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Educate Every Child. Rodney Ellis NCAE President Spring 2014. AN EXCELLENT EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT SMALLER CLASS SIZES ACCESS TO HIGH-QUALITY PRE-SCHOOL TEACHER ASSISTANTS IN EARLY GRADES A WELL-ROUNDED AND INNOVATIVE CURRICULUM. ACCESS TO HIGH-QUALITY TEXTBOOKS and Technology
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Educate Every Child Rodney Ellis NCAE President Spring 2014
AN EXCELLENT EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT • SMALLER CLASS SIZES • ACCESS TO HIGH-QUALITY PRE-SCHOOL • TEACHER ASSISTANTS IN EARLY GRADES • A WELL-ROUNDED AND INNOVATIVE CURRICULUM
ACCESS TO HIGH-QUALITY TEXTBOOKS and Technology • REASONABLE WAYS TO MEASURE A CHILD’S SUCCESS • SCHOOL-BASED SUPPORT SERVICES • A HEALTHY AND SAFE SCHOOL CLIMATE
EXCELLENT AND CARING TEACHERS To attract and keep the best teachers in NC, we must: • Give teachers reasonable class sizes and manageable workloads • Pay teachers fairly • Reward teachers for experience and advanced degrees • Provide teachers with ongoing access to professional development resources • Evaluate teachers fairly using a variety of tools, not just student test scores
Are Our Students and Teachers Getting What They Need To Be Successful?
2013-2014 NC Budget • Masters and other advance degree pay eliminated • Vouchers (10 million beginning in 2014-15 school year) • Grading schools on A-F model • Eliminated funding for nearly 4,000 TA’s • Lost 2500 Pre-K slots • No salary increases for the 6th of 7 years • Eliminated professional development instructional supply funding and merit pay • Cut textbook funding • Eliminated Teaching Fellows Program
Due to Budget Cuts Our Children Are Paying the Price • Eliminated nearly 5,200 teaching and instructional support (guidance, media, etc.) positions • No limits on class sizes in 4-12 • Budget for English as a Second Language students cut by half
They Did Not Stop There They also rewrote the laws regarding public school teachers’ Due Process Rights and contracts in order to significantly weaken your job security!
During This School Year Only All NC School Boards must review recommendations from their respective Superintendents and then make the final decision on which 25% of teachers (rounded down) who have been employed full-time for their district for at least 3 consecutive years (it is unclear when that period was supposed to have begun). Only teachers who rated “proficient” or higher on all standards of a recent summative evaluation may qualify.
The Offer Depending on available funding, the teachers who are selected by their local School Board will be offered a 4-year contract that includes a $500 bonus, compounded each contract year.
The Catch By accepting this bonus, teachers forfeit their Due Process rights and will no longer have Career Status!
Teachers Who Accept This Deal • Will lose the bonus and contract if they transfer to a new school district • Will return to their salary minus the bonus money when the contract ends in 2018 • Become subject to first year teacher employment provisions
AND… • Even while under contract, any rating below “proficient” on a summative evaluation is automatic grounds for dismissal! • There is NO system for disputing these evaluations! • If NCAE wins its lawsuit, teachers who already forfeited Career Status will not get it back!
If the Contract Is Not Renewed When It Expires • The employee: • won’t have to be notified until June 1st (moved from May 15th). • won’t have the right to know the reasons for non-renewal. • won’t have the right to a School Board hearing. • won’t have the right to a neutral fact finder in dismissal hearings. • won’t have ANY recourse to appeal this decision!
Meanwhile • Teachers who refuse the 25% Contract will retain Career Status*, which means: • They retain all due process job protections currently outlined in NC General Statute 115C-325. *Unless this law is changed all NC teachers will lose Career Status on 7/1/2018.
But What About The Money
Uncertainty • The NCGA has not allocated enough bonus money for the 1st year. • No bonus money has been allocated for the 2nd - 4th years. • Local districts may refuse to fund bonuses for local and federally-funded positions. • This legislature cannot bind future legislatures to any financial obligation
NCAE Response NCAE and Educators across North Carolina respond to the underhanded actions of elected officials.
What We Did After Bad Budget Passed NCAE Leadership Team arrested on behalf of public education during the July 22 Moral Monday Demonstration. NCAE President Rodney Ellis NCAE Vice-President Mark Jewel
NCAE and Public Schools First Launch Statewide “Public Schools Matter” Tour Former US Congressman Bob Etheridge
NCAE Local Launches Statewide “Get Your Facts Straight Rallies” Greenville Greensboro
Local Affiliates Host Rallies and Forums To Engage Communities… in the battle to protectpublic education from harmful decision-making Macon County Town Hall Public Education Forum at Wake Forest Univ.
November 4th Walk-In Why I’m walking in Why I’m walking in
Legal Action • NCAE filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the legislation that strips educators of career status and legalities of a “Voucher Bill” in NC.
