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Redwood Educators Conference – Free PD for VEA Members!

January 24, 2013

The Redwood Service Center Council (RSCC) is hosting the “Redwood Educators Conference 2013″ on April 26 & 27 at the Sheraton Hotel in Petaluma. There is a required deposit of $50 to hold your place, which is returned upon your attendance at the conference. In other words, the conference is FREE!! This deposit covers the cost of the workshops, double occupancy room and meals.

The following sessions will be offered:

  • Human Rights
  • Women’s Issues
  • Ethnic Minority Leadership Development
  • Instruction & Professional Development
  • CalSTRS

Registration closes on Friday, March 8, 2013.

Please see the attached registration form for more information. Complete the form if you are interested in attending. VEA will not register members for this conference.

District seeks to ban and illegally confiscate teachers’ personal property

January 16, 2013

VEA has issued a demand to bargain on the letter that was sent today by VCUSD employee Denise Brogan-Whitford, most likely at the the direction of new District Administrator, Stephen Lane.

This letter was sent to all VEA members and issued the directive to stop immediate use of personal appliances such as microwaves, refrigerators, and coffee makers. This is supposedly due to an increase in energy usage.

No mention is made in this letter about the cold snap that has hit Vallejo and other parts of Northern California in the past couple of weeks.

Instead the blame for this increased energy use is placed on the usage of small appliances used by teachers in their classrooms.

The District has stated that if personal appliances are not removed by January 31st that they will “confiscate” these items.

VEA believes that perhaps the District has larger issues to address, such as the safety of their employees and the students of Vallejo, rather than the use of small appliances.

We also believes that in light of the fact that many teachers report having heaters that do not work in their classrooms, including VEA President Christal Watts’ 3rd grade classroom, that this District should spend more “energy” (no pun intended) on updating antiquated heating systems rather than seek to ban and illegally confiscate the personal property of VCUSD employees.

VEA’s Bargaining Team meets with the District’s bargaining team tomorrow. We will keep you posted!

Calendar Change Ratified

January 14, 2013

Voting was held today for VEA unit members on a proposed calendar change. This calendar change was necessary in order to fully restore the 2012-13 Student/Teacher calendar. Ninety-five percent of the members who voted were in support of the calendar change.

 

Two more conferences/workshops for VEA members

January 12, 2013

Save the date!

On February 5th and 7th, the CTA Office in Cordelia is offering Retirement Workshops for unit members who are considering retiring in the near future. If interested, contact Lynda Koning at 707-864-0305 to register. Do this ASAP as these workshops tend to fill up fast!

Save the date!

The Redwood Service Center Council (RSCC) is hosting the “Redwood Educators Conference 2013” on April 26 & 27 at the Sheraton Hotel in Petaluma. There is a required deposit of $50 to hold your place, which is returned upon your attendance at the conference. In other words, the conference is FREE!! This deposit covers the cost of the workshops, double occupancy room and meals.

The following sessions will be offered:

  • Human Rights
  • Women’s Issues
  • Ethnic Minority Leadership Development
  • Instruction & Professional Development
  • CalSTRS

    • Registration closes on Friday, March 8, 2013. A registration form will be added to this post later. Contact [email protected] with any questions.

    VCUSD seeks to “engage the whole community”

    December 2, 2012

    VEA has reached out to Touro University and to VCUSD School Board member regarding this scheduling conflict. We appreciate the quick response from Touro University and Trustee Mommsen.

    The date was mutually selected by the three parties involved, VCUSD, Touro and Dr. Anthony Muhammad. VEA President, Christal Watts, spoke directly to Touro University and is pleased with their willingness to engage in conversation.

    VEA hopes that as future events are planned that the VEA calendar will be taken into consideration in order to prevent future conflicts. We recognize that not all conflicts can be remedied and hope that the District is willing to work with VEA when that occurs.

    A special invitation from Diane Ravitch

    October 6, 2012

    Diane Ravitch has a blog post about a special action taking place on October 17th. The basic premise is requesting that teachers, parents and community members concerned about the attacks on public education send letters to the White House.

    From Ravitch’s blog:

    Let’s raise our voices NOW against privatization, against high-stakes testing, against teacher bashing, against profiteering.

    Let’s advocate for policies that are good for students, that truly improve education, that respect the education profession, and that strengthen our democratic system of public education

    If you send a letter, let VEA know. You can include in your letter in the comments below, on our closed or open Facebook page, or send them to Christal Watts at [email protected].

    Let’s send a message to the White House that enough damage has been done to public education. The so-called reforms are now the status-quo and we must start doing things differently.

    2nd Annual Chili Cook-Off for Lincoln Elementary

    September 12, 2012

    Sponsored by the Solano Association of Realtors, Lincoln Elementary will enjoy the proceeds that are raised in the 2nd Annual Chili Cook-Off. The event will take place on Saturday, September 22nd from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. at Team Chevrolet, located at 301 Auto Mall/Columbus Parkway in Vallejo.

