It is with pride and sorrow I write this. First the pride I have is how many members were at the Creighton Governing Board meeting tonight and had the chutzpah to speak and share their thoughts. This was truly what a democratic process is about in this sense being able to speak our minds and share our feelings. This is a right we are guaranteed under the United States Constitution. It is with sorrow we have to inform members of CEA about the board decision which was made by 3-2. The board voted to increase the school day by 70 minutes in k-4 and forty minutes in 5-8, which means our start and end times will be from 7:30AM-3:10PM for early start schools and 8:30AM-4:10PM. We do not know what our contract day will be or look like but assuming it stays in tact as it is now, we could see needing to be at schools for even longer.
So what are the next steps? We will be working on this and letting you know. We had AEA with us in the room and they will be helping us determine what we can do next. Watch Fox 10 online to see a news story and abc 15 online as well about this piece. We need to get this information out to parents and have them come speak to the board as well. We must share what is happening in our district with everyone, neighbors, families, business partnerships. How is this the right thing for students? We are not failing because we don’t work our tails off, rather the system is flawed and does not take into account the fact of language acquisition is needed and we can not assess in their native language. This is not only a problem in our district but a problem at the state level and we must contact our legislators to get this fixed. CEA needs all of you to join together, we can not let this be a one time event. We must continue to have a presence at the board meetings, not just CEA leaders, but members and show the board we care just as much as our parents. June 5th the Governing Board will be looking at the board policy about instructional minutes.
We did have some new members join CEA during this time which is a great time to join. It was because of you the members who spoke passionately about the impact it would have on you to the board we were able to get the vote to be a 3-2 vote. We have to follow up with non members at our campuses and sites and have them join us as part of CEA. We have power in numbers and it showed at the meeting otherwise the vote would not have been so close. We will be rallying please use this to help enroll new members. Download the AEA Membership Form by clicking here. If you know someone who took a form and information at the meeting about joining CEA, then follow up with them and ask them to join.
Please come to the CSD Board Meeting on April 28th, 2009….The board wants to increase our instructional day by 70 minutes in kindergarten through 4th grade and 40 minutes in 5th-8th grade. CEA leadership does not support this, but we are only as strong as our members. We all are CEA and we need to stand up for what we feel is just. CEA Leadership has mobilized the members of CEA and we are getting the word out to AEA members across the valley. Please support CEA and wear RED to show the governing board this is not alright with us.
Watch the video below for Mac Users you’ll be able to see it, for PC users you need Quicktime.Read the facts:
Prove to us now, that the Board hears the teachers, votes ‘No’ on the agenda item on increasing instructional minutes, and goes back to the drawing board on this issue.
How can a decision like this be made without buy in? Even to pass a school uniform rule you have to have a large percent in support.
Just the facts:
Grade AZ guideline
(hours per year)
See attached documentation Board Policy
I-0400 ID
School Day
See attached documentation Difference between AZ guidelines and current Board Policy Current Instructional time minus board policy in hours
** how it was calculated below
K 356 484 Over 128 Over 560
1 712 1102 Over 390 Over 32
2 712 1102 Over 390 Over 32
3 712 1102 Over 390 Over 32
4 890 1102 Over 300 Over 32
5 890 1190 Over 300 Over 56
6 890 1190 Over 300 Over 56
7 1068 1190 Over 122 Over 56
8 1068 1190 Over 122 Over 56
**Instructional minutes:
K-4: 4 days per week (MTHF) X 6.5 hours X 36 weeks=936
1 day per week (W) X 5.5 hours X 36 weeks = 198
Totaling = 1134 hours – 90 hours of lunch = 1044 hours instruction (recesses also don’t count but that changes per campus so I didn’t subtract that amount)
5-8: 4 days per week (MTHF) X 7 hours X 36 weeks= 1008
1 day per week X 1 hour X 36 weeks = 216
Totaling 1224 – 90 hours of lunch = 1134 hours of instruction (switching times, recesses/breaks, and homerooms also don’t count but that changes per campus so I didn’t subtract that amount)
Here is the state’s web page of recommended contact hours:
I question why the Board Policy has instructional minutes way over the AZ state guidelines. Can the board policy of instructional minutes be change to better match the AZ state guidelines, so that we are not in jeopardy of having to pay back money like Phoenix Elementary School District no matter who calculates the instructional minutes?
The proposed change would have our students K-8 in school for 7 hours and 45 minutes 4 times a week and 6 hours 45 minutes on Wednesdays -Averaging 7.5 hours per day.
This is way more than even the national average or even globally. It is true that our number of school days is low globally, but Obama has talked about increasing the number of days nationwide and hopefully, with funds to support that. Is now the time to increase instructional minutes without the input from parents, teachers, or even students? No. Vote “No” on this agenda item.
