Notes from BR Meeting, Delegate Nominations

Thanks to the building representatives who made it to last Thursday's meeting. High school open house held attendance down a bit, but the following schools were represented (is your school on the list?):

Bowerman, Carver, Cherokee, Cowden, Hickory Hills, Holland, Jarrett, Kickapoo, Parents As Teachers, Parkview, Phelps, Pipkin, Sequiota, Special Ed. Services, Study, Westport, Wilder, Wilson's Creek and York. I hope we can double this number in October.

Agenda items included Executive Board introductions, Treasurer's Report, MNEA candidate endorsements, Springfield Public School Survey results, Compensation Committee report, Benefits/Insurance Committee report, Continuous Quality Improvement, voucher hearings, TABOR, DESE Virtual School report and the April school board election. Yes, it was a full agenda, but it was a lively session with good questions and discussion (and some nice door prizes). Uniserv Director, Gerald Bonham and Missouri NEA President, Greg Jung were the featured speakers.

While the social atmosphere is great at these meetings, the issues, problems and solutions we discuss are directly related to facilitating a great education for the kids in our classrooms. We work in a large district, and sometimes the system is unwieldy and actually creates obstacles and boundaries that inhibit our best work with the students. It's up to us to come together, make people aware, and present opportunities for improvement. SNEA is our voice for positive change. Please try to attend the next meeting (Oct. 19) and bring a friend. (end of sermonette)

MNEA Conference Delegate nominations were taken on Thursday, but there are some slots available and still time to send nominations by email to snea@aol.com. This is a great way to keep up with issues facing public education and to meet teachers and support professionals from around the state. Deadline for email nominations is October 1st. Here's more info on the conference:

Fall MNEA Representative Assembly

Where: Jefferson City Capitol Plaza
When: November 10-11

Featured programs
Visualization: The Key to Reaching Students Today—Mary Kim Schreck
Active Learning: Strategies for Achievement—Tom Jackson
Bully check: A Safe School - MNEA Bully—Free Schools Cadre
The Source of Behaviors -- Horatio Sanchez

Workshops
Planning for a Pandemic - Don't Panic!
Collective Bargaining
Smart Support Staff Strategies
Family-School-Community Partnerships
National Board Certification
Elementary Math Strategies
Legal Issues - Your Rights and Responsibilities
How to Improve Behaviors and Academic Performance for All Students
From Classroom to Capitol: Framing Our Current Legislative Issues
Election 2006 - Now What?
Teaching Autism Spectrum Students
What's New in Science
Handheld Computers in the Classroom
Motivating Reluctant Adolescent Readers
School Funding - Crisis and Opportunity
Backward Design
Yes, We Are All Reading Teachers: Reading Across the Curriculum

SNEA reimburses the district for subs (key SNEA on back of sub-finder brochure). Delegates nominated for the fall assembly also attend the spring conference at Tan-Tar-A, April 20-22.

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*SNEA Phone System - our wonderful new SNEA/MNEA phone system has been down for several days. We have not been able to hear any incoming local calls. We're so sorry for any inconvenience or delay in services this has caused. Technicians are reportedly working on the problem over the weekend. While they iron out the bugs, if you need to speak with Ray or Gerald Bonham, please send an email to snea@aol.com, and we will call you back as soon as possible.

Building Rep Meeting Tonight

September 21 Building Representative Meeting

When: 4:15-5:30 p.m.
Where: MNEA/SNEA Building, 1525-B W. Sunshine


Guest: Greg Jung, Missouri NEA President

Tonight's meeting is the first of the new school year, and we have plenty of items to cover in just over an hour, among them:

• Introduction of SNEA Executive Board
• SNEA budget
• News and upcoming issues
• Nominations for MNEA Representative Assembly

Food and beverage will be provided - come early, stay late - bring a friend.

Sept. 19 Board Meeting, District Survey, Remarks

Board Notes
September 19, 2006

Highlights from last night's board meeting:

1) Approval to purchase 25 acres of land at the intersection of East Division and FR 193 for the site of new Hickory Hills School. The land purchase price was $825,000. Details on the sale of the current location were discussed during a closed session.

2) The district released the results of a Springfield School District Survey (pdf file) that outlined how voters feel about district overall performance and their opinions and priorities regarding SPS.

When rating long-range plans for the district, voters gave their highest marks to "Increase teacher salaries to remain competitive on a statewide and regional basis" (67% strongly favor, 23% somewhat favor) - second highest favorable rating was "Hire more teachers to reduce the student/teacher ratio in classrooms" (58% strongly favor, 29% favor somewhat).

Remarks to the Board

Board Members
President Hoeman
Dr. Ridder

I just want to comment on the newly released district voter survey. As the district develops a long-range plan to guide us over the next several years, it was gratifying to see that Springfield voters chose as their highest "favorable" rating (90%) the increasing of teacher salaries.

