Chicago Teachers Speak Out

Approximately 600 teachers were murdered across Iraq in the 2006-2007 academic year

2007-09-13T23:23:00.000-05:00

And you thought we had it bad.

Read the whole story here.

Here is an excerpt:

The chaos caused by violent attacks and kidnappings is felt at nearly every level, with students misbehaving and missing class, and teachers refusing to come to work. Approximately 600 teachers were murdered across Iraq in the 2006-2007 academic year, according to the ministry of education.

"Education in Baghdad's schools is a joke," said 35-year-old Ali Abdul-Hussein, who has moved to a different Baghdad neighbourhood and pulled his two children out of school because of the violence. "The ministry [of education] can't provide education and protection for our children."

The day-to-day operation of schools is disrupted by the number of displaced students moving in and out of educational institutions. The education departments in both al-Karkh in west Baghdad and al-Rasafa in the east are packed with parents appealing to bureaucrats to move their children to safer areas of the city or postpone their studies for another year.

Meanwhile, mortars and roadside bomb attacks in the capital’s war-wracked neighbourhoods — from the mainly Sunni Arab Adhamiyya quarter and the mixed district of Dora to the formerly middle-class areas of al-Khadra and Hei al-Amil — have forced schools to shut down for months at a time.

What Iraq teaches me is a sense of humility and how lucky we are. Truly.

And I have been learning a lot lately. A lot about how teachers are valued by the board and our own union.

CTU President Marilyn Stewart, her political caucus called UPC and their "all praise to our glorious revolution of sustained unity" contract have taught me so much.

What the latest contract has taught me is that we don't deserve anything more than 4%.

We don't deserve better medical care.

We can't make things better for PAT's.

We don't deserve and can't achieve any of those things through negotiation with the City of Chicago. Just can't be done you know.

CTU Announces Agreement: Delegate Vote Questioned

2007-09-01T17:32:00.000-05:00

See the deal for yourself:
CTU Tentative Agreement 2007-2012http://www.mediafire.com/?3g0t9i9zyxs

Meeting Video:

see what really happened at last night's House of delegates' meeting:
CTU Contract Meeting Aug 31, 2007

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOGCjjyIuf8

CTU Contract Meeting Aug 31, 2007 (roll call)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zZ585fdXSI

CTU Contract Meeting Aug 31, 2007 (sit down)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVuPaAvNZD8

What the CTU Stewart/UPC Team Promised to Get Elected: Will They Deliver?

2007-08-29T19:46:00.000-05:00

CTU Announce Deal: Details to Follow

2007-08-29T19:37:00.000-05:00

The evening news networks are reporting today, August 29, 2007, that the CTU has tentatively agreed to a 5-year agreement with 4% raises in each year. Delegates will be presented with the tentative agreement and asked to vote on it this Friday, August 31, 2007. While we all wait, hundreds of teachers have responded to our CTU Election/Contract Survey. We will be posting the results on our website (proactivechicagoteachers.com) when the tentative agreement is released. To date, about 500 teachers anonymously completed the survey in numbers corresponding to the election outcome (i.e. 70% reporting that they voted for Stewart’s team).

When asked about the CTU election outcome, the vast majority of all respondents (88.6%) stated that they believed the membership wanted to see if the Stewart team could negotiate a better contract. Of those respondents who indicated they voted for the Stewart team, a whooping 94.3% stated that they wanted to see what the Stewart team would deliver in the contract as the reason for voting as they did. Members will soon have a chance to answer that question for themselves.

Here is what the Stewart team promised in order to get elected (source “UPC Platform”, theupc.com; view original on our website):
1.) no more 4 year contracts
2.) 7% plus salary increases for all members
3.) return to the flat rate payment for health insurance
4.) elementary class size reductions
5.) summer school and after school money to be pensionable
6.) daily guaranteed prep for elementary teachers
7.) elimination of PAT language

Check out this blog and our website when the tentative contract is announced to see what members say they want, and compare this to what the Stewart team promised to get elected, and what they ultimately deliver. For an opportunity to weigh in on the discussion and analysis of a new tentative agreement, go to ChicagoTeachersSpeakOut.blogspot.com.

Today's Trib story on tentative agreement, FYI:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-teachers_webaug30,0,5135001.story

I Wish This Was Made By The CTU and Not ASFCME

2007-08-15T20:49:00.000-05:00

Is there anyone out there who can make one like it for the CTU when we go on strike?

Am I in a dream state or is there still a union leader here in the city of Chicago who actually says things "We don't take shit from nobody"? Will our CTU leadership? I hope so.

New 5-Minute Survey on CTU/Contract

2007-07-10T19:42:00.001-05:00

ChicagoTeachersSpeakOut.blogspot.com is a blog designed by the members of ProActiveTeachers.com to be a forum for teachers and staff to speak up and speak out on the myriad of challenging issues facing those of us who work in Chicago public schools. We will be doing periodic surveys on key issues and publishing the results on our blog and website, in addition to providing an ongoing forum for discussion and debate on critical and timely issues.

Our first anonymous 5-minute survey is on the recent CTU election outcome and on member contract priorities. If you are interested in participating, please go to our survey link and share your thoughts and opinions. We will publish the results of this survey in August.

The survey link is:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=ALj_2bs0GSPpHiktgDC7VYqg_3d_3d

Have a well-deserved, restful summer break!

When Will NBCT's Get The Bonus?

2007-06-15T12:19:00.000-05:00

Every year it is late. ISBE drags it feet and the CPS tries to outdo ISBE by working at a snail's pace.

If we don't get it soon, I'm calling the Governor.

This song is for all of you at ISBE and CPS payroll.

New answer to old question

2007-06-07T15:34:00.000-05:00

Here, for your viewing pleasure, is an answer to that old question that nags you at family reunions.

Taylor Mali: What Do Teachers Make?

Friday is Important Naturally...

2007-05-15T20:40:00.000-05:00

Who leads our union is vital to our continued good work in this city of challenges. And you should vote for PACT and Debbie Lynch if you believe that teachers and education should be a progressive influence in our civic life. If you are among those who might say something like "Chicago ain't ready for reform", then by all means..aw heck, no I won't say it. Just go and vote for PACT.

But I urge you, regardless of who you vote for, to realize that ours is not the most important challenge Illinois or our nation faces.

This is.

Marilyn Stewart Makes A Deal For More Charters In Chicago

2007-05-14T19:20:00.000-05:00

The full story is here at Catalyst.

Well, well, well. What is it about incompetence that people find so attractive? Anyone who votes for these guys is just plain foolish. Marilyn and the UPC are cutting a deal in Springfield to bring more charters to Chicago. I guess losing over 2,000 dues paying teachers wasn't enough for the UPC crowd. They want to weaken our union more. This makes me sick to my stomach.

Here are some excerpts from the Catalyst story:

Chicago would get 15 new charters, but have limits placed on expansion campuses of existing charters, under proposed legislation crafted by Senate President Emil Jones Jr. and the Chicago Teachers Union.

At least three of the new charters would be required to serve chronic truants and dropouts, an idea hatched by legislators who recently visited several such schools in California.

The compromise proposal is significant because the Chicago Teachers Union and its statewide parent union, the Illinois Federation of Teachers, had made reining in charter expansion a centerpiece of their legislative agenda this year. Meanwhile, Jones had sought to double—from 30 to 60—the number of charters allowed in Chicago Public Schools.

And here is an interesting comment I found on the Catalyst comment section of this story from someone named Rod Estvan.

Now that the education funding bill has sunk, it is not at all clear that the CTU/Jones deal is still in place. CTU needs a funding bill to be able to cut a deal with CPS for pay increases. Right now there is no funding bill in sight that can pass the General Assembly. The main reason for the compromise was to get money to CPS, now that deal is gone. Will a stand alone deal on specific charter school expansion in return for limiting individual charters from having multiple sites under one charter be worth it for the CTU? I would guess it might not. Because in two years the whole issue can start again with calls for more charters, so the deal is basically meaningless.

Rod Estvan on Fri May 5, 2007 at 05:47:50 PM

Click here to read his comment in total.

What are your thoughts? Why did this story not break until this close to the election? What is going on over at the Merchandise Mart?

Gage Park in the Sun-Times, and it ain't pretty.

2007-04-30T20:14:00.000-05:00

Sun-Times story here.

Most of the students I talked with today at Gage felt the story was unfair (not, however, untrue...even the stuff about guns outside of the building).

Students said other schools were worse off and they wanted nice things said about Gage. Some asked why no mention of the undefeated Lady Owl's softball team? Other's talked about the breakfast with the Lt. Governor celebrating Cesar Chavez. We even have a student who won at the city science fair and will be representing Gage in Springfield (Veronica Magdaleno, featured in the photo from the Sun-Times and super congrats to her!). I tried to tell them the story was about over-crowding and its impact, not a general "what's going on at Gage" story.

Yes, the story in the Sun-Times is true. But to remember why the topic of over-crowding was and is still important, I refer you to one of my first posts, a video of the protest about over-crowding. Originally posted here, I am reposting it for your viewing pleasure.

Another Edition of "Wish I said That".....

2007-04-30T20:08:00.000-05:00

"We make learning into punishment. Learning should be exciting, inviting, an absolute turn-on. And it can be. Oh to be sure there are things that require some drill, explanation, but the amazing thing in any class is to see a kid get it, to be so involved in what s/he is doing that s/he loses track of the time, and doesn't want to stop. If we really want to leave no child behind, we have to stop the idiocy of turning school into drudgery, reducing it to test prep, and find ways of invoking the natural desire of all young people to learn. Instead of worrying "Is our children learning?" as measured by mass-produced tests, perhaps we should ask why what we are doing doesn't make them want to learn? " (Bold face mine - Ed.)

Read the whole post over at Daily Kos here. To understand what this person is saying, just walk into a kindergarten room. Rich, poor, white, black...nothing like that matters. They love school and love learning. What is it that we do as educators that has kids doing a 180 within a few years and hating the school experience? If I could answer that I would write a book and retire wealthy.

NCLB a "Criminal Enterprise"

2007-04-21T21:42:00.000-05:00

The death of NCLB is right around the corner. From the Boston Globe:

Reading First, created by President Bush's signature No Child Left Behind law, offers intensive reading help for low-income children in the early grades. But investigators say that federal officials intervened to influence state and local decisions about what programs to use, a potential violation of the law. Some of the people who were influencing those decisions had a financial interest in the programs that were being pushed, officials said.

"I think we're very close to a criminal enterprise here," House Education and Labor Committee chairman George Miller, D-Calif., said at an investigative hearing Friday. "Have you made any criminal referrals, Mr. Higgins?"

Well that just about sums it up.

Whenever I think of scandals on this scale, I always come back to that infamous quote from Republican strategist Grover Norquist: "My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub."

Then, natch, cue a picture of New Orleans after Katrina.

That is how it is supposed to be. It is Republican (Bush specifically) exercise in governance. It is not an accident. It is supposed to be like this.

I think the word I am looking for is "intent". When you elect people who hate government to run it, well, you end up with Katrina and Iraq, and the list goes on and on.

NCLB is dead. And I'll be glad to help with the remaining nails.

Someone hand me a hammer. Let's put this coffin in the ground.

Republicans have once again killed with incompetence what they couldn't kill with ideology.

And did Chairman Miller really expect an affirmative response when he asked if any criminal referrals had been made? Sheesh. He was, after all, talking to the party of "drown it in a bathtub".

Even he must realize that.

Two Students Shot at Chicago Vocational

2007-04-10T23:08:00.000-05:00

Bad news, nothing else to say.

Excerpt:

Two teens playing with a 9 mm handgun inside a Chicago classroom both ended up shot in the leg after a bullet discharged as they were passing the gun between them, police said.

The boys were sitting in the back of a science classroom at the Chicago Vocational Career Academy on the city's South Side at about 2:15 p.m. The gun discharged as one boy passed the gun to the other, striking the second boy in the thigh and the other near the knee, said Robert Lopez, an assistant deputy police superintendent...

...The teen who brought the gun to school panicked, ran outside the building and dumped the gun near the front of the building, Lopez said. A Chicago police officer assigned to the school confronted the student as he re-entered the building, and the student led him to the gun, police said.

There was conflicting information about whether all students at the school are required to pass through the building's metal detectors.

Lopez said students are chosen at random to go through the detectors because it would take too long to scan each teen.

But Michael Vaughn, a spokesman for Chicago Public Schools, said all students are required to go through metal detectors every day...

...It was the second shooting on school property in less than a month. On March 22, two students standing in the parking lot were shot and wounded after a car pulled into the lot and an occupant opened fire, Bond said.

Full Sun-Times story here.

The Essay Paper is Dead

2007-04-09T22:44:00.000-05:00

You should read this essay (even though the essay is dead) from the Washington Post.

Here is an excerpt:

Nevertheless, the educational system needs to acknowledge what the paper is today: more of a work product that tests very particular skills -- the ability to synthesize and properly cite the work of others -- and not students' knowledge, originality and overall ability.

