http://www.ramonateachers.org/ My Dragonfly Site en-us Thu, 13 Nov 2008 22:04:57 GMT 1440 CPG-Nuke Dragonfly Ramona Teachers Association News http://backend.userland.com/rss http://www.ramonateachers.org/images/themes/Azul/images/logo.jpg http://www.ramonateachers.org/ http://www.ramonateachers.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=93 11/12/2008 Dear RUSD Teammates, The Ramona High School Football Team is experiencing an historic season on the gridiron. We are currently 8-1 on the season and ranked in the top five in all of San Diego County. This Friday night we are scheduled to play a home game against the 9-0 and number one ranked team in the county the Oceanside Pirates. This game is generating excitement not only in Ramona but throughout the whole county. This big game has been selected as the game of the week and will be televised on Cox channel 4 across San Diego County. Even though the game will be taped on Friday night it will be shown on channel 4 starting at noon on Saturday. Additionally, we have been selected by KUSI News to host a live Alarm Clock Pep Rally to start our Friday morning school day. The pep rally will be shown live and approximately run from 7:45-8:00 a.m. Live shots of RHS will also be taken leading up to the assembly and those shots will run at 5:55, 6:20, 6:45, & 7:15 a.m. We want to invite you to tune in on Friday morning to watch your former students show their school spirit and then after school we also hope you will be able to join us for Friday Night Lights in Ramona as the talented and fierce Bulldog players take it to the one legged eye patched Pirates at the Dawg Pound for a whopping! If you cannot make the game then watch the replay of our victory on channel 4 starting at noon on Saturday. We are extremely proud of the success of the football team and all the groups and teams that make RHS such a great school for kids. Thanks to all of you who have positively influenced each and everyone of our students at Ramona High School. A great big Bulldog shout out to you! Go Bulldogs! Tony Newman, Ramona High School Principal Thu, 13 Nov 2008 22:04:57 GMT http://www.ramonateachers.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=92 During this highly charged political time we would like to share the following rules with regard to teachers’ rights to political expression while at work. The following information comes from CTA’s legal department and is consistent with RUSD Board Policy #4119.25. 1. Clothing or buttons advocating for a support or oppose position on any candidate or issue is forbidden during work hours. The one exception is during the duty free lunch in a place, like the lounge, where students are not present. The key point here is that a teacher’s political preference on any issue or candidate cannot be communicated to students during the work day. 2. School district resources (such as copy machines and mailboxes) cannot be used for any political purposes. There is an ongoing dispute as to whether local Associations’ may use the mailboxes for disseminating informational pieces of literature (recommendations) but until the courts hand down a decision the rule of thumb is “Don’t do it.” 3. Bumper stickers on teachers’ cars in the staff parking lot and small signs in windows are permissible because they are a part of a teacher’s private property rights. Vehicles parked in the school’s parking lot with large signs (typically in the backs of trucks or on the sides of vans) that can be seen on campus are not protected speech and are forbidden. 4. Please be careful with classroom discussions about candidates or issues on the November 4th ballot. It is not appropriate for a teacher to express their personal opinion or political preferences to students during class time. Classroom discussions that are curriculum-driven are permissible but should be handled with great sensitivity. If a teacher has questions about a lesson they should check with their principal first. We want everyone to feel free to express themselves. At the same time, we want everyone to remain safe from the wrong kind of attention. We encourage everyone to vote.October 24, 2008 RTA wants you to know . . . For anyone interested in an in-depth explanation about the process used by CTA State Council for evaluating and establishing oppose/support positions on ballot initiatives an Open Letter has been posted on the RTA website www.ramonata.org . Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:38:06 GMT http://www.ramonateachers.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=91 California Teachers Association Statement of Mission The California Teachers Association exists to protect and promote the well-being of its members; to improve the conditions of teaching and learning ; to advance the cause of free, universal, and quality public education; to ensure that the human dignity and civil rights of all children and youth are protected; and to secure a more just, equitable, and democratic society. Goals To fulfill its mission, the California Teachers Association pursues the following goals. I CTA plans and executes programs and strategies designed to enhance the quality of education for students and the professional and personal lives of its members. II. CTA assists its local chapters in bargaining for salaries and individual and employment rights in keeping with the academic and professional status of its members. III. CTA represents members in governmental relations—to influence state and federal legislation and actions by state and federal agencies. IV. CTA strengthens its role as the preeminent voice for public education in California—projects a strong, coherent and consistent image such that