No Food, Paper, or Pencils Left Behind

No Food, Paper, or Pencils Left Behind

Shiny apples, carrot bags, pre-packaged peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, full containers of applesauce, sealed cartons of raisons, and unopened milk cartons. That’s what paraprofessional Lorraine Von Hess would see students tossing into the trash every day as she supervised lunch at Davies Middle School in the Hamilton Township of Atlantic County, N.J.

A shocking amount of food meandered from lunch line, to tray, to trash. It was nearly enough to fill several 50-gallon cans, the educator says. In a county struggling with food insecurity, Von Ness refused to stand idly by. She began to investigate ways to fix a system that she says was clearly broken.

“I was appalled by the food waste at school,” Von Hess says. “We have two food pantries in our town overwhelmed with people in need.”

Showing Community Spirit

Seeing an abundance of food in one corner of her life and a severe need for food in another, Von Hess knew what to do.

First, she contacted the cafeteria food services manager who informed her that all food was funded by a state grant which required by law that students receive an item from each food group. Once food hit the tray, it could not return to the kitchen. The obvious destination for unwanted food? The cafeteria’s large gray trash cans.

Von Hess continued to search for information. She found no rule that said the unconsumed food couldn’t be earmarked for a destination beyond the cafeteria.

Making Connections

Pointing to the closure of nearby Atlantic City casinos between 2014 and 2016, Von Hess recalls how the closures rippled into households.

“They’re struggling to keep their homes and feed their families,” Von Hess points out.

Many of the area’s families depend on food pantries to survive. And donations help to fuel the survival of the food pantries. Von Hess, a member of the Hamilton Township Education Association, explained the donation idea to the food centers in her area. They loved it!

Next, she created a detailed proposal, and headed to a meeting of the district school administration bearing a detailed plan with a name created by her son: “No Food Left Behind.”

“Administrators were excited by the idea,” Von Hess says.

The program began at Davies in March 2015 and exceeded expectations. According to Von Hess, students were eager to donate unwanted food items.

Here’s how it works: Students drop unwanted food in boxes. After lunch, paraprofessionals sort the items into categories for delivery to food pantries the same day.

Over the summer of 2015, Von Hess collaborated with principals and paraprofessionals from neighboring schools to help them start their own programs. By that September, several schools were collecting food too.

“The food that we take to the pantries helps a lot,” says Von Hess. Collectively, the schools donate about 40 reusable grocery totes of food to area pantries per week. Von Hess says schools contact her often seeking advice about pioneering their own programs.

“That’s very rewarding,” she says.

“My role as a paraprofessional has helped me to see community problems,” says Von Hess who is proud that her school got the ball rolling with “people who did not hesitate to jump in to help.”

Read full article click here

New Contract Lifts Spirits, Staffing Numbers in Lake Washington

New Contract Lifts Spirits, Staffing Numbers in Lake Washington

Lake Washington School District (LWSD) is located in a picturesque setting between Lake Washington and the Cascade Mountains, just east of Seattle. The district is not only known for its natural beauty covering 76 square miles, but also its vast residential coverage and booming student growth.

In 2016, district officials equated their growth to being the equivalent of opening a new elementary school of 625 students per year for the previous five years. Yet, staffing levels, particularly among education support professionals (ESPs), have remained stagnant.

“The district has been relying on many part-time ESP members and volunteers,” says Libby Boucher, president of Lake Washington Educational Support Professionals (LWESP), comprising approximately 200 office worker professionals.

Almost 30,000 students from the robust cities of Kirkland, Redmond, half of Sammamish, and from sections of Bothell and Woodinville attend the district’s 53 schools. In recent years, about 1,200 new students have flocked to LWSD per year.

“Unfortunately, we haven’t added support staff in proportion to our growth,” says Kevin Teeley, president of the Lake Washington Education Association (LWEA).

While operating under an expired contract since August, LWESP members and Washington Education Association (WEA) state staff created an organizing plan to build awareness among members and other educators, parents and the community.

“We informed parents and others about the grossly inappropriate staffing levels,” says Boucher, office manager at Samantha Smith Elementary School. “They were very supportive.”

WEA UniServ Director Kathleen Heiman says state staff and local members coordinated an organizing strategy that focused on face-to-face member engagement.

“We were able to visit every school and worksite and work one on one with educators,” says Heiman. “We connected with members and generated a buzz and awareness that lead to signing up 32 new LWESP members.”

