New teachers-union arch is warrior still enlightening her style

Moore, new boss of a Orange County Classroom Teachers Association, even had to quarrel complaints of crude campaigning to take a two-year job.

As boss of a 6,000-member union, Moore, 52, will in many ways be a face of Orange County teachers to propagandize leaders and state officials. She will play a pivotal purpose in negotiate as a nation’s 10th-largest district implements opening pay, and she will paint district teachers before an often-hostile state Legislature.

“I’ve always been taught to pronounce up,” pronounced Moore, an Oak Ridge High School connoisseur who attended a teachers’ college in Chicago and taught in Illinois and Osceola County before settling behind in Orange.

She has taught unchanging and means students in facile and center schools opposite a county, including during Dr. Phillips Elementary, Lee Middle and Lake Como, Maxey and Millennia elementaries. She also spent dual years as a financial planner and word saleswoman.

“I wish to make things improved for teachers,” she said. “I’m a problem-solver. we have ideas. Some people see that as severe their authority.”

Though she is new to a tip job, Moore is already picking her battles.

This summer, shortly after holding office, Moore lifted some eyebrows when she objected to Superintendent Barbara Jenkins’ choice for emissary superintendent.

She spoke out opposite appointing former Monroe County Superintendent Jesus Jara, in partial since he faced dual astray labor complaints there, both eventually dismissed. Moore objected during a open assembly and handed house members a folder of papers on Jara’s record.

Several house members, before voting to sinecure Jara, were confused that they were being asked to overrule a superintendent on her choice of second-in-command.

“I don’t tell her who to select for her cabinet,” Jenkins pronounced later.

To set some expectations, Jenkins took Moore out for lunch final month, and a dual devise to accommodate regularly.

“There are firm to be bumps and harsh as they well-spoken out their relationship,” pronounced Cliff McInturff, a late clergyman and former CTA president. The superintendent “and Diana will only have to make a attribute together that will establish how a kinship and a district get along.”

Moore’s bent to doubt leaders — aloud and in open — has led to conflicts with her bosses, and her character has combined some enemies.

Teachers union approves deal to save jobs

SAN DIEGO — A tentative agreement with the San Diego Unified School District that would save over 1,400 teaching jobs in exchange for deferred salary increases was ratified by San Diego Education Association members, the union announced Wednesday.

“It definitely was a happy day,” said Lindsay Burningham, a member of the union bargaining team.  “The many hours that we put into the bargain and the ratification I think paid off, with the overwhelming majority of our members supporting and ratifying this tentative agreement that we reached.”

The Board of Education is scheduled to consider approving the contract at a special meeting on Thursday.

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  Trustee criticizes district deal with teachers union

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  Tentative agreement would avoid teacher layoffs

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Just over 4,500 ballots were cast at SDEA headquarters in Mission Valley over three days, with 3033 ballots (67 percent) voting in favor of the pact and 1,468 ballots opposing it, according to a union statement.

“I’m really proud of my peers and even though we might not agree, we need to get together now,” said elementary school teacher Jesse Carrillo.  “We need to unite, because ultimately its for our children.” 

The turnout was higher than for ratification of previous contracts, according to union officials, who said nearly 3,200 members voted for the deal in 2010 that included the raises that will now be held off until more funding is available.  

The school district faced going into the next academic year with an estimated budget shortfall of around $120 million.

The school board issued layoff notices in March to around 1,400 teachers to save $68 million. The concessions, which include five furlough days, equal that amount.

“I voted yes because its not only about me, it’s about students,” said Fay elementary school teacher Sharon Fargason.

Board of Education President John Lee Evans praised the outcome.

“As president I had insisted that we have an agreement that would responsibly balance the budget and protect our educational mission at the same time,” he said. “This agreement does that.”

SDEA officials said they would begin working with the district to implement the agreement and ensure that schools are fully staffed when the next academic year begins in September.

Talks between Wichita School District, teachers union reach impasse after …

WICHITA, Kan. — The Wichita School District and its teachers union have declared an impasse in contract talks following a heated negotiation session that district officials called adversarial.

The Wichita Eagle (http://bit.ly/NfUty7 ) reports the district will seek federal mediation to settle the contract dispute with its 4,000 teachers after talks broke down Wednesday.