I envision a time when TurnItIn.com's database contains millions of essays on Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre." At that point educators may finally understand that no high school student will be able to write another original word on the subject.

So let's declare "The paper is dead" before the database makes the declaration for us. And let's recognize what the paper has become, so that we can declare, "Long live the paper!"

It raises an important point. How long before the number of essays submitted to Turn It In dot com becomes so huge no kid will anything more to say about a particular subject?

Do you use Turn It In?

Union Election News at Catalyst

2007-04-09T20:59:00.000-05:00

Union campaign heating up - A decent round up of the issues, but not much "there" there. I understand why though. I mean, why would Stewart say anything resembling the truth when dissembling works so well for her? Read the article in full here.

My favorite? Catalyst has a graphic on the number of teachers who did not yet have tenure and were "let go" by their principals the last two years (the famous "click").

This is one issue that UPC and Stewart has used to try and pillory Debbie Lynch. What UPC and Stewart never say is that under the contracts UPC had negotiated in the past, teachers could spend their entire career without ever getting tenure.

EVER.

PACT and Lynch solved that problem. They forced the Board to put every new hire on the tenure track from day one. A vast improvement over the old way of doing business.

The catch? If everyone is on tenure track from day one, principals would get the right to fire when they wanted within the three year period. Seems a fair trade for ending a system where you could spend years and years not working towards tenure. I certainly think the new way is a better way.

So it turns out that UPC's complaints are not very significant (compared to working for ten years and still not having tenure like they had negotiated in the past). Yes, it turns out that most teachers find jobs at other buildings if they are let go from one building. It is not the tragedy UPC makes it out to be. But then, so few of UPC's claims survive the light of reasoned analysis anyway.

Anyways, here is the Graphic from Catalyst:

Catalyst also has a good story on rising health care costs and how, no matter who negotiates in June, will find themselves faced with a financial crisis for CPS no matter who wins:

But that increase would still provide little wiggle room during contract talks, given a cornucopia of rising costs, including teachers’ pension fund obligations, inflation and a possible deficit in the current budget. CPS is negotiating with Commonwealth Edison to hold the line on spiking utility rates.
Each percentage point increase in pay will prove pricey, costing the district roughly $25 million, says Martinez. Districts across the country are typically negotiating 3 percent to 5 percent raises, says Julia Koppich, an education consultant and former education faculty member at the University of California at Berkeley.
Chicago teachers received four percent raises in each of the last four years under the current 2003 contract, an amount that compared favorably with other urban districts. At the time, “teachers were getting 1 percent, 2 percent, if they were getting anything at all,” says Koppich.
Former union president Deborah Lynch took heat for that contract because teachers were hit with increased health care costs. But, as Koppich points out, “health care costs were going up everywhere. [The controversy] was a mystery to me.”

The controversy was a mystery to me. You said it. Now, can we finally put this misinformation to bed once and for all and get on with the job electing PACT and Lynch to represent us? At least with PACT in office, there might be fewer "Valentine's Day" parties paid for out of our dues.

IDs of 40,000 CPS teachers at risk

2007-04-07T21:23:00.000-05:00

From the Sun-Times:

Two laptop computers containing the names and Social Security numbers of
about 40,000 Chicago Public Schools teachers and administrators were stolen
Friday from the district's downtown headquarters, creating the second security
scare in less than six months.

CPS was offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the suspect's
arrest or recovery of the computers.

The laptops and backpack were taken from a 13th-floor conference room
where two contractors had been reviewing the history of payments to the Chicago
Teachers Pension Fund, said CPS spokesman Michael Vaughn.

The Federal Trade Commission's Identity Theft web page is located here. Please take care. I hope no CPS teacher has a problem because of this. This is very unfortunate.

Please visit the FTC to find out how to deal with ID theft.

Read the full Sun-Times story here.

Charters Are Bad Places To Work

2007-03-19T16:44:00.000-05:00

Why?

No Union.

Simple isn't it? Read this (full story here) and tell me that getting rid of unions is a good thing:

Administrators at a Los Angeles charter school forbade students from reciting a poem about civil rights icon Emmett Till during a Black History Month program recently, saying his story was unsuitable for an assembly of young children.

Teachers and students said the administration suggested that the Till case — in which the teenager was beaten to death in Mississippi after allegedly whistling at a white woman — was not fitting for a program intended to be celebratory, and that Till's actions could be viewed as sexual harassment.

The decision by Celerity Nascent Charter School leaders roiled the southwest Los Angeles campus and led to the firing of seventh-grade teacher Marisol Alba and math teacher Sean Strauss, who had signed one of several letters of protest written by the students.

The incident highlights the tenuous job security for mostly nonunion teachers in charter schools, (Italics mine - Ed.) which are publicly financed but independently run. California has more than 600 charter schools, and their ranks continue to swell. According to the California Teachers Assn., staff at fewer than 10% of charter schools are represented by unions.

"I never thought it would come to this," said Alba, who helped her students prepare the Till presentation, in which they were going to read a poem and lay flowers in a circle. "I thought the most that would happen to me [after the event was canceled] is that I'd get talked to and it would be turned into a learning and teaching experience."
School officials refused to discuss the particulars of the teachers' firings but said the issue highlights the difficulty of providing positive images for students who are often bombarded by negative cultural stereotypes.

Without a union you are nothing more than an "at will" employee, like a McDonald's fry cook.

There is a good discussion of this story going on over at Kevin Drum's place at the Washington Monthly (read it here). Here is an excerpt from Kevin:

...I was struck this morning by Megan McArdle's latest plea for liberals to support a voucher system:

Come over to our side, outline a voucher plan you'd accept, and as long as it doesn't include "all schools must employ union teachers under centrally negotiated contracts that protect seniority and outlandish grievance procedures", I'll sign on. Central testing? Fine. You want to make sure they serve organic seaweed salad in the lunchroom? If that's what it takes to get you and other liberals into the voucher camp, I'll agree to that too. Double spending per student, for all I care.

Now, I'll confess that my support for unions isn't the most full-throated you're going to find. Personally, I have a lot of sympathy for unionization efforts in low-wage service industries, a little bit less for old-line manufacturing unions, and less still for public sector unions. But even so, I find this remarkable.

Double spending per student, for all I care. Sure, sure, this is hyperbole, but even so it represents a pretty straightforward admission of what many of us have always suspected: voucher proposals are really just a stalking horse to bust teachers unions. It implicitly assumes that the biggest contributor to poor public education in America -- so big that it's worth literally anything to get rid of them -- is the existence of grievance procedures and seniority.

Unfortunately, there's no evidence to back this up. (Bold face mine - Ed.) Unions appear to have, at most, modest and variable effects on student outcomes. Even the most hostile reading of the evidence doesn't come anywhere close to suggesting that unions are the single biggest obstacle in the way of educating our children properly. And it doesn't come within light years of suggesting that it would be worth doubling spending to get rid of them. This is anti-unionism run wild. Hating teachers unions because they oppose policies you like is one thing, but hating them even if you get your favorite policies enacted is crazy.

Why would any sane professional educator tolerate the lack of unions?

Here's two things I think should happen regarding charters in Chicago:

1) Unionize all charters. I know that they can't become members of the CTU, but they can form their own union. Someone should call the AFT or the NEA and get field organizers out here on the double.

and

2) Redouble lobbying efforts in Springfield to get the law changed. I don't care if it takes years, if the school is operating in Chicago and is publicly financed, they should be union schools. There can be no compromise on this issue. Public financing = union schools.

I know I risk sounding like a broken record, but the CTU did tons more to make me a better teacher than CPS ever did (continual kudos to Lynn and the NTL gang and to the man who dedicated his career to making the Quest Center the finest - Dr. Allen Bearden).

In Chicago, the teachers union is a place where improving practice has long been a big part of what they do. The CTU is more than just grievances and seniority. CPS should know better.

And that is why CTU members oppose charters.

Why is one outstanding educator more valuable than another?

2007-03-12T10:34:00.000-05:00

I ask this because of the glaring discrepancy I see between how the Board of Ed. treated Bernie Eshoo at Lincoln Park and Jerryelyn Jones at Curie.

Both of these outstanding women were beloved by students and staff.

Both received outpourings of support at LSC meetings.

Both received outpourings of support in protests at Board meetings.

Only one was selected to have the support of the Board and the Mayor.

So what is the difference between these two amazing educators?

One is a teacher. The other is a principal.

Kinda makes you think that the people downtown don't really care about teachers, doesn't it?

Here is the text of an email sent by Ms. Eshoo to Mr. Vaughn, CPS Spokesperson:

Dear Mr. Vaughn,

I read, with interest, your comments about your/the Bd. disappointment over the Curie HS LSC vote.

A comparable situation occurred at Lincoln Park in the early fall. Nearly 900 students signed a support petition and the vast majority of staff members supported my reinstatement, the Friends of LPHS group supported me - as well as many parents, alumni, and community members.

When we contacted to the Bd . for assistance, it turned its back and hid behind “the process”. You were televised with statements supporting the fact the process of my termination was handled in a correct manner. Now that it is a well regarded competent administrator being terminated, you/the Bd. find it a disappointing and regrettable situation.

You/the Bd. should not flip flop on your evaluation of the “process”; it makes you and the Bd. members appear to be hypocrites.

Ms. Bernie Eshoo

Makes you wonder just how much the Board cares about "quality" in the classroom.

Your thoughts?

Has Curie LSC Folded on the Jones Firing?

2007-03-09T08:42:00.000-06:00

Complete story here.

From today's Tribune:

The chairman of the Curie Metro High School local council announced Thursday that he plans to reconsider his vote to oust popular principal Jerryelyn Jones.

He attributed his change of heart to students' and parents' response to the decision, and not to pressure from Mayor Richard Daley.

Tom Ramos, who made the announcement with Chicago Public Schools Chief Arne Duncan standing at his side, said his relationship with Jones has been "difficult and combative" over the years."

But that's not a good enough reason to shut out the voices of children. We have to find another way to work together," said Ramos, who has served on at least three local school councils in recent years.

The Curie council will meet Saturday morning, and vote on whether to reconsider the Feb. 10 decision not to renew Jones' contract for another four years.

See you Saturday. This will be interesting.

PURE Calls For Mediation Re: Curie

2007-03-08T15:31:00.000-06:00

From a PURE email sent today:

PURE calls for independent conflict resolution at Curie High School
Contact: Julie Woestehoff, PURE executive director, 312-491-9101

In an urgent memo sent today to Chicago Public Schools top officials, Parents United for Responsible Education (PURE) called on Arne Duncan and Donald Pittman to bring in Chicago’s Center for Conflict Resolution to help manage the chaotic situation at Curie High School. The Center’s executive director, Marilyn Smith, has agreed to pitch in if asked.

PURE raised the concern that CPS officials and Mayor Daley have publicly taken the principal’s side in the dispute caused when the Curie LSC voted not to renew the principal’s contract. The problem has been exacerbated by accusations of racial discrimination.

PURE has learned that Mayor Daley and the Rev. Jesse Jackson may attend the upcoming Curie LSC meeting on Saturday morning, potentially adding fuel to an already explosive situation.

There are positive, tested ways to resolve community-based conflict. Two years ago, CPS, PURE and the Center for Conflict Resolution piloted a conflict resolution program for LSCs and schools. CPS chose not to continue the program, even though situations at both of the schools participating in the program came to a satisfying and peaceful resolution.

CPS cannot act as a neutral broker in this conflict, because Arne Duncan has taken a public position on the principal’s side.

An independent body must be brought in. It is essential for the turmoil at Curie High School to end. The principal has asked the LSC for a written statement of their reasons for non-renewal, and for independent arbitration of their non-renewal decision. The LSC has a very limited time frame in which to hire and meet with a lawyer and prepare the statement and their case, all of which is their legal duty. They must be given the opportunity to do their job.

Above all, the school must be able to continue to educate children during this process.

Bringing in independent, professional mediators at this point would help assure the thousands of LSC members across the city that the Mayor’s involvement in this situation is not an attempt to use a complex, racially-sensitive situation to further an anti-LSC agenda, and that he would not show such disrespect to the hundreds of thousands of volunteer hours LSC members spend working to improve our schools.

Letter to Arne Duncan follows.

To: Arne Duncan
From: Julie Woestehoff
Re: Curie LSC problems
Date: March 8, 2007

I urge you to engage with the Center for Conflict Resolution immediately to begin work on a real, community-based resolution to the Curie High School principal selection matter.

I'm sure you agree that the situation is dire, and that the students, the school and the community are suffering.

Having the Mayor and the CEO of the public schools take sides in this matter does not help. Screaming headlines do not help. Fanning the flames of racial tension is a disservice to everyone involved, and to the city as a whole.

We have learned enough about the climate at the school and with the LSC to believe that there is not just one side to this story, and not just a handful of people affected by racial intolerance, but that the school as a whole needs reconciliation.

