Rialto Education Association/CTA/NEA
President Bill Hedrick Vice President Lisa Lindberg, Morris Secretary Deb Bunger, RHS Treasurer Shannon McCreight, Myers High School Directors Suzan Pechinko, RHS Wendy Bettar, RHS Middle School Directors Carolyn Lacey Tobin Brinker, FMS Elementary Directors Melissa Perkins, Garcia Deb McKenzie, Dollahan Non-Graded Director Mark Clark, BTSA State Council Rep Deb Traugott Penny Robinson Tobin Brinker
June 2008
Fighting for Schools—Very Latest from CTA!
Assembly Demos Boost Education Spending in Budget Plan
Assembly Demos Boost Education Spending in Budget Plan
Democratic members of the Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Education Finance on May 30 took a step aimed at providing the state’s public schools with desperately needed funding. On a party-line vote, the Democratic members of that fiscal panel voted to increase Proposition 98 funding by $2.3 billion above the level Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed in his May Revision. As adopted by the committee, the Assembly subcommittee’s budget would reject the governor’s proposed 6.5% cuts in categorical programs and would reinstate a partial Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA). While the governor’s May Revision would provide no COLA for basic and categorical programs, the Assembly budget version in its proposed current form would fund a partial 1.6% COLA and would create a 3.626% “deficit factor” for the remainder of the COLA. This action would add that amount of funding to the California education “credit card” and obligate the state to repay the missing COLA funds in the future. “We are heartened by the Assembly Subcommittee’s recognition of the needs of public education and our more than 6,000,000 students,” said CTA President David Sanchez. “CTA and our Education Coalition partners will continue to press the governor and lawmakers to approve a state budget that provides full funding for public education.” The Assembly spending plan would put Proposition 98 funding at $59.05 billion, up from the governor’s proposed $56.7 billion. The Assembly fiscal blueprint rejects the governor’s “flexibility” proposals that would take back unused categorical funding at the end of a year and allow school district reserves to dip below current statutory limits. The Assembly plan relies on as-yet-untaken actions to raise additional state revenues. At a recent news conference, Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) reiterated that the state cannot balance its books by cuts alone. She indicated that Democrats were examining a number of proposals to boost revenues, and she said that resurrecting a plan to tax oil companies – an oil severance tax – could be part of the revenue-generating package. Earlier this year, Assembly Democrats sought to secure approval of a measure that would have imposed the oil tax and used the proceeds to prevent layoffs of teachers and other education personnel. The legislation received support only from Democrats in the Assembly and fell short of the two-thirds margin needed for approval. Meanwhile, the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Subcommittee No. 1 on Education is slated for a June 4th hearing to formulate and advance its education spending proposal. At some point, the Assembly and the Senate will seek to merge their budget plans into a single document that will head to the governor for his signature. Under state law, the Legislature is required to submit its final budget by June 15 and the governor 1 is required to sign it by June 30. The state constitution provides no penalty for failing to meet these deadlines, and they have been missed more often than made over the past two decades. Given the state’s $17.5 billion budget deficit and the adamant objections of Senate and Assembly Republicans to virtually all revenue increases, veteran observers are expecting a long budget battle this year.
It is kind of tough to write an upbeat message about the end of school this year. The year has been appalling! Instead, relief can be found with a little daydreaming about what might have occurred had we been blessed with a different Board of Education…. I see…. headlines….different headlines…. “CLASS SIZE REDUCTION SAVED!” “SCHOOL BOARD AVOIDS LAYOFFS!” “NEW SALARY SETTLEMENT REACHED!” “PARENTS APPLAUD WISDOM OF BOARD!” “MORALE SOARS AS EMPLOYEES HONORED!” “RIALTO NAMED CENTER OF COLLABORATION!” Now I know I’m dreaming!!! Returning to the real world, the school year ends with REA and CTA still working to restore as many jobs as possible. As more retirements come in, the District will re-hire for open positions. Negotiators will sit down with the District on June 21. The contract is still open for the 07-08 school year. Most districts have settled, including those with greater declines in enrollment than Rialto—i.e. Ontario-Montclair. We expect the District to end the year with significantly over $30,000,000—a truly shameful balance, as their philosophy of sitting on so much cash has cost so many jobs of skilled, well-trained educators! Next year will see unprecedented activity on the part of the Association. We MUST have a pro-education school board. We MUST work to make that happen. We MUST pull out all the stops to bring real change to Rialto Unified. You MUST be ready to volunteer! It CAN be done! It WILL be done! For those of you not returning to Rialto, we wish you the very best of luck in your new districts. For those of you retiring, well…we’re jealous!!! Have a great summer. Come back ready to work for real change—for your colleagues, for our students, for our community!
National News
McCain Vision for Public Schools Fails To Address the Test, Label and Punish Regime Established by Bush Administration Under No Child Left Behind
May 28, 2008 WASHINGTON—Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) recently outlined his vision for public schools in America. His laundry list of wishes fails to address what should be a top priority—what to do about No Child Left Behind. The silence is deafening as he neglects to mention what he would do about the law and for the millions of educators, students and schools affected by the test, label and punish regime of Bush’s No Child Left Behind. The following statement was made by NEA President Reg Weaver: "Sen. McCain's vision for public schools fails to address the 800-pound gorilla in the classroom: No Child Left Behind. All of us know that a single, high-stakes test can't determine the success of a student, teacher or school. Unfortunately, he missed a prime opportunity to outline how he would tackle the law's reauthorization and reduce the negative impact of one-size-fits-all testing on millions of educators, parents and children. "Instead, McCain continues to believe that promoting 'competition' by supporting charter and private schools is the an2 swer, rather than providing public school students with the tools, resources and support they need to succeed."