Negotiations began in March on a new contract to take effect in August. Major sticking points have included teacher evaluations, lesson plans, dress codes and classroom discipline.

A lawyer for the district, Tom Powell, says the union started the negotiations on a negative note by insisting on recording the talks.

___

Information from: The Wichita Eagle, kansas.com”http://www.kansas.com

Wichita school contract talks reach impasse

The Wichita School District and its teachers union have declared an impasse in contract talks following a heated negotiation session that district officials called adversarial.

The Wichita Eagle (http://bit.ly/NfUty7 ) reports the district will seek federal mediation to settle the contract dispute with its 4,000 teachers after talks broke down Wednesday.

Negotiations began in March on a new contract to take effect in August. Major sticking points have included teacher evaluations, lesson plans, dress codes and classroom discipline.

A lawyer for the district, Tom Powell, says the union started the negotiations on a negative note by insisting on recording the talks.

Wichita teachers, school district at impasse on contract talks; federal …

The Wichita school district will seek federal mediation — and closed-door sessions — to settle a contract dispute with its 4,000 teachers over salaries and other issues.

Representatives for the district and the local teachers union, declared an impasse today after another heated negotiation session that district officials called “adversarial.”

Neither side knew when a mediator would be appointed. A new contract is set to begin Aug. 1.

Since talks began in March, the sides have not discussed salaries and have made little progress toward consensus on such issues as teacher evaluations, lesson plans, dress code, classroom discipline and professional development.

“This has been very adversarial, and I think you have to agree,” said Tom Powell, general counsel for the district. “Right from day one, the way it was orchestrated, the comments.

“I think that’s an impediment to us reaching agreement, and … for all those reasons, we’re at impasse.”

Greg Jones, lead negotiator for United Teachers of Wichita, said his group had hoped to extend talks past a Friday deadline that, according to state law, requires mediation unless both sides agree to continue.

“We certainly believe there’s some possibility of coming to agreement,” Jones said. “We haven’t even talked about money, so I don’t think we’re at impasse. We need to talk about it.

“I guess they want to go to impasse,” he said. “Obviously, the cameras bother them a great deal.”

Teacher contract negotiations are public, open meetings.

This year union officials brought a video camera to the first session, intending to record the proceedings in case they wanted to share them with their members, possibly on YouTube.

The district’s team protested the move, then relented and began recording the sessions as well.

Today Powell said the union’s insistence on recording the sessions started this year’s talks on a negative note.

“When you tell our team right on the first day that there’s a possibility that we’re going to be on YouTube, what do you think?” Powell said.

“That puts us in a … position where we have to be thoughtful, be very careful about what we say because whatever we say can be completely taken out of context. We could be made to look like utter idiots.”

Jones countered: “Since things are public anyway, we don’t think there was anything out of line about having the videotapes.”

“What was really out of line was when you said what it was going to be used for,” Powell replied. “That’s really out of line. You knew our feelings that day.”

During today’s three-hour session, the teams discussed a district proposal for more detailed lesson plans and one that would require teachers to follow their school’s discipline plan before referring any student to the principal.

They also heard details on proposed new requirements for short-term disability.

Jones, the union leader, said his team has a preliminary proposal regarding a teacher dress code, but they didn’t want to present it until they heard from the district on salaries.

The union is asking for a 3 percent salary increase and a return to raises, plus back pay, for additional education or experience. It also seeks fewer professional development days.

District leaders have proposed freezing teacher pay at 2008 levels.

Powell said his team wasn’t prepared to discuss salary issues because they would not meet with school board members until June 11.

Portland Plans To Save 110 Teaching Jobs

Portland Public Schools learned Thursday that the city plans to cover nearly one-fifth of the district’s budget shortfall to help save 110 teaching positions.

Rob Manning / OPBFrom left: Gwen Sullivan, Portland Association of

Teachers president), Carole Smith, PPS Superintendent, and Mayor Sam Adams.

Mayor Sam Adams called in his finance officials, as you’d expect for a city budget announcement. But he had special guests, too: superintendents from two city school districts: Carole Smith with Portland Public and Don Grotting from David Douglas. Adams told them the city should support the progress they’re making.

