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THE
EASTSIDE L1INE
Local #1 News Edition
Volume 1, No. 1 ..............................................................................................September 21, 2010
From the President . . . .
Where to begin? This is a question that we all are facing as we head back to our busy classrooms with anticipation, renewed energy and a hint of sadness for the summer’s end. As your new president I would like to wish all FDTA members ‘Good Luck” as we face another year of ‘do more with less’.
As I have spent time in the FDTA office over the summer, I have come to several realizations. The first is that we have been extremely privileged to have been represented by our past president and colleague Steve Fairburn. His efforts on our behalf, have been outstanding, over the past six years. Once again, thank you Steve and enjoy being back in the class. It will be impossible for me to fill the shoes (trendy sneakers) that you have left, but I will certainly try. Secondly I have already found out that the FDTA has a great resource and team in its executive committee.
Here is the 2010/2011 FDTA Executive:
President: Cindy Gleb ( from JEJSS)
Vice-President: Steve Fairburn (from ESS)
Local Representative to the BCTF: Kate Noakes (from FSS)
Secretary Treasurer: Bill Bell (from FSS)
Bargaining Chair: Mike Tomney(from FSS)
Professional Development Chair: Jaslene Saran(from SSS)
Health and Safety (co) Chairs: Bill Bell and Fred Gietz (from FSS)
Social Justice Chair: Debbie Blais (from JEJSS)
Aboriginal Education Contact Jane Fraser (from IDES)
TTOC Rep: Mike Kelly (from ESS)
Member-at-Large (2) Darrell Walker (from FSS) &
Shelley Salanski (from GES)
Past President (1 year) Steve Fairburn ( from ESS)
Staff Development Fund
There are many issues that the FDTA is working on presently. One that many
members have been inquiring about is the loss of our Staff Development funds.
As we have filed a grievance regarding these funds we ask teachers to hold
off applying.
Bill 33 (Class Size/Composition)
Bill 33 has a few changes this year. Remember when you are told by your principal
that you have a class that exceeds the size/composition limits and have received
all the documents you have requested from the principal, that you have 2
days to look them over before you must request your consultation meeting.
You have the right to have a staff rep with you to record information and
the consultations must be completed by Monday, September 27th, 2010. Talk
to your staff rep for more ideas and information. Remember we have to be
the voice for our students.
Local Bargaining
Looking for the silver lining leads me to the local bargaining process that
we have begun by having the Bargaining Survey up and running. Please give
your home email address to your staff rep by September 30th, 2010 so we can
send you the link.
After Oct 5th the bargaining committee will begin to look at the results and make recommendations on the provincial items to be discussed at the FDTA’s General Meeting on Oct. 12th, in the library at FSS. These recommendations will be taken to the Bargaining conference at the end of October. The team will also use the survey’s results to help pick out areas of concern for our local bargaining process which begins this year. We are very hopeful that the local bargaining process will give all our members a chance to work together for positive improvements to our students learning conditions, which are our working conditions.
~ ~ ~ ~
Kudos to our Board
I would like to thank our board for their letter of June 23rd, 2010 to the
Minister of Education Re: Budget Needs 2010/2011. It was very hearting to see
this request for additional funding for SD5 and to see the Board asking the
Minister to consider an annual inflation adjustment to help maintain local
programming for students.
~ ~ ~ ~
“ Living With Balance” Group Program
This program was well received last spring and will be offered again tentatively beginning Thursday, October 28th, 2010 from 4:30 –6:30 pm at the FDTA Office in Fernie. The free program runs for 6 consecutive Thursdays.
For more information or to register log on to the BCTF website at bctf.ca
~ ~ ~ ~
A WISE WORD
Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.
Will Rogers
~ ~ ~ ~
Know your Collective Agreement
(With thanks from Bob Wilson, Golden Teachers’ Association, Local 18)
Article B (PERLA): Reimbursement for Personally Owned Professional Material
The employer shall reimburse an employee to a maximum of $150 for loss of, damage to or personal insurance deductible for personally owned professional material brought to the employee’s workplace to assist in the execution of the employee’s duties, provided that:
a. The loss or damage is not the result of negligence on the part of the employee
claiming compensation;
b. The claim for loss or damage exceeds $10;
c. If applicable, a copy of the claim approval from his/her insurance carrier
shall be provided to the employer;
d. The appropriate Principal or Vice-Principal reports that the loss was sustained
while on assignment for the employer.
Considering the amount of professional and learning resources we bring into our classrooms, the $150 you can claim should your resources be lost or damaged isn't much. As the year starts, please consider this advice:
Creating an inventory of personally-owned professional materials not only protects our investments in resources, but also reminds us of how much we have supported public education out of our own pockets. This is of particular importance this year, as we reflect upon the needs of the public education system and our bargaining cycle ahead.