Decline to Sign • “Decline to Sign” PowerPoint Show for School-Based Meetings (.pps) • All “Decline to Sign” Documents (a single PDF consisting of the materials below, however clicking on each item will download only that piece) • “Decline to Sign” Flyer and PowerPoint Handouts (.pdf) • “Decline to Sign” Letter to Teachers and Pledge (.pdf) • “Decline to Sign” Guide to Organizing Your Building (.pdf) • “Decline to Sign” and the NCAE Career Status Lawsuit Factsheet (.pdf) • “Decline to Sign” Faculty Letter to School Boards (including signature sheet & sample resolutions) (.pdf)
Decline to Sign Campaign Guilford County school board votes to sue to stop end of teacher tenure
Decline to Sign Campaign Durham school board joins opposition to tenure loss Board member Natalie Beyer made the motion “to cooperate with the attorney for N.C. Association of Educators to provide support in the form of an affidavit in the litigation that seeks to maintain the tenure rights of teachers.”
Decline to Sign Campaign Wake County school board opposes elimination of teacher tenure Wake County NCAE President Larry Nilles stands with nearly 100 others giving the Wake County School Board a standing ovation following their passage of a resolution opposing the state's plan to offer pay raises to top teachers in return for them givinard meeting on Tuesday March 4, 2014 at the Wake County Board of Education Cary.
Decline to Sign Campaign Buncombe School board passes 25 percent resolution Teachers formed a sea of red at the Buncombe County Board of Education meeting Thursday to speak against a state plan to offer bonuses to a percentage of teachers willing to give up tenure rights in return.
Pasquotank Currituck Camden Northampton Gates Stokes Warren Caswell Person Rockingham Vance Hertford Halifax Perquimans Granville Alleghany Forsyth Surry Ashe Alamance Chowan Franklin Guilford Bertie Orange **** Nash Durham Watauga Wilkes Edgecombe Martin Washington Yadkin Wake Davidson Dare Tyrrell Mitchell Chatham Randolph Wilson Avery Caldwell Davie Pitt Beaufort Yancey Alexander Johnston Madison Greene Hyde Lee Iredell ** Burke Harnett Wayne Catawba Rowan Moore Stanly Buncombe *City McDowell Montgomery Lenoir Haywood Craven Swain Pamlico Lincoln Cumberland Rutherford Cabarrus *** Hoke Jones Graham Richmond Henderson Sampson Gaston Jackson Polk Cleveland Anson Duplin Mecklenburg Macon Transylvania Cherokee Scotland Carteret Onslow Clay Robeson Union Bladen Pender Columbus Hanover Brunswick NCAE Decline to Sign Campaign (D2S) Update Resolution Petition Resolution & Petition Activity & Resolution Activity & Petition All 3 Activity New *City of Asheville (in Buncombe) – Petition & Activity **Town of Mooresville (in Iredell) – Petition only ***Kannapolis (in Cabarrus) – Petition & Activity ****Chapel Hill (in Orange) – Activity Hickory City (in Catawba) – Resolution passed
Goals and objectives • Goal 1- Demonstrate NCAE’s ability to play a significant role in state politics and public opinion • Key strategies • Launch a series of campaigns to mobilize thousands to act in support of public education • Build a powerful campaigning organization that works collaboratively with coalition partners. • Win legal and political education policy challenges • Demonstrate NCAE’s capacity to elect pro-public education candidates
May 14 Day of Action Press Conference with NAACP and HKonJ Coalition Kristen Beller Elementary School Teacher Wake County Justin Ashley 2013 NC History Teacher of the Year Charlotte-Mecklenberg
NCAE Press Conference at DPI James Ford – 2014 TOY Heidi Carter – Chair, DPS School Board Liz Foster- GCAE President Justin Ashley 2013 History TOY Democratic Friends in the Legislature
NCAE delivers 52 school board resolutions and over 5000 signatures Senate Pro-Temp Phil Berger’s office Speaker Thom Tillis’ Office
Access Denied Educators told the gallery to both the House and Senate Chambers are Reserved No Access
Negotiations lead to standing room admittance NC Senate Chamber NC House Chamber SO WE STOOD
Educator Activist Training at NCAE Campaign coordinator teacher, organizer, activist Bryan Proffitt
Rally at NCAE Hundreds of educators, elected officials, parents and coalition partners rally at the NCAE Headquarters
March to the State Capitol Education advocates march through downtown Raleigh
Educators deliver cookies to the Governor’s Office They closed the building while we were there…….we left the cookies
McCrory unveils $21B NC budget for next year. • 162 million for salary increases for teachers • ESP’s flat $1000 increase • 9.8 million to pilot merit pay plan in 8 school districts • Double funding for text books (only enough to cover lost books • 18.7 million to restore 10% supplement for master’s degree • 3.6 million for Pre-K Slots Governor Pat McCrory
Teachers score huge win on Tenure! • Judge halts effort to end teacher tenure in NC News & Observer • Judge Rejects North Carolina Law to End Teacher Tenure ... • RALEIGH, N.C.: Judge strikes down new NC teacher tenure ... • NC teacher tenure law ruled unconstitutional | MyFOX8.com • Wake judge orders halt to end of teacher tenure in NC ...www.charlotteobserver.com