The pilot program run out of the CPS School and Community Relations office with the Center for Conflict Resolution and PURE two years ago was a success to the extent that, unlike Curie, both situations were managed quietly and came to a satisfactory resolution.

Marilyn Smith, the executive director of the Center for Conflict Resolution, has offered their services, and PURE is available to participate in any and all appropriate ways.

It would be a shame if the school community and the students were further exploited for political ends, when a better way is available.

Eight O'Clock in the morning Saturday is sounding more and more interesting.

Your thoughts?

Rumor About The Mayor and the Curie LSC

2007-03-07T20:56:00.000-06:00

Doing anything Saturday morning?

Check out this email I got from PURE:

We are hearing that the Mayor is planning to attend the next Curie LSC meeting which is going to be this Saturday, March 10, at 8 am. Curie is located at 4959 South Archer Avenue. It would be good for some of us to show up and let the mayor know that we won't let him attack LSCs.
Julie

I hope the Mayor tells the Curie LSC all about just how many outstanding principals there are in the CPS pool. Too few I say. Too few to just throw one out on the assumption it will be easy to find to excellence again.

Rubes and fools, everyone of them.

See you Saturday? Might just be fun.

Contract Round Up Time

2007-03-07T20:45:00.000-06:00

As the CTU contract is about to end and a new one to begin, I thought a few words were in order.

Main features of our current contract:

* Raises of 4% a year for 4 years (total=16% over 4 years).
* Health Care premiums rose from 8% to 9%.

For those who forget or weren't around, those were the biggest raises negotiated in a long long time. And the UPC along with Marilyn Stewart ran a campaign attacking Debbie Lynch and PACT for the increases we would have to pay in our health care costs.

UPC and Marilyn won and are in office. For now.

Since they have no contract or other significant achievement to run on and continue to criticize Lynch and PACT for the previous contract (without I might add, having to stand up and show what they have negotiated) I thought it might help to take a spin around the ole USA and see what other big cities have accomplished in contracts recently.

Let's have a look shall we?

Boston - March 2007: After barely avoiding a strike, BTU comes to the membership with a contract for their approval. Main features?

Under the contract, salaries would grow 13 percent over four years and employees' share of heath insurance premiums would increase from 10 percent currently to 15 percent by 2009, according to Menino. - Source: WCVB-TV Boston

Let's see, Debbie Lynch got the CTU 16% over 4 years and held down health care premiums to only 9%. Wow, that was terrible negotiating, wasn't it?

How about another big city?

Detroit - Sept. 2006: Full CNN story here. My original post on this here.

The financially struggling district initially sought a 5.5 percent pay cut over two years, part of $88 million in concessions it wanted from the 7,000 teachers and 2,500 other unionized professionals. The district has a $1.36 billion budget and is trying to close a $105 million deficit.

The union wanted raises after years without them.

The two sides eventually agreed on a one-year pay freeze, followed by increases of 1 percent the second year and 2.5 percent the third. Veteran teachers will start paying 10 percent of their health insurance costs, something that only those hired since 1992 had been doing. Teachers will lose three days' pay for three preparation days that were canceled because of the strike.

Freeze for a year, and paltry 1 and 2% raises?

And the UPC folks have been dropping hints of "strike" every couple of weeks in the press without any reason for it, since there have been no negotiations with the Board to date.

Vote PACT. Restore sanity and dignity to the CTU.

CTU and CPS Contract Negotiations...The Inside Dope

2007-03-07T20:29:00.000-06:00

Maybe I should have said poop. Inside poop that is.

Everyone is aware that Marilyn Stewart and the UPC crowd have been all over the media dropping hints like lead bricks about a strike.

But over what you ask?

No one knows. And the UPC folks aren't talking.

I for one would like to know what I am going to give up a month's pay for if we strike. Health benefits? Raises? Class size? Charters and the privatization of education in Chicago?

At the last House of Delegates meeting Marilyn was asked for clarification. What is going on regarding the negotiations she was asked.

Her response?

Nothing. Turns out the Board of Education has yet to submit their proposals to the union, so no negotiating, no talking, no nothing has happened.

I repeat. Nothing.

This has been your source from deep inside the House of Delegates.

We now return you to your regular programming.

P.S. - Are we now supposed to cheer for the clueless? Like Hogan's Heroes? Hey Hey UPC! (They Respond: I See Nothink)

Can't Take Chicago Winters Anymore?

2007-03-02T19:08:00.000-06:00

How about financial subsidies to live and teach in New Orleans?

Full story here.

Democrats propose N.O. teacher incentives

Details of legislation unveiled on eve of Bush trip to Gulf Coast
Thursday, March 01, 2007

By Bill Walsh

WASHINGTON -- As President Bush heads to New Orleans today to tour a school and talk about education, House Democrats are preparing to unveil legislation that would pour $250 million into the city's hurricane-ravaged school system over the next five years.

The Democrats' plan, details of which were provided to The Times-Picayune late Wednesday, would grant financial incentives to teachers and principals to stay in or move to New Orleans. It also would pay $500-per-month housing subsidies and authorize as much as $500 million in grants to universities and colleges closed by flooding after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Well, what does the south have that would attract teachers? Warm weather..ok. Right to work states...duh. Would you think of doing this?

"Just because they are a very good principal doesn't mean you have to retain them."

2007-03-01T19:42:00.000-06:00

"Just because they are a very good principal doesn't mean you have to retain them."
- A direct quote from Tom Ramos, chair of the local council at Curie High School.

Mr. Ramos must suffer from a deficit knowledge of how many outstanding principals there are in the CPS pool. You can read the full Tribune article that has Mr. Ramos' demonstration of knowledge here.

I used to think I had it bad when at my old school (Chicago Vocational) we had 6 principals in two and a half years. Then I read an article in Catalyst where I learned that other schools had just as bad or even worse:

Sojourner Truth Elementary School in Cabrini-Green is on its seventh principal in three years. The local school council blames central office for the turnover. Teachers blame them both. “We’ve been left out to dry,” says one. “That’s the general consensus.” Without skilled leadership at the school, tensions between factions escalated, slowing school progress.

Go on. Read the whole thing.

And Mr. (or is it Chairman) Ramos thinks finding a great principal is easy?

Schools that have great principals should do everything they can to keep them.

Instead Ramos has jettisoned a principal that is respected by staff, students, and everyone who has had the privilege to work with her.

Curie, and the community at large, is the poorer for this action.

I urge you to check out Russo's on-going coverage of this issue here, and here.

Believe it or not, a Republican said this...

2007-02-22T22:26:00.000-06:00

Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of the Revolution, never to violate in the least particular, the laws of the country; and never to tolerate their violation by others.

As the patriots of seventy-six did to the support of the Declaration of Independence, so to the support of the Constitution and Laws, let every American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred honor;---let every man remember that to violate the law, is to trample on the blood of his father, and to tear the character [charter?] of his own, and his children's liberty. Let reverence for the laws, be breathed by every American mother, to the lisping babe, that prattles on her lap---let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges;---let it be written in Primmers, spelling books, and in Almanacs;---let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice.

And, in short, let it become the political religion of the nation; and let the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the grave and the gay, of all sexes and tongues, and colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its altars.

-Abraham Lincoln

Can you imagine these sentiments spoken by a Republican in 2007?

What Will Contracts Look Like When Health Care Is Not An Issue?

2007-02-07T22:37:00.000-06:00

I am getting the feeling that Universal Health Care is just around the corner.

And that makes me think, what will our contract look like when health care is not a bargaining point?

Take this story for example:

It is time to admit that the employer-based health care system is dead—a relic of the industrial economy. America cannot compete in the new global economy when we are the only industrialized nation on earth that puts the price of health care on the cost of our products.

That is a major drag on American business competitiveness, and job creation—and it is a stupid 21st century economic plan as well.

American business by 2008 will pay more for health care than they will make in profits. That is untenable.

Those are the words of Andy Stern, President of SEIU.

Amazingly enough, he said that at a meeting of corporate CEO's that included Wal-Mart.

Yes, that Wal-Mart.

NY Times story here.

So, if Wal-Mart and other major corporations are sitting at the table with Andy Stern discussing Universal Health Care...Well, how long before contract negotiations are reduced to teacher quality, professional development, and other issues that do not include prescription drug deductibles?

Is Daley and UPC even thinking about this?

Why Do Republicans (and Daleyites Who Are Just Barely Democrats) Hate Teacher Unions?

2007-02-07T21:37:00.000-06:00

In my experience it always comes down to one question.

Why do unions support and defend (for lack of a better phrase) "bad" teachers?

Using this question to their political advantage, Daleyites (or those who would be called Republicans in any other part of the country) try valiantly to demonize teacher unions as defending the indefensible. The "bad teachers who don't care" about kids.

Why does no one ask who hired these awful human beings?

Why does no one suggest that "management" had four (count them: 1, 2, 3, 4) years to observe and evaluate these horrible human beings?

And after four years, management (or "those who lack oversight skills") decide they are worthy of being granted tenure.

Only then do they begin the process of wailing and lamenting.

Who let these awful people into the profession? Management.

Who trained and hired the management? Management.

Who decided who would be eligible to decide who had the power to retain new hires for four years and grant them tenure? Management.

So, why is it the fault of unions for defending those who have been selected by management as deserving of tenure?

I will posit the question one more time.

Why is Education upside down compared to other "industries"? There are phrases charters and others love to use to describe why they themselves are necessary. Things like "real world" and "competition". As if what they do have some relationship to the "business" model of capitalism or something akin to "Americanism".

But in the "real" world, when something fails, the boss gets the heave-ho and new management is brought in...right?

But, as I said, Education is upside down.

In our world, when things go right, Management gets the credit. Just like the "real" world.

But when things go wrong, the workers in the trenches get the blame. This is not like the "real" world. Even if all they did was implement the policies of the "wise" managers.

They blame unions and "bad" teachers for their failures.

And no one asks, who hired the bad ones? Who let the "bad" ones stay for four years until they got tenure?

No one blames management.

Somehow, unions take the blame.

Methinks there are journalists who are not asking the right questions as they report this ongoing story.

Let's Test All CPS Kids...Only If Every Policitician in The State....

2007-01-30T20:21:00.000-06:00

Has to take the test every Monday morning too. Seriously, when every politician who supports this idea signs up to be tested on Monday mornings, I know we will have a winner of a policy.

What? Would they object to this amazing invasion of privacy?

So why would anyone advocate it is okay to do the same to a 17 year-old? Especially at the cost of $20.00 each. Is this district so rich it has cash to burn? 20 bucks per kid.

Think about that. According to the 2000 census (7 years out of date) there are 2,895,668 citizens in Chicago. According to the same census data there are 530,823 children of school age.

Let's just throw 30,000 out of the equation (moved, dropped out, etc.). Let's agree that CPS serves about half a million kids. Let's further stipulate that CPS would only test high school kids. That leaves, what? 150,000 kids in the high schools? Am I low balling or high balling that number? Let's give CPS the benefit and call it 100,000 kids in high schools.

At 20 bucks each, CPS would need 2 million dollars. And that is just to test kids once.

Since the school in New Jersey is using federal dollars, my question is are there really that many idiots working in Congress and the White House who think testing kids is a good use of federal tax revenues? And if they believe in it so much, would they be willing to send us here in Chicago...oh, say 10 tests worth of cash for all our high school kids. Say one test a month for the school year. All we need is 20 million dollars.

Oh, and we'll do just what the NJ school will do. Even if the kids test positive, there will be no penalty. According to the AP story "Students who test positive for alcohol will not be kicked off teams or barred from extracurricular activities. Instead, they will receive counseling and their parents will be notified, Reynolds said."

So, yes, whoever you are in the Congress or Administration, I say send us 20 million and...well, let's just say you can ask for an accounting of how we spent it once you find the missing billions in Iraq. But I know lots of people who could use that cash to help our kids.

Full story here. Here are some choice lines:

(AP) - PEQUANNOCK, New Jersey-Some teenagers who drink over the weekend could be in big trouble Monday morning: A school district plans to start random urine tests capable of detecting whether alcohol was consumed up to 80 hours earlier.

Pequannock Township High, with about 800 students, said it will begin administering the tests Monday.....

Critics say common household products such as mouthwash can produce a positive test result. Reynolds said the test has been recalibrated so that for students to test positive, they would generally have to consume one or two drinks.

The EtG test costs about $20 (â‚¬15), Reynolds said. The school's overall testing program is funded by a three-year, $120,000 (â‚¬92,506) U.S. grant.

"No one's really taking it seriously. If you want to go to a party, you're still going to go to a party," senior Matt Huber said.

We are truly ruled by fools. Rubes, every one.

Please Go Visit and Comment at Russo's 299

2007-01-29T22:42:00.000-06:00

An excellent conversation is going on over at Russo's 299 blog.