This solid community support for raising our low ranking in teacher salaries dovetails nicely with our district Goal #3 - to recruit, develop and retain a high quality staff - and it bodes well for the future of our district.

It is also noteworthy that the next highest favorable rating (87%) was to ensure the district hires more teachers to reduce class sizes. The survey confirms that the voting community "gets it" when it comes to teacher compensation and class size issues.

I read another survey this week that I think underscores the importance of our own survey results. It came from the National Center for Education Information, a survey that views trends in education. Among the more interesting findings was the recognition that the K-12 teacher force is aging rapidly. After holding relatively steady for decades, the proportion of teachers who are 50 years of age and older has risen from 24% to 42% over the past ten years.

This means that over 40% of the teaching population will be retiring within the next ten to fifteen years. Our schools must be prepared to compete for the best teaching talent to replace this veteran core. With our community behind us, now is the time for Springfield to make a commitment to create a long-term pay plan that raises our low salary rank and makes us more competitive when recruiting teachers statewide.

Improved student achievement will be the ultimate result.

Thank you for your time.

New Teachers - Certification Requirements

If you are a new teacher and are not enrolled in the Step Up Program, you should know that MNEA is offering a Beginning Teacher Assistance Program that fulfills the Initial Certificate and PC-I requirement for "participating in a beginning-teacher assistance program sponsored by a college or university."

The program, which focuses on classroom management, also helps new teachers with the creation of professional teaching and learning plans and maneuvering the certification maze.

Date: September 30
Location: Springfield MNEA office, 1525-B W. Sunshine (subject to change if large enrollment)
Fee: $15 (SNEA members), $30 (non-members)

Click here to Register Online

Class Size, Building Representatives, Fall Conference

Class Size

Class size standards for the state of
Missouri (DESE):

Grades
K-2 Minimum Standard 25, Desirable Standard 20
3-4 Minimum Standard 27, Desirable Standard 22
5-6 Minimum Standard 30, Desirable Standard 25
7-12 Minimum Standard 33, Desirable Standard 28

In the first couple of weeks of contract time, I've visited some 35-40 schools. Most of those visits were of the quick hit-and-run variety to drop off member materials, but even a cursory look in classroom windows revealed some over minimum standard class sizes.

There were 42 math students in a class at one middle school, and 36 freshmen in an English class at one high school. Some principals have altered schedules and class assignments to adjust; others have seemingly thrown up their hands.

It is clear that many schools in the district are over-crowded and under staffed, which makes it all the more astounding that the district has chosen on two occasions to turn away voter approved tax revenue.

What are your class sizes like? The best way to gather this data would be to email your numbers to your building rep so they can forward a compilation on to me - if that's isn't convenient, just email them directly to snea@aol.com.

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Building Representative Meeting Schedule (4:15-5:30)


September 21 - Greg Jung, Missouri NEA President
October 19 - Missouri Legislature Candidates
November 16 - Anita Kissinger, SPS Executive Director Professional Development/CQI
January 18 - TBA
February 15 - TBA
March 15 - TBA
April 19 - TBA
May 24 - Springfield NEA Picnic

Did you know that, according to SNEA by-laws, you can have one BR for every seven members? Whether you are a BR or not, please feel welcome to attend. You will be fed well and enjoy some great company and conversation. New members welcome - as well as suggestions for speakers/topics for open dates.

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Fall MNEA Representative Assembly

One order of business at our first BR meeting will be the nomination of delegates to the MNEA Representative Assembly, which will be held in Jefferson City on November 10-11. Featured programs include:

Visualization: The Key to Reaching Students Today—Mary Kim Schreck
Active Learning: Strategies for Achievement—Tom Jackson
Bully check: A Safe School - MNEA Bully—Free Schools Cadre

Nominating Delegates by email - Send your nominations to snea@aol.com. We will also be accepting nominations from the floor at the Sept. 21 BR meeting. Make sure the nominee is willing to attend. SNEA reimburses the district for subs (key SNEA on back of sub-finder brochure).

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President's Report

This has been an extremely busy couple of weeks for all of us, but I wanted to outline some of my activities.

• Benefits Committee - Attended all meetings - I'm hopeful for some positive changes. I believe some of these may be introduced for discussion at the October board study session.
• Compensation Committee - Begin in October/November. We are seeking proportional representation on this cmte and are working on a multi-year proposal.
• Regular meetings and communication with administrative staff and Dr. Ridder, who has been open and accessible. Working on your behalf for positive change and flow of information.
• Regular meetings and communication with board members.
• Meetings with legislators and candidates on issues important to public education.
• SNEA Executive Board meetings - invaluable exchange of information and ideas to help us all perform our jobs better. We are fortunate to have a very talented and fully engaged group on our executive board.
• Participation and assistance with SPS staff development programs.
• Helping teachers overcome obstacles that inhibit their performance - sometimes it's just a matter of making connections or making people aware. Early on, I've been encouraged by the cooperation from administrators at all levels.
• Working to keep our members informed.
• Building visits - snea@aol.com