Bargaining impasse continues, but do you know who’s fighting for you?
DID YOU KNOW?
- Nearly every district from Pensacola to Tallahassee has settled negotiations – without going to impasse?
- The current association team speaks for only 29% of the teachers and ESPs in Santa Rosa?
- Our Annual Contract teachers are the only ones in the region without language providing an additional year of employment for earning “Effective” or higher evaluations?
- There are no members of the association bargaining team with any experience leading the team through all the steps of the impasse procedure?
- There is no connection to an affiliate with statewide bargaining data/history, making arguments for bringing comparable language and benefits to Santa Rosa incomplete and thus ineffective?
One thing which is becoming clearer every week. It is time for change and not more of the same.
If you want to see a change, then it starts with you. There is hope. Santa Rosa EA is comprised of members who are dedicated to being a different kind of association – one which values member input, communicates with all, and advocates for all. Currently, we are collecting Showing of Interest cards to petition the state for a bargaining unit election. Please complete the card (the top is for teachers and the bottom for Education Staff Professionals), and send it one of two ways:
- Mail to Santa Rosa EA, P.O. Box 723, Milton, FL 32570
- Email us at [email protected] to arrange for your card to be picked up at your worksite
Come, join the change. NOW is the time!
The Cat in the Hat visits Santa Rosa students!
NEA’s Read Across America is an annual reading motivation and awareness program that calls for every child in every community to celebrate reading on March 2, the birthday of beloved children’s author Dr. Seuss. As part of the festivities in Santa Rosa County, FEA Secretary Treasurer was our official Cat in the Hat guest reader for 2017. Flynt visited 51 classrooms last week, reading to children at West Navarre Primary, East Milton Elementary, Holly Navarre Intermediate, and Holly Navarre Primary. NEA’s Read Across America Resource materials offer numerous opportunities for involvement in children’s reading throughout the year. Following the visit from the Cat in the Hat, Holly-Navarre Intermediate teacher remarked, “When asked if I would host a reading in my classroom, I was honored – as having a national affiliate promoting everyday reading is one more reason I am proud and excited to have Santa Rosa EA working for us!”
Spring Break offerings for Santa Rosa employees!
On March 21 and 22, Santa Rosa EA will be offering a doubleheader of professional development courses from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. at the Hampton Inn and Suites, 7710 Navarre Parkway, Navarre. The first session, True Colors, will help you to learn about YOUR personality type using a personality-type analysis based in Jungian psychology – and how your type influences your relationships, your choice of profession, your role in peer groups, and your leadership choices. The following session is all about Stress Management, where you can learn tips and strategies for de-stressing, decompressing and revitalizing to help you do your personal best in your work. RSVP by March 15 to Rachel McCleery, [email protected] or text 440-223-5279 and indicate which date/location you wish to attend.
State News
Education changes will drive lawmakers’ agenda
Every level of Florida’s public education system — affecting kindergarten to university students — faces some measure of drastic reform in the upcoming legislative session that begins Tuesday. Just some of what’s on the table:
- “Dramatic” expansions of school choice alternatives in K-12 public schools and the state’s voucher-like scholarship programs are a top priority of Republican House Speaker Richard Corcoran. His education chairmen also have grand goals of narrowing the achievement gap for the state’s lowest-performing schools by attracting and expanding innovative educational options.
- The operations of Florida’s 28 public colleges could be reined in over what some senators see as unnecessary competition with the state’s public universities, sparking a need for more oversight.
- The State University System itself faces a changed future as Republican Senate President Joe Negron seeks to make Florida’s 12 public universities globally competitive with the likes of the University of Virginia or the University of Michigan.
It’s a bold, sweeping agenda for both the House and Senate — intentionally so, some legislators say. “We understand that it’s extremely ambitious; I think we wouldn’t have it any other way. There is a clear opportunity this year,” House pre-K-12 education budget chairman Manny Diaz Jr., R-Hialeah, said. “You have to make dramatic changes if you’re going to have dramatic results,” he added. The higher education reforms — with the exception of the state college changes — generally seem to have little opposition, but the K-12 reforms the House envisions are likely to spark backlash from supporters of traditional public schools, such as Democrats and the state’s largest teachers union, the Florida Education Association. However, with the 2017 session already set up to be a combative affair, there’s real potential Corcoran and Negron might get in each other’s way and that their favored education proposals might be caught in the political cross-fire. Read more here.
National News
Educators Told to Intern at Local Businesses To Renew Teacher Licenses
Ohio educators push back against Kasich proposal – a “needless hoop for teachers to jump through, created by those who are not part of the profession.”
As Opioid Crisis Alarms Communities, Drug Education Now Starts in Kindergarten
Looking beyond “Just Say No,” more educators are saying no student is too young to learn about the dangers of opioid abuse.
Don’t forget: The big picture matters.
Until Next Week,
Santa Rosa Education Association