August 16, 2010

Welcome to a new school year! I know, it should be “welcome back” for most of us, but I wanted to include all the new-to-district teachers also. Hopefully, all of you had a pleasant summer and you’re all excited about being back in a dry classroom and out of the 27 straight days of rain. Just think, 13 more days of rain and that will make 40, better be watching out for animals walking two by two…

The new school year brings us a few changes. One of them being an $1800.00 a year raise for all of us, in addition to one more added duty addendum at the elementary level, decreased insurance premium co-pay, increased emergency leave days, and leave for the non-birth parent.

Please remember to vote on August 24^th, and I urge you to vote NO on Ballot Measure 1. I realize that I always get some angry emails and phone calls whenever I urge people to vote a certain way, but please understand that it is one of the responsibilities of this position. This particular ballot measure bills itself as the “anti corruption” initiative, which makes it sound like any reasonable person should support it, but in reality it would prevent most of us from making our opinions heard by the people we elect to represent us. Next week we are having some of our wonderful volunteers call each of you to urge you to vote NO and answer any questions you might have about the ballot measure.

Now is the time to watch your mailbox for an envelope from NEA/AK. PLEASE don’t throw it away! Open it and take out your ID card (that has the number you’ll need for voting). Remember that this card is very useful for discounts at a variety of places. Also this envelope contains the pocket calendar that is very near and dear to a lot of people. This year it has a picture of a group of polar bears eating a really cute baby seal…luckily they cropped the picture and you can’t see the baby seal – some might find it “unsensitive.”

Thank you for reading this and I hope to update it “regularly” throughout the school year (gotta love how ambiguous “regularly” is)!

April 19, 2010

   I was just informed that I hadn’t updated my blog since October, which isn’t entirely true as can be seen by the January update that someone (Debbie) never posted! Nothing actually has happened since then, so that’s why I didn’t bother writing anything. OK, that’s not true at all. We’ve been busy with bargaining and all the other “issues” that make this a very interesting job.

    In March, eight of our members and I attended the Pacific Region Leadership Conference in Reno, Nevada. It was a chance to participate in a multitude of trainings and informational meetings regarding association work and member involvement.  Several of our group were there for an extra two days participating in Minority Leadership Training. All of the participants were very impressed at the level of preparedness and professionalism shown by the presenters. They kept us very busy (not busy enough for me to make a $40.00 contribution to a couple of stupid slot machines)!

    In regards to bargaining, our team has met with the District eleven times since the beginning of this school year. A lot of progress was made but the process slowed down when we got “salary and benefits.” On March 29 and 30, both sides met with a mutually agreed upon Mediator, which helped both teams make some movement, but not enough on the District’s part to where our team was satisfied. Tonight there is a school board meeting and we have ten teachers who will be making short presentations to the board in the hope that it will encourage them to come back to the table with something our team would be comfortable with presenting to you. If the District does not come back to the table, we (AEA and ASD) would declare impasse and mutually agree on an arbitrator to hear both side’s arguments and give a (non-binding) determination. Due to scheduling and pre-determined time limits, this report (if impasse occurs) would be released sometime in the late summer.

    Now that I know there are people out there that actually read this thing, I promise to be more diligent in my updates and harsher in my reprimands for the person (Debbie) who’s in charge of posting them!

January 6, 2010

     Happy New Year! Hopefully all of you had a restful break, because I did (and I finally got to meet my nine month old twin grandsons)!

     The last month has been busy. In December I attended the National Council of Urban Education Associations (NCUEA) conference in Nashville, which was attended by about 200 local presidents from across the country, including Steve Laroe from Fairbanks and Jill Showman from MatSu. There was a variety of interesting seminars and trainings that made for a very busy three day event. From there, I went to Washington DC for a meeting with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. No really, I actually did! The Secretary wanted to meet with the presidents and superintendants of nine large districts from across the country that had a strong union and a good working relationship with their superintendant. It was a 2 hour off the record meeting with open discussion on how we could turn around “low performance schools.” The other districts that attended were: Birmingham, Boston, Las Vegas, Columbus, Hillsborough County (Tampa), Los Angeles, and Philadelphia.

     December also brought us our first round of bargaining sessions. Our team and ASD’s met a total of five days, in what was described by both sides as “productive.” There are five more days of bargaining scheduled in January. Besides more daylight, January will also bring us the annual Delegate Assembly on the 28^th – 30^th of the month, this year being held at the Captain Cook Hotel and Egan Center. I look forward to seeing our Anchorage delegates there (and of course all the others from around the state)!