All about new teachers and how (if so desired) to keep them in the system working for our kids.

Please click here and say something.

A Show of Hands

2007-01-29T22:36:00.000-06:00

Hat tip to Desi (original post here)

More Promises From The Tribune Editorial Page

2007-01-28T21:56:00.000-06:00

You can read it all here, but it appears the Trib is coming out full force for a change how Illinois funds schools.

Have the powers that be finally tired of being reminded that the way they fund schools ranks them 49th out of 50?

Will wonders never cease? Here is the money quote:

In Illinois, though, state aid accounts for less than 34 percent of school costs. The resulting overreliance squeezes businesses and homeowners. Local school districts wind up with profoundly inequitable amounts of money per pupil.

These editorials will address three questions:

How much revenue is needed to provide every child with an adequate education?

What is the most efficient way to raise money for schools without putting too much burden on the state economy?

How should that money be spent to give every schoolchild a fighting chance to succeed?

Unless Illinois voters and their legislators coalesce around good answers for those three questions, expect a decades-long pattern of mediocrity in education to continue.

The proof for me will be in how the Trib answers those three questions. Better yet, how does Daley and CPS answer those questions?

Honey, Let's Have Pizza For Valentine's!!

2007-01-25T20:04:00.000-06:00

Hat tip to Russo's District 299 for letting us all know about the romantic get-away offered by Marilyn and the UPC folks at the Merchandise Mart.

I would laugh but April first is so far away.

Won't someone please send us photo's of the lucky couples who are part of the first 150?

They get free pizza.

Romance is in the air.

Now, who will go to the house of delegates and request an audit. If one cent of union dues is used for this....arrrgggghhh.

Is impeachment for stupidity part of the by-laws?

The Job Protection Record of UPC and Marilyn Stewart

2007-01-09T21:55:00.000-06:00

In the four years that Marilyn Stewart has been president, the union has lost membership...BIG TIME. More than 4,000 dues paying members have simply vanished from the membership rolls. This information comes straight from the CTU's own reports.

This is a bigger number than can be explained by maternity leave or retirement. It is an abject failure on the part of UPC and Stewart to stem the growth of charters, contract schools and the devastating effects of RenTen and the privatization of public education in this city.

From 2003 to 2007, more than 270 high school teachers disappeared from union membership. In the same time period, more than 2,600 elementary teachers went missing.

More than a 1,200 ESP's are gone.

UPC, under the leadership of Marilyn Stewart, has done worse than nothing when it comes to job protection. And the children of Chicago are not better served with her 4 years of "leadership."

But don't worry, UPC team members get perks like conferences in Hawaii. Yeah, that got the job done for the rank and file. Way to go UPC! Good use of union dues!

In the 2003 election campaign, I remember Marilyn Stewart's famous quote that the CTU was a "union, not a university."

Many took offense that she was implying that the outstanding professional development offered by the Quest Center was somehow a misuse of union resources.

But I guess people wanted a back to basics style union...you know, grievances and arbitration. In short, people voted for "job protection", the most basic function of a union. (On a side note, many people didn't trust her with even that, since the election was decided 50.1% to 49.9%.)

Marilyn Stewart has failed.

Leadership Can Make A Difference

2007-01-05T17:55:00.000-06:00

On October 28, 2006 in a post titled "Lead, Follow, Or Get Out Of The Way" I said that now that Democratic party is firmly in control of the levers of government in Illinois, school funding must change.

It took a little more than two months, but I am glad someone over at city hall is listening.

As reported in today's Chicago Tribune, Mayor Daley has taken up the challenge.

After decades of debate, the time has finally come to change the way schools are funded in Illinois now that Democrats are in such complete control of state government, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley said Thursday.

Daley, who supports a so-called tax swap that would increase the income-tax rate while lowering property taxes, said lawmakers need to take into account all of the ideas for changing school funding and agree on a solution. He said his fellow Democrats, who increased their control of both the House and Senate and retained the governor's office in the November election, should lead the way.

"We have talked about this for 25 years," Daley said. "Now, no one wants to sit here and talk about it for another 25 years. The time has come to start the debate anew, seize the opportunity for reform."

I salute you Mayor and hope that you know I got your back on this.

Fix this and then we can chat about this charter thing you seem to like so much.

The Blogs Are On The Case

2006-12-26T22:01:00.000-06:00

There are several blogs discussing the Tribune article (once again, thanks for that Christmas morning present Trib).

Check out Dr. Homeslice here.

Check out Edpresso here.

UPDATE: Way back on 9/11/06 I said this:

To save $3,ooo, a teacher would have to save $125 a pay period for the next 24 checks they receive. For $4,000, the amount goes to $167 for the next 24 pay periods.

Now it is 7 pay periods later. We only have 17 pay periods left before we need our own strike fund in our bank accounts.

How much do you need to save between now and then? To have $3000, you need to save $176 every two weeks. To have $4000, you need to save $235 every two weeks.

Why isn't our union telling us to do this?

Merry Christmas...And Let's Strike?

2006-12-26T21:57:00.000-06:00

Thanks Tribune! What do I read on Christmas morning? More strike talk.

A quick quote from the Dec. 25th Tribune story:

What is clear is that this early strike talk is making district officials and teachers nervous as they head into contract negotiations early next year. The current four-year contract will expire on June 30, about a month after teachers and assistants elect a slate of union officers.

"There's a lot of unhappy teachers out there," said Tom Stonis, a social studies teacher at Fenger High School on the Far South Side. "And there's a little buzz going on that if we don't get what we want, we're going to go on strike. But I'm not going to be around next year ... because of the strike possibilities. It's not worth it to me to go out on strike in this district."

I have talked about the possibility of a strike here, here, and here.

What model will it follow? Detroit (god forbid)?

What say you?

2006-12-25T20:50:00.000-06:00

James Brown - Prisoner of Love/Please Please Please

Rest in Peace Godfather.

No comment is necessary, but watching this video is required.

A BETTER QUESTION...I HOPE

2006-12-16T18:51:00.000-06:00

Alexander and the gang at District 299 are talking about who may or not be the best principal in CPS.

I, if I may be so bold, think this is an unanswerable question. How can anyone know who doesn't work there? My principal is doing great after only a few months, but how can I know who is best if I don't work there?

Instead, I think a better question is what attributes, what policies are implemented, that makes a principal good or bad?

In other words, what kind of principal would you like to work for? What is it that makes a good principal great? I think even most principals would like to know.

Your thoughts?

2006-12-12T15:59:00.000-06:00

Barack Obama on Monday Night Football

PAY: TWO HUNDRED SEVEN THOUSAND AND 00/100!!!

2006-12-09T16:53:00.000-06:00

I thought the headline should read like a check, because that is how much CPS put in the pocket of James Levin and Tru-Link Fence.

I know the outrage is shrill. To the point that if James Levin was encountered in a dark alley...Well let's just say I hope he doesn't encounter a teacher.

The headlines at the Tribune said James Levin of Tru-Link Fence (a business in Skokie, not even in Chicago paying taxes) bilked CPS for millions of dollars.

You need to read deeper into the article. Turns out the scandal is not just that he got the contracts (worth 2.87 million) to build fences, in my humble opinion (IMHO) it was the overbilling of $207,000 for snow removal that gets my goat.

The day this story came out, I, and everyone I talked to, was outraged. The conversation centered around the idea of what could we do for the children of Chicago with 2.87 million dollars.

But let's put that aside.

I will assume the best here. He got the contracts (fraudulently of course) but let's assume he did the work for the amount billed.

It is the $207,000 that sticks in my craw.

That is 100 classrooms outfitted with the latest technology including an LCD projector and screen. 100 classrooms.

How about pencil sharpeners? High end, groovy pencil sharpeners are $24.99 each. For $207,000 I could put a brand new sharpener in about 8280 classrooms. 8280 classrooms.

What did you need this year? What did you spend your precious $100 on? Hey, let's kick in the nice $50.00 "gift card" CPS sent to the teachers. (This, despite that the average amount spent by a teacher on class supplies is $522.) What could you have done for your building with $207,000?

Seriously, if I could have handed you $207,000 for your building, what would you have done with it? Methinks it would not involve paying Mr. Levin for work not done.

Check out this anonymous comment from over at Russo's District 299 blog (and keep in mind that Russo posted this on December 7 and as of this writing on December 9, there has been only one comment about this 2.87 million dollar scandal):

Levin couldn't have defrauded CPS without help from CPS. Who gives a snow removal contract to a fence company and then lets them overcharge them by a quarter of a million bucks? Of course the guy who hands out the CPS contracts is the brother of the Streets & San guy who hands out contracts. And of course the Mayor knows nothing. But the Civic Committee wants to cut more teachers and use charter schools to trim the CPS budget. Fogedaboudit.

Here is a tidbit for all of you to chew on from the Tribune, and I quote: "According to his plea agreement, Levin, 47, learned of the fraud in 2001 from an unnamed co-schemer who oversaw Tru-line's work for the schools." The bold face is mine.

So I ask you, in all seriousness, who is the "unnamed co-schemer"?

Who is the "unnamed co-schemer" who robbed 100 classrooms of LCD projectors?

Who is the "unnamed co-schemer" who robbed over 8,000 classrooms of a pencil sharpener?

2006-12-02T22:58:00.000-06:00

Happy Xmas (War Is Over) - John Lennon

Two weeks to go...

And You Thought We Had It Tough

2006-12-01T23:18:00.000-06:00

The gunmen came at night to drag Mohammed Halim away from his home, in front of his crying children and his wife begging for mercy.

The 46-year-old schoolteacher tried to reassure his family that he would return safely. But his life was over, he was part-disembowelled and then torn apart with his arms and legs tied to motorbikes, the remains put on display as a warning to others against defying Taliban orders to stop educating girls.

Full story here.

Violence In Our Student's Lives or When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong.

2006-11-28T20:20:00.000-06:00

Did you see the Sun-Times story about the stabbing on Thanksgiving day?

The quote from the dad really got to me: ""I didn't know she had a knife, but I'm glad she did. It saved her life," John Jones said after his 18-year-old daughter appeared in bond court."

Read the Sun-Times story here.

I didn't know she had a knife but I am glad she did. Wow. I don't know what to say to that.

Kendra Jones is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Laura Joslin, a sixth-grader who died after being stabbed in the throat during a clash in the 7300 block of South Claremont.

This has been a topic of discussion with my colleagues, as students in our classes speak to us about how they knew one or both of the girls involved in this tragedy. All I know is that a sixth grader is dead, stabbed in the throat.

Then I stumbled across this story, all 4 sentences of it, that describes a shooting in Pilsen that resulted in two teens being seriously injured. The shooting took place very close to St. Ann Elementary School. UPDATE: The Tribune now has a longer story and confirms that the students who were shot attended Juarez H.S.

Even if we are lucky enough to have good security in our buildings, the fact is violence is very much a part of the fabric of our student's lives and the community in which they live.

Several teachers have spoken with me about violent female students. They share their sense that things are out of hand with our female students and that they witness young women exhibiting violent outbursts at a higher rate than the boys.

What is your sense of this phenomenon? How do you deal with these issues in you school, classroom, community?

I am at a loss for words.

October substance online

2006-11-26T22:00:00.000-06:00

It's a PDF file - but it's good to see that they are posting the issues online.

November Elections - No Words Necessary

2006-11-21T17:56:00.000-06:00

Open Enrollment Alert: Did You Know...

2006-11-19T19:02:00.000-06:00

In this open enrollment period, here are a few facts for CTU members:

Did you know…

…that you can save up to $800 dollars on health care costs--every year--by using the contractual Flexible Spending Account (FSA) benefit? Check out the contract (page 282) and your open enrollment materials.

Did you know...

...that the most economical health care choice is the Blue Cross Blue Shield HMO? That the premiums are the same average percent of salary as pre-2005 and there are no deductibles, no out-of-pocket maximums, and the plan pays 100% of costs after co-pays? Check out the contract for details (page 278) and check out bcbsil.com/cps to see if your doctors and hospitals are in the plan. The majority of CTU members choose this plan. It may be the best choice for you.

Did you know....

...that you can save 50% on your prescription drug costs by using the mail order option? That it’s really easy, fast and a huge savings (e.g. generics are $5). Check out the contract (page 281) and your open enrollment materials.

Hope this is useful-
Deborah Lynch

Tribune Covers LPHS and the Dismissal of Eshoo

2006-11-16T08:54:00.000-06:00

Full story is here.

Excerpt:

What started as a protest over the layoff of a popular librarian at Lincoln Park High School has escalated into a rancorous debate about student free speech and teacher intimidation at one of the city's flagship neighborhood schools...

...Principal Bessie Karvelas said Eshoo, who had been at the school for 16 years, was fired because of budget cuts. But students and teachers have questioned whether Eshoo was let go because she challenged the principal on various issues.

"We're supposed to be one of the best schools in the system, but a lot of teachers want to leave. They are so afraid to speak out," said senior Michelle Gautier

It seems the kids get it. Too bad Clark Street doesn't.