its members play the major role in shaping public policy on education. V. CTA represents members in professional and career development matters. VI. CTA represents members and provides a program of economic benefits and resources for members. VII. CTA works to maintain and expand its membership so as to remain effective in defending and advancing its members’ interests. VIII. CTA maintains a governance system designed to achieve broad membership involvement and democratic decision-making. IX. CTA works to encourage ethnic minority member participation. X. CTA works to promote human and civil rights. XI. CTA maintains staff, hired in conformance with diversity principles, to serve its members. XII. CTA maintains internal and external communication system to ascertain its members’ priorities, to keep its members informed, and to improve its relations with the public. XIII. CTA implements NEA policies within California and works to influence the development and content of those policies. Thu, 23 Oct 2008 20:55:42 GMT http://www.ramonateachers.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=90 Randy, First off let me say that I am composing this at 10:30 on Wednesday night after finally returning home from a very full day of work and meetings. I am going to hold off on sending it to you until lunch on Thursday since it is not appropriate for teachers to be using district resources or time to engage in either union or political (expressly forbidden, anyway) work during school time. If you feel a response is necessary (don’t feel compelled to do so) then I urge you to follow my lead and compose and send either before work, at lunch or after work. It is the only way to follow the law and keep ourselves safe from community complaints. I am going to try and give this one last try. After this, I don’t know what I can add that would be productive. Let’s start with Dave’s letter to you. I consider Dave Schmale to be, not only my oldest and dearest friend in Ramona, but my mentor when it comes to Association work. He is truly a heroic figure in RTA lore and much of the contract bears his metaphoric signature. When he was on State Council I was his alternate and when he couldn’t finish his term because of health problems I filled in. He and I saw the same things at the same time. From my perspective Dave’s general overview got most of it right but I would respectfully dispute his characterizations of how ideas are generated and the relationship between CTA leadership and the 800-member State Council. Dave and I first served on SC in the late 80s and early 90s when SC had probably fewer than 500 members. There are now over 800 reps reflecting the increase in the number of teachers now in our state. It is an incredibly diverse group whose members come from rural, urban and inner city areas, most are evenly divided among the ages of 30 and 60 (a few younger, a few older), about equal men and women, socially diverse and an even mix of Democrats, Republicans (including RTA VP, Karen Quillen) and third party. Except for the size, my experience with this group twenty years ago mirrors what I see now. This broad representation of elected teacher leaders is a contentious and feisty bunch and the dialogue on any issue, especially those of a sensitive nature, is lively and often very, let’s just say “assertive.” Outside of NEA, it is the largest group in the world governed by parliamentary procedure and the rules are strictly enforced. I only go through this arduous exercise to dispel the notion expressed in Dave’s letter to you that any decision made by this group is “perfunctory” or the result of leadership “pressure.” The teachers at SC are as independent in their thinking as you are. The process for making any decision, including the one to oppose this proposition, comes from the bottom up through the committee process. Every legislative or ballot issue has a place in one of our committees for review. Most will be reviewed by several committees. The decisions on all of the initiative on the November 4 ballot start with our Political Involvement Committee and pieces are farmed out to other committees, such as Budget, Civil Rights and Legislative Action. Once the issue is fully understood the committee will refer to CTA policy and make a recommendation – sometimes, if there is no policy to support a choice the recommendation will be “no recommendation” and about half this year’s ballot initiatives fit into that category. By-laws require this process be followed and it is through enforcement of these rules that the 800 SC members keep the balance between themselves and the CTA Board of Directors. Everything goes through us first. It was this process that eventually brought the recommendations on the November 4th Initiatives, including the one to which you object, to the floor of SC in June of 2008. There was vigorous debate, much of it centering on the perception of our position, but in the end the vote was virtually unanimous to take an oppose position. After all of the recommendations on initiatives had been voted on a follow-up motion was made to make $5 million available to the Initiatives Fund to be used to as was needed to support our recommendations (if you are interested, $1M was designated for Props 6 and 9, $600 K for Prop 4 and $1.25M for Prop 8 with the rest divided amongst the others – money can be moved if, for example, there is no need to pump money into something that is a clear winner or loser). The vote on the $5M was also virtually unanimous. CTA’s position was arrived at in accordance with our by-laws, matches policy and was a result of a majority vote. I should point out that this is the same procedure we used to fight Propositions 