October 27, 2009

     As of today, 85% of all schools have turned in their Face to Face bargaining surveys, with several schools reporting that their surveys are “in the mail.” Our bargaining team will be looking at each and every one of them and tabulate the results. Thank you very much for the great response!

    On Saturday, I spoke (briefly) to a group of about 70 people attending the New Teacher Institute at East HS. It was an enthusiastic group of new-to-ASD teachers and they were a great audience, and I think they liked the fact I didn’t use up my allotted 25 minutes as it was a very nice sunny day outside and I was the last speaker of the day! Thank you to Amy Goodman, Pat Odin, and Colleen Stevens for inviting me.

    Saturday was also “Trick or Treat Town” (Friday night too) in which AEA sponsored a booth. It was a rousing success with lots of little kids getting scared out of their minds (by our rubber duckies in a wading pool?)! Many thanks to our wonderful volunteers Jessica Cook, Ray Johnson, Renee Wade, Susie Butler-Smith, Joan Pragman, Megan Larson, Jennifer Walker, Georgia Berry (and son Cody), Lee Butterfield and Andy and Donna Holleman in helping make this a success.

     Debbie and I had a nice building visit with the faculty of Hanshew MS on Tuesday afternoon, where we discussed upcoming bargaining concerns/issues and had a chance to hear any comments and concerns the faculty had with several issues. Thank you Hanshew building rep Lee Butterfield for helping us set up the meeting, and thank you Hanshew for showing up!

     This week will end on Saturday with our annual Policy Assembly at East HS from 8:30a.m. to ????? and of course HALLOWEEN NIGHT!

October 16, 2009

    When a week starts off with a school board meeting, you just know it’s going to be a good one! Actually it was – my oldest son’s 27^th birthday on Monday, my wife’s (Christine Scott, teacher at South HS) birthday on Wednesday, and PAYDAY on Thursday.

     The main push this week was to get the Face to Face bargaining surveys out to all the schools and get as many completed and returned as possible. Personally, I went to Chugiak HS, Alpenglow El., and Highland Tech Charter School to explain and help conduct the surveys. All surveys need to be completed by next week (October 26 being the final day).  These surveys are vitally important to the bargaining process, if you haven’t done one, please do! 

October 19-23

As of Friday, Oct. 23rd (Debbie didn’t post my Blog on Monday) we have 50% turned in and interviews scheduled for Sat. the 24^th.

There was a School Board meeting on Monday and on Wednesday, 10/21, a  New Teacher open house at the Spenard office from 3-6pm on Wed as well. If you’re a new teacher, please stop by for free food, fun, and prizes. I’ll be there, as will many members of our executive board. I look forward to meeting you!

Also the bargaining team met for a morning work session and interviewed building reps. beginning in the afternoon until well into the wee hours of the night.

Once again, surveys are due on Oct. 26^th.

October 8, 2009

    I was told this morning that I haven’t updated my Blog recently. HURRAY! Someone is actually reading this thing; I was just testing to see if anyone noticed.

     Okay, instead of starting from where I left off, I’ll update you on some things that are occurring now.. Currently, the top four issues are bargaining, bargaining, bargaining, and bargaining. Well actually they are 1)bargaining, 2)Zangle, 3)H1N1, and 4)the laptop user agreement.

Bargaining: The negotiations team has been meeting regularly to get the ball rolling towards negotiations. Face-to-face surveys will begin October 14 and be completed by Oct. 21 with all 3500+ AEA members. Please take a moment and sit down with your building rep. or BAT representative and give the TEAM your input.

Zangle: I have had many meetings with ASD about the “concerns” members are experiencing with the system. Mary McKean, Zangle Coordinator,  has also attended  Rep Council at our September and October meetings to address any concerns directly.

H1N1: I’ve been included in some discussions with ASD about how they will implement the immunizations and how it will affect AEA members. At this point, I am confident it will be able to be administered with a minimal impact, considering the importance of the program. Be assured no AEA member will be required to miss planning time or work after the normal school day without appropriate compensation.

Laptop User Agreement: There have been a few concerns about this, and we are working with ASD to clarify several issues. If you have any concerns regarding the laptop agreement, please contact me.