~ ~ ~ ~
New Teacher Orientation
SD5 is offering an orientation program for new teachers and TTOC’s scheduled for:
Thursday, October 14th, 2010
· BCTF Workshop from 1:30 to 3:30 at the CDTA office (to be confirmed)
·
District Orientation from 3:30 to 5:00 pm at the Board Office.
~ ~ ~ ~
Teachers’ frustration grows as ministry data system fails time
and again
(BCTF News Release, September 14, 2010)
Teachers across BC are tearing out their hair in frustration over the repeated
failures and sluggish performance of the Ministry of Education’s expensive
centralized data system for collecting student information.
“
Once again, BCeSIS is creating complete havoc with the start of the new school
year,” said BCTF President Susan Lambert, referring to the British
Columbia enterprise Student Information System. Lambert contacted Deputy
Minister of Education James Gorman on Monday, and received assurances that
the problems had been fixed. However, teachers province-wide continue to
report it is dysfunctional.
“
The system simply isn’t working. Teachers can’t log on, they
can’t get class lists, can’t help students arrange program or
course changes, can’t take attendance properly. They can’t access
information about students with special needs, nor properly advocate for
student services in the class-size and composition consultations that should
be taking place right now. It’s causing enormous frustration due to
wasted time and effort that should be devoted to teaching,” Lambert
said.
Safety is key among teachers’ concerns about BCeSIS. Because teachers
don’t have class lists, they don’t know which children are supposed
to be in their classrooms. Especially in high schools with up to 2,000 students,
it’s impossible for teachers to know whether all their students are
present or not.
A survey done in 2009 in Langley found the level of expressed aggravation
and dissatisfaction was undeniable, with 88% of teachers reporting that BCeSIS
increased their level of work-related stress.
And it’s not only at the beginning of the school year that BCeSIS creates
headaches across the school system. It frequently crashes at semester change
and report card time, losing students’ marks and teachers’ comments.
One teacher wrote:
“
Asking for reports on problems with BCeSIS is a bit like giving an engineer
an abacus to calculate a moon launch trajectory, then asking if the abacus
is functioning properly. I think BCeSIS is functioning as designed. It’s
the design that’s flawed.”
Back in 2006, the BCTF urged the ministry not to bring in the high-cost low-performance
system, but teachers’ warnings were not heeded. Since then, school districts
have been told that if they did not join BCeSIS they would have to develop
their own systems, which had to be compatible with BCeSIS.
Not surprisingly, all 60 districts have opted in, paying $10 per student per
year for access. For example, that means the Vancouver School Board alone spends
over $500,000 on user fees annually.
However, the real costs of BCeSIS are much higher when additional computers, staff training, technical support, troubleshooting, lost productivity and wasted time are added into the equation. “This is yet another example of misguided, top-down management by this Ministry of Education,” Lambert said. “These costs should be borne by the province, not downloaded onto school districts and teachers.”
~ ~ ~ ~
BC Teachers Find Immense Satisfaction In Their Vocation
(edited for space)
While many academic studies focus on the problems and challenges in public
education, the BC Teachers’ Federation also wants to focus on the many
joys of a career in the classroom. As part of a larger study on the work life
of BC teachers, BCTF researchers have published “The satisfaction in
teaching: What BC teachers say about the positive aspects of their work.”
A comprehensive survey, with returns from more than 560 teachers across the
province, revealed a tremendous passion for the work of teaching, for the
magical moments when students capture new concepts or master new skills,
when professionals and parents work together to meet children’s needs.
The data revealed that teachers find greatest job satisfaction from:
·
helping students learn.
·
being positive influences in children’s lives.
·
collaborating with colleagues and parents.
·
exercising professional autonomy…
Another teacher said: “I love working with my students and can’t
imagine doing anything else, even though it is a very challenging job. I
love knowing that I have made a difference in my students’ lives and
helped them view themselves as capable and successful individuals.”
Yet another said: “It is wonderful to be able to help them learn and
inspire them to be curious. It is an honour when they remain in contact after
the course is over and after they have graduated from high school.”
BCTF President Susan Lambert said the study demonstrates how teachers’ passion for their work is expressed in many ways. “Teachers find deep satisfaction working with students in school and also by contributing in our communities, coaching sports, directing choirs, leading study tours, taking courses, and many other aspects of our profession and vocation of teaching.”
“As this school year kicks off we’ll stay focused on the joy of learning, even as we face the many challenges in our public schools,” Lambert said.