Got Off Track There For A While

2006-11-06T09:21:00.000-06:00

I got off track (and some of you said so in comments) by posting items of a general political and/or cultural interest.

You said you wanted this to about CPS classroom and union issues.

So, to further that goal, I have deleted several off-topic posts and I will try to stay on track more.

Thanks for your feedback.

Now, how do you feel about Merit Pay?

What The Hell???

2006-10-30T22:45:00.000-06:00

Someone over at Russo's Blog (click here) forgot their valium tonight.

I post their comment here because I just can't let this pass:

It is also important to note that some LSC members are felons and therefor (sic) need to be fingerprinted. A real problem with LSCs--they can be felons and tell schools what is best for the children, until it is discovered that they are a felon. Some former members of the old Englewood LSC were good for this--recruiting gang members and having the GDs run the school. Just another worry for the prinincipal, teachers and parents.

Is there anyone out there who can say that the GD's ran the LSC at Englewood? This is absurd...Isn't it?

ACTION ALERT

2006-10-30T05:22:00.000-06:00

The next LSC meeting at Lincoln Park is November 8th - Wednesday - 5:30 a.m.

Students and staff plan to return to find out if the LSC has taken any position on the restricted Library services and especially the "cut" of a long time Librarian, Union Delegate, Service Learning Coach and LSC teacher rep.

Any concerned CPS or community members are encouraged to attend and show suppurt against the arbitrary and retaliatory actions of the principal, Bessie Karvelas.

LEAD, FOLLOW, OR GET OUT THE WAY

2006-10-28T21:08:00.000-05:00

Teachers who criticize each other....Divided unions in a time of peril....Media who can't wait to sing the praises of charter schools/end of tenure/unions are the problem (pick your meta sized story line) and we are sniping at each other?

We need to speak with one voice. A voice that extols the hard work we do every day and demands, not asks, demands our remuneration for the sacrifices we have made lo' these many years.

I say to the Illinois Democratic Party that once Nov. 7 has come and gone, Democrats will retain power at the city, county and state level. We Will Come Calling.

We want major reform in school funding. Major reform that allows charters to be unionized. Major reform on issues that affect the very lives of the students we serve. We want full funding for special education (nah, make that 150% funding of what we ask for).

No more education on the cheap or political fear of raising taxes. We supported you, now it is time to pony up.

If you can't/won't do this, then follow the advice from the photo above. And maybe, in the mean time, you can stop calling yourselves Democrats as well.

Lead, Follow, Or Get Out Of The Way.

To all Illinois Democrats, it now time to pony up the cash and pass the legislation.

And to all of those in our union who would divide us from this mission, I advise you to read that poster above again. No matter who wins this coming spring, the CTU will speak with one voice. And we will get the needed reforms passed. Enough is enough.

(P.S. Hat tip to Firedoglake for the cool graphic.)

Pension Election

2006-10-27T20:27:00.000-05:00

Today, I found out that the person in charge of the pension election at my school was absent and did not make arrangements for voting. As a result, no one at the school was able to vote. When I called CTU, they said that he had called them earlier in the week to say no one would be in charge of the voting. They said there was nothing they could do and would just note it as a "problem". I was wondering if this was a common problem and if the response I got was correct?

Hello again everybody

2006-10-25T21:57:00.000-05:00

I took a little break for a variety of reasons, but I'm back with my usual mix of sarcasm and cynicism. Tomorrow I review the new Chicago Union Teacher. How many pictures of Marilyn this time?

Is It Something In The Water?

2006-10-24T21:22:00.000-05:00

My students today blamed Lake Michigan, but seriously, why do students who are demographically identical to students in other areas of the country perform so poorly here in Chicago?

Illinois' poor and black students score worse than most minority students nationally, a study shows, offering a rare glimpse of how Illinois' minority students stack up.

Only 8 percent of black fourth-graders are proficient in reading, ranking Illinois 35th out of 41 states that test a large enough group of black students. Only 9 percent of poor eighth-graders are proficient in math, ranking the state 37th out of 50, the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation found after analyzing the 2005 National Assessment of Educational Progress.

"Illinois lines up abysmally," said Michael Petrilli, Fordham vice president.

Full Sun-times story here.

Check out comments at Russo's 299 blog here.

Your thoughts?

4-year Teachers Contract Approved

2006-10-22T21:27:00.000-05:00

Full story is here.

Here is a snippet from the Tribune:

OLYMPIA FIELDS -- Rich Township High School District 227 officials this week unanimously approved a 4-year contract with the district's teachers that will pay an average 4 percent annual increase....

..."It was amicable and done very professionally," said school board President Betty Owens. "Each side respected the other, and we were able to talk through issues on both sides of the aisle."

The contract also calls for adding another HMO option, Blue Advantage, which is part of Blue Cross/Blue Shield. The district also opted to "unbundle" its PPO and HMO insurance choices, making each plan self-supporting. Deductibles will double under the plan. (emphasis mine - Ed.)

OK, here goes. This looks very similar to the contract CTU negotiated when Lynch and PACT were in charge. 4% raise a year for 4 years. Individual costs for medical coverage go up (but they did not double under Lynch's negotiation).

This is what I keep hearing from so many CPS teachers. They voted for UPC because Lynch got a bad contract and medical went up (but, once again I say, it did not double). These same people seem to forget that UPC had run the union for 30+ years and the contracts negotiated under Reese had increases in medical and 1 or 2% raises, and those raises were not every year. That was the extent of the UPC expertise. Small raises or none at all. In the middle of the go-go 90's, when the economy was exploding, Reese and UPC delivered the weakest contract in CTU history.

Lynch came to town and what do you know, in the middle of a recession CPS coughs up a contract with a 4% increase every year for 4 years.

Compare what Rich Township High School District 227 got and what Detroit got (see my earlier posts on Detroit here).

What do you think will happen to us this June when the contract expires? Will we get another 4% a year for 4 years or will CPS offer us what Detroit teachers were offered from their district (5.5% wage cut and a 20% rise in insurance co-pays)?

Anyone who follows the news of how teacher contracts are being negotiated should know that what Lynch got us 4 years ago was a great deal. No one should trust UPC to get us anything even close to what she accomplished. After all, UPC are the same people who negotiate in secret with CPS to change the contract and make union members file freedom of information act petitions to get access to the documents. That tells you everything you need to know.

What do you think?

God Bless the AFL-CIO

2006-10-22T20:40:00.000-05:00

Go team, go! The following is from yahoo news, full story here.

AFL-CIO files complaint on supervisors
By WILL LESTER, Associated Press Writer Sun Oct 22, 8:50 AM ET
WASHINGTON - Organized labor is filing an international protest about a federal decision redefining which workers are supervisors exempt from legal protection to join unions.
The AFL-CIO, a federation of about 50 labor unions with 9 million members, said it would file a complaint Monday with the International Labor Organization of theUnited Nations about a decision this month by the National Labor Relations Board.
The decision, covering a series of cases known as the Kentucky River cases, involved the role of a supervisor.
The board ruled that nurses who regularly run shifts at health care facilities should be considered supervisors and exempt from federal protections that cover union membership. The decision potentially has major implications for workers in other fields.
"This will demonstrate how far outside the mainstream of accepted international law the U.S. is moving," said Craig Becker, a legal counsel to the AFL-CIO.

I hope this works. I would hate to see a curriculum coordinator "defined" out of the union.

For more background, read my post about this here.

The Ratings (Rantings) On LPHS Principal

2006-10-22T17:32:00.000-05:00

I have always had mixed opinions of the site Rate My Teacher, but after the happenings at LPHS I thought what could it hurt to take a look.

Here are the cummulative ratings from Rate My Teacher for Principal Karvelas:

TEACHER STATS
Bessie Karvelas
# of Ratings: 32
Popularity Total: 0
Overall Quality: 1.3
Averages are based on a maximum score of 5

Here are comments from students about Principal Karvelas:

10-21-06: "This is the number one school in the state named by Newsweek, number 30 in the country and in the top 5% in the world and this is our principal. I wish I didn't enroll in Lincoln Park."

10-21-06: "i agree, LP is going to hell in a handbasket."

10-18-06: "this woman has created big brother syndrome in LPHS. no one challenges the great karvalas. why do you think all those teachers got axed? they challenged her and maybe humilated her. LPHS=Big Brother."

1-15-06: "can you explain to me how someone so oblivious gets to be an administrator? i mean shes nice if you talk to her, but shes just so...dumb. we're arent 5 years old thank you..."

11-25-05: "cant run school cant tell where money is supposed to go and jipped the perfroming arts."

Comments? Anyone from LPHS out there?

VIDEO FROM LINCOLN PARK! AT LAST!

2006-10-17T20:04:00.000-05:00

Sorry that took so long, but on with the show. I have edited down the 1 hour+ LSC meeting into about 5 really great videos. They will be posted ASAP.

The best moments from that meeting will not be seen here, as they were student comments and I do not feel comfortable posting them. Even though it was a public meeting, I do not have any release forms for the students of LPHS and I do not think it appropriate to post those. Anyone who was there knows that the passion and sincerity that the students of LPHS shared with the LSC that night were far more powerful than anything the adults had to say.

That said, there were many good comments made the adults in attendance.

On an earlier post I replied to a comment (see original comments here) by saying: "Leadership inspires. It gets people to give more than they thought they could. If you worked at LPHS, would you be more inspired or less inspired by what happened there?"

I stand by that and present to you the comments of an LPHS history teacher.

LPHS Meeting a Blow-Out!

2006-10-12T20:42:00.000-05:00

I will post more on this soon, including video.

For now, all I can say is how humbling it was.

It seems cliche to say that teachers influence students, but Ms. Eshoo's record of achievement and inspiration is, well, humbling.

Consider this an open thread to discuss what happened at LPHS tonight.

Video will be up sometime tomorrow.

LPHS Meeting

2006-10-11T21:47:00.000-05:00

See you at the Lincoln Park LSC meeting: Thursday 10/12 @ 5:30.

IF NOT NOW, WHEN?

2006-10-09T21:01:00.000-05:00

Russo's District 299 blog posted 3 articles recently published about school funding. Much attention paid to the fact the both Daley and Jackson, Jr. were working together to get the state to move on education funding reform.

You can view the original post here.

I read the headlines and a few comments, but somehow I keep coming back to the same question:

IF NOT NOW, WHEN?

I will ask the question once more.

IF NOT NOW, WHEN?

We have Democratic control of the offices of Governor, House and Senate, County and the largest city in the state.

If the Democratic party of Illinois can't get this job done, then what good are they?
Education funding in Illinois is a national joke, a disgrace.

If Daley and Jackson, Jr. can get together on this, then what is stopping the party from making this a signature issue?

Are they really that incapable of governing?

Good Lord, can we just stop making this an annual NPR story or a biannual investigative series in Catalyst and get the changes made that need to be made?

Is their no one out there who can help get this deal done?

I'm sick of this annual/biannual discussion.

I'm talking to you Rod Blagojevich, Richard Daley, Lisa Madigan, Michael Madigan, Jesse White, Emil Jones, and every other Democrat who plays a role in Illinois governance.

What are you waiting for? Bush and the Republicans are at 33%. The last Senator we elected (a "D" if you forgot) won 70 to 30 percent. A state wide vote.

Are you afraid people won't support education reform? What is it that is holding you back from acting on a tidal wave of Democratic support, state wide? Your own lack of leadership? Good grief, get off the dime.

GET THE DEED DONE.

IF IT TAKES MORE TAXES, THEN SO BE IT. WE CONTROL THE STATE, COUNTY AND LOCAL GOVERNANCE.

WHEN WILL THE SITUATION BE BETTER TO DO IT, WHEN REPUBLICANS CONTROL ALL BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT?

SOME THINGS COST MONEY, AND EDUCATING CHILDREN IS ONE OF THEM.
IF YOU HAVE TO RAISE TAXES TO DO IT, THEN DO IT.

IF NOT NOW, WHEN?

Nothing in Democratic Politics Could Happen Without Unions.

2006-10-09T00:05:00.000-05:00

Literally nothing in Democratic politics could happen without unions.

A wonderful post at Firedoglake.

Labor provides the money for campaigns, the reliable volunteers who show up rain or shine. Labor helps with field, GOTV, and media. It's not just that labor provides a lot of help, it's that labor provides help reliably, cycle after cycle. Unions don't get bored with politics, they don't decide that politics doesn't matter, and union members show up and vote in primaries up and down the ticket.

They invest long-term in voter registration programs, they build infrastructure that the party committees have traditionally scoffed at, and they have been an immense force in progressive politics for a hundred years, holding politicians accountable for their choices in office...

Read the whole thing here.

See you Tuesday. Comments?

And you Mr. Mayor? No need for union suppoprt anymore? In Chicago?

What's Up At Lincoln Park?