With stronger numbers and solid community support, LWESP members on January 25 bargained a new three-year contract with the district. The settlement included improved staffing allocations, an 8.8 percent wage increase this year, and a minimum 4 percent over the next two years.

“People have told me that this contract is life-changing for them,” Boucher says. “Not only are their working conditions going to be less stressful, the pay raise is substantial enough so people won’t need second jobs and can qualify for loans they’ve not been able to secure before now.”

Libby Boucher (left) is president of the Lake Washington Educational Support Professionals. Carolina Borrego is vice president.

Much of the stress among members was the result of a rapid rise in student growth coupled with a drop in district employee personnel. This dynamic added to the stress levels as well as workloads of remaining education support professionals, according to Heiman.

“We reached out to fair share payers one on one and talked about the strength of a united union,” she says. “Some were new hires and some had been fair share payers who wanted to join.”

By the time the contract was ratified, the organizing team had cut fair share payer numbers by about 50 percent.

“We built strength from within the union,” says Heiman. “Members made this happen.”

The new contract also addressed insurance costs, student safety, and health room coverage.

“Just last year, the district allocated no more than three hours a day for health room coverage at my school,” says Carolina Borrego, office manager at Louisa May Alcott Elementary School. “It was impossible to give students the care they needed and provide parents with the feedback they deserved.

For example, out of 31 elementary schools only 10 had 90 minutes of daily scheduled health care for students who were ill or injured. Borrego says the organizing team collected data from the Washington State Department of Health and every school health care room in the district in preparation for contract negotiations.

“At the bargaining sessions, we were very prepared and all of our hard work paid off,” says Borrego, LWESP vice president. “Also, allocations for secretary time were updated to reflect the growth of our schools and district offices.”

Under the new contract, schools are guaranteed six hours a day of health care room coverage.

LWESP received full support from LWEA’s 1,870 certificated staff members, who wrote notes and sent cards to school board members and community leaders, posted member photos on Facebook and other social media outlets, and “personally let LWESP members know how much they are appreciated,” says Teeley.

“We know that our schools are better for kids when we all stand together and support each other,” he says. “Schools simply would not function without them, yet their behind-the-scenes and front-of-the-scenes contributions are frequently overlooked.”

Standing Up for Students, California Educators Call For “Destination District”

destination district sacramentoEducators in the Sacramento Unified School District have been working without a contract since last December. After 12 bargaining sessions, the Sacramento City Teachers Association has yet to reach common ground with the district. They’ve had one big success on the issue of testing — going forward, and even as bargaining continues, there will be no testing in the district beyond what is mandated by the state or federal government. But the list of what they want to accomplish for their students is long and the bargaining team says its determined to win everything they have proposed to improve student learning conditions.

“Our goal is to make Sacramento a “the destination district” that families want their kids to attend,” says Nikki Milevsky, President of the Sacramento City Teachers Association. “We are on the verge my making huge improvements to our schools and forcing the district to prioritize our students.”

In addition to some bread and butter issues related to professional development and salary, the bulk of the bargaining team proposals are focused on students and include lowering class sizes, making arts, music, and physical education available to all students in the district, allowing for more inclusionary practices for students with disabilities, increasing the number of school nurses, psychologists, and other program specialists consistent with national standards, developing an early intervention program, and implementing a resourced, bottom-up restorative practices culture throughout Sacramento’s public schools.

The district has so far rejected every single proposal.

“We are ready to stand united with students, community and educators in Sacramento and throughout the region,” Milevsky said. At their last bargaining meeting January 30, SCTA hosted NEA Secretary-Treasurer, Princess Moss and a delegation of four local presidents and from Reynolds, OR, Beaverton, OR, Salem-Kaiser, OR, and Anchorage, AK, in a show of union strength and solidarity.

“We wanted to show the district that we have the strength and numbers of the entire NEA behind us and the whole country is watching,” Milevsky says.

A Different Dynamic

Over the course of the bargaining campaign, SCTA worked hard to engage more community and union members in the process and to make sure all stakeholders had a voice and were able to advance their concerns. The bargaining team grew from 10 members to over 50 members present at the bargaining table. Now educators who have questions about the campaign can walk down the hall to ask the team member in their school rather than having to call the SCTA office. Also, if a specific issue comes up, there is someone on the bargaining team present to speak to the issue, instead of delaying negotiations or relying on the district’s misrepresentation.