~ ~ ~ ~
Fighting For The Teacher's Attention
(edited for space)
by Rob Wipond, September 2010
Out of sight from parents and the general public, school teachers and administrators are waging an increasingly tense battle over children with special needs—and the outcome could influence the future of public education.
It’s discouraging. It’s depressing,” says Julia Christianson, a special education teacher at Cedar Hill Middle School. “I have many parents cry on my shoulder. And many times I ask myself, ‘What else can I do?’”
Now, like many teachers, Christianson is protesting publicly. And it’s not about pay, benefits, or holidays; it’s about “class size and composition.” Just a fuzzy phrase to outsiders, it’s gradually become a flashpoint for public education.
In 1987, BC held a Royal Commission into class size and composition. In the 1998 collective agreement between the British Columbia Teacher’s Federation (BCTF) and NDP government, no salary increases were included, but class size concessions were. (Kindergarten classes were limited to 20 students, and Grades 1-3 to 22 students.) In 2001, the Liberals ripped that agreement up. Then in 2006 they created Bill 33 to deal with class size and composition. Many say that “solution” is creating a crisis.
Bill 33 establishes recommended class size limits for all grades. The Greater Victoria School District (GVSD) has very few classes that surpass those limits, and most aren’t controversial. However, Bill 33 includes a related, more controversial provision: If more than three students with “special needs” and an Individual Education Plan (IEP) are enrolled in a class, the school principal and district superintendent must agree the class is still “appropriate for student learning.” And they must at least “consult” with, but not necessarily obtain the consent of, the teacher involved.
This is the “composition” component of the class size issue. Special needs students can vary from a child with poor hearing to a severely learning-disabled child with chronically disruptive behaviour. When a child is tested and officially “designated” with specific special needs, the teacher develops an IEP. Then, that child may or may not be eligible for some extra support from some kind of teaching assistant.
Obviously, many children with special needs don’t require a lot of extra
help or cause problems in class; nevertheless, the numbers and types of special
needs can often make a significant difference in how challenging a class is
to manage, depending on how much extra support the teacher gets…
According to 2009 BC Ministry of Education statistics, in grades 4 through
12 in Greater Victoria, there were 318 classes with four or more students
with an IEP—meaning about 21 percent of all classes were breaking Bill
33’s recommended class composition limit.
That’s slightly worse than the provincial average, but no one thinks this problem is unique to Victoria; it’s epidemic.
Funding Squeeze
Although the BC Liberals have made “highest funding ever” their buzzword for education, that fact disguises the truth.
The provincial education budget remained fairly steady from the 1980s to 2000 as a percentage of BC’s gross domestic product (GDP) and overall tax base, at around 4.8 percent of GDP. Since the Liberals came to power, the education budget has dropped to 3.7 percent of GDP, while GDP growth itself has slowed. So the overall dollar amounts have indeed gone up but, between rollbacks, inflation and commitments to teacher salary increases the Liberals made, the net negative impact on school boards’ operational budgets has been dramatic. And since special education staff are technically classified “non-essential,” like librarians and counsellors, they’ve borne the brunt of cutbacks.
Simultaneously, the province has largely eliminated targeted special needs funding, and instead expects school districts and principals to figure out ways to help special needs students from their main operational funding stream.
In that context, funding for special needs students has become impenetrably
complicated. Although individual teachers can see how much support specific
students are getting, there’s no clear way to calculate how much funding
is going into special education across the district, in individual schools,
or to disability subgroups.
Currently, for example, autism designations automatically kick in some extra
funding and assistance; learning disabilities do not. So one school may put
an autistic child with two learning disabled children, expecting the autistic
child’s educational assistant to help the learning disabled children
in her downtime…
Compounding all this, there’s another 10-15 percent of students considered “grey
area”—they’re stuck on expanding waitlists for testing or
don’t have one specific, identifiable special need, but in practice,
they’re still having, or causing, problems in classes.
Consequently, many teachers feel overwhelmed and spread too thin. “When the needs of special needs children are not being met,” explains Christianson, “it has an effect on the entire classroom.”
~ ~ ~ ~
A REMINDER . . . . .
FDTA General Meeting
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
FSS Library
5:30 pm
Agenda Items:
· 2010/2011 Budget Approval
· Notice of Motion re: Pro D Funding
· Bargaining: Survey, Committee, etc.
· & Other items
~ ~ ~ ~
Communication
“Healthy relationships require good communications. Whenever two or
more people combine their efforts or collaborate with each other, it is necessary
to make sure that all parties agree upon the direction that things are going
and that any issues or problems that arise be discussed and resolved.”
Minesh Baxi and Chuck Gifford