LAMPHERE FEDERATION OF TEACHERS
AFT Michigan #1614
Newsletter
November 2005
Dental Coverage--All members who have dental coverage as part of your benefits package have received a memo regarding SET dental insurance. Dentists who are part of the SET Network who have signed a contract to accept lower fees are now part of our coverage. This does not mean that anything in our coverage changes, just that if your dentist is part of that network they will accept that fee.
LFT Dues for 2005/06--Dues collection for the 2005/06 began with the October 21st pay check. If you pay cash for dues please pay by December 1st. The amount for this year is $489. Send your dues payment to Doren Steckler, LFT Treasurer at Edmonson.
Katrina Relief--SOME GULF COAST SCHOOLS REOPEN, BUT
NEED REMAINS GREAT
All but 120 of about 5,000 employees of the St. Tammany, La., Parish school district
reported for work October 3rd when the district's schools reopened for the first time
since Hurricane Katrina. Teachers and PSRPs in the hard-hit parish near New Orleans have
shown a remarkable commitment to returning to their jobs and their students despite a
difficult housing situation, says St. Tammany Federation of Teachers and School Employees
president Elsie Burkhalter.
Because of the widespread damage to residential areas, many school staff are commuting
long distances to work, says Burkhalter, whose own home in Slidell was among those
destroyed in the hurricane. The union has been working with the district to identify
employees' housing needs and help them as much as possible, but the options are limited
until FEMA starts bringing in temporary housing. Unfortunately, fewer students than
expected came to class the first
week, so some of the staff—many of whom lost their homes—may face layoffs.
October 3 also marked the opening of schools in nearby Jefferson Parish. Only about half
of the school system's 52,000 children returned to class that day, Reuters reports.
Thousands of teachers and other school staff have been working feverishly since September
21st to get the parish's buildings ready for reopening. The Jefferson Federation of
Teachers also has been working with district, federal and nonprofit groups to secure
temporary housing for displaced school employees. Meanwhile, the need among AFT members
who lost homes, cars and other possessions remains critical; the AFT is urgently seeking
donations to the union's disaster relief fund, which provides direct assistance to members
affected by the hurricane. To make a contribution, go to http://www.aft.org/katrina.
School Calendar--The contractual agreement that was made with the Lamphere School Board covers two years through 2007. Because of this agreement the new state law that compels districts to start after Labor Day will not apply to the Lamphere Calendar for 2006-07. The LFT is still working with administration to work out details on the calendar for 2006-07.
Unions Hail Grass-Roots Victory On Wage Protections--Under bipartisan pressure, President Bush has reversed his Sept.8 suspension of federal wage protections for workers hired for construction projects in hurricane-affected areas of the Gulf Coast. The AFL-CIO mobilized a nationwide grass-roots campaign to restore worker rights under the 74-year-old Davis-Bacon Act, which requires companies awarded federal construction contracts to pay prevailing wages. The administration's Oct. 26 announcement that Davis-Bacon protections will be reinstated on Nov. 8 was widely welcomed by labor groups. AFT president Edward J. McElroy says he's pleased that President Bush is reversing his "earlier, misguided decision," adding that he hopes this "sends a message to those seeking to make the Gulf region a laboratory for anti-worker policies." Edward C. Sullivan, who heads the building and construction trades department at the AFL-CIO, notes that trade union members and their families nationwide generated "thousands upon thousands of letters, e-mails and phone calls" on this issue. "This is great news for the workers and their families in the devastated Gulf Coast," he says.
Union Pays Tribute To Rosa Parks--Civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks, who died Oct. 24 at age 92, "will be remembered as one of the most courageous and inspiring activists, whose one small, defiant action changed history," said AFT president Edward J. McElroy in a statement. Park's refusal nearly 50 years ago to give up her seat on the bus to a white passenger in Montgomery, Ala., became a major spark for the modern civil rights movement, which led to numerous landmark desegregation laws. Parks died at home in Detroit of natural causes, reports the Associated Press. She had been arrested on Dec. 1, 1955, jailed and fined $14 for defying the rule that blacks had to give up their seats to whites. This prompted a 381-day boycott of the Montgomery bus system led by a little-known, 27-year-old Baptist minister, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. "The AFT mourns the passing of Rosa Parks, to whom we and the country owe a great debt of gratitude," said McElroy.
Issue on the Horizon--Pay for Performance--
You may be hearing about “pay for performance,” the concept of paying teachers
based on their contribution to student learning or increased job responsibilities.
Typically, pay-for-performance systems have been unsuccessful because they are very
subjective, often based on a principal’s opinion of a teacher, or they cap the number
of teachers who can earn the designation. Recently, the U.S. House of Representatives has
authorized and appropriated funds for a “Teacher Incentive Fund” to provide $100
million to states to pilot pay-for-performance programs for teachers and principals who
increase student achievement in high-need schools. Local AFT affiliates such as Douglas
County, Colo., Minneapolis, Minn., and Cincinnati, Ohio, which have negotiated
pay-for-performance measures with their districts, have included the following components
in their agreements:
- Provisions requiring teachers in participating schools to vote to adopt the program;
- Additional pay for additional responsibilities;
- Ongoing professional development provided for all teachers;
- Adequate base salaries for all teachers.
For more information on pay for performance, read this American Teacher article on the
subject or the AFT resolution on professional compensation for teachers.
Highly Qualified Teachers-- The deadline for teachers to meet
the No Child Left Behind Act’s “highly qualified teacher” requirements is
the end of the 2005-06 school year. States have
some flexibility in determining how teachers will meet the requirements in their states,
such as selecting or developing the tests that are administered, and the components that
are included in “high objective uniform state standards of evaluation” (HOUSSE)
definitions. One additional area of flexibility is middle schools. States decide whether
middle school teachers have to meet the “highly qualified” requirements for
elementary teachers, or whether they should be included as secondary teachers and have to
demonstrate subject-matter competency in each of the core academic areas in which they
teach. For more information on this flexibility for middle school teachers go to:
http://www.ed.gov/nclb/methods/teachers/hqtflexibility.html. For information from the AFT
on highly qualified teacher requirements, go to: http://www.aft.org/topics/nclb/hqt.htm.
Respectfully submitted,
Judy Schram
LFT President