2006-10-07T20:23:00.000-05:00

UPDATE: I have heard from Ms. Eshoo and I have been asked to correct a few things that I received in the email below.

I have been authorized to say that Eshoo lost her job, but Karvelas lost all credibility - staff and students don't buy her the hiding behind the "budget cut" reason. (A good school leader would protect good people).

Here is the (edited for accuracy) text of an email I received today:

You may have heard that Lincoln Park HS Delegate Bernie Eshoo's position was cut last week. After 17 years of superior ratings, Bernie was escorted out of school.

"Save Mrs. Eshoo" signs, posters and tee-shirts are appearing around the school. Later last week the principal, feeling heat from staff and students, went on the intercom explaining to 2000+ people why she had to let her go! There will be an LSC meeting this Thursday, 10/10 at LPHS Room 103. The question period will begin at 5:30 p.m.

Why don't we show up at this LSC meeting to support Bernie?

She needs to know we are behind her 100% and the administration needs to know that they cannot get away with retaliating against union members for fighting for their rights and the rights of their members.

Hope to see you there:

~~October 10 @ 5:30 p.m.~~ @ Lincoln Park HS, Room 103

Correct date for the Lincoln Park LSC meeting:
Thursday 10/12 @ 5:30
Sorry for the confusion.

Your thoughts?

Andy Stern Comes To Chicago

2006-10-05T17:38:00.000-05:00

Andy Stern, President of the SEIU and author of the new book "A Country That Works", will be be at a book signing/reading at 437 N. Rush Street on October 10th at 7:30 pm.

For more info, click here.

Be there or be square labor union apple-cart upsetters.

The Colbert Report On The NLRB Decision

2006-10-03T22:08:00.000-05:00

What do you think?

How will the Mayor and CPS respond? If Daley tries to capitalize on this, it will forever end his family's legacy of working with unions and instead indelibly label him a corporation hack. Even from me, a green bungalow owner, I could never forgive Daley if he tried to use this to hurt the CTU or any other union in this city (are you listening CTA...Police...Fire...?)

Workers LOSE BIG Under Labor Board Ruling

2006-10-03T20:07:00.000-05:00

Found this post over at DailyKos and it is just too good to not cross-post over here. Here are some selected tidbits. Please click here to read the whole thing.

In one of the most sweeping rulings on union membership in more than 50 years, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) today redefined and expanded the definition of "supervisor," potentially taking away the federally protected freedom to form a union from 8 million workers.

Under federal labor law, supervisors are barred from forming unions.

The board's new definition essentially enables employers to make a supervisor out of any worker who has the authority to assign or direct another and uses independent judgment. Amazingly, the board also ruled that a worker can be classified as a supervisor if he or she spends as little as 10 percent to 15 percent of his or her time overseeing the work of others. The board issed the ruling Sept. 29, but did not release it until today.

In their dissent, Democratic NLRB members Wilma Liebman and Dennis Walsh said today's decision:

...threatens to create a new class of workers under federal labor law; workers who have neither the genuine prerogatives of management, nor the statutory rights of ordinary employees....[M]ost professionals have some supervisory responsibilities in the sense of directing another's work--the lawyer his secretary, the teacher his teacher's aide, the doctor his nurses, the registered nurse her nurse's aid and so on.
Liebman and Walsh wrote that most professionals and other workers could fall under the new definition of supervisor, "who by 2012 could number almost 34 million, accounting for 23.3 percent of the workforce."

Oakwood claimed charge nurses at Heritage Hospital occasionally perform work that involves being a "lead person" or supervising other workers--although they have no authority to hire or fire or discipline the workers.

I read this and thought...curriculum coordinators, reading coaches, department chairs, the list goes on and on. They have no power to hire, fire, or discipline, but could now be "defined" out of the union.

This could be devasting in terms of union membership and, by implication of a reduction in numbers of members, CTU's clout in terms of politics and contract negotiations.

I know that many of our community have recently discussed the impact of charters on union membership. How will we respond to this decision and, god forbid, what if CPS tries to "define" out hundreds of members?

Is anyone at the Merchandise Mart doing working on this?

UPDATE: Check this out over at Firedoglake.

2nd UPDATE: Check out the MyDD post here.

Who knew?

2006-09-30T14:54:00.000-05:00

Tribune reports that company with ties to Daley had prime monopoly over all CPS Landscaping (there's landscaping?) then board changes rules to give half of business to minority company. Minority company that gets all of the business turns out to be a front for the company that had the monopoly. In Chicago? Who could have guessed? Check out my take. Oh and wait until we see who gets the contracts for the olympics if Chicago winds the who thing (we won't thank goodness).

My Favorite Math Problem

2006-09-29T21:21:00.000-05:00

This was originally posted as a comment over at Russo's District 299 blog. Click here to read the whole thing.

That said, I think this might spark some good comments. Have at it if you will.

Here is my favorite math problem; maybe you might enjoy it too.

Since 20 minutes is the contractual amount of time a principal is required to observe your teaching, try this on for size.

Multiply 46 minutes by 5. That is the # of minutes you teach a day. Then multiply that # by 5, that is the number of minutes you teach a week.

Then, multiply that by 33 (we will just throw 6 weeks out the window to be fair to management, lots of half days, lots of assemblies, and lots of ACT testing, etc.). I picked 33 as the # of weeks and I think I am being generous to administration with this number.

The result is the number of minutes you teach a year.

You teach 37,950 minutes a year.

Divide 20 minutes of observation by the # of minutes you teach.

That infinitesimal percentage is the amount of time administration actually observes you doing your job.

So, one might ask one's self how can management possibly know if you are doing a good job based on the percentage of time they observe you?

Let's be honest, a factory worker gets more observation from a foreman than a teacher gets from a principal.

An even better question would be how your principal, as an “instructional leader”, can help you be a better teacher as your career matures over time. What valid advice can they offer, seeing as how they observe a tremendously small percentage of the time you actually spend doing your job?

Your thoughts? Who has helped you be a better teacher more, the union or CPS? Fire away.

Nude Statue in Dallas Art Museum gets Veteran 5th Grade Teacher Fired.

2006-09-28T20:40:00.000-05:00

Found this post over at DailyKos.

Here it is in it's entirety (be sure to click through on the link to read the whole story) :

Thu Sep 28, 2006 at 06:19:28 PM PDT

You're a veteran teacher of twenty-eight years. You get permission from your principal to take eighty-nine fifth graders on a field trip to the Dallas Museum of Art. Some kid sees a nude statue. Well, duh, it is an art museum, that should be no biggie, right?

No.

When the kid gets home and talks about it to the parents they complain. So what does the principal do? The same principal that approved the trip. Does he stand up for his staff. Does he even stand up for himself? After all he authorized the trip. No. He fires the teacher!

I'm sorry if this has been blogged already. I'm mad and I want to blog it.

Read it for yourself here.
Jeff Wegerson

There is nothing quite like the experience of working in a "right to work" state. If this doesn't comvince you of the need for unions, well I sure can't help you.

If I was Dick Cheney, I would be angry enough after reading this story to shoot someone in the face. They sure got themselves some kinda principals in Texas. Your thoughts?

Secret Stewart-Duncan Deal to Change Tenure Law

2006-09-27T18:18:00.000-05:00

In what appears to be one of the biggest lies and betrayals of the Stewart team to date, CTU and CPS have agreed, in writing, to go to Springfield and change our tenure law to permit peer evaluation/peer review in our schools.

The Stewart team never shared this with CTU delegates or members--and, in fact are lying in the press by calling it a less controversial “peer mentoring” program. Any changes to our agreement must be ratified by CTU members.

This secret deal goes even further by jointly agreeing to change the tenure law in Springfield. The following are just a few quotes from the document PACT received under a Freedom of Information Act request. It is signed by Ms. Stewart (on 5/30/06) and Michael Scott (on 7/25/06).

"Whereas the Board and the Union wish to amend the CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement) and the Fresh Start agreement to provide for a pilot peer review teacher evaluation and retention system…the Union and Board’s joint mission and purpose are to…fairly and respectfully identify, remediate and/or discontinue the services of teaching personnel…the parties recognize this as a radical departure from existing teacher evaluation and teacher removal methods…In or before the Fall 2006 veto session the Board and the Union will jointly sponsor legislation to amend Articles 24A and 34 of the Illinois Code…to allow the Board and the Union to create pilot alternative evaluation, remediation and dismissal procedures for teachers who have completed the probationary period…a tenured teacher intervention program shall commence on July 1, 2007...”

If this is a priority for the UPC team, why the secret deal? Why not run on it as a campaign issue and be open about it? I just don't get it.

What is the sense of the members out there?

Would you vote in favor of having colleagues in on decisions to fire you or not?

UPDATE: Check out TeacherX's thoughts here.

Accountabilty for Hiring?

2006-09-26T00:43:00.000-05:00

Well, one would hope.

Check out the stories from the Trib and the Sun-Times on how CPS wants to change teacher recruitment here.

Here is what I think: 40 or 50 years of framing the issue as teacher inability comes to a crashing end.

Finally, finally, someone asks "who hires?" the people everyone loves to complian about.

Administration has 4 years to decide on the viability of a teacher before they are awarded tenure (3 years in previous contracts). How did this work in the past? Did they simply hire and hope it will work out?

For the last few eons, the issue has never been about who is responsible for putting us in this mess, no one asked who did the hiring. Not once. That would mean accountability for adminstrators.

The frame has always been that teachers (and by extension their unions) are to blame for all problems. What are the solutions when you look at the issue from that point of view?
Charters.
Reconstitution.

I don't know who is to thank for this move by the board, but for once they got it right. Train people to make good hiring decisions and things just might get better (of course that means they have to look at who they have in place to make those decisions...maybe even ask themselves who hired the principal who makes bad choices?)

What next? Will the board revise how professional development is used in the district and make strides towards improving who they already have working for them?

Will wonders never cease?

What do you think?

DPS loses 25,000 pupils...Departures could cost Detroit $190M

2006-09-24T20:49:00.000-05:00

You read right..$190 million.

Full story from the Detroit News here.

Eduwonk is all over this story here.

Here is an excerpt from the Det. News article:

A 16-day teacher strike may have cost Detroit Public Schools 25,000 students, district officials said Thursday, a potential loss that would mean a cut of $190 million in state aid and almost certainly another dramatic downsizing of schools and employees.

The gloomy estimate, which school officials acknowledge is not exact, comes in advance of Wednesday's official count day, when enrollment numbers are used to determine the amount of state funding to be allocated to districts across Michigan.

The district is embarking on a massive campaign to woo students back, with phone calls and letters to every student's home, enlisting the help of community groups and churches, in addition to count-day pizza and ice cream parties to make sure students are in school Wednesday.

"The situation is grim," said Jeff Mirel, author of "The Rise and Fall of an Urban School System," a chronicle of the district through 1981, who suggested staff and school cuts would be certain to follow.

There appears to be no upside to a strike. Kind of a damned if you do and damned if you don't thing. No strike and teachers would face a 5.5% pay cut. Strike (and get sold out with a crappy contract anyway - see here) and lose 100's of job positions.

I mused before if Detroit was a harbinger. Many told me it would be very different here in Chicago due to differences in the tax base, etc.

But I must confess, things don't look good. And my confidence in UPC getting a great contract is low, very low. Will CPS and UPC finally work together to organize "pizza and ice-cream" parties to get student numbers up? How inspired the teachers of Detroit must feel about now.

Why can't

2006-09-23T09:20:00.000-05:00

CTU "leaders" just do their job without blaming PACT?

And Here's The Rest Of The Story...

2006-09-21T19:42:00.000-05:00

The last post showcased a letter from a union delegate to the staff of GPHS about the spin being handed out by the CTU executive board.

Here, for your reading pleasure, is a letter from Gage Park Social Studies Chair Andrew Martinek that was distributed to all staff in our mailboxes. I reprint this section with the permission of the writer. It is titled And here is the rest of the story:

On the day that Marty McGreal was fired, I called the union office and spoke with directly with President Marilyn Stewart. She assured me that the people downtown just didn't care and that the union would be contacting me and monitoring our situation very closely.

I did receive a call the next day from Nate Dixon, who told me pretty much the same thing and assured me that he would be in touch once school started after taking my cell phone number.

I HAVE NOT HEARD FROM OUR UNION SINCE! Actually, that's not true. They did see fit to disseminate lies and accusations about OUR elected union delegate. How does that help us lower class sizes? How does that cap our enrollments? How does that provide us with more books and resources to effectively do our jobs?

I want everyone to know that I am speaking as a non-aligned union member. I believe that a union should be just that, united, not a set of factions [Ed. - Yeah, that works until even non-aligned members get sick of cronyism and incompetence, then you take sides.]

As a union, reasonable people should have reasonable discourse about how to confront and solve problems. What has been the most disappointing thing to me about our current union leadership, is that it makes a habit of bashing union members. Just look at any edition of the union rag, the front page trashes Debbie Lynch or some other PACT official and page three calls for unity.

