Monday, September 3, 2007
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Mission Statement: To consolidate information and opinion from parents, educators, staff, district, students, and media to better our schools for the sake of our students.
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About Me
- Kim DesVoigne-Clasen
- Kim's a former elementary school teacher with kids at LFP Elementary where she's an active volunteer, and where she (and her husband) both attended. She's also a Shoreline PTA member and education advocate.
6 comments:
Hello Friends of Shoreline kids and others, Sorry for the long letter. Please read the whole thing, it is important. I am sure you have heard that Shoreline teachers have voted for a strike. We are all very saddened by it and frustrated as well. With an incoming kindergartner I REALLY was wanting school to start and still hope that it will. I wanted to give you the specific reason why I voted for the strike as well as 85% of my fellow teachers.
The state has given us a mandated COLA raise of about 4%. It is the law and the district has to do it. We are not "demanding it" as they claim. The district is about $450,000 short of the needed funds to give that raise- the rest of the money came from the state. The district has targeted money in our contract called High Impact and Inclusion.
Teachers have writing in their contract that grants each school about $27,000 for High Impact and and $27,0 00 for Inclusion. We intentionally put that money in our contract to protect it from cuts that we knew the district liked to take. So what does this money do?
A high impact student is any student with or without and IEP that requires significant academic, emotional, behavioral or physical support and or modifications on a daily basis in order to learn in a general classroom. An inclusion student is any student with an IEP who has been determined by the district to be placed in a general education classroom and needs extra support. In other words these are the kids that are acting out with distracting behaviors in the classroom or have significant academic delays- the district's TARGET!
Before this money teachers were at their wits end trying to meet the needs of these kids in their classrooms and even more trying to make sure all of the rest of the class (our children) were still able to function and learn.
This money buys teacher aides, provides some counseling time , creates small reading and math groups and pays for kindergarten and first graders to get early intervention when they are lagging behind academically . It also pays for after school tutoring and many more things that support kids. The money does not go into the pocket of the teacher. When we say we are striking for kids we are not exaggerating! This cut directly affects EVERY ONE OF OUR KIDS IN A SHORELINE CLASSROOM!
We have also asked the district to grant our teachers more planning time so that they can be better teachers. The district has cut most of our staff development over the past 10 years and teachers have to improve and plan curriculum on their own time. Time costs the district nothing but they would not agree to more planning time.
In addition the district wants to cut the pay of our High School Security Guards and elementary school nurses. These are people who help and support our kids every day!
Shoreline Administrat ors who make an excess of $$90,000 up to $130,000 had no money or benefits cut from their contracts.
The teacher's union has given the district a list of over 15 places in the budget where the cuts can be made FARTHEST away from the classroom and will not directly affect the teaching of students. They have refused this list.
The most bitter part of this is the fiscal mismanagement of this district for the past 10 years. We have had 8 Superintendents in 10 years!!! The school board literally has had to fire 3 superintendents because of gross mismanagement. Jim Welsh, the last one, being the worst. Each one was paid off with over $100,000 in extra pay. The one superintendent that the teachers most supported (Larry Nyland) was let go by the district after one year and last year was voted Superintendent of the year in Marysville, Washington. The district has squandered money on consultants, shady deals with heating companies and Apple computers that literal ly have cost us millions and millions of dollars! We have had to cut 40 teachers in the past
2 years and close down 2 elementary schools to pay for the fiscal mismanagement that at least 3 School board members (Mike Jacobs, Dan Mann and Jim Leigh) approved for ALL of it. Teachers don't even have enough paper in their buildings right now to adequately start the school year!!
So.... What can you do??? Forward this email to other Shoreline parents so they know what is going on. Honk and give a thumbs up to teachers on the picket line or JOIN THEM! PLEASE send an email or regular letter or make a phone call to one of our school board members and tell them you want them to settle the contract NOW so that we can start school on time. It is what every teacher is hoping for! If you are not a Shoreline community member you can still spread the word that these are not a bunch of greedy teachers on a pick et line. We are doing this because we care about the quality of Shoreline Schools.
Thank you so much for your support. Please feel free to forward this email to any other Shoreline parents or other. We need your support for our kids!
Call me or email me if you have ANY questions.
Melissa Sargent
School Board members
**President Mike Jacobs 425-776-3191 mike.jacobs@shorelineschools.org
Debi Ehrlichman 206-365-6632 debi.ehrlichman@shorelineschools.org
David Wilson 206-546-5177 knossosd@verizon.net
**Dan Mann 206-542-3221 dan.mann@shorelineschools.org
**Jim Leigh 206-363-2942 jim.leigh@shorelineschools.org
Superintendent Sue Walker sue.walker@shorelineschools.org 206-361-4203
** Up for re-election in November and on the board when Jim Welsh was hired.
I am the parent of a special needs student. She has a neurological impairment that often leaves her overwhelmed and anxious. And though she is smart she will need extra attention to be able to follow class. She works hard and our family is paying out of pocket for many after school therapies which are not covered by insurance (which is worth another blog).