Article stating that extending day/year in not the answer, just another one size fits all strategy:
Below is some more data for you to have and read to regarding instruction time.
Data: http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pss/tables/table_2006_24.asp
National Center for Education Statistics
Table 24. Average length of school year and average length of school day for private schools, by
Table 24. selected characteristics: States 2005-06
Selected Average length of Average length of
characteristic school year in days school day in hours
Program emphasis
Regular elementary/
secondary 178.6 6.8
Montessori 182.1 6.6
Special program emphasis 177.1 6.9
Special education 193.1 6.2
Vocational/technical ‡ ‡
Alternative 186.0 6.1
Early childhood 200.9 6.2
Size (number of students)
Less than 50 181.5 6.6
50-149 180.1 6.8
150-299 179.0 6.8
300-499 178.2 6.9
500-749 177.8 6.9
750 or more 177.7 7.0
Region
Northeast 181.0 6.6
Midwest 178.0 6.8
South 179.9 6.8
West 181.3 6.6
Urbanicity type
City 180.8 6.8
Suburban 180.5 6.7
Town 177.9 6.7
Rural 178.9 6.7
‡ Reporting standards not met.
NOTE: These estimates do not include private schools for which kindergarten is the highest grade.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Private School Universe Survey (PSS),
2005-2006.
In Spain,
The School Year (33 weeks of school versus our 36 weeks)
The academic year in Spain runs from mid-September to mid-June, with the main holidays at Christmas, Easter and the summer break. Spanish school children have very long school holidays (vacaciones escolares) compared with those in many other countries. Schools are also closed on public holidays when they fall in term time.
The school year is made up of three terms, each approximately eleven weeks in duration. There are slight variations among the different autonomous communities and there may be days off and long weekends for regional holidays and religious and national holidays.
Pupils transferring from primary to secondary school are sometimes given an additional two weeks’ summer holiday.
School holiday dates are published by schools and local communities well in advance. Normally parents are not permitted to withdraw a child from classes during the school term. Exceptions can be made if the child has an appointment at the doctor or dentist, however, the teacher should be notified in advance.
The School Day (7 hour day)
In primary schools the school day generally lasts from 09:00-14:00, school meals are not always provided, however some schools offer the option to have lunch at the school and then undertake an extra-curricular activity in the afternoon. Once students reach year 7 (beginning of secondary school [high school]) school days are longer, beginning at approximately 08:30.
In Germany,
For primary school (Grundschule) teachers and students in Germany, the school day is short by U.S. standards, ending no later than 1:00 p.m.. German teachers do virtually all of their planning and preparation in their own homes. (5 to 5 ½ hours per day for Germany) http://hub.mspnet.org/index.cfm/9148
On Tuesday, April 14th, 2009 Dr. Spiller and Mrs. Witte presented to the governing board about instructional minutes in the CSD. They have not yet put any suggestions together but will be doing so soon. Please read the message below from a member who is just as concerned as CEA with this and contact your governing board member to express your concerns:
After last night’s board meeting, I have more concerns regarding the increase of the instructional day:
It was presented and believed by administration that additional time is what we, the teachers, really want. Yes, we have asked for more time but this request has been taken out of context. Time is not an increase in the instructional day, but time within our current instructional day to:
• Plan
• Work with our team
• Reduce the time commitments that continue being added to our days – meetings (site and district), trainings, PLCs, additional programs, curriculum restraints – 30 minutes of this and an hour of that…
• Allow us to teach to the students during the already scheduled time frame with minimal interruptions
If we are “under” the state requirement by 70 plus hours in the middle school, why is the solution in our district to add 180 hours (one hour of instructional time per day) so that we would be over 110 hours?
What impact does this have not only on teacher salary due to being asked to work a 9 hour day, but also, afterschool sports, clubs, etc…. ? I am at an early start school so my day starts at 7:00 and ends at 3:00. After school games can’t start until 4:00, but usually start at 4:30 due to transportation issues. So now will the games start at 5:30? That would put our coaches (and security for those games) working from 7:00am to 7:00pm at least twice a week, and those students from 7:25am to 6:30pm. That is long day for both the staff and students. In the winter months, students will be walking home in the dark.
District offices are only open from 8-4; while some in those offices may work longer, just like every teacher I know, it’s not possible to contact anyone at district by phone after 4. Is district office time going to increase, too?
The district PLCs last until 4:30 right now. Are they going to last until 5:30 and cut more time from our personal lives?