State News
CTA Wraps Up “Cuts Hurt” Bus Tour with Hundreds of Teachers and Education Support Professionals Calling on Lawmakers to Protect Public Schools and Other Vital Services from Billions in State Budget Cuts SACRAMENTO – At the final stop of the California Teachers Association’s six-week “Cuts Hurt” bus tour, which highlighted the devastating impact of the more than $4 billion in proposed budget cuts to public education in cities across the state, hundreds of teachers and education support professionals converged on the State Capitol. “The governor’s decision not to suspend Proposition 98, the minimum school funding law, was a move in the right direction. But his revised budget still includes $4.3 billion in cuts to public schools—including programs such as class size reduction, which means squeezing even more students into California’s overcrowded classrooms,” said David A. Sanchez, president of the 340,000-member California Teachers Association. “These cuts also impact programs that target low-income students and those schools that need help the most.” The revised budget proposal offers no cost-of-living adjustment for any education program. That means less money to help recruit and retain quality teachers. And as districts pay more for gas to fuel school buses and more for other operating costs, our schools will once again be expected to do more with less. More than 20,000 teachers, education support professionals and other educators have received pink slips, and some of these skilled educators will never return to the classroom. “Elk Grove has prided itself on its class size reduction program. Our elementary students have flourished under this program and have increased their API scores. But class size is now threatened in Elk Grove, and our students are sure to suffer the consequences. Almost 35 teachers in our ninth-grade English and math programs have been given pink slips,” said Elk Grove Education Association Vice President Mike Stahl. In the Sacramento Unified School District, Sacramento City Teachers Association Vice President Marcie Launey said, “Two hundred teachers in my district have received pink slips. All of the music programs have been cut and the district is looking at increasing class size in the primary grades.” “Today is Education Support Professionals Day,” said Doreen McGuire-Grigg, president of the Lakeport Unified Classified Employees Association, where eight of the 37 classified school employees in her district have received layoff notices. “This should be a day of celebration for the rarely recognized men and women who work behind the scenes at our schools every day to ensure that students and teachers have a clean, safe environment in which to learn and work. Instead, we are here fighting for education funding to save our schools. This is shameful.” With this revised budget plan, California continues to rank 46th in K-12 per-pupil funding and dead last in teachers, librarians and counselors per student. Many school districts have already decided to increase class sizes and cut vital student programs like art, music and career technical education just to meet the demands of the governor’s proposed budget. “Continuing to solve this budget crisis with a cuts-only approach hurts crucial services that all Californians need and deserve. Lawmakers must consider revenue increases to fund education and other important programs that help children, the poor and working families,” Sanchez said. “Providing a quality education for our students is the most important thing we can do to invest in their future. California students didn’t create this budget crisis. Their education and their futures shouldn’t be sacrificed to solve it.” CTA Vice President Dean E. Vogel and Secretary-Treasurer Daniel R. Vaughn joined Sanchez on board the CTA “Cuts Hurt” bus in Sacramento. The tour began on April 7 and has stopped in Inglewood, Rialto, San Diego, Orange County, Bakersfield, Fresno, Chico, Redding, San Francisco, San Jose, and other cities in the Bay Area. 3 The Angry, Tired Teachers Band from Hayward entertained the Capitol crowd preceding the news conference, performing the tour’s theme song, “Cuts Hurt.”
Rialto Education Association/CTA/NEA * 1519 S. Riverside Ave. * Rialto * CA * 92376 * (909) 562-0850 Email: trpenna@msn.com or hedrick23@prodigy.net www.reaonline.org
TGIT Executive Board Rep Council
July 19 July 18 Cancelled for June July 25
Movies with Mowoe
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This is a potpourri of sorts. It includes remembrances of two great actors and a director, an expression of gratitude, and a fond farewell from this page for a period of at least all of the 2008/09 academic year. Enjoy! In Memoriam: Anthony Minghella passed away on March 17th, from complications related to cancer surgery. Some of you might remember that I mentioned him in my last review, in the section on Atonement. Minghella also directed The Talented Mr. Ripley and Cold Mountain, among others, but my favorite has always been The English Patient. This is an acknowledgment of him for his contribution to our great collection of classic movies. He was just 54 years old. We also lost Mr. Paul Scofield on March 20th. Because of his flawlessly dignified portrayal in A Man for All Seasons, his is the face I see whenever I think of Saint Thomas More! Who can forget his calm, intellectually contented portrayal as a Van Doren patriarch in Quiz Show? American Literature teachers, how was he as Danforth in The Crucible? And Charlton Heston. Yes, he starred in quite a number of movies in his long life, including The Ten Commandments and Ben Hur, but be sure to add the following to your list of must-see movies if you haven’t seen them already: El Cid and The Agony and the Ecstasy. Delicious. What gifts we had in those men. May their souls rest in peace. This segment will be on hiatus next year. Thanks for taking the time out of your incredibly busy schedules to share this space with me. It’s been awesome. Thanks to everyone who voted in the NEA RA elections. Thanks, especially, to all of you who voted for me. Thanks to those delegates who gave up their local spots so all 12 nominees may attend. Thank you all sooooo much! I wish all of us a wonderful, restful, and fulfilling summer!!!
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