Mediation fails to produce an agreement

The negotiations team reports that the mediation session last night failed to produce an agreement.

The district's offer is for a one-time $500 payment for all returning teachers (i.e., all special ed and regular ed teachers who were with the district in 2012-13). However, that payment does not put the teacher on the right row of the salary schedule and does not increase pay for subsequent years. Teacher annual salaries could therefore go down next year, depending on what happens with negotiations for 2014-15. And that's after take home pay has gone down because KPERS contributions were increased, and will increase again in one year.

The district's representatives claim that the Special Education Cooperative's Superintendents Advisory Board (SAB) prevents them from increasing their offer.  It may be true that the district and the SAB do not want to increase the cost of special education teachers to the other districts represented by the SAB, who may be offering them alternative employment in the near future.  However, the A in SAB stands for "advisory."

USD 453 has always had the responsibility to make the personnel and financial decisions for the co-op. One of the advantages of being the co-op sponsor is that they've received (i.e., paid themselves), out of that budget, an "overhead" payment. Of course there are costs associated with operating the co-op. Most of those costs come directly out of the co-op budget. However, the co-op does not have HR and payroll clerks paid directly by the co-op, and district administrators supervise and evaluate the special ed directors. To compensate the district for these people's time, some payment to the district is understandable and necessary.  But the co-op budget's ending balance has dropped each year since the co-op reorganized.  This implies that either the co-op budget has been managed poorly (from your emails and survey comments we know many of you agree), or the budget has been deliberately spent down in anticipation of the co-op's end, or both.

So perhaps this year the co-op, managed by USD 453, should pay USD 453 a little less than the $350,000 it has budgeted, and then the co-op budget would have more than enough to get this settled!

We believe the people who have the authority to make this decision are the seven members of the Board of Education for USD 453.  The superintendents of surrounding districts should not be given the authority to dictate what USD 453 pays its teachers.  It's time for teachers to let their board members know that they expect this to be settled and for teachers to be paid for their year of service as the salary schedule indicates.

Survey sent to teachers

USD453 teachers were sent a short survey by the negotiations team today. All teachers who are part of the bargaining unit and/or members of LNEA should have received it.  If you are a USD453 teacher and did not get an email with the survey link, please contact lneanews@gmail.com.

KATM Cecile Beougher Scholarship for Elementary Teachers

A scholarship in memory of Cecile Beougher will to be awarded to a practicing Kansas elementary (K-6) teacher for professional development in mathematics or mathematics education. This could include attendance at a local, regional, national, state, or online conference/workshop or enrollment fees for course work.

The value of the scholarship upon selection:

• Up $1,000 cash award to defray the costs of registration fees, substitute costs, tuition, books etc. An itemized request for funds is required. (for clarity)
• Upon competition of conference/workshop or course work an itemized list of use of funds is required

REQUIREMENTS:

The successful candidate will meet the following criteria:

• Have a continuing contract for the next school year as a practicing Ks. elementary (K-6) teacher.
• Current member of KATM

If you are not a member, you may join by going to www.katm.org.  KATM has been an ally of KNEA, especially in the area of Common Core standards.

APPLICATION:

To be considered for this scholarship, the applicant needs to submit the following no later than June 1 of the current year.

1. A letter from the applicant addressing the following: a reflection on how the conference, workshop, or course will help your teaching, being specific about the when and what of the session, and how you plan to promote mathematics in the future.
2. Two letters of recommendation/support (one from an administrator and one from a colleague).
3. A budget outline of how the scholarship money will be spent.

PLEASE SUBMIT MATERIALS TO:
Betsy Wiens KATM, 2201 SE 53rd Street, Topeka, Kansas 66609

Phone: (785) 862-9433

Any LNEA member wanting help writing a proposal for this or other educational funding should email lneanews@gmail.com.

Educators’ voices lead to wins for students most in need in Federal final funding bill

The NEA-supported FY2014 omnibus funding bill to be signed into law by  President Obama largely restores funding to pre-sequester levels for key programs serving the students most in need. While the bill is not perfect, it does begin to reverse the austerity approach that has been so harmful to schools. Congress would not have gotten the funding priorities right had it not been for months of advocacy by educators nationwide. Among the highlights:

• K-12 – 86% of cuts in Title I and IDEA grants restored, and 100% of cuts restored in Impact Aid, 21st century after-school program, TRIO and GEAR Up, education for the homeless, and math-science partnerships
• Early childhood – 57,000 lost Head Start seats fully restored, $500 million more for Early Head Start, $250 million for states for pre-K initiative for 4-year-olds
• Post-secondary prep – 94% of cuts in Perkins career and technical education grants restored

The measure also provides much-needed flexibility in the School Improvement Grant program, which augments resources for struggling students and schools. Two new approaches to transformation – a whole school reform model and a flexible reform option subject to approval by the state and Secretary of Education – mirror an NEA-supported amendment to ESEA reauthorization previously included in Senate    legislation.

What was in the Governor's budget for education?

Visit KNEA's Under the Dome to learn what impacts Governor Brownback's proposed budget could have for public schools.

To sign up for legislative updates from KNEA, visit http://www.knea.org/home/570.htm.