SEA BARGAINING TEAM

 DECLARES IMPASSE

April 3 - Negotiating teams for SEA and SCPS met for the 14th time tonight, as the parties attempted to complete bargaining for the 2011-12 school year. While your SEA team was successful in completing negotiations of all language items tonight, salary talks were not successful, as the Board team proposed no increase to salaries for teachers. Simply put, the Board thinks there is no money to pay for any increases. We disagree. We have analyzed the budget and we believe that there IS money to pay for our proposed 3% increase. Despite our arguments indicating that an increase could be afforded, the Board team's position remained unchanged - nothing for teachers.

In recent years, pay increases have been limited to either small bumps in salary, nonrecurring bonuses, or nothing. This year, the Board wants to provide no increase of any sort for our hard work, our extra efforts, and our dedication to the students of Seminole County. Costs of living have risen since last year and as a result every neighboring school district has agreed to some form of increase for its teachers, except our district. Although SCPS continues to lead in achievement, it is slipping in career earnings for its teachers, and SEA doesn't wish to participate in that slide.

The SCPS School Board takes great pride in our schools' successes, such as its percentage of A and B schools, its large number of merit scholars, and its FCAT achievement. The Board's 0% increase, however, brushes aside the fact that our teachers are an enormous part of these successes, working long hours, taking on new challenges, submitting to a far more rigorous evaluation system, and simply doing MORE with LESS. Despite these inconvenient truths, the Board is unmoved in providing any degree of increase to show appreciation, understanding, and respect for the work we do.

While our efforