will be need to make the changes necessary to implement this funding, these election results are particularly grave.

Teacher participation during the session, therefore, has become even more important than before. NSEA needs rank and file classroom teachers to be available to talk to legislators and testify before committees, and we are, obviously, the closest teachers to the Legislature. OCEA is preparing a list of teachers NSEA may call upon to go to the Legislature on a limited notice to help our voice be heard. We need teachers from all grade levels and with differing years of experience. NSEA will give any teacher called upon specific instructions as to whom to speak to and what to speak about.

Our involvement is crucial if positive changes are to be made. For more information or to volunteer, contact Jeff Greb at the link below.

Contact Quest: JGREB@carson.k12.nv.us

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UCN/WEA Fall Leadership Conference

October 19^th UCN held its Fall Leadership Conference in Fallon. Jeff Greb was the only attendee from OCEA.

The keynote speaker was Shelly Rosenblum of the EPA Region 9 (NV, AZ, CA, HI). Rosenblum also led a breakout session later in the day on indoor air quality (IAQ). He said his experience with public schools has led him to conclude that generally Americans have no idea what it takes to run and maintain a school. The condition of our schools indicates to him that America doesn’t value education or our children. Schools are dirtier than homes; in fact, he rates them as equal to third world condition or worse. This is particularly disturbing to the EPA since it ranks IAQ as an important contributor in the top four health problems in the U.S. To further raise concern, he noted that 90% of the air Americans breathe each day is indoor air, yet there are no EPA regulations for IAQ. He recommends teachers become proactive and insist school districts monitor IAQ for our health and the health of our students. (If you’re interested in learning more, you can contact Shelly Rosenblum at rosenblum.shelly@epa.gov.)

There were also sessions on Bargaining (A Review of NRS 288), Discipline in the Classroom, HR 1, Money Management, Grievance Processing, and Member Recruitment. NSEA Executive Director Ken Lange presented information about the Governor’s Task Force on taxation, of which he is a member (see Governor ’s Task Force in this issue of Quest).

For more information on these topics, please contact Jeff Greb.

Contact Quest: JGREB@carson.k12.nv.us

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Governor’s Task Force

NSEA Executive Director Ken Lange reported on the status of the Governor’s Task Force on taxation to the UCN Fall Leadership Conference. Governor Guinn appointed Lange to the task force. The task force has been looking at ways to correct Nevada’s structural deficit in its revenue system. Currently, Nevada’s state government is funded largely through gaming taxes, and although those revenues typically increase each year, they do not increase a rate sufficient to cover the state’s funding needs. Consequently, Nevada’s schools are funded at a per pupil amount that ranks 45^th nationally. The task force will officially report to the Governor later this month, but Lange gave UCN a preview of the report.

The budget deficit projected for next year is approximately $350 million. Gaming revenues will probably be up about $50M, so that will leave the state about $300M short to fund everything at the same level as this year. In order for teachers to receive a raise of 5%/5% over the two years of the biennium, an additional $260M will be needed. In other words, the state will need a total of approximately $560M more than this year for teachers to get a 5% raise for both 2003-2004 and 2004-2005. These figures don’t take into account the expected $71M needed to cover the increase in health care costs. We are in such dire straits because previous Legislatures have chosen not to fix the problem; they have taken the more politically expedient course and ignored the problem in spite of warnings from NSEA. We now have a huge problem and a desperate situation.

The task force’s report will be the basis of the Governor’s budget presented to the Legislature early next year. (Guinn had originally planned to propose two budgets, one with revenue enhancements and one without; however, the situation has gotten so bad he will present only a budget with tax increases built in.) According to Lange, the task force will propose a combination of taxes so no single business or group will be over-taxed. Among the taxes that will be proposed are:

� Gross receipts tax of .25% with an exemption of $350K. (Ironically, NSEA’s initiative petition last session called for a net profits task and was vehemently opposed by business. Business interests have now proposed this very tax to the task force in order to avoid a gross receipts tax.) This would cover casinos as well as the 50% of casino business that currently goes untaxed (restaurants, hotels, memorabilia, etc.).

� Business license tax adjusted to shift a greater burden to large businesses.

� Amusement/entertainment tax (theater/music/movie tickets, etc.).

� Alcohol/cigarettes.

� Property tax (at least 10� per $100K).

� Clerk and filing fees for corporations.

� Services (lawyers, doctors, barbers, etc.).

This combination of taxes is projected to raise between $466M to $500M.

There has also been talk of a state lottery; however, to implement this proposal would take a change in the Nevada Constitution, the others detailed above would not. They do require, however, a super-majority (two-thirds) in the Legislature. Consequently, this Legislative session will have a considerable effect on the future of public education in this state.

(For more about the needs of public education in NV, see Important Facts about Nevada’s Schools in this issue of Quest.)

Contact Quest: JGREB@carson.k12.nv.us

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Important Facts about Nevada’s Schools

(Information provided by NSEA’s Quality Schools Coalition www.nsea-nv.org)

The state of public education in Nevada:

� Nevada leads the nation in enrollment growth. (NV public school enrollment grew at a rate of 4.6%, while the U.S. average rate of growth was less than 1%.)

� There are approximately 15,000 new students each year.

� Schools are overcrowded. Only 17% of NV’s high school students attend schools with fewer than 900 students. The national average is 31%.

� Nevada has the 6^th largest student/teacher ratios in the nation. (E.g. Only 35% of NV’s 4^th graders are in classes of 25 or fewer students, while the national average is 64%.)

� Nevada ranks 45^th in per pupil expenditures. ($5,600 vs. national average of $7,161 or $1,500 below the national average.)

� Only 11.1% of total state spending is on public education while the national average is 22.1%.

� When adjusted for inflation, per pupil spending has actually decreased.

� Nevada has fewer computers per student than the national average.

� $282 million in deferred maintenance of buildings and school facilities.

� An estimated 7,600 new teaching positions will be needed over the next eight years, yet our salaries are not competitive. Average salaries are below the national average and have not kept pace with inflation.

These problems will not fix themselves! Please help make our voices heard during the upcoming Legislature!

Contact Quest: JGREB@carson.k12.nv.us

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Television Violence

Television violence affects children of all ages, both genders, and all socioeconomic levels. Children younger than seven are especially vulnerable to the violent behavior shown on television because they cannot distinguish fantasy and reality.

In the average American home, the television is turned on for more than seven hours per day. This is cause for concern when you consider that more than half of all television programs (57%) contain some violent content. Nearly half of all television violence occurs in children’s cartoons, which are least likely to show the consequences of violence and more likely to portray violence in a humorous fashion.

Regular exposure to the violence on television can have the following effects:

Like younger children, teens exhibit increases in these same areas as a result of viewing television violence. They are also at greater risk for:

� Alcohol. Teens who watch more television and music videos are more likely to start drinking; alcohol is a factor in 25% to 50% of all teen deaths.

� Sexual behavior & attitudes. Television has become the number one sex educator, but television actors rarely mention birth control, abstinence, or sexually transmitted diseases.

� Obesity. Television encourages a sedentary lifestyle that can contribute to obesity. Kids who watch more than four hours of television per day are, on average, significantly heavier than kids who watch less than two hours.

� 1,023 – Hours of TV watched per year by the average American youth – the equivalent of 42.5 days.

� 1,180 – Minutes of TV watched per week by the average American child ages 2 to 17 – the equivalent to more than 43 days per year.

� 721% – Percentage increase in network news coverage of homicide between 1993 and 1996 – the actual homicide rate declined by 20%.

� 91% – Percentage of U.S. children who said they felt “upset” or “scared” by violence on TV.

You can encourage parents to reduce children’s exposure to television violence by:

4. Watch TV with your child and talk about the violence you see. Propose alternatives.

5. Set appropriate guidelines regarding the programs your child is allowed to watch.

Cool Idea

I teach third and fourth grade gifted students and this is how I use the book The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn with older students. Right before we take our state criterion reference tests, I read this to the students telling them that,

although it was written for much younger students, the idea of what a little raccoon was required to learn in his nocturnal night school, was not. I divide them into small groups and they come up with their best ideas for raccoon courses of study. Students then self-select the area which appeals to them and the new groups write the core curriculum, list the objectives for the course, make a sample lesson plan and finally, an assessment so they know the raccoons learned the objectives. This takes two days of heads together and what great things they come up with!

Examples: a time line of famous raccoons of the past 200 years, a field trip to the forest to identify the plants not good for raccoons to eat, a video identifying raccoon predators, are all ways I have used to teach and assess progress! Then we take our year-end tests and I tell them not to be intimidated by this assessment. It's just another way I want to know if my “raccoons” learned their “night school” lessons.

A fast efficient way to remove permanent marker from furniture or laminated charts is with hairspray. The cheaper it is, the better it seems to work. Just spray and wipe. If it's a bit tacky, simply spray with a little alcohol.

Contest

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.

� 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.)

Name level taught by the new NEA President Reggie Weaver prior to being elected and the state from which he came.

Carol Tullis of EVMS was the first member to correctly identify Reg Weaver as a middle school science teacher from Illinois.

Approximately how much more money will the state legislature need to raise for the coming biennium (compared this year) for teachers to receive 5% salary increases for the next two years?

Web Links

� 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