ED Tech Changes: Thursday, 9/3, Debbie and I met with several people from ASD and about 14 Ed Techs in the ASD Board room to discuss proposed changes in the roles of these people. Several options were given to those currently holding Ed Tech positions. After much discussion, ASD agreed to rethink certain aspects of the plan they were considering. It was left that ASD would gather some more information and get back with the Ed Tech employees and AEA.  I had to leave after 2 ½ hours, but Debbie stayed the whole 3 hours!

August 25, 2009

   Welcome to the new school year! I hope all of you had a great summer. I had a very busy summer tirelessly working on educational issues and a two week stint aboard the International Space Station helping NASA out with some “personnel issues” and doing a couple space walks to fix the broken flux capacitor. I had a window seat on the Shuttle, which I’d highly recommend compared to the aisle seat.

    OK, those of you who belong to the AEA realize that except for the first two sentences of the previous paragraph, the rest is a fantasy. But think of the millions of people across the globe that read this blog and think “Wow, this guy really does some cool stuff!” So from now on, when you read the really outlandish stuff, you’ll know I’m just trying to keep those readers in Paris, Sydney, Dubai, etc. interested.

    During the summer I worked on planning the upcoming bargaining team meeting/training for August 25, and the full day Executive Board meeting scheduled for August 25. These two meetings will be crucial to laying the groundwork we need to achieve a good contract. I also took this slower time to work though some on-going issues with the District.

    Hopefully, some of you have seen the AEA bus ads we worked on and are now in place on several of the transit busses. Also, I helped edit the radio ad “Welcome back students…” that is now playing on several radio stations around town. In addition, I spent a lot of time (and am still spending) getting committees up and running and getting building reps established. If any of you would be interested in committee work or serving as a building rep, please give me a call. Both are very important jobs and there is no minimum time commitment. Whatever time you can afford will be appreciated by all.

    I went to the ASD Job Fair on August 11 at the Boniface Ed. Center and got to meet a lot of new members and see some that are not so new. Had a meeting with the NEA Health Trust on August 18 to discuss some benefit issues. Then on August 20 I met with Mat-Su Education Association president Jill Showman to discuss all sorts of issues including the most important one–upcoming negotiations for both of our associations. There will be lots more on that topic in the weeks and months ahead.

   On Sunday, August 23, I took some time off and did something I swore I would never do. I went to a Meryl Streep movie! I knew my wife really wanted to see it, and I had a craving for the Totem theatre popcorn (the best in town). Luckily, I actually enjoyed the film (Julie/Julia), but will now on, forever, be reminded by my wife how I had always bad-mouthed Meryl Streep films!

    I’d really like to visit as many schools as possible this year for an informal “meet and greet” where we can discuss current AEA news and you can keep me informed of any issues you may have. I almost always bring food, and you can have the meetings as short or as long as you want. Email Mary Nibbelink at mary.nibbelink@neaalaska.org and give your school name and a date/time and she’ll help set it up. Our first visit of the year will be this Thursday at the brand new Clark Middle School, which I am very much looking forward to.

    Right now, it’s August 25, and I have finished writing this, after attending a very, very long school board meeting, which was so long that several items were tabled until next meeting. I’ll let you know next week how it all turns out.

May 15, 2009

Happy payday (at least for us AEA people), for the millions of other readers of this thing across the globe, Happy Friday!

On Friday, May 8, Jill Showman, Mat-Su Education Association president, and some prospective members of their next bargaining team met with four members of our team (Cindi Crawford, Rob Taylor, Corey Aist, and Bill Mans) Rob, Debbie, Vince (MSEA UniServ director) and  I, for an all day joint training exercise. Preparations for next year are well underway!

Our last executive board meeting of the year took place on Tuesday, May 12. It was a beautiful sunny day, which may have lent itself to a productive and relatively short meeting, finishing at about 6:00 p.m.

Wednesday, May 13 found me delivering sub sandwiches to Ronny Miyaoka’s room at Service HS as he and 8 other Service faculty were the winners of a contest we held in regards to the recent Heart Run. The other teachers were Brian Waite, Susan Hooker, Erica Colliander, Kathleen Walgren, Meghan Lochner, Vani Pillai, Marjorie Burr, and John Fick. Congratulations and thank you to all of them, and anyone else who participated in this event! Wednesday was also the day of our annual Awards Banquet, held each year to thank and honor the many people who volunteer their time to be faculty reps, work on committees and the myriad of other tasks required to keep this organization functioning. Several PTAs, community organizations, friends of educators, and educators of excellence were also honored. My good friend and soon-to-be retiree Jim Rehmann was honored for his many years of service to AEA where he held many positions and spent countless hours volunteering to help. His presence will certainly be missed, but I am counting on him to serve as a “consultant” from time to time! Three other people received a special award for their work, “above and beyond the call of duty” for each day working tirelessly for US, and serving as the three people I rely on the most (OK, I rely on my wonderful wife Christine Scott (South HS) the most, but besides her) Debbie Omstead, Rob Pfisterer, and Mary Nibbelink. The MCs for the night were none other than George Clooney and Jennifer Aniston. Big thanks to them for taking time off their busy schedule to lend a hand to AEA. It was much appreciated.