The priorities are obvious. Winning re-election is clearly more important than serving our needs. I haven't seen my working conditions improve in my six years as a CPS teacher, but I have witnessed plenty of griping and infighting. The Mayor and the Board don't need to break our union, it is already broken [Ed. - I prefer to think of it as in a coma until we throw the UPC incompetents out on their ear.]

It is up to us to fix it, or we will lose it.

For the record, I want everyone to know that Susan Steinmiller has been and continues to be an extremely dedicated and effective union representative. When I called her during the summer about the over-crowding issue, she responded immediately. [Ed. - to see her dedication in action, click here to see her interview with ABC7 at our informational picket]

She even drove in from Rockford to meet with Marty [McGreal], myself, and some community leaders. Even today, she is staying late to help us grow and build our community organizing effort. Just recently she helped negotiate overtime pay opportunities for teachers on staff here [at GPHS] in an effort to alleviate over-crowding issues. Where has the union leadership been on this issue?

Why does our delegate, a teacher with 5 classes just like the rest of us have to bear this burden alone, or worse, with the added weight of a smear campaign? Susan has served us well, and usually runs unopposed for the position. She deserves thanks and appreciation, rather than disrespect from the union she so dutifully serves.

A union that now seems willing to sacrifice Gage Park if it will help re-elect the union president. We should all let Marilyn Stewart know how we feel about that.

Sincerely,

Andrew Martinek, NBCT Mentor
Social Studies Department Chair

Well, that just about sums it up doesn't it? Your thoughts?

More News From Deep Inside The House Of Delegates!

2006-09-21T19:15:00.000-05:00

Since we are primarily a blog by and for union members, I think we need a big healthy dose of union news and views.

Here, for your reading pleasure, is a letter from the Gage Park delegate that was distributed to all staff in our mailboxes. I reprint this section with the permission of the writer, Delegate Steinmiller. It is titled Here is the rest of the story:

By now, most of you received a letter from CTU President Stewart reporting her progress solving the over-crowding issue at Gage Park. She further commented how I failed to report about Gage Park's informational rally and that's why she didn't attend. [Ed. - To view the video of the rally click here and here.]

What you don't know is...I was the one who invited Field Rep Nate Dickson to come to Gage Park for our Sept. 1st meeting. I told him we were discussing the plans on how to fight the over-crowding, which might include an informational picket. I asked him for help. He did not call me until two days later. Then he left me a message that he couldn't attend our meeting since he would be in arbitration hearings. He said he would get back to me with a possible replacement.

He never called me back. In fact, I thought no one from the union was coming, until I walked in the auditorium when low and behold there was six members of the CTU executive board!

At the meeting, I was met with rudeness, as Vice President Porter asked me "Why wasn't this meeting started when it was supposed to?" At that time, I presented VP Dallas and Field Rep Dixon with our meeting agenda which included discussion of our rally.

Please note, by this time there were several articles and news stories about Marty [McGreal] being fired and our over-crowding situation. NO ONE from CTU called me or any of our associate delegates about how they would help us.

On another note, last Wednesday at the Delegate's meeting the Executive Board slammed Debbie Lynch for being at our rally as "she's the cause of our over-crowding."

When it was my turn to speak at the house meeting, a member of Stewart's caucus motioned to adjourn the meeting. Again, no one from the CTU asked what they could do for the teachers and staff of Gage Park.

I know this is an election year for the city, state, and union, BUT there's a time and place for politics and it should not be at the cost of our jobs and our students' quality education.

Respectfully submitted,

S. Steinmiller

Well, this has moved people, mostly un-aligned union members (a response to this letter is coming soon). Many members of the GPHS staff are understandably upset at this treatment of one of Chicago's hardest working teachers (and our delegate to boot). Maybe UPC needs to change their name to CYA, since that is what they seem to be concerned about.

Do other schools get the same brush off and disrespect from the UPC team?

Makes Sense To Me (Or How Russo's 299 Rocks...Again).

2006-09-20T22:54:00.000-05:00

"Why free a group of schools from bureaucratic oversight? If that oversight is harmful, free all schools. If it is supportive, don't "free" any. If it is harmful, change it. It's like Cunningham is saying, "we not imposing our stupid rules and regs on everyone, just the bad schools.""

From a discussion at Dist.299 blog. You gotta love that. Cuts to the quick doesn't it? Nub of the issue...Core of the problem...and any other cliche you can think might apply about now.

I bet politicians must really hate people who make sense, especially those who can make it clear to anyone listening.

You can catch the conversation here.

P.S. - Whoever you are who wrote that...Would you like to use our blog as a platform to speak out more regularly? Email me here.

first year, first post, first few weeks...

2006-09-20T20:58:00.000-05:00

As a first year teaching, there are just a few things I would like to post on this blog. I just graduated in May of 2006 and being my first year teaching, I know that I have my hands full in the CPS. I am excited to meet the challenges that all teachers face and am blessed to be able to work with the students of Chicago's southwest side. There are so many good people in CPS, I am not having any problem turning to any of my department members for support and everyone has really been more than willing to help me out. For that, I would like to thank all of my fellow teachers at Gage Park High.

I have had some very scary encounters with students already, threats and what not that have set me thinking about many different issues. I am lucky and unlucky to have recieved the first year teacher's nightmare schedule (all freshmen with a tenth period class ending at 4:25 pm), but so far I have found many postives. I have been working relentlessly trying to involve the student's parents and so far I have had a lot of sucess in that department. Aside from the disconnected telephone numbers (which is a constant problem for me) the parents I have spoken with have been concerned and more than eager to assit me with their children's education. Granted I know this is only the middle of the third week, but so far the parent's enthusiasm to help their children is very comforting to me. I just need to find a way to reach the parents that have no phone...

As a 22 year old teacher, classroom management has become my most important issue and I am slowly learning the ins and outs of creating the ideal learning environment. Once again, I owe a tremendous thank you to the faculty for helping me withtheir advice and wisdom. I am glad to see that there are no teachers that have sunk to showing up, follwing the routine, leaving, and taking their paychecks. This is one of the most postive aspects of the school I have witnessed thus far. The other first year teachers (and there are many) are also experiencing this wave of excitement and progression with me, all while keeping the most hopeful and optimistic views. I can feel a change occuring in the attitudes of the teachers, the students, and the parents causing me to be extremely excited and hopeful for the future of the Chicago Public Schools.

Thank you for your time and to all the teachers out there reading this post, keep up the positive attitude. If you have any great advice with classroom management (other than do not smile till x-mas, which I have heard thousands of times and I have already completely blown... I wish I could do that, I am just having too much fun) please leave me a comment with some advice. Take it easy

also, I had a blast at the Sox game last night, probably one of the most fun games I have ever been to. Hopefully they can still pull it out... I am keeping the faith.

Union Action Alert

2006-09-19T22:12:00.000-05:00

The AFL-CIO blog has some great stuff.

I found the following over at Firedoglake and thought everyone should read it.

Here is a snippet to get you started:

When Your Gall Bladder Gets Sent to India, Have You Had Enough?
By: Jordan Barab
Guest Blogged By Tula Connell

Carl Garrett, a paper mill technician in Canton, N.C., needed gall bladder and shoulder surgery. So his employer, Blue Ridge Paper Products, came up with an increasingly less- than-novel solution: Send him overseas for surgery.

India, in this case.

Garrett volunteered to go. But let’s face it, how much of an option did he have? Let’s see: Agree with your employer and take your chances overseas, or risk paying out-of-pocket costs for the entire surgery in the United States? Duh.

But Garrett has a union, and the union didn’t stand for what the media and others have euphemistically dubbed “medical tourism.” The USW International Union (USW) persisted until management backed off the plan. The USW and Blue Ridge will work together to find an alternative within the United States.

Really, read the whole thing. It's quite inspiring.

Teacher Night With The Sox

2006-09-19T21:47:00.000-05:00

7-0.

Gotta love it when even sports teams do their best for the hard workin' teachers of their city.

Did you go?

Oops. Sorry About That.

2006-09-18T23:05:00.000-05:00

Last week I changed the blogger settings on comments to moderate.

I thought it would let me delete abusive or off-topic comments.

Instead it stopped all comments from publishing until approved, an activity no one here has the time for. This was an error. I did not realize that comments needed to be approved to show up.

So, we are taking all comments again and apologize for the blocking of previous comments.

Be nice to each other.

No Words Necessary

2006-09-18T22:54:00.000-05:00

I know there is a joke about Ms. Stewart and the UPC in here somewhere...but I will leave it up to you.

Calling I.M Stillanoptimist! (And Russo, too)

2006-09-18T22:14:00.000-05:00

Interesting discussion going on over at Kevin Drum's Washington Monthly blog.

I read it and some of the comments. It made me think of I.M. Stillanoptimist discussing the role of poverty, etc. and why schools struggle so much over at Mr. Russo's District 299 blog.

Below is the post in full. Go and read the comments. Some good and some weird stuff there.
Here is Mr. Drum's post:

DO YOUR HOMEWORK!....Conor Clarke writes today about a rash of back-to-school articles suggesting that homework is a sham that does nothing to help student achievement. In fact, he says, it's worse than that:

It would be a mistake to view this as a surprise, or even an isolated failure. After all, it's not easy to find a connection between academic success and most educational policies....What if academic success is so overwhelmingly predetermined by outside factors that schools can do little to change the situation?
The recent spate of homework hatred raises this same question, and it should produce the same answer: Educational debates should focus less on education policy as such, and more on socioeconomic inequality.
The connections between inequality and academic success are well-documented. As a recent report in The American Journal of Sociology found, early social context is so important that children are "launched into achievement trajectories when they start formal schooling or even before" that are "highly stable over childhood and adolescence." These trajectories, in turn, create achievement gaps that are evident in early grades and grow with age, so that "even a slight edge in test scores during the early years can predict long-term advantage." And this isn't just because wealthier students go to ritzier schools: the trajectories are almost as predictable even when well-heeled students end up in economically disadvantaged institutions.
I'll confess that I have a lot of sympathy for this view. The education world seems to be perpetually riven by fantastically shrill battles between traditionalists and progressives, and in the end it's hard to see that either side ever manages to win decisively in any area. These battles have swung back and forth for decades (the traditionalists seem to have won the latest round in the math wars, for example), but there's precious little evidence that kids today learn any more or less than kids in the 40s and 50s. Or the 60s or 70s. Does any of this stuff really make a difference?
Maybe. But I think Conor is probably right: simple socioeconomic inequality is such an overwhelming factor that everything else combined is barely a blip on the radar. Unfortunately, addressing that requires lots of money and an enormously intensive effort. A year of two of Head Start just doesn't do the trick. There's not much hope of anyone making a serious push on this front anytime soon.

I thought this was a good way to start an argument with teachers of every political/philosophical stripe. Tell them homework is a sham and stand back and watch the fur fly.

I think that Conor Clark's assertion that "After all, it's not easy to find a connection between academic success and most educational policies...." is something I think the good folks over at the Education Trust can quickly refute. They have all the data on the importance of teacher quality and its impact on student achievement (check out The Real Value of Teachers at their site).

Your thoughts Mr/Ms. I.M. Stillanoptimist?

Who is Steve Huntley?

2006-09-15T22:47:00.000-05:00

Steve Huntley is (I think at least according to his column) a member of the Sun-Times editorial board. He makes a really lame attempt to show that vouchers will save us from the school funding crisis - or something like that. Uhh, no. Anyay, not to toot my own horn or anything but I took the liberty of reviewing his column. My verdict - Steve Huntley is not so swift. I mean, I wouldn't interview myself if I was writing a column. You don't believe me. Read my post - you'll see. Really, I think he interviewed himself.

How About Some Good News?

2006-09-14T20:55:00.000-05:00

Ok,

Two weeks. Classes still over the limit, kids restless and antsy, I could find 100's of things to complain about.

I want to hear a couple of good things. We do this job for lots of reasons, but most of all for the payoffs you can't get anywhere else.

Anyone have one of those yet?

Don't be shy. I'll start it off ok?

I had a young woman transfer into my class just a couple of days ago. I had her as a freshmen at my old school (CVCA) and now here it is years later and she walks into my class.

She said she transferred over into Gage. She saw my name on the teacher list and asked if it was me and insisted on being in my class.

Makes you feel good, eh? It did me.

So, how about a couple of nice stories today to get over all the difficult things going on right now?

Fire away.

Detroit Teachers Agree To End Two-Week Walkout

2006-09-14T06:39:00.000-05:00

Full CNN story here.

The financially struggling district initially sought a 5.5 percent pay cut over two years, part of $88 million in concessions it wanted from the 7,000 teachers and 2,500 other unionized professionals. The district has a $1.36 billion budget and is trying to close a $105 million deficit.

The union wanted raises after years without them.