Adams explained, “Now is not the time to reduce the teaching staff of our schools, and lose this momentum. So we have ‘overcut’ the city’s budget in places, to come up with $7 million, about $7.5 million in one-time resources.”

Portland Public gets $5 million. That’s roughly half of what it’ll cost the district to avoid cutting 110 teaching jobs. The city struck a deal with the district and teachers’ union to make up the rest. Superintendent Carole Smith says she’s planning to cut beyond the nine million in administrative cuts she had already proposed.

Smith said, “Our principals will be looking at a three-day furlough — so school-based staff, three-day furlough. And our central office is looking at a ten-day furlough, as a portion of how we are going to cover our two-point-six-five million dollar portion of the deal.”

For weeks, the teachers’ union has balked at accepting furlough days, in part to pressure Smith to make deeper administrative cuts. The president of the Portland Association of Teachers, Gwen Sullivan, didn’t say how her members would help fill the remaining gap now. The deal for Portland Public needs support from the union, from the Portland school board, and the city council to hang together.

Other Portland districts haven’t been asked to make concessions in exchange for city money. Superintendent Don Grotting says David Douglas has cut 16 percent of its teaching staff in the last two years.

Grotting said, “We just settled our contract, and our bargaining unit made over — both bargaining units made over one million dollars in concessions of benefits they will not receive.”

Adams’ final budget as mayor focused on “direct services.” In addition to teachers, it prioritizes police patrol officers and firefighters.

A big chunk of the 14 million dollars Adams proposes cutting comes from what he calls “back office” workers. The head of Management of Finance, Jack Graham, has a lot of those.

Graham said, “The cuts to core administrative services’ function are substantial. However, I feel that it is the right thing to do, to cut administration in order to provide direct services to our citizens.”

The budget plan would also hit Portlanders in the wallet. Adams proposes a rise of more than six percent on combined water and sewer bills. But he points out that’s a smaller increase than the bureaus requested.

All these pieces — the $7.5 million for schools, the utility rate increases, the cuts to city administration — are part of the city’s budget. It still needs approval from Portland city council.

This story originally appeared on Oregon Public Broadcasting.

Some teaching jobs may return pending ratification of contract – The Record

Careful not to put a number or percentage to anything at this point, Douglas County School District Superintendent Lisa Noonan confirmed Monday that an agreement has been reached with the teachers union and that some jobs likely will be added back to the 2012-13 budget.

“The mediation was successful on Thursday,” she said. “Some pretty big next steps have to take place. The membership of the teachers association has to have a formal vote to ratify the agreement. That’s this Thursday. If that passes, then we will hold a special board meeting Tuesday night at 5 p.m. That’s when school board members get to decide whether they want to approve it. If it’s passed at the board level, then we’ll have a contract for a two-year period.”

Noonan said the contract with the Douglas County Professional Education Association would apply to the current school year and the 2012-13 school year. There would be no raises, but there would be no pay cuts.

Noonan said teachers would give up two contract days a year, from 186 to 184. The savings would cover what teachers have been asked to pay into the public employee retirement system. Health insurance premiums the district pays per employee would remain the same at $575 a month through the calendar year, then increase to $585 in January.

What the agreement means for 20 teaching positions recently cut or reduced is still uncertain.

“We’ll definitely have some call-backs, but not enough to reverse everything we did,” Noonan said.

She said add-backs are still contingent on board ratification of the contract.

“We’re still analyzing the cost of each component of this,” she said. “It definitely allows some to come back.”

On May 16, a day before the agreement was reached, a public hearing on the budget elicited emotional testimony from students, parents and staff members in defense of programs slated for reduction — specifically agriculture and music at Douglas High School.

“We RIF’d (reduction in force) with the worst case in mind,” Noonan said. “This is not the worst-case settlement.”

FOX5 Vegas – KVVUAs CCSD budget looms, 1K teaching jobs on the line

LAS VEGAS (FOX5) -

The Clark County School District will have a public hearing Wednesday night at 5 p.m. to go over the tentative budget for the 2012-2013 school year.