Chinook Elementary was where I ended up on Thursday, May 14, to deliver sandwiches because they were one of the winners of the recent “Turn Out The Vote” contest. They had 97% of their faculty vote in AEA’s recent election. The other winners were AVAIL, 100%, and Rabbit Creek, 97.5%. Congratulations to all of them, and thank you to all who voted (19.95% of you voted).

Friday, May 15 was spent with a meeting over in Boniface in Eric Tollefsen’s office and finished with a bargaining meeting that started at 3:30 ON A FRIDAY AFTERNOON! The fact that I wanted to get an early start on my drive to Homer apparently meant nothing to whoever set this one up!

Ok, I know who set it up (her initials are DEBBIE!).

May 7, 2009

Hello again!

Thursday, April 30 was a busy day starting with an eight o’clock Union Rep meeting at Boniface. This is a regularly scheduled monthly meeting of all the presidents of the unions represented in ASD (AEA, Totem, ACE, etc) with the superintendant. This meeting allows us to share any concerns we may be having. Immediately after that meeting I met with Eric Tollofsen, Mary McKean, Debbie Omstead, and Rob Pfisterer to work out the specifics on a proposed “Power user” addenda to go along with the new “Zangle” system. Then it was on to a School Board Policy meeting with Rhonda Gardner, several school board members, and a few other people. The day finished up with an AEA hosted AEA/ASD Board Social, where members of our Board and ASD’s were able to meet in an informal setting and enjoy some great appetizers and conversations. It was held at Kinley’s restaurant.

On Friday, May 1, I was invited to lunch at Inlet View Elementary by Principal Kathy Iverson. Debbie and I went there and enjoyed a very nice catered lunch and had the chance to meet and talk to their faculty. My first time visiting Inlet View! The day ended with our end of the year “Newbie Dinner” where all first year teachers are invited. It was held at Platinum Jaxx and was attended by about 100 people. I believe a good time was had by all. I enjoyed being able to speak with a lot of people, especially a former student of mine, who is now a teacher at Dimond HS , Julia Lemmerman!

The weekend of May 2-3 was spent working on grueling negotiations with ASD concerning your workplace and working conditions. The meetings started at dawn each day and ended after sunset. Two days in a small dark, sweaty room…

Actually that’s a lie. No meetings, just two wonderful days of being at home and enjoying the sunshine!

Monday afternoon, May 4, I was invited by Kathy Clark to be a guest speaker in Monte Harper’s Social Studies class at Gruening MS. I really enjoyed the class and answering their questions. It was my first time back in a classroom for nearly a year and the first time I’ve seen my friends Kathy and Monte in quite awhile. Following the class, Rob and I met with some of the faculty for about 45 minutes, bringing them up to date on AEA happenings and answering member questions. We met in Beth Lynch’s room, which just so happens to be my former room when I taught Summer School.

Cinco de Mayo was spent getting ready for the last Rep Council of the year, and then over to Boniface for the Elementary Staffing meeting, which took most of the afternoon. Rep Council met at East HS and was attended by about one million people (ok, more like about 30). It was a wonderfully short meeting, maybe a new record, adjourning at 5:08 p.m. I think everyone was anxious to go vote, celebrate Cinco de Mayo, or enjoy the sunshine and/or any combination of the previous!

May 6 found me back at Boniface for High School staffing, which took most of the morning. After a short time at the office, I was back at Boniface for a meeting with Rhonda Gardner and Ed Graff to discuss various options concerning the federal stimulus money ASD is expected to receive. I followed up that meeting with a very nice “Mentor Celebration” in the Boniface atrium, where I was asked to speak a few words about the mentor program. I was a part of the program since its inception, and have always valued its importance, so it was easy to say some nice things about it!

