Local elections coming up

Soon it will be time to start planning for next year! LNEA needs energetic teachers with vision to volunteer their time and talents to make our organization and our district the best they can be. We will need officers, building representatives, representative assembly delegates, and people who are willing to help with various projects.

Please consider volunteering your time and expertise for one of the jobs described below. Contact us now or express interest when you receive your spring LNEA membership survey.

President-Elect. A president-elect works closely with the current co-presidents in order to take over for the next school year and should commit to several days of training over the summer. This position also requires active participation in at least three meetings per month and frequent communication by email and/or executive council meetings.

Recording Secretary. The recording secretary attends two meetings per month: executive council and building rep meetings, puts out reminders of the meetings, composes the agenda, and keeps minutes.

Treasurer. The treasurer prepares and administers a budget, writes reimbursement checks, and makes dues payments to KNEA on a monthly basis. The Treasurer also attends executive council and building rep meetings.

Membership Chairman and Assistants. This officer works closely with executive council (especially the treasurer), handles all membership paperwork required by KNEA, is responsible for getting membership forms sent to the state office, for maintaining accurate membership rolls, and for working closely with central office staff regarding payroll deduction. We will also need teachers to help with the fall membership drive by spending a morning or afternoon with teachers new to the district during one of their preservice days (right before the rest of the teachers start back to work), and to work at the LNEA table at the district benefits fair.

Negotiations Committee "Member in Training". The team is in need of middle school representatives, especially! Without them, the true balance of interests and concerns may not be present. Negotiators in training must commit to a series of bargaining training workshops during the summer and also to some weekends during the school year. Most workshops are held in Topeka, but may be in other locations that require overnight stays and more travel time (costs are reimbursed).

Building Representative. There should be one representative for each 25 members in a building. Building reps attend monthly LNEA meetings, disseminate information, answer questions from building faculty, and/or refer them on to teacher rights or Uniserv personnel. These are the folks who make sure LNEA leadership knows what issues you have in your building, so they can be communicated to district administration.

Delegate to the KNEA Representative Assembly. We are badly in need of delegates and alternates for 2011-12. Delegates attend one regional meeting in February (a weekday evening) and one weekend-long meeting in Topeka (April) to represent the Leavenworth teachers' association at KNEA. They vote to help direct KNEA policy, which drives lobbying efforts, etc. They also approve the KNEA budget and dues changes.

Nominate Friends of Education

The Confidence in Kansas Public Education Task Force is accepting nominations for its Friends of Education Awards through January 31, 2011. Find all you need to make a nomination at www.ksconfidencetaskforce.org. If you'd like a proofreader, email us; there are several English teachers on our executive board and among our building reps!

One Award of Excellence and up to four Merit Awards are presented in each of the five categories.

• School Volunteer: An individual or couple who provides volunteer services in a public school.
  
• Community Leader: An individual who has made a significant contribution to public education while serving in a leadership capacity.
  
• Partner Activity: A business, company or agency that has provided an on-going partner activity over an extended period of time (three-year minimum), by means of volunteer time, services, finances or other types of support, in an amount that exceeds typical collaboration from a private or public institution.
  
• Private or Public Institution: A profit or nonprofit company, business or agency that has made a significant contribution to public education.
  
• Community/Civic Organization: A club, organization, committee or task force that has made a significant contribution to public education.
  

The Confidence Task Force is a not-for-profit corporation whose primary purpose is to strengthen confidence in Kansas public education and to increase awareness of the positive aspects of public education in this state.

A Message from KNEA

The upcoming election holds the potential to result in absolutely devastating results for public education. Narrow margins have preserved funding this past year but those margins are at great risk. The choices voters make for Governor, Secretary of State, Attorney General and Insurance Commissioner EACH hold the potential to bring (or prevent) extremely negative policies that will harm our profession. We have never encountered a decision point that might so greatly changed our careers, our members’ lives and the future of public education in Kansas.

The reasons to vote on Nov. 2 are in our schools today.

We encourage everyone to go to the polls on November 2 and vote for candidates who will support teachers and students.

The school budget cuts during the last two school years have been devastating to Kansas schools. Teaching jobs all over the state were eliminated, and so were programs that improved learning.

KNEA teachers interviewed candidates and we recommend only those who will commit to partner with us to ensure every Kansas student has access to the quality public education they need. Please find those pro-education candidates on the KNEA Web site – www.knea.org.

Consider your vote carefully and weigh what’s best for your community, and most of all, our students. The future is theirs. The decision is yours. Please vote on Nov. 2.

Feel free to use this information in your own letters to the editor!

Blake West and Karen Godfrey
www.knea.org
Kansas NEA: Making public schools great for every child

"Walk-Throughs," Contracts, Etc.

Reminders from the Negotiations Team: Contracts and Work Days. By now you have probably received your contract from your building administrator. A reminder: Your step did not change this year. Instead we all got a raise of $840 . You should check your contract for accuracy before returning both copies to your administrative office. (You will get a signed copy back in the school mail.) Out-of-district teachers' contracts are being delivered by the co-op.

Another note from the negotiations team: the 8 hour, 15 minute day applies only to student contact days. Work days are still 8 hours long.

Walk-Through Training. LNEA Representatives from secondary buildings and three elementaries attended the initial training on Walk-Throughs that you saw mentioned in the Pioneer Pride newsletter dated October 15. These walk-throughs are a great way to stimulate talk about teaching and learning. I got terrific ideas from the elementary and middle level walk-throughs we did as part of the training; I saw marvelously effective feedback and was inspired to look online for a timer that shows on my projector! (Here’s one I found that even plays a little clarinet trill when time is up: http://www.timeme.com/timer-stopwatch.htm.) Thanks to all the teachers whose classrooms we visited!

These walk-throughs are part of our school improvement process through KLN. Their purpose is to gather data for professional development, not for evaluation, but the district is working on a way to give each teacher feedback (again, for PD reasons) after a walk-through occurs. The LNEA reps who attended are hoping that other teachers will be able to participate in walk-throughs as well as administrators. It is very eye-opening and thought-provoking!

Gift Reporting Form. A school board policy passed in September says, “Any organization or individual making a gift to the district shall have the approval of the board. All gifts will be regarded as district property. Persons or organizations desiring to make gifts to the schools should contact the building principal.” Items donated to schools or school programs must be reported, for example, donations of new coats to be distributed to students, a work of art or statuary, or cash or supplies given to a club or program. The small tokens of appreciation students may give you personally at holiday time do not require reporting if they are valued at under $25. (It is a different school board policy that would apply to any personal gifts over $25…let me know if you want more info about that.)

Evaluation. I loved Charlotte Danielson’s statement about how complex teaching is in this interview about pre-evaluation conferences. The link was included in an email we sent members, but in case you didn’t have time to watch then, here it is again: http://www.ascd.org/ascd-express/vol5/526-video.aspx.

National CLEAN Award. Proud of your custodian? Then nominate him or her for the 2010National C.L.E.A.N.™ (Custodial Leaders for Environmental Advocacy Nationwide) Awards. The deadline for application/nominations is December 1, 2010. Find information here.

Ginger Riddle