Santa Rosa Education Association – the only organization engaging our School Board

At last Thursday’s school board meeting, Santa Rosa EA member and Woodlawn Beach Middle School teacher Ben Smith addressed the Board members and Superintendent Wyrosdick regarding a number of issues. Because Ben’s remarks speak for themselves, his remarks are printed below:

“I would like to begin by thanking the School Board and Superintendent Wyrosdick for this opportunity to speak today. My name is Ben Smith, and I am a math teacher at Woodlawn Beach Middle. I’m here to speak on behalf of Santa Rosa EA, the new educator organization that will soon, I hope, be the bargaining agent for teachers and educational support staff.

Our school district made the state and national news Friday, with Jessica Bakeman’s lengthy article in Politico Florida. The article made it sound as though the story is about state and national unions trying to maintain their hold on teachers in this county, and a local union trying to fight for our independence.

But I am here today to say that, while FEA and NEA have certainly brought money and organizing prowess to bear in our district, they haven’t invented the very real sentiment that I and hundreds of other teachers here share: That we have been poorly represented in the last decade and that we want change.

I am one of hundreds who believe that the tone of discourse set by SRPE in recent years has turned from bad to worse, resulting in impasse after impasse and a general decline in morale.

I am one of hundreds who feel that SRPE has not listened to our concerns and has consistently responded to questions from its own members with hostility.

I am one of hundreds who have distanced themselves from SRPE in response to all of this.

And I am one of hundreds who realize that the big picture matters: Many of the changes to our working conditions have been the result of (1) a recession and (2) laws passed by the state legislature and signed by the governor. I think that you, the superintendent and school board, have often been scapegoated about decisions that were not yours to make.

Many of us quit SRPE in the last decade—more than 500 of us, in fact. We did so without hope that the situation would improve, given that our leadership had not changed in years. But SRPE’s cutting us off from the rest of the educators in our state and nation triggered an unexpected and welcome opportunity for change.

SRPE’s decision to sever ties to our state and national colleagues also shows how little its leaders understood—understand—about the state of public education and the challenges it currently faces.

Speaking of those challenges—as I speak, our lawmakers are holding a special session that will decide how our state will fund education. That’s why I joined Superintendent Wyrosdick and thousands of other educators in encouraging to Governor Scott to veto HB 7069.

This is the sort of thing I hope we can do. I hope we can work with you whenever necessary and whenever possible to make things better for students, for our community, and of course, for teachers.

I am addressing you today with cautious optimism. I am hopeful that, with our new organization, we will do things differently. We will engage you professionally, maintaining a civil and respectful tone. We will listen to our members and communicate their concerns. We will pay attention to the big picture.

We will, of course, sit across from you at the negotiating table, and we will advocate for teachers, who are the people who make education possible. We will hold you accountable for the things that are in your power to change. But we also hope to join you in advocating for what we all believe in: The necessity of public education for a decent society. Thank you for your time.”

——

Santa Rosa EA is thankful for educators like Ben who have the courage to stand up and say what’s gone wrong with the current bargaining agent and that there is hope for a better tomorrow. An election is coming at the end of this month for teachers (and soon to be scheduled for Ed Support) in which employees will have a choice to vote, once and for all, for change. If you are tired of the status quo with the same results, now is the time to select change – and change begins with voting for the only organization with the experience, the resources, and willingness to advocate for you.

ARE YOU READY FOR A CHANGE?
IF SO, VOTE FOR
SANTA ROSA EDUCATION ASSOCIATION!

 

State News

Update on HB 7069

Despite some misinformation in the media, Gov. Rick Scott HAS NOT received HB 7069, so he cannot currently act on the bill. The outcome of the special session may impact whether he signs HB 7069 into law, but the most critical component we need now is calls and emails into the governor telling him to listen to Floridians and VETO HB 7069. This is where you come in! Whether you’ve called the governor every day, or not at all, please take a moment to weigh in with the governor to urge him to veto HB 7069. And then ask every colleague, neighbor, family and friend to do the same.

Bottom line: It’s not too late to make your calls and emails to the governor to urge him to VETO HB 7069 TODAY.

Money, money, money … money!

In May, the House and Senate passed a paltry budget that included a $27 decrease in the base student allocation, and an overall minuscule increase in FEFP spending. After receiving the budget, the governor vetoed $11.4 billion in the FEFP and another $410 million in projects, many of which were higher education funding, forcing the Legislature back to Tallahassee to try again on the PreK-12 budget. This resulted in the three-day special session we are in now.

The special session call was intended to address three things: an increase in the per-pupil spending by $100 per student, increase funding for Visit Florida and include funding for economic development projects. Legislators went into special session Wednesday with the intent of their work being completed today. During the special session they agreed to expand the call to include the implementation of medical marijuana approved by the voters in 2016.

Late Friday afternoon, just hours before the 6 p.m. deadline, Florida legislative leaders struck another last-minute deal. Speaker Corcoran agreed to President Negron’s request to restore $60 million of the $114 million cut from higher education projects and it seems the Governor was willing to play along. It is believed that to receive the Governor’s approval of these overrides the legislative leaders had to add $50 million to pay for repairs the Herbert Hoover dike, an issue the Governor had requested earlier. At times we wondered if anything would be accomplished in the three days. The standoff between the House and Senate has been tense, and the governor has retreated to Washington to pal around with the president.

Both chambers filed different budget proposals to increase K-12 funding by a total of $215 million new dollars, resulting in the $100 more per student suggested by the governor. While the Senate looked at a combination of an increase in state funds and an increase in property tax revenues (RLE) to meet the $215 million increase, the House (Speaker Richard Corcoran) held firm on its regular session spending policy saying they would not increase the RLE. Their proposal also includes $150 million of nonrecurring money found from the governor’s vetoes that will result in a hole in the FY ’18-19 budget that will need to be replaced when legislators look at the budget next year.

On Thursday, several senators attempted to defund HB 7069 (mainly the Best and Brightest bonus program and charter school funding) and place the money in the education budget. A champion for this cause, Sen. Gary Farmer (D-Fort Lauderdale) urged changes to HB 7069 and said there were no guarantees if they did not try to fix HB 7069 now. “Let’s not wait for that fix next year that will never come,” Farmer said. “That’s a unicorn, folks. It doesn’t exist. It’s not happening next year, and it may never happen.”

Two amendments offered by Sen. David Simmons (R-Orlando) attempted to redirect money toward the FEFP and traditional public schools. One amendment took $100 million of the $413 million from HB 7069 to apply critical wraparound services in struggling schools, while the second amendment takes $100 million for wraparound services and $288 million to increase the BSA from the $413 million in HB 7069. Both amendments failed. Several other senators who disagreed with HB 7069 when it was passed, spoke at length about the problem, but ultimately could not convince enough colleagues to join them in making changes. Simmons has suggested that a special session to fix HB 7069 is needed. We do too, senator.

We believe the following represents where the new funding allocation will stand:

• All the proviso language passed during the regular session for the FEFP remains the same. The only change is in the funding totals – the proposed bill provides an increase of about $215 million in total FEFP funding over the adopted 2017-2018 budget and generates the increase of $100 per student suggested by the governor.
• The spending policy would continue the roll back millage rate for Required Local Effort and uses recurring and non-recurring state funds to produce the $215 million increase.

National News

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