I have heard from administrators that increased instructional time is what we want and in the past we have gotten raises with no increase in district expectations. I am outraged by these comments! First of all we have not gotten a percent raise that was at or above the normal cost of living inflation factor for years; if anything we have been frozen more years than not. Teachers already work “extra” hours out of a sense of duty to the district and site during carnivals, parent nights, PTO events, parent teacher conferences, meetings with parents, home visits, planning at home, researching materials, etc… Teachers are spending more and more money out of their pockets for motivational and instructional items not funded by the district. Any “extra” money we have received has been put back into the district by our devotion to the students and our sense of what is right. Now we are going to be punished for this commitment and have to hear comments such as this from our administration. I have been in this district for 16 years and I have watched the staff morale decline and become demoralized by district. We have been beaten down so much that it is a common belief that our professional opinions and input do not matter.
While this situation is so maddening to me, I still have the same concerns that I presented last night, and I want to remind you of those:
• Adding more students on a caseload due to a loss of a .5 CC teacher and we have to accept the policy change from the recommended caseload of 17:1 to 22:1 with no input to this change and that it was decided upon using inaccurate data.
• Being stuck with a calendar that teachers didn’t support and ironically neither did the parents. Parents voted 149 / 149.
• Having a school that is open for only 350 students.
And now we are being told that we will probably be working an extra hour a day with no increase in pay! That 60 minutes of “extra” is approximately a months work of pay!
Now, during these tough economic times, is not time to make this change, when we can’t compensate the staff for the time, we have limited amount of information available to the majority of the parents, and with no input from staff regarding longer school day.
I urge you to dig deeper into the information presented by district and make correct decisions that benefit everyone involved.
To contact the Governing Board you may do so by clicking on the links below as well as come to a Board Meeting and speak about this as well. CEA will keep you informed when this will be coming up for a vote at the board meeting.
CEA leadership will be meeting with the district administration to express our concerns over this, but we need all of you to also contact them and express your concerns. We must be united and organized to do this. Please share this with all your colleagues and encourage them to join CEA as members.
Last night’s board meeting went until 10PM and thank you to all of you who were there at the board meeting to show the support and solidarity for the IBN Team and the work we had to do this year. The CSD Governing Board did approve the Negotiated Agreement between CEA and CSD, which also included budget cuts across the district in several categories. Now, those who have been surplused will start meeting with Human Resources and finding a position and place they can call home. Unfortunately at the same time, this also means we had to loose individuals who were members of our district. The CSD eliminated it’s contract with SmartSchools and those individuals who were part of Smart Schools will have to reapply for a position in the district. The CSD had to RIF 12 teachers last night, many of whom are great teachers. We’re unsure of the count of how many ESP members of the district we lost right now.
Here is what we do know, over the past six years the CSD has hired anywhere from fifty to one hundred new teachers. CEA is optimistic and believes we will be able to call back all of those individuals who were put on the RIF list last night. Please if you are not a member of CEA, it is important to join now as a member.
CEA has ensured the policies and state regulations are being followed in this challenging time. We have been working many hours with the CSD administration to ensure working assignments will be filled by not only highly qualified but also very effective members of the CSD who can do the job well. We are in the business of educating children, the future of our community. A board member said it very well last night, “Public Education is RIGHT NOT a PRIVILEGE”. This is very true and a message we must continue to tell our legislators. To do this, there is an event tomorrow at the Scottsdale Civic Center, which the Arizona Republican Leadership will be at to present information about their budget options, below is the information:
Scottsdale Civic Center Library Auditorium, 3839 N. Drinkwater Blvd, Scottsdale.
The Maricopa County Republican Committee (MCRC) will be conducting a Town-hall to discuss the state budget at 5:45 PM, April 16 in the
Confirmed speakers for the event are: Sen. Russell Pearce, Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee; Rep. John Kavanaugh, Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee; President Pro Tempore of the Senate, Senator Thayer Verschoor; and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Gray.
Please come to the board meeting at the Creighton Governing Board Room at 7PM on April 14th and show your support for the IBN Team recommendations and hear more about the instructional minutes piece which CEA has not supported increasing the instructional day as recommended by Dr. Spiller and Ms. Witte.
Watch the video for more
Thousands of teachers and school employees have received notices that leave their employment next year in doubt. Policy makers need to know that public education is Arizona’s budget priority. Teacher and school staff layoffs can be avoided. On April 15, pick up the telephone or send an e-mail and ask the governor and your legislators to use available stimulus dollars and appropriate revenue enhancements to restore a fully funded education budget.
Why April 15?
Most school districts have policies that require them to notify employees who are being laid off or nonrenewed due to budget constraints by April 15. April 15 is the date taxes are due. It is a good day to remind the governor and legislators that a budget solution is past due. Using the stimulus money and appropriate tax measures, a state budget can be passed that provides full funding for public schools, universities, and other vital state services.
