Thursday, February 25, 2010

GET ACTIVE 

It’s time to stand up for our rights, our schools and our future. Join with other AFT members in New Jersey to send a message to our legislators.

On Monday, the State Senate passed a series of bills that attack the rights of public employees and our health and pension benefits. These bills were rushed through the Senate without fair hearing or discussion with the unions of the thousands of teachers and support staff targeted by the legislation. Even worse, the package of bills, if enacted, would not achieve significant cost savings to protect our pension— it’s just a cheap political stunt to attack our rights. As for the threat to our health benefits, the legislation circumvents the collective bargaining process and could lead to a unilateral imposition of costs on all of us.

Here are a few “lowlights” of the legislation (all of the following would be done outside of the collective bargaining process):

· The pension bill reduces the benefits formula for new in members PERS and TPAF from n/55 to n/60. This would mean all new hires would face at least an 8% cut in pensions.

· The health care bill requires all active employees of the State, local governments, county colleges, and boards of education to contribute 1.5% of base salary toward the cost of their health care coverage. This amount will be in addition to any other amount that may be required through the local collective bargaining process. The provision would begin with the expiration of existing contracts.

· The health care bill requires new employees (not already employed) to pay 1.5% of their pension benefit in retirement toward post-retirement medical benefits.

This makes it incredibly important for all of us to reach out to members of the State Assembly to call for careful deliberation in their house before benefits are put on the chopping block and collective bargaining rights are trampled on. Now is the time for all AFT members to stand up for our rights and let our legislators know that we expect to have a seat at the table when it comes to our jobs, our schools and our future.

In addition to the pension and health legislation headed to the Assembly, we face the current fiscal year freezes in school aid made my Gov. Christie. His executive order will lead to mid-year cuts in aid to school districts—without any legislative input. The Governor claims these cuts ($475 million statewide) will have no effect on the classroom since local districts will be forced to spend their own funds to cover the difference. It’s impossible for school districts to empty their coffers in this fiscal year to cover the Governor’s cuts and, at the same time, plan for reasonable budgets next year. This will directly affect teachers, students and property taxes. Please call on legislators to stand up to the Governor’s unilateral cuts to public education.

If you can take a few minutes to call your legislator, please click on this link to be connected directly to your Assembly member’s office (we’ll provide some talking points and a basic script for you)

http://www.aft.org/click2call/aftnj.cfm

If you would prefer to call through the legislative switchboard, you can call 1(866)584-3962.

If you would like to email your legislator, please click the following link (form letter included):

http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/NJ022410

Here is a sample letter/email to your Assembly member on the current situation:

Assemblyman/Assemblywoman,

My name is _____________. I’m a member of the American Federation of Teachers in _____________. I’m calling to urge the Assemblyman/Assemblywoman to stand up for schools and respect the collective bargaining process. The recently passed bills in the Senate, coupled with the Governor’s executive order to freeze aid to school districts amount to an attack on teachers and support staff. Even worse, these actions will lead to diminishing resources to educate our kids.

· The Senate bills on health and pension benefits for public employees are a direct attack on our rights to bargain our own contracts. The only equitable way to solve our budget problems is to include the thousands of teachers and support staff in the process of fully funding the pension system and ensuring fair health benefits. This should be done at the bargaining table. Please stand with us in our call to respect collective bargaining rights and ensure school employees have a seat at the table when it comes to our jobs, our students and our future.

· Please call on the Governor to work with the legislature on the current year’s budget gap. His executive order that froze school aid will hurt classroom education and cripple local budgets going into next year. His stated goal (property tax relief) will not be met by forcing the hand of local school districts and bankrupting education.

Thank you for your consideration. Please let me know how if you would like any more information or a meeting with other AFT members.

Sincerely,

_________________


Friday, February 19, 2010

JASEY & VOSS BILL TO CREATE PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE PROGRAM CLEARS ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE 

Measure Would Enact Permanent Program to Allow

Children to Move To Different Districts

(TRENTON) - The Assembly Education Committee on Thursday cleared legislation Assemblywomen Mila Jasey and Joan Voss sponsored to create a permanent public school choice program to allow parents to move their children to schools located across district lines.

The program would replace a pilot program that expired in 2005, though many participating districts continued to informally honor previously agreed-to student arrangements.