Thursday, May 7 started with a two hour long Policy meeting with Rhonda Gardner, Ed Graff, and several school board members followed up by a two and a half hour long Mid-level staffing meeting, held in the ASD Board room. That meeting was attended by the principals of all the Middle Schools and all sorts of other directors, and people in charge of something or another, etc. etc.

April 29, 2009

Hello fellow AEA members!

I’ve been told that a lot of people like to read “Blogs” and that I should write one so that people will know what the AEA president is doing (working very hard) and not doing (cruising Craig’s list). So this is my first attempt at writing a Blog, and my first time reading one. I will hopefully update it once a week (Debbie will bug me about it if I don’t, so it stands a very good chance of happening).

I’ll start with April Leadership, which was April 17 – 19 at the Hilton. People from all over the state come to this for seminars, trainings, and credit courses. It runs Friday evening, all day Saturday, and Sunday morning. I took the “Group Processing Skills” class which was very well presented, but also included LOTS of touchy feely role playing stuff that really makes my skin crawl. However, it presented me with the opportunity to connect with members across the state and collaborate a bit about our upcoming negotiations.

Monday, April 20, the Negotiations committee met, with Chairperson Cindi Crawford, and made their final recommendations for the 2009-2010 Bargaining Team. These recommendations were presented to the EBoard on April 21 for their consideration and hopeful approval.

Tuesday, April 21 was our monthly Executive Board (EBoard) meeting during which the main topic of discussion was the recommendations for the Bargaining Team. After much discussion, the recommendations of the negotiating team were overwhelmingly approved. I’m extremely pleased with the make-up of the team. It has seven outstanding people who will do a great job representing us at the negotiating table.

I’m finding that April is a very busy month, with evaluations coming due and end of the year stuff gearing up. The remainder of the week was spent making visits to several schools and meeting individually with members who had evaluation “issues.” I also met with Robb Boyer who set up and explained “AppliTrack” to us.

Monday, April 27, Ron Fuhrer, Mike Scott, and I attended a 90 minute faculty meeting in a building that has been having some concerns. Then I went to the School Board meeting at 6:30p.m. and stayed until about 9:00 p.m. I’ve only missed two School Board meeting this school year, once when I was in Juneau lobbying for the return to defined benefit retirement system, and once when I had some major dental work done.

The Rights committee had its monthly meeting on Tuesday, April 28.

Today, April 29, I heard my first robin of the season, as I walked my dogs, and last night I killed a trophy-size mosquito, so for me, spring is here! This afternoon, I have a meeting with a member to go over some evaluation concerns.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this Blog so far. I’m really not sure if anyone will actually read it, but if you do, please e-mail Debbie Omstead. ANYTIME , day or night to be eligible for a chance to win a NEW TRUCK!

Co-presented by AEA & TOTEM

Interview Candidates for Anchorage Mayor and School Board 

Wednesday, Feb 25, 2009
Marriott Anchorage Downtown • 820 West 7th Avenue
Fairbanks Room
4:30—7:30 pm

Please come early to meet the candidates. Light appetizers will be served.

Interview schedule
5:00 — 6:15 pm School Board Candidates
6:30 — 7:30 pm Mayoral Candidates

Do you ever wish you could do something to have a positive impact on the attention education receives, to help out your school, and to improve your compensation and benefits? If so, mark February 25th on your calendar and come out to the Marriott Hotel for the mayoral/school board candidate forum, co-hosted this year with APEA affiliates.

Consider what happens when the candidates look out on a room packed with people who came because they care about education issues? They realize that education has to stay a top priority.

Also consider that AEA will go to the table next year to bargain a new contract. Having supportive school board members is a must.

On the other hand, if the candidates see a room half full, they may get the impression that educators are not engaged in education issues and that they do not need to be responsive to them.

Right now there are a large number of candidates running. To make a good choice, get past the commercials and sound bites, it is important that all teachers become informed regarding the candidates and make sound choices when they cast their votes. For the size of our city, Anchorage has unusual access to candidates and elected officials. Let us use it to help all candidates know we are watching and we vote.

We’ll have an open time for any of the candidates to be available to chat with our membership one-on-one. We will have refreshments and a snack buffet line. If you have something you would like to say or like to ask, this is a perfect moment; education is the topic of the night. After the informal period, there will be a section where all the candidates are asked specific questions relating to their position on education issues.

The forum is one of several steps that AEA uses in a process to decide if and who to endorse in these races. If you have questions about that process, email AEA-PACE Co-chair Andy Holleman at andyh@anchorageea.net .