It is kids like our daughter who are loosing in this. The cost of living increase for staff will largely come out of special needs funding. Already struggling and discouraged our daughter will now not receive the 1:1 help the school district had told us they would provide. Overextended teachers will not be able to give her the extra attention she needs. Other students will see her increasing anxiety as a disruption to their learning. She is loosing the academic and social support she desperatly needs to grow into a contributing member of society. While we as a family do all we can, there are kids that truely require a village. Federal law requires that every kid is provided with a free and appropriate public education. I no longer see this happening.
As a parent I feel beyond discouraged. Because what is happening at the end of the day is that the most vulnerable of kids will have the rug pulled out from under them.
It's very important that we try to stick closely to the truth - the whole truth - in order for people to fully understand this contract negotiating process. Because I know Shoreline administrators, and admire their work too, I have to clarify what's missing from the previous comment.
"Shoreline Administrators who make an excess of $$90,000 up to $130,000 had no money or benefits cut from their contracts."
On the surface, that's true, but there is a very simple reason for it that the Association continues to leave out - administrator contracts are not being negotiated this year! The Shoreline administrator contracts have two years remaining on them.
There is a second important truth that the Association/WEA continues to leave out and that is that Shoreline administrators volunteered to suspend a negotiated section of their contract in order to help out in this time of finacial crisis. VOLUNTEERED to SUSPEND! Of course, the district accepted this!
In the interest of the truth please remember that the reductions of the last two years included the elimination of 8.0 administrative positions, resulting in savings of more than $800,000 not directly connected to the classroom. And . . . . Shoreline’s ratio of 560 students for each administrator is higher than Edmonds (533 students per administrator) or Northshore (488 students per administrator)
In the midst of all this talk, let's try to honor that we are all working hard, and taking hits, and are all concerned about Shoreline's future.
I had written about our daughter before. I wanted to add: I do support the teachers going to strike. They have every reason.
What I find very discouraging though is all the finger pointing when every one is effected ; teachers, administrators, special needs students, non- disabled students. This is really creating resentment and a hostile environment. None of those groups created the mess. Why is there all this pushing and shoving going on of who deserves more or should have funding cut? We should support each other, not point fingers. I do not appreciate one of the posters calling kids with special needs 'disruptive and preventing the rest of the class from learning'. I hope that was not a teacher posting.
An earlier poster refers to the voluntary suspension of a negotiated part in the administration's contract. The exact details are that they were willing to postpone a significant raise. They were not asked, nor did they volunteer to give back anything that they were already receiving. They did not have to trade anything to receive their COLA. It was a RAISE (above their 3.7% COLA) that they suspended. Also, our two highest paid administrators are taking a 1/2% smaller COLA (3.2% instead of 3.7%). (See the Enterprise article http://www.enterprisenewspapers.com/index.cfm?action=story&storyid=200783016594550&c=4&s=1 ) That equals about $1400 total. When you make over $100,000, that isn't going to affect your standard of living. Some of our Classified Staff are being asked to give up 19% of their income through the cuts. When you make a wage that couldn't support a family without public assistance, 19% is something that will put a dent in your standard of living. Don't forget that this potential strike is also about our Classified Staff (SESPA), which includes, but is not limited to our school nurses, security monitors, library techs, secretaries, and paraeducators.
As a Shoreline teacher, I had been asked about clarification on the special needs students that would be affected. Here is my response.
Thanks for taking the time to look into this and make your opinion! There are many angles that you can look at the problems. You could say that giving the COLA to teachers is taking money out of special needs funding -
but it doesn't HAVE to be that way.
It isn't true that special needs funding won't be affected. It just depends on the special needs! Students receiving Special Education services in the
Resource Room will not be affected. But, if you have a student that needs "a little something extra", that child can be considered special needs and
would fit under the umbrella of High-Impact and Inclusion.
Last year, at our school, we had a High Impact/Inclusion teacher that worked with the 3rd and 4th graders. She taught a 3rd grade math group and worked in some
classes to try to alleviate the impact of very high class sizes. We had another teacher that pulled 5th and 6th graders for smaller math groups to help those kids that needed a more intimite environment.
Since 1995 we have had 8 superintendents (or interims). There has been no stability in our budget. Each time there is a bargaining year, the teachers
are told that to receive what we had currently been receiving, we would need to give something back. That is not productive in moving our district forward.
This time, we decided not to compromise. Financially, we are not asking for anything more than we have received in the past, other than a cost of living adjustment. Every other District employee group (other than the
classified staff in the SESPA union) received a COLA, but because those other groups (including Principals and all the Administration) were lucky enough not to be in a bargaining year, they didn't have to compromise or sacrifice anything to receive it!
I understand that you can't get blood from a turnip, but in the last 10 years, we went from one of the top districts in supplemental pay (what is paid above the state pay scale) to one of the lowest. The District should not be asking us to pit our livlihood against student programs.
Again, thanks for caring. See you Wednesday!
Eternally Optimistic,
Chrisy Francescutti
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