As the end of the year FAST approaches, I feel inclined to share my some of my feelings. As Eagle County Education Association President, this year has had its share of challenges but I wake up everyday feeling so fortunate to serve the members of ECEA. It is an incredible experience, be it a jovial chat at the post office that reinforces why teachers teach and that we can always find the good out of potentially negative situations, to celebrating new positions, jubilación (the Spanish and superior word for retirement), good health, school wide plans for next year, and student growth.
Despite the distraction of SB191, I feel we will do fine with it. We are a progressive district at heart and many of our teachers are happy to do what it takes to help students improve. I still think other districts will be overwhelmed with the amount of work this will add to principals and the money it will take to implement a proper plan. I don't like the thought of perpetual "at will" employment that may happen if teachers continually get denied non-probationary status. I know there are flaws currently with non-probationary protections, but there are many flaws in the at-will system also. Let's just hope the Governor's Council comes up with some clear and reasonable guidelines that can help define effectiveness that are fair and logical. CEA has three teacher members on the Council and we all are so lucky to have our Superintendent, Sandra Smyser, on that Council. I meet monthly with her, and I know she carries many of ECEA's sentiments with her.
Another difficult issue this year was the budget (or lack there of). Tough, tough year for negotiations. I do feel fortunate that the negotiation team, comprised of admin and ECEA leaders, work well together and we are able to communicate freely. ECEA member voices were loudly heard throughout our negotiations via the survey sent out earlier and other scenarios. Comments and data from that survey were used throughout as evidence and the basis for many decisions. Thank you all for participating-you really helped us drive much of our work. We will also use that information for our final negotiations coming up regarding our health insurance premiums. Our team (all of us) really appreciated having data and comments to back us up. I know our final decisions did not satisfy everyone in every way, but we tried our hardest.
Part of the fallout from negotiations are non-renewals due to FTE reductions. Non-renewals happen every year, but this year seemed to be a lot more common than previous years. Most of it was due to the budget, but part may be due to the plethora of very qualified applicants out there. Principals are probably feeling like kids in a candy store. Either way, some teachers will be able to find positions at other schools in the district by the end of the summer, some may find them elsewhere. Either way, ECEA hopes the best for everyone in this situation. Just know it is widespread. I have visited with teacher union leaders in many districts throughout Colorado and they are facing much of the same situation. If not layoffs, then pay cuts (no bonuses) and program cuts-sports, mentoring, increased class sizes. We will get through this and those of you who are leaving ECS, much luck. Thank you ECEA members!
Tanya
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Here we go
Tomorrow I will venture back to the Capitol in Denver to not as an observer, but to testify in front of the House Education Committee.
I will be bringing in a copy of our Professional Practices Handbook so they can see firsthand how complex a good evaluation tool is. My emphasis will be that not funding this bill is shortsided because it does not take into account the training needed for Principals, and the embedded and personalized professional development that must occur-even with the best and exemplary teachers, as we define them. Without that piece, the intensive evaluation tool is not useful for the teacher. I experienced it. I was in a school who waited the longest to implement TAP, but we started using the evaluation rubric right away. There was no way for my principal to give me the all the help I needed to understand how to improve. If I didn't have a GREAT mentor teacher (Kate)-the old type of mentor who did everything for basically free-I would have drowned. Luckily now we have a paid mentors and masters who can help. I am not saying that our system is perfect-IT IS NOT-but, if we are to have evaluation systems in place that are as rigorous as we have in ECS, such as seems to be the wave right now, I would HATE to know people would have to suffer through it without a fair support system. And I believe with the right people/leadership in place our support system works well for new teachers and teachers who want to sharpen their classroom strategies. The exact people who would be needing to prove themselves effective to their principals. This is only half the battle, but the other would be connecting teachers to assessments. Right now the biggest issue I have is that there are few good tests out there for the core subjects-RRR. And there are no tests that exist for 60% of the rest of the teachers out there. What are we going to do? Have schools make them up would be the cheapest way, not the wisest. Pay for test experts to do it-expensive and not the wisest. Ahhh, pay for a panel of educators who teach the subject to create the tests. Not free, but wiser. As you can see, none of this is free. Colorado must be able to fund this bill. Please don't allow this to be an unfunded mandate. Let the Governor's Council on Teacher Effectiveness do it's job. Then lets talk.
I will be bringing in a copy of our Professional Practices Handbook so they can see firsthand how complex a good evaluation tool is. My emphasis will be that not funding this bill is shortsided because it does not take into account the training needed for Principals, and the embedded and personalized professional development that must occur-even with the best and exemplary teachers, as we define them. Without that piece, the intensive evaluation tool is not useful for the teacher. I experienced it. I was in a school who waited the longest to implement TAP, but we started using the evaluation rubric right away. There was no way for my principal to give me the all the help I needed to understand how to improve. If I didn't have a GREAT mentor teacher (Kate)-the old type of mentor who did everything for basically free-I would have drowned. Luckily now we have a paid mentors and masters who can help. I am not saying that our system is perfect-IT IS NOT-but, if we are to have evaluation systems in place that are as rigorous as we have in ECS, such as seems to be the wave right now, I would HATE to know people would have to suffer through it without a fair support system. And I believe with the right people/leadership in place our support system works well for new teachers and teachers who want to sharpen their classroom strategies. The exact people who would be needing to prove themselves effective to their principals. This is only half the battle, but the other would be connecting teachers to assessments. Right now the biggest issue I have is that there are few good tests out there for the core subjects-RRR. And there are no tests that exist for 60% of the rest of the teachers out there. What are we going to do? Have schools make them up would be the cheapest way, not the wisest. Pay for test experts to do it-expensive and not the wisest. Ahhh, pay for a panel of educators who teach the subject to create the tests. Not free, but wiser. As you can see, none of this is free. Colorado must be able to fund this bill. Please don't allow this to be an unfunded mandate. Let the Governor's Council on Teacher Effectiveness do it's job. Then lets talk.
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