“With the new bargaining team it’s a different dynamic – not only is the process now more transparent with more communication through widely dispersed team members, the team itself is also far more diverse in terms of age, race and gender.” Milevsky says.

It’s also more diverse in terms of job categories, allowing more voices to be heard, like that of Nafeesah Young is an early career school psychologist who now sits on the SCTA bargaining team. The concerns she and other eight-hour employees like counselors and social workers deal with weren’t specifically addressed in the last contract, so she decided to speak up.

“As a school psychologist, you often feel like the needs of the teachers overshadow the needs of other members in the union because, let’s face it, they have the numbers,” Young says.  “I decided to join the bargaining unit because I felt working for the change I want to see is more beneficial than complaining at a roundtable with a group of colleagues. I’m hopeful that my participation in the bargaining unit, and the SCTA’s willingness to present all our concerns, will show the district that psychologists are more than test givers and report writers.”

Young believes everyone should get involved in the process by supporting the bargaining team and by supporting the union. Not everyone has the right, she says, and those who do are fortunate to have a voice.

“If you don’t participate in your local association, you won’t have a voice and decisions will be made without you,” Young says. “Participation in bargaining and your local union is not something that should be taken for granted, whether you’re a first year educator or knocking on the door to retirement.   Things in this country are changing and it is important for us to maintain our unions, keep them strong, and get involved.”

Proposition 55

For the first time, their bargaining team also includes community members, like Carl Pinkston, from the Black Parallel School Board. Pinkston has a long history as a local Sacramento community activist and understands the value of deep engagement between local unions and the community. “When we are talking to one another we are able to identify and strategize how to address key issues affecting our students, instead of being played against one another.”

According to Milevsky, the district has been pushing back on SCTA’s proposals based on economics, but he says the facts don’t back up their position. The Sacramento City Unified School District is in the best financial position it has ever been in its entire history, she says. For starters, SCTA members helped pass Proposition 55, a ballot proposition to continue taxing the rich at a higher rate to raise billions of dollars for public schools and health care.  Also, in its approved budget for 2016-17, the district began the fiscal year with $97 million total in its reserve fund, which is $48 million more than originally projected.  The district ended the 2015-16 year spending about $35 million less than projected in their final budget, while students attended classes often without a fully credentialed teacher leading instruction.

If no progress is made by April, SCTA and its members are prepared to strike – for only the third time since the union was founded in 1921.

“The whole community is prepared to move into action” says Milevsky. “Our city is the state capital of California, the world’s sixth largest economy, and is one of the most diverse cities in the country; Sacramento must become the destination district for California.”

DeVos Survives Confirmation Battle But Her Agenda May Not

DeVos Survives Confirmation Battle But Her Agenda May Not

DeVos confirmationHundreds of educators, parents, civil rights activists, and U.S. senators assembled across from the U.S. Capitol on Monday evening to urge “just one more” senator to stand up and cast the deciding ‘no’ vote on Betsy DeVos as U.S. Education Secretary. Coming on the eve of the confirmation vote, the rally was the final exclamation point of a nationwide mobilization against a nominee whom educators consider dangerously unqualified to lead our public schools.

The effort to defeat DeVos went into overdrive last week when GOP Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, due to the overwhelming response from educators, parents and community members in their states, announced they would be breaking ranks with their party and voting against DeVos.

With all 48 Democrats already united against her, DeVos was suddenly hanging by a thread. Only one more GOP vote was needed.

Already deluged with emails and phone calls, senate offices from both parties were hit again over the weekend.

“Your calls and outreach have been amazing,” Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut told the rally on Monday evening. “You’ve really freaked out a lot of my GOP colleagues.”

In the end, however, that last ‘no’ vote proved elusive. DeVos was confirmed on Tuesday when Vice President Mike Pence had to cast a vote to break the 50-50 deadlock – the first time in the nation’s history this action was necessary to approve a cabinet nominee.

Despite the disappointing outcome, the mobilization against DeVos shook Capitol Hill and the White House.

“In my years as a public education advocate, I have never witnessed this level of public outcry,” said NEA President Lily Eskelsen García. “The nomination has touched a raw nerve not only with public education advocates like me but with the general public as well.”

The level of engagement – which ran deep and across party lines – was nothing short of astounding.