The two sides eventually agreed on a one-year pay freeze, followed by increases of 1 percent the second year and 2.5 percent the third. Veteran teachers will start paying 10 percent of their health insurance costs, something that only those hired since 1992 had been doing. Teachers will lose three days' pay for three preparation days that were canceled because of the strike.

Someone please tell me this is not the future. Freeze for a year, and paltry 1 and 2% raises? CNN posted this story at 10:52pm on the 13th.

Just for some perspective, the following story was printed in the Detroit Free Press on the same morning, Sept. 13:

Foreclosures soar
35,000 Metro Detroiters lose homes so far this year
Dorothy Bourdet / The Detroit News

Metro Detroit homeowners are skidding into foreclosure at nearly three times the rate as they were last year as a slumping economy, falling home values and risky mortgages leave more household budgets in the red.

From the manors of Bloomfield Hills to the bungalows in south Warren, Metro Detroiters in every walk of life are having trouble making their house payments and fending off the repo man.
According to figures to be released today by RealtyTrac, foreclosures shot up 137 percent, from 14,789 to 35,041, in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb and Livingston counties from January through August, compared to the same period last year.

I am speechless.

Hey everyone

2006-09-13T21:22:00.000-05:00

Teacherx here.

I feel honored to have been asked to post at Chicago Teachers Speak out. You can look for me here, or you can find me over at teacherx.typepad.com. I just posted a piece which is really a meditation on the whole big box thing going on. How does it relate to the schools? Children are affected when families do not have enough money. When people have to worry about basic neccessities then in the long run, the children suffer. We need real jobs in chicago that pay real wages so that families can worry about their child's homework instead of worrying about paying the bills.

My Daily Dose

2006-09-13T06:52:00.000-05:00

District 299 Chicago Public Schools Blog
All about Chicago schools -- all the time.

If you haven't checked out Russo's blog, it is a must read.

Kids Suspended Over Free-Speech T-shirt Protest

2006-09-12T21:24:00.000-05:00

Full story from the Detroit Free Press here.

It was Gandhi's philosophy of peaceful, nonviolent protest that inspired Kelly and Todd Galley's children to revolt against the Lincoln Park School District's new, stricter dress code.

But it was the text of the First Amendment -- ironed onto their T-shirts -- that got them suspended.

I have always thought that uniform policies made little sense. The rationale is always shifting, kinda like why we are in Iraq. One year it is gang affiliation, next it is parents want it because it makes shopping for clothes easier, one time someone told me it was a good thing because it helps blurs class lines, last year someone said it is about maintaining order in hallways and discipline.....the answers to the question keep changing.

So I'll ask you. Why do we have a uniform policy?

P.S. Kinda of a cool story about kids suspended for wearing the first amendment, yeah?

Where's My $1 Million?

2006-09-12T20:58:00.000-05:00

Remember this from September 1 of this year?

The Associated Press

September 1, 2006, 9:24 AM CDT
SEATTLE -- The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is putting $16 million into a new high school improvement program that's to be launched this year in eleven high schools in Chicago and two other districts.

Well, It's been over two weeks. 1/11th is well over a million dollars. Why isn't this money flowing into my building? Are our students undeserving? Where is it going?

Did your school get any of this cash? Did it have any impact/make changes?

What would you do with $1 million dollars if you could use it to "improve" your school?

Teacher X Goes To The Mat

2006-09-11T22:47:00.000-05:00

There is a serious smackdown of the whole Charter concept going on over at Teacher X.

Read the post in full here.

Money Quotes:

"Once again, if Urban Prep had their own building, I wouldn't be so outraged - but I am completely outraged at this quote. First of all, I ask the same question that I asked again - WHY IS HE THERE? What model is Duncan talking about? Overcrowded schools? 30 students in a classroom? Firing principals with principles and installing bureaucrats to do the boards dirty work? Since he is Daley's man, is he signaling that CPS is going to further Charterize the system? Where are all the "surplus" kids going to go? Eventually they are going to put kids in McCormick Place because they have nowhere else to go."

Snip...

"This whole dog and pony show over at Lindbloom is crazy. It's ridiculous and a parody of what responsible school administrators should be doing about the system that they are (unfortunately) adminstering."

Don't you wish your kid was in this person's classroom?

Detroit Battle Goes On...

2006-09-11T21:16:00.000-05:00

Full CNN story here.

Teachers defy judge's order to return to work; contract talks resume

DETROIT, Michigan (AP) -- Thousands of striking Detroit teachers defied a judge's order to return to work Monday as school officials and the union resumed contract talks in the two-week dispute.

Circuit Judge Susan Borman on Friday ordered the 7,000 teachers to go back to work Monday, but district spokesman Lekan Oguntoyinbo said the overwhelming majority remained off the job. He said attorneys would go back in court Tuesday to ask the judge to "enforce our rights."

State law allows for fines and other penalties against employees who ignore a back-to-work order, but Oguntoyinbo would not say what action the district would seek.

I'll be keeping my eye on this...but one might ask, why the strike? What is Detroit asking of its teachers?

Check this out from CBSNEWS.COM:

The union last month rejected a two-year contract proposal that sought 5.5-percent wage reductions and copays for health care benefits of up to 20 percent.At Beaubien Middle School, many parents dropping their children off expressed sympathy with the teachers, who are being asked to make $88 million in concessions."They have to provide for their families," said Diane Madlock, whose son Jonathan is starting seventh grade. "They can't do that if their salaries are continually being cut."

Let's see...5.5% wage cut, check. 20% rise in insurance co-pays...check.

What would you do? Do you support what the teachers in Detroit are doing? Anyone know how we can help out our union brothers and sisters (Is it just me, or does the "brothers and sisters" part sounds too 70's?) across the pond as it were?

Detroit...Could This Be Chicago In One Year?

2006-09-11T20:41:00.000-05:00

No one, and I mean no one I know, truly wants a strike.

Not for ideological reasons, not for any reason. But a strike there may be if CPS forces the issue.

Look at what the teachers in Detroit are going through right now. Nasty business. I promise to post some info on what is going on in Detroit ASAP.

To the teachers out there, what is the deal-breaker issue for you? What would you strike over?

To our other readers, what issues, if used for a strike, would make you think the teachers went too far in walking out? What issues would make you think CPS pushed it too far?

I would like to say, if a strike, real or theatened, is on the agenda, why isn't our union holding informational meetings right now? They should do the math and advise us how much we should start saving right now for a one week, two week, or one month strike. The credit union could make a marketing coup right now if they would help us open up anticipated strike savings accounts.

How much would be enough to get you through a strike?

Let's figure a month long walkout (I know that is long by historical standards, but better safe than sorry). How much do you need to set aside starting now?

I would estimate most teachers would need between 3 and 4 thousand set aside to make it a month without pay and still pay all their bills on time.

To save $3,ooo, a teacher would have to save $125 a pay period for the next 24 checks they receive. For $4,000, the amount goes to $167 for the next 24 pay periods.

Is there anyone out there doing this? Or will you let your credit rating be punished?

Why isn't this part of the teacher induction service?

Violence Against Teachers

2006-09-11T20:36:00.000-05:00

From CNN, whole story here.

CHULABHORN NAVAL BASE, Thailand (AP) -- "When you pull the trigger, you've got to keep steady," the instructor sternly told the elementary school teachers. "If your hand is shaking you can't shoot."

Teachers have one of the deadliest jobs in southern Thailand, with 44 killed by the bombs and bullets of an Islamic insurgency since 2004.

So the teachers are learning how to shoot back.

I know that violence against teachers in CPS is a serious issue and should be treated as such, but what the heck is going on in Thailand?

Do you have a story about violence in our schools here in Chicago? Click below to share your comment.

On This Day

2006-09-11T18:57:00.000-05:00

I have a unique CPS Bureaucracy memory of September 11.

I was teaching freshmen World Studies that year. The syllabus was Europe and the Americas in the Fall, Asia and the Middle East in Spring.

On the Friday after 9-11, the curriculum coordinator, who had been walking by my room, inquired as to why I was teaching about the Middle East, when it wasn't scheduled until the Spring.

I talked about "teachable moments" and how I felt I should capitalize on what had happened and I would simply teach Europe in the Spring.

I actually had to explain to a CPS administrative employee why I was teaching about the Middle East on Sept. 14, 2001.

Kinda says it all doesn't it?

Found this video on a blog I read often called Firedoglake. I hope you enjoy it as we all pause to remember the events of Sept. 11, 2001.

Click on the video to play.

CTU DUES INCREASE EXPLAINED

2006-09-11T17:55:00.000-05:00

Note to our readers: The following post was emailed to me from deep inside the last house delegates meeting - more to come from this author

DUES INCREASE 10.5% 2006-07 DUES$ 879.27

The increase will appear on the Sept. 22nd check, the dues will be $33.82. The formula for assessing dues is to take 1% of Step 6 Lane 1.

The salary quoted by the UPC/CTU is $59,727, ($597.00 CTU dues) add to that the $282.00 AFT and IFT ‘passthroughs’ and increases (of which Marilyn Stewart strongly supported, and will benefit from).

However the correct salary figure is $54,650 whichwould make the dues $828.50 (still too much). Either the CTU deliberately padded the dues increase by an extra $50.77 or they don’t know what they’re doing; and these are the people who could be negotiating the next contract!

The gain from this ‘mistake’ will give the CTU over $1.5 million of extra money. The total increase amounts to over $2.6 million for the UPC/CTU family and friends. The leadership did not allow discussion or questions from delegates at the House meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 6th. The only people allowed to speak during the question period were UPC members and CTU staff.

They continued to lie to the house and members about the contract. They are not enforcing the contract, i.e. they are not doing their job! They figure if they tell the lies enough everyone will believe them. (Note from Victor: I tried to find the video of Bush at a Social Security meeting saying that his job forced him to repeat things over and over to, and I quote, "catapult the propoganda" to insert here for your viewing pleasure but couldn't find it. This author's take on the UPC just reminded me of that...I don't know why.)

They (UPC) hired 4 more field reps. Patronage, the bad kind, is alive and well at CTU. They are emptying the CTU treasury into their pockets and then raising the dues and are getting away with it.

They have given tens of thousands of dollars to Mike Madigan are supporting Blagojevich and haven't passed one piece of legislation to benefit CTU members or our schools. But their expense accounts are growing bigger and bigger every day. They seem to expending all of their energy and what money they don’t put in their own pockets attacking Debbie Lynch instead of defending and protecting the members of the CTU.

'Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.' And the UPC/CTU takes this to extremes!

Author - Sarah Loftus

In one year the increase goes up by 10.5%...10.5%????

What the heck, golly gosh gee willikers?!@#?

Another Charter Feel Good Story

2006-09-10T15:01:00.000-05:00

A feel good story about the new Urban Prep Charter of Englewood from the Chicago Defender.

Here is Rufus Williams, President of the Chicago Board of Education:

"We're closing the achievement gap. Let us have a moment of silence for low expectations because they're over and they're dead," Williams said. "I believe these students will shatter negative stereotypes often applied to our youth - particularly African American youth."

Mr. Williams, is it the magic of charters that will bury low expectations or could it be quality teaching? Better yet, if you know how to get the job done for 150 young boys, why can't you make it happen for all 500,000 students in the city?

Perhaps Mr. Williams needs a partner in this quest to bury low expectations. I would recommend he make the CTU his partner, not high-powered business people with an anti-union philosophy.

What do you think? Is there a way we can help Mr. Williams out?

The More The Merrier

2006-09-10T14:37:00.000-05:00

I will post this call for new authors once a week or so until this site is filled with the diverse, authentic and challenging voices the teachers of CPS are. So come on already, drop me an email and write for us. The following call was originally posted on Friday, Sept. 1

Your voice about issues you face at your school is needed to make this site really work. Email me to request authoring privileges.

You can reach me here.

Together we can make this the best source of information about Chicago Public Schools.

You don't even need to use your name, you can post and comment anonymously.

Negotiating on Pension Funding

2006-09-10T14:30:00.000-05:00

Our anonymous author "John Dewey" wrote a post about possible negotiating ideas for the upcoming contract (see post in full here).

Although Mr. "Dewey" makes some interesting points, I wonder if the rumor that UPC is negotiating about pension funding is true. Has anyone heard anything about this? (Mr. "Dewey" wrote: "Rumor has it that Stewart will give up the Pension Funding requirement in return for the PAT and charter concessions she seeks.")

Since Mr. Dewey's post, I have talked with some knowledgable people.

I was told that pension funding means the money the state is obligated to provide the pension fund each year--and if the pension fund dips below 90%, CPS is obligated to put in the difference to keep it at 90% funded.

Our pension pick-up, on the other hand, is the 7% CPS has to add to our paychecks in addition to salary, for our total compensation. That 7% pension-pickup was negotiated in lieu of a raise some years back, and cannot stop unless negotiated away by the union, which, of course, would be suicide.

What have you heard? Would Stewart and the UPC negotiate away the CPS contribution to our pension funding?