Some legislators are trying to avoid responsibility for their lack of action on a budget by blaming teachers who need the April 15 deadline as adequate notice of impending layoffs. Learn more here.
There are four ways to get involved:
1. Send a personal message to the governor and your legislators on April 15 using the March4Schools email or phone system.
2. Visit the March4Schools Mobilization Calendar for a summary of activities that have been organized around the state. If an activity is planned in your area, please participate.
3. Organize a “Stop the Pink Slips” postcard campaign of your own. Organize your colleagues, friends, and family to participate.
4. Organize your own unique action to engage the public to stop the pink slips. If you organize an action, please report it to Doug.Kilgore@arizonaea.org so it can be publicized in future March4Schools publications.
“My students work in groups of four and during test
times there is quite a temptation for eyes to wander. I make my students responsible
for keeping their papers covered. Whenever I see answers uncovered, I quietly
place a small red square of construction paper on the student’s desk. This is a
warning and a reminder. If a second red square is placed on the same student’s
desk during the same test, one point is deducted. Each time thereafter, another
point is deducted. I never have had to deduct more than one point and I no
longer have to nag the class to keep their answers covered.”
Tomorrow, April 14th, the governing board will be hearing and being presented several very important pieces of information which will determine how our working environment and conditions are for the next upcoming year. We would like to have every member at the board room to share their thoughts and to hear the information on the following topics:
IBN Recommendations—these are the recommendations which we sent to all CEA members and if by chance someone who is a CEA member did not get it and you know it, please share it with them and let me know as well. If the recommendations which include cutting full day kindergarten, cutting CAAP, taking two days of professional development from our contract and cutting the welcome center among a few pieces of the budget is adopted tomorrow night, then contracts would be issued shortly after.
Presentation on Increasing the instructional day with students by 30 to 60 minutes daily across all grade levels. (This was something which was discussed in IBN, but both sides could not reach an agreement on this) The main premise which we find ourselves in is their are many variations of site schedules with no one site meeting the minimum number of instructional minutes in 7th and 8th grade, according to the state guidelines. This was brought to light because of a recent audit which was done by the Arizona Department of Education in the Phoenix Elementary School District, which required Phoenix Elementary School District to pay back money. Another piece of information which is important to note is since 2001, when the current Creighton Governing Board Manual was adopted we have not been meeting the number of instructional minutes according to our board policy either, which is not the best thing for our students. CEA asked since we could not resolve this during IBN, that this be considered and decided upon before contracts were due to give all employees all the relevant information to make a decision about their contract for the 2009-10 school year. This was an agreement which is why it’s being presented to the governing board now.
An updated RIF notice….this is a good thing because we are now only having to RIF 12 from the earlier 28 we had to RIF earlier. State law tells the district they must notify by April 15th if they will non renew any certified teacher. While we do not like to have to RIF and this has been the first time in many years this has happened, we are not unique in this. Being the optimist and seeing the trend patterns over the past eight years of how many new teachers come into our district each year, CEA feels confident all of the people who are on the RIF list will be offered a position to teach in the Creighton School District next year.
New jobs being created or transformed—the k-3 and 4-8 instructional coaches positions are going away. They are being transformed into a k-8 instructional coach and a student achievement teacher position, which will still be funded from the federal dollars.
We need to have all members at this meeting in the Governing Board room at 7PM to hear the information and let the governing board know the feelings and sentiments of the employees this will be affecting. It is a tough year right now and a tough time for many of us, please know CEA and AEA are there fighting for your rights consistently, making sure the state and the local leaders hear our voices. We need more though, now is Spring Membership and we want to have more people join with us who believe in a quality public education for all. Please speak with anyone who is not a member and ask them to join us in our fight for a quality public education for all.
Earlier in the week a message came out from CEA President Jason Schnee regarding an updated ratification document. Afterward there was some dialogue occurring and it started to get inappropriate for the e-mail system in our schools. CEA President Schnee asked for the members to take the conversation which was healthy and good discourse to the blog, but some don’t know how to comment on a posting.
Here is the how: First click on the title of the entry/article on the blog so you can read only that article. At the bottom of the screen you can leave a comment. You will need to enter your name, your e-mail address (which does not get published) and then you can write your comment. Once you have finished writing the comment you will need to press submit comment.
Here is the how: First click on the title of the entry/article on the blog so you can read only that article. At the bottom of the screen you can leave a comment. You will need to enter your name, your e-mail address (which does not get published) and then you can write your comment. Once you have finished writing the comment you will need to press submit comment.
