Saturday coffee.
There’s not much good news this morning. The death toll mounts in Chile and places around the Pacific, including Hawaii, prepare for a potentially dangerous tsunami.
It’s hard not to use the tsunami as a metaphor for what is happening in the heartland. The financial situation for school districts around the state of Illinois just gets worse and worse.
But as we head into the month of March, the reality for teachers (and inevitably for students) is that by Illinois law, teachers must be notified of their release 45 working days before the end of the year. Some local contracts, like ours, require 60 days notice
That means that literally hundreds of school districts that don’t have the money to keep teachers on their payroll, or even those who are not sure, will send out RIF (Reduction in Force) notices before this month is over.
For many colleagues around the state, March will be a lousy month.
There’s an effort to ban the right of teachers to strike in Illinois.
SB 3766 (Burzynski, R-Sycamore) would prohibit strikes during the regular school term.
On Monday morning please call the members of the senate labor committee and ask them to vote no on SB 3766.
Members on senate labor committee are: Sen. Forby (D-Benton), Sen. Holmes (D-Aurora), Sen. Pankau (R-Roselle), Sen. Crotty (D-Oak Forest), Sen. E. Jones (D-Chicago), Sen. Hutchinson (D-Olympia Fields), Sen. Lightford (D-Maywood), Sen. Maloney (D-Chicago), Sen. Althoff (R-Crystal Lake), Sen. Cronin (R-Elmhurst) and Sen. Hultgren (R-Winfield).
To contact these legislators, simply call the state telephone operator at 217/782-2000 and ask to be connected to one of them.
Early childhood education is another victim of the state’s budget crisis.
Catalyst is reporting on the impact of the budget crisis on pre-school.
In Early Childhood Education Preschool for All, still reeling from a 10 percent funding cut this fall, is now facing even more uncertainty. As the state teeters on the edge of insolvency – with at least $5 billion in unpaid bills this year and a projected deficit for next year large enough to wipe out several state departments – no one is sure how many children the program will be able to serve, or have to turn away, next year.
Congratulations to Portland teachers.
After 20 months of negotiations, Portland teachers have a contract.
Portland teachers have approved a new tentative contract between Portland Public Schools and the district’s nearly 4,000 teachers.
Rebecca Levison, president of the Portland Association of Teachers, said a majority of teachers ratified the contract.
“We hope that the Portland School Board would also approve the tentative agreement,” said Levison, who reported the results of the secret ballot this evening.
The Portland School Board is scheduled to vote at 10:30 a.m. Saturday. The two groups have been negotiating for nearly two years, largely haggling over salary and changes to the amount of instructional time that students receive.
District and union officials say the details of the contract will be released publicly once the school board votes.
The important thing to keep in mind here is not just that it took 20 months. The fact is that an agreement was reached. When disagreements arose, Portland teachers weren’t fired.
Memo to Central Falls board of education: Collective bargaining works.
