ROEA Reporter

Executive Board

Sidney Kardon
   President
Marcia Rauschendorfer
   Executive Vice-President     
Christine Baer
   Program Vice-President
Jennifer Jump
   Secretary
Beth Morrison
   Treasurer
Barbara Pollis
   Middle School Director
Pat Hein
   Elementary Director
Vince Caruso
   High School Director
Betty Ong
   NEA Third World Delegate,
Tracy Crawley
   MEA Delegate
Kara Daunt
   MEA Delegate
Stuart Asch
   NEA Delegate
Nila Wilson
   NEA Third World Delegate
Betty Ann Garlak
   PAC Chairperson

Uniserv Director
   Paul Chambers

September, 2005

WELCOME BACK

Welcome back everyone! I hope you had a great summer. Our union has been busy this summer. 

At the National Education Association convention in Los Angeles (attended by Barbara Pollis, Betty Ong, Bertha Arribas, and me), it was announced that the NEA is suing the federal government based on the No Child Left Behind Act being an unfunded mandate to the states. The NEA’s claim is that the federal government is legally bound to fund such programs. The basis of the lawsuit is that the federal government has mandated testing, professional development, and higher teaching standards under NCLB without providing additional revenues to states and/or districts to support their implementation. Locally, the Pontiac school district is a complainant in the suit.

The Michigan Education Association is leading the K-16 petition charge after helping to organize last June’s rally in Lansing which was attended by approximately 14,000 teachers, parents, and administrators. (See Chris Baer’s article.)  The goal of the petition is to place before the voters in November, 2006 the question of whether to tie the yearly state school budget to inflation to insure continually adequate funding for schools.

Locally, the ROEA focused most of our summer efforts on working with our administration to recall as many laid-off teachers as possible.

We have huge tasks to do as we begin this year. Our first two jobs begin now.  We must clear time in our busy lives to support the bond effort by distributing literature, calling parents in our building, and assisting Friends of Royal Oak in any way we can. We must also contribute to the campaign as the bond costs are high. Early contributions (by which I mean today) can be made by check to “Friends of Royal Oak.” Give the checks to your Association Representative. We must also gather signatures for the K-16 petition. By now, you should have received your petitions and an information packet. “Give me 5” means that we want each of you to get 5 signatures on the petition and turn them in to your AR immediately. The MEA will be counting all of the signatures and submitting them to the state.

In addition to these two jobs, this is a bargaining year as our contract expires on August 31^st, 2006. The Executive Board will appoint a bargaining team.  We will also be looking for a survey team to develop and tabulate a member survey of issues for bargaining. Please contact me if you are interested in helping with the survey.

If all of the above isn’t enough to fill the year, there will be a school board election in the spring as well as a hold harmless millage election. Naturally, I will be asking you for your time and money at that point as well! Let us do everything that we possibly can for our students. Let’s do it together and do it well – our students and their families are certainly worth our efforts. 

EDUCATIONAL RALLY

June 21, 2005

Today over 14,000 other people and I marched to the steps of our capital building in Lansing. It was hot, crowded, & humid…but I felt the day was well spent. You may recall when (back in ‘92) “Proposal A” moved Michigan school funding from primary dependence on local sources for revenue to an 80% reliance on the state. The state took over the responsibility to pay for education, mandated additional 

programs, and then reduced their funding to a tune of $550 million each year. In fact, for two of the last three years there have been additional mid-year cuts that have amounted to over $400 million.

Over the years, we Michigan educators have worked furiously to trim budgets in a variety of ways. We’ve had to cut programs and reduce our staff & services. We’ve had to subsidize our classroom supplies from our own paychecks. We’ve taken cuts in insurance benefits, increased the number of minutes of each school day, and work 20 more days a year for the same pay. At the same time, unfunded requirements from Washington, increased expectations from our communities, larger class sizes, and mainstreamed special needs students have added to our burdens. There comes a point when enough is enough, and we must stand up to proclaim that our students are being short-changed and deserve more!

Parents are also upset. Special needs programs are being cut. PTA’s must raise more funds to help subsidize educational programs, school equipment, and technology. K-12 elective programs such as sports, driver’s training, music, and special interest clubs require a student participation fee. Ten years ago, for every dollar contributed by a college student, $3 was provided by the state. The state now supports less than 80 cents on the dollar to Michigan colleges and universities. Rising tuition, coupled with reductions in available scholarships, has created a greater financial burden on those students wishing to pursue higher education.

That’s the picture for public education in Michigan these days…. It’s not so pretty is it? We can’t continue sliding downhill because of inadequate funding. We have to join together to impact and motivate our legislators to resolve the problem. How? Well, that’s for our legislature to decide, BUT… a large part of our under funding problem can be traced back to legislative decisions that reduce taxes for “special interest groups.” In fact, since 1990, there have been 72 laws passed supporting such tax cuts! 

Private industry has cunning lobbyists with a great deal of money to back them; education does not. However, today as I walked among 14,000 educators, parents, and students, I felt hopeful. The message was respectful, but loud and clear...we have problems with education funding and Michigan’s students need a solution – NOW! It’s high time that Michigan’s students became “a special interest group.” We teachers are held accountable for fixing what’s wrong when a student has not made progress. Our legislators should like-wise be held accountable for fixing what’s wrong when education is not being adequately funded.

Paid Leave, often referred to as sick leave, includes different categories of use. Refer to page 33 of the contract for more information.

All teachers receive 11 days of paid leave at the beginning of the school year. Days that are not used are carried forward to the following year. If, for example, a teacher uses 5 paid leave days this year, that teacher will have 17 days (11 new days plus 6 carryover days) available for the 2005-06 school year.

Paid leave days can be used for various reasons. The primary uses are for your own illness or illness in your immediate family. If your child is ill, for example, you can use paid leave days to take care of your child. You can use as many days as you need for this purpose. The limitation on the number of leave days that can be utilized to care for a family member comes into effect for family members who do not reside with you or who are not your dependents. (A child at college may still be your dependent and you could utilize as many paid leave days as necessary for their care since they would be an immediate family member.) If you are helping to care for an ill parent who lives in the area, you can have 3 paid leave days for this purpose. If the ill parent lives out of the area, 5 days of paid leave are available for their care.
Paid leave days are also used for the death of a family member (3 days for the metropolitan area; 5 days if the deceased is out of the area) and for personal business leave.

Personal Business Leave

Personal business leave is covered on page 36 of the contract. The 3 days of personal business leave are part of the 11 paid leave days which are allotted annually. Personal business days are not lost if unused. They are converted into accumulated paid leave days for the following year. The forms for personal business leave are in the school office.  The form was modified last year by the Joint Committee to take into account our one discretionary personal leave day.  For the discretionary day, you do not have to sign the part of the form which delineates the conditions for which you cannot use the two regular personal leave days.  You can take the discretionary day for any use of your choice. However, you cannot use the discretionary day to extend a holiday. If you need a personal day to extend a holiday, it has to be approved by the Joint Committee. Approval is also needed to take personal leave during the last 5 working days of the year. Approval of the Joint Committee depends upon your reason for wanting to extend the holiday. It cannot be merely for a longer vacation break. Inform your principal that you will be using personal business leave. Additionally, you must call your absence into the SEMS employee absence system.

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