74, 75 and 76 which threatened our pensions, job security and right to defend ourselves through our Association. The only difference between those 2005 initiatives and the ones on this year’s ballot is that we dedicated $75M to fight 74, 75, 75. This is not a new or hidden process. SC’s decision has been published in the California Educator magazine, I believe in both August and September (the new one has it on page 33). Summary of State Council actions is sent to every local president after the meetings. Through the member-to-member mailings each CTA member has received our recommendations on the initiatives via USPS (I have gotten at least three different mailers from CTA with recommendations) and we gave an 8 ½ X 11” out to site reps to be posted at each site. I am guessing that many people who are not philosophically aligned with our State organization throw them away without reading them but it isn’t as if these positions were kept a secret from them. The one other argument I have heard that needs to be addressed is the notion that this is none of our business because it is not a paper-pencil education issue. Regardless of how narrow some teacher’s connection to CTA might be, we are and always have been more than just a labor organization. The CTA Mission Statement, unchanged since the days when Dave and I first went there, is also posted on this website, see 'CTA Mission Statement and Goals' Mike Harrelson Thu, 23 Oct 2008 20:43:22 GMT http://www.ramonateachers.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=89 CTA VOTER GUIDE California Teachers Association Recommends: YES ON PROP 3 Prop. 3 is a statewide bond that provides $980 million to modernize and expand the state’s children’s hospitals – including the five hospitals on UC campuses – to improve the health, welfare and safety of California’s children. NO ON PROP 4 Prop. 4 puts the health and safety of California teenagers at risk. Doctors, pediatricians, nurses and counselors, including the California Medical Association, California Nurses Association and the California Association of School Counselors oppose Prop. 4 because of the health risks it poses for teenage girls NO ON PROP 6 Prop. 6 requires massive new spending as public schools face the worst budget crisis in history and educators organize to stave off cuts to education programs. Prop. 6 worsens the budget crisis by spending almost ONE BILLION dollars each year on ineffective programs that aren’t proven to reduce crime. Prop. 6 takes $1 billion from the state’s general fund without providing one penny in new revenue, putting funding for schools, colleges, fire protection and effective public safety efforts at risk. NO ON PROP 8 CTA believes that all people should be allowed equal protections under the law. California’s Constitution should guarantee the same freedoms and rights to everyone – no one group should be singled out to be treated differently. Prop. 8 mandates one set of rules for gay and lesbian couples and another set of rules for everyone else. That’s not fair. California laws should treat everyone equally. NO ON PROP 9 Prop. 9 is a costly, unnecessary and misleading initiative designed to exploit Californian’s concerns for crime victims. It preys on our emotions in order to rewrite the State Constitution in a way that will increase prison overcrowding and cost the state and local counties hundreds of millions of dollars each year. Sun, 12 Oct 2008 21:47:10 GMT http://www.ramonateachers.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=88 CTA/SAN DIEGO COUNTY SERVICE CENTER COUNCIL Chapter Recommended School Board Candidates For November 4, 2008 Association of Educators (San Diego County Office of Education) Mark Anderson – District #4 Cajon Valley Education Association (Cajon Valley Union School District) Ken Jensen Suzanne Mullins Grossmont Education Association (Grossmont High School District) Priscilla Schreiber Larry Urdahl Yes on Prop U Lakeside TA (Lakeside Union School District) Yes on Prop V Lemon Grove TA (Lemon Grove School District) Yes on Prop W National City Elementary TA (National School District) James Grier Jose Jones Ramona TA (Ramona Unified School District) Dan Lopez Mark Lucas San Diego Education Association (San Diego Unified School District) Richard Barrera John Lee Evans Shelia Jackson Yes on Prop S San Dieguito Faculty Association (San Dieguito High School District) Joyce Dalessandro Southwest Teachers Association (South Bay Union School District) Dave Lopez Sweetwater EA (Sweetwater Union High School District) Jaime Mercado Pearl Quinones Mira Costa CCA (Mira Costa Comm. College District) Carolyn Batiste Gloria Carranza Steven “Esteban” Scheibe Southwestern College EA (Southwestern Comm. College District) Nick Aguilar Mitch Thompson 10/7/2008 Sun, 12 Oct 2008 21:26:05 GMT http://www.ramonateachers.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=87 Michael Harrelson chairs the Policy Sub-Committee for the CTA Retirement Committee. That group met as part of the quarterly State Council meeting held this past weekend in Los Angeles. Mike reports that CTA the Retirement Committee received a report from CalSTRS Board chairperson, Dana Dillon, that in spite of the upheaval in the financial markets our teacher retirement system remains solid and no current or future retirees defined benefit or defined benefit supplement is threatened. CalSTRS does have money in the stock market but it has a large and widely diversified investment portfolio. Any failure to earn projected income this year has been offset by generous returns in years past (a 21% return on investment in 2006, for example) and current funds are projected out for the next 40+ years. Keep in mind