Henoch Hailu

“Our students, my passion, our schools are not for sale,” Maryland educator Henoch Hailu told the anti-DeVos rally on February 6.

Educators, parents and allies sent more than 1 million letters via NEA’s activism site and made 80,000 phone calls in 4 weeks, urging senators to vote no. Opposition swelled nationally, and senators reported that the three days ending last week resulted in the most calls into the Capitol switchboard in history.

“Americans across the nation drove a bipartisan repudiation of the Trump-DeVos agenda for students and public education,” remarked Eskelsen García after the vote on Tuesday.  “This marks only the beginning of the resistance.”

From Shoo-In to Deadlock

Nominees for cabinet positions, let alone for Education Secretary, rarely generate this intense level of opposition. Then again, no recent nominee seemed so utterly unfit for the post as Betsy DeVos.

DeVos is the first secretary of education with zero experience with public schools. None of her children attended public school. She’s never worked in a public school. She’s never been a teacher or a school administrator, nor served on any public board of education.

While the spiraling concerns over DeVos weren’t enough to deliver the 51st vote necessary to ultimately defeat the nomination, there’s little doubt that DeVos emerges from the confirmation battle a weakened figure.

More disqualifying, however, is her long, well-established record of trying to dismantle the public education system she is now charged with overseeing. The billionaire DeVos family, a top donor to the Michigan Republican Party, has led the charge for privatization by bankrolling multiple efforts to bring voucher schemes and unregulated charter schools to their state.

It was DeVos’ long record of anti-public education activism that triggered swift and immediate opposition as soon as then President-elect Donald Trump announced her nomination on Nov. 23. Still, few observers in Washington saw any major potholes on her road to confirmation. But educators and parents’ full-court press was only just getting started.

They got a major assist by DeVos’ widely panned appearance before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on January 17.  DeVos’ glaring lack of knowledge about central education issues was on full-display, including an apparent unfamiliarity with the basic tenets of the Individual with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

“The fact that the nominee for secretary of education did not know how the federal government protects special education students is infuriating,” Henoch Hailu, an educator from Maryland, told the protestors on Monday.

DeVos also refused to rule out cutting public school funding to pay for school voucher programs and she shocked many when she hedged on upholding the 2011 Title IX guidance as it relates to sexual assault on campus. Her bizarre response to a question about gun violence that firearms should be allowed in schools to protect students against grizzly bears became a popular Internet meme.

Activists were emboldened by  DeVos’ disastrous performance and a steady drip of unfavorable press soon followed. The news got even worse for the nominee when it was revealed that she had plagiarized some of her written responses to her Senate questionnaire. In addition, DeVos continued to be hounded by questions about unresolved conflict-of-interest issues over her financial holdings. Two former ethics counsels to Presidents Obama and George W. Bush wrote in “The Hill”: “Seldom have we seen a worse cabinet-level ethics mess than that presented by Betsy DeVos, President Trump’s choice for education secretary.”

The Trump-DeVos Agenda: Still Unacceptable

While the spiraling concerns over DeVos weren’t enough to deliver the 51st vote necessary to ultimately defeat the nomination, there’s little doubt that DeVos emerges from the confirmation battle in many respects a hobbled and weakened figure. As Politico reported last week:

“Historically, education secretaries have seized the secretary’s bully pulpit and traveled around the nation to promote their ideas. But that may be more challenging for DeVos…. Her poor performance during her confirmation hearing reinforced concerns about her lack of conventional classroom experience and commitment to public schools.”

Still, anyone who has followed DeVos over the years will tell you that she is resourceful and relentless. She was undeterred in 2000 when 69 percent of Michigan voters rejected a change to the constitution that would have opened the door to vouchers. DeVos turned instead to funding voucher programs in other states and lifting the cap on charter schools – without any safeguards for accountability or transparency. As Education Secretary, DeVos will be charged with amassing support for President Trump’s $20 million proposal to expand charter schools and vouchers.

But the confirmation battle exposed not only DeVos’ lack of qualifications and preparedness, but also her extreme ideology. As Secretary of Education, DeVos will for the first time face a new, previously unfamiliar constraint: accountability.

“America is speaking out. The level of energy is palpable,” said Eskelsen García. “We are going to watch what Betsy DeVos does. And we are going to hold her accountable for the actions and decisions she makes on behalf of the more than 50 million students in our nation’s public schools.”