"Public school choice is an important step to ensuring each child has the ability to attend a school that is best-suited to their individual needs and talents," said Jasey (D-Essex), a former member of the South Orange-Maplewood Board of Education. "More importantly, public school choice programs can improve educational outcomes for students without seeing taxpayer money funneled out of New Jersey's strong public school system."

Under the proposal (A-355), schools seeking to participate in the program would apply to the Commissioner of Education, detailing the services available to students and an accounting of the fiscal impacts of being a choice district.

If an approved district has available space, pupils who wish to transfer to that school would submit an application. Though a receiving district cannot discriminate against a prospective student, the district would be able to review the application based on the student's interests in the school's offerings. Schools also would be permitted to start a lottery should demand outpace the supply of available seats.

Sending districts would be responsible for providing or paying for transportation for any elementary school pupil who lives more than two miles from the receiving district and any secondary school student who lives more than two and one-half miles from their new school. Sending districts would not have to pay if the student's new school is more than 20 miles from their home.

"This system would be fair and equitable to students and public schools alike," said Voss (D-Bergen), a retired career educator. "No doubt, some students who find themselves stifled at their current school would prosper in a neighboring school district. But we also need to be fair and mindful of the necessity to balance the needs of students with costs ultimately borne by taxpayers."

The bill now heads to the Assembly Speaker, who decides if and when to post it for a floor vote.


Thursday, February 18, 2010

RALLY IN SUPPORT OF STAFF UNIONS AT SUSSEX COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE 

Join fellow union members on Saturday, February 20th from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. for a rally to support AFT Locals 6374 and 6375, which represent professional and support staff at Sussex County Community College (SCCC).

The anti-union tactics the college is engaging in are disgraceful and are costing workers, their families, and the community valuable resources that should be put towards education. Incredibly, SCCC continues to use hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to resist negotiating a fair contract.

SCCC has dragged-out bargaining sessions since the two unions were first certified in 2006. The college also attempted to decertify the union, but this effort was overwhelmingly rejected by union members.

We need to send a message to SCCC letting them know that the labor movement will stand together until a fair contract is achieved. Rally information is as follows:

Date: Saturday, February 20, 2010
Time: 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Place: Newton Town Green

Intersection of U.S. 206 and N.J. 94

Parking: Behind the County Administration building on Spring Street directly across from the Town Green


Please contact Greg Rusciano or Bill Lipkin at (732) 661-9393 for questions and information about car pooling and other transportation options.

PLEASE DISTRIBUTE THIS FLYER AT UNION MEETINGS AND ON UNION BULLETIN BOARDS


Wednesday, February 10, 2010

District email / Snow business 

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There is a permanent link to the district email system on the left of this page:
https://webmail.paps.net/exchange
When you click on it, your web browser will probably give you a warning about an invalid security certificate, you can ignore that and proceed. If you use Firefox (recommended), you can store the security exception and then you won't see the warning every time you check your email.
Remember to use your full email address when entering your user name: username@paps.net, then your normal password.

NJ 101.5 has a good page for school closings. They update it constantly: http://closings.nj1015.com/enduser/organizationstatuspage.cfm

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Haiti relief 

Your donation to help Haiti is now worth twice as much!

AFT members nationwide have been stepping up to the plate to support the Haitian people and their devastated communities. AFT Healthcare members from Vermont and Connecticut are in Haiti and the Dominican Republic helping meet emergency medical needs. Union members around the country are donating time and services. Five ships crewed by Seafarers, Marine Engineers and Longshoremen are in Haiti, with medical staff treating injured Haitians and crews offloading supplies.

Now the AFL-CIO's Union Plus program is making the generous offer of matching funds. It’s simple—$10 becomes $20; $50 becomes $100. All donations made to the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center Earthquake Relief for Haitian Workers fund automatically will double (up to $100,000). Anyone can make donations—members and potential members alike.

The people of Haiti continue to need our help.

Make a donation today!

In unity,
The AFT


Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Governor Christie receives report from his educational transition team 

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This is a must-read.

http://www.state.nj.us/governor/news/reports/Education.pdf

Monday, January 18, 2010

Helping Haitian Students Cope with the Earthquake 

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By: Colorín Colorado (2010)

Many children of Haitian origin affected by the recent earthquake and their families are facing tremendous distress and uncertainty. As an educator, there are a number of ways to support these students and families.
This article includes the following sections and resources from
http://www.colorincolorado.org:

See the rest of this article by clicking here


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