that CalSTRS retirement is a defined benefit and a teacher’s earned retirement income is not subject to change regardless of what is happening externally. A letter from CTA President David Sanchez to chapter presidents and an article in an upcoming CTA California Educator Magazine will make similar, reassuring statements. The guaranteed purchasing power of retiree’s CalSTRS income has, until recently, been benchmarked at 80%. That means the income a retiree receives can never dip below 80% of its value based on the dollars received in the year of separation from the public education system. Currently, those teachers who retired 1990 or earlier are receiving supplemental checks to off-set the loss of purchasing power due to inflation. Dana Dillon, CalSTRS chairperson (also a CTA Board member and teacher in Weed, CA) reported last week that our retirement system’s Board just increased the guaranteed purchasing power from 80% to 85% percent. This is an important change and a huge benefit to current and future retirees. You can also click on 'CalSTRS' for an article on this topic Wed, 08 Oct 2008 20:10:31 GMT http://www.ramonateachers.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=86 Lori Tipane, Ramona Unified School District's Teacher of the Year and Hanson Elementary's much loved kindergarten teacher was honored Saturday night, September 13th, at the newly renovated Balboa Theatre in downtown San Diego, at the annual Salute to Teachers Broadcast sponsored by the San Diego County Office of Education. Lori looked beautiful. She wore a long black dress and a jacket that sparkled all the way to the balcony where her fans sat and cheered for her. There were cheer leaders with pom poms and rousing yells led by Darren Smith. More than 40 of Lori's friends and family were at the show to help her celebrate her honor. After the event, everyone went to the Cheesecake Factory in Fashion Valley and celebrated with dessert until midnight. It was a wonderful evening and an honor truly well deserved by an outstanding teacher. Lori, a kindergarten teacher at Hanson Elementary was also honored as RUSD's Teacher of the Year ceremony at the RUSD May Board Meeting. She has held that position for 32 years and been the recipient of many honors over the years. By Pat Coad Tue, 07 Oct 2008 15:08:55 GMT http://www.ramonateachers.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=85 On Thursday, September 18, 2008 the Ramona Teachers Association Interview and Endorsement Committee submitted the names of Dan Lopez and Mark Lucas to the RTA Executive Council for approval as Association endorsed candidates for Ramona Unified Governing Board. That recommendation was accepted. This important decision took many hours of thoughtful discussion by the Interview and Endorsement Committee and the Executive Council. The endorsement of Dan Lopez and Mark Lucas reflected the Ramona Teachers Association’s belief that these two candidates possessed the qualities and experience necessary to lead our District during these very difficult times. Dan Lopez has worked a teacher and administrator in both the San Diego Unified School District and Poway Unified School District. He earned a bachelors degree in Business and a doctorate in Educational Leadership. He has served as the President of the California League of Middle Schools, a well-regarded State educational organization dedicated to academic excellence and public school reform. He is currently the president of TurnAround Schools, an educational consulting firm. Dan’s children attend Ramona’s schools Mark Lucas has worked as a public school teacher in the Antelope Valley and with the Financial Reporting Division of the San Diego County Office of Education. Mark has school board experience in the Wilsona Elementary School District and has earned a Master of Governance status from the California School Boards Association. Mark is a former student of Ramona High School. He is currently Chief Financial Officer for Borrego Springs Unified School District. RTA president Donna Braye-Romero stated, “In these troubled financial times, Dan Lopez and Mark Lucas, are the two candidates we believe best suited to provide Ramona Unified with the experience and leadership necessary to weather the difficult times ahead.” Please contact Donna Braye-Romero (760-788-2985) with any questions. Tue, 30 Sep 2008 17:23:00 GMT http://www.ramonateachers.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=84 Savings Advantage For Educators (SAFE) is a 403 b tax deferred account set up for the purpose of saving for retirement and/or medical expenses. The primary change in the program this year is that all teachers not formerly in the SAFE plan and who are working on at least a 50% contract will be enrolled at the $30 per month level. All teachers have the option of contributing at the $30, $60 or $90 per month level. RTA’s match for this year is 80% on this monthly contribution. Teachers can contribute up to $15,000 additional funds per year to this account, but these additional funds will not be matched by RTA. The time frame to make changes or opt out of the SAFE program will run from October 1 to November 16, 2008. Teachers who do not want to participate in the SAFE program must fill out and turn in an 'Opt-Out' form. (pdf) SAFE meetings will be held at each site and professionals will attend each meeting to answer any questions teachers may have. You can also consult the 'Summary Description of the SAFE Plan' (pdf). All RTA members who are working on at least a 50% contract should plan to attend to learn more about SAFE. This includes teachers who are already enrolled as new information will be presented. Mon, 15 Sep 2008 15:40:18 GMT