It’s been a battle between the teachers’ union and the district, and about 1,000 teacher layoffs are possible.

In early May an arbitrator ruled in favor of the teachers who were seeking pay raises, but the district has repeatedly threatened layoffs. The announcement of specific layoffs may come during this public session.

Superintendent Dwight Jones has said in the past the school board may be faced with laying off about 1,350 positions. Either way, it appears pink slips for at least some teachers will become a reality.

CCSD had previously tentatively approved its nearly $2 billion budget, then the teachers won the ruling, which will force revisions.

The final budget plan must be set and sent off to the state for approval by June 8.

FOX5 will bring you updates on the budget battle tonight at 5, 10 and 11 p.m.

Copyright 2012 KVVU (KVVU Broadcasting Corporation). All rights reserved.

City, Schools And Teachers Join In Effort To Save Jobs

Portland city leaders are in talks with leaders at Portland Public Schools, and the teachers’ union, in an effort to avoid cutting 110 teaching positions.

The Portland Association of Teachers sent a message to members saying the union has been “intensely working for five straight days with the district.”

Portland Public Schools’ spokesman Matt Shelby says city leaders also are involved in a united effort to keep the district from laying off teachers this spring.

“It’s kind of a joint brainstorm for ‘who can do what’ to help limit those cuts to the schools. And so we’re making progress there. We’re happy with that. We don’t have a ‘done deal’ yet,” Shelby says.

The district’s proposed budget recovers more than $10 million of its $27 million shortfall by cutting teachers.

Superintendent Carole Smith has asked the union to help restore teaching jobs by accepting unpaid furlough days. The union has told the district to look into cutting more than the 34 administrative jobs cut in the proposed budget.

Portland Plans To Save 110 Teaching Jobs

Portland Public Schools learned Thursday that the city plans to cover nearly one-fifth of the district’s budget shortfall to help save 110 teaching positions.

Mayor Sam Adams called in his finance officials, as you’d expect for a city budget announcement. But he had special guests, too: superintendents from two city school districts: Carole Smith with Portland Public and Don Grotting from David Douglas. Adams told them the city should support the progress they’re making.

Adams explained, “Now is not the time to reduce the teaching staff of our schools, and lose this momentum. So we have ‘overcut’ the city’s budget in places, to come up with $7 million, about $7.5 million in one-time resources.”

Portland Public gets $5 million. That’s roughly half of what it’ll cost the district to avoid cutting 110 teaching jobs. The city struck a deal with the district and teachers’ union to make up the rest. Superintendent Carole Smith says she’s planning to cut beyond the nine million in administrative cuts she had already proposed.

Smith said, “Our principals will be looking at a three-day furlough — so school-based staff, three-day furlough. And our central office is looking at a ten-day furlough, as a portion of how we are going to cover our two-point-six-five million dollar portion of the deal.”

For weeks, the teachers’ union has balked at accepting furlough days, in part to pressure Smith to make deeper administrative cuts. The president of the Portland Association of Teachers, Gwen Sullivan, didn’t say how her members would help fill the remaining gap now. The deal for Portland Public needs support from the union, from the Portland school board, and the city council to hang together.

Other Portland districts haven’t been asked to make concessions in exchange for city money. Superintendent Don Grotting says David Douglas has cut 16 percent of its teaching staff in the last two years.

Grotting said, “We just settled our contract, and our bargaining unit made over — both bargaining units made over one million dollars in concessions of benefits they will not receive.”

Adams’ final budget as mayor focused on “direct services.” In addition to teachers, it prioritizes police patrol officers and firefighters.

A big chunk of the 14 million dollars Adams proposes cutting comes from what he calls “back office” workers. The head of Management of Finance, Jack Graham, has a lot of those.

Graham said, “The cuts to core administrative services’ function are substantial. However, I feel that it is the right thing to do, to cut administration in order to provide direct services to our citizens.”

The budget plan would also hit Portlanders in the wallet. Adams proposes a rise of more than six percent on combined water and sewer bills. But he points out that’s a smaller increase than the bureaus requested.

All these pieces — the $7.5 million for schools, the utility rate increases, the cuts to city administration — are part of the city’s budget. It still needs approval from Portland city council.