    Admission is $20.00. Come enjoy great chili and help one of our local schools!

    See the attached flier for more information.

     

    Walk-throughs & Evaluations

    September 12, 2012

    VEA recognizes that teachers and other educators value and appreciate timely feedback on their teaching practice. We are in support of the Superintendent’s directive that school site administrators should be visible on their campuses and should be visiting classrooms daily.

    As VEA and the District works to develop a working agreement on walk-throughs and the District’s re-opener on Article 11: Evaluations, unit members should be mindful of the following:

    Administrators can come into any classroom at any time to do an “informal” observation/walk through. They can take notes. However, these walkthroughs cannot be used for evaluative purposes. I am suggesting members do two things.

    First, members should politely approach the administrator and request that a copy of the notes be placed in their mailboxes. If they are told “no,” then members should put their request in writing and ask for a response in writing.

    Second, when the administrator leaves, members should briefly document the visit – what was the teacher and/or students doing, date, who was the visitor, etc.

    If administrators are making the claim that these walk-throughs are non-evaluative, then the only way to make sure of this is for unit members to protect their contractual rights and be assertive in asking for their documentation. If they refuse and members document on their own and anything relating to a walk-through turns up on an evaluation, this may invalidate the evaluation.

    Contractual Language on Observations:
    11.2.5 Observations
    If an observation, either formal or informal, is to be used as a basis for a final evaluation, it shall be in accordance with the following provisions.

    11.2.5.1 A formal observation is defined as a classroom observation preceded by at least 24 hours notice to the unit member.

    11.2.5.2 All observations shall be documented on the Observation Form. (This can be found in the back of the contract.)

    11.2.5.3 Classroom observations shall be a minimum of twenty (20) consecutive minutes.

    11.2.5.4 A post-observation conference will be held within four working days of each observation. The post-observation conference may be postponed by mutual agreement.

    11.2.5.5 Each written observation report shall be based on at least one classroom observation by the evaluator.

    11.2.5.6 The observation report may include self-evaluation by the unit member.

    11.2.5.7 All observation report(s) shall be attached to the final evaluation.

    An informal evaluation is defined as a classroom observation which complies with all of the provisions of this section except 11.2.5.1.

    Our flawed national policy on education

    August 14, 2012

    Diane Ravitch posted to a story in Education Week. This is what she had to say about the story she had linked to:

    Every once in a while, I read something that rings as true as a perfectly pitched bell or a fine piece of crystal.

    Every once in a while, a clear-headed thinker assembles all the pieces of what is happening around us and puts it all together into a sensible and compelling analysis.

    Go over and read the article and then, share it with everyone you know. The easy answer to the crisis in education is to blame the teachers. It will take much more hard work and a willingness to examine our society to make a long-lasting impact to the challenges we face in public education.

    There is a reason that we lose 50% of teachers in their first five years of teaching and money is very rarely listed as the reason for leaving. Rather, the top reasons for leaving are due to poor working conditions and lack of respect or support from administrators.

    Vallejo Teachers back to school this week!

    August 12, 2012

    School may start back Monday August 20th for Vallejo students, but their teachers have been working hard all summer in order to best serve the students they teach.

    Vallejo Teachers will be returning to work this week, starting with optional staff development days beginning tomorrow. However, for many teachers, the summer break meant an opportunity for them to become better at their craft. Teachers took a variety of professional development courses, including learning about the Common Core. While contractually Vallejo teachers only have one paid day of prepping their classrooms, most have been working the past few weeks in getting their classrooms ready for their students.

    Katie V., a teacher at Cooper Elementary enjoyed her professional development opportunities which included training in Math as well as taking the “Emerging Leaders” track at CTA’s Summer Institute. Other teachers took part in “Positive Behavior, Interventions and Support” (PBIS) and “Guided Language Acquisition Design” (GLAD) trainings, such as teacher Kevin S. at Highland Elementary. Other teachers took trainings on Board Math, Differentiated Learning, Content Area Language and Literacy, such  as Jen Z. at Mare Island Physical Fitness Academy and Cheryl T at Vallejo High.

    Other high school teachers, such as Scott H. and Rob R., participated in trainings that will help the District in its vision for Academy High Schools. Scott H., a teacher at Bethel, did a week long training at UC Davis’ History Project Technology Institute and Rob R., a teacher at VHS, participated in his school sites’ Engineering Academy Project.

    As noted on this website, Vallejo teachers also attended several events this past summer in order to strengthen their union, which helps them to become better advocates for their students and their colleagues.

    Teachers also worked this past summer developing new lesson plans or tweaking their lesson plans to make them better for the upcoming school year. While there is the misconception that teachers do not work during the summer months, many of Vallejo’s teachers would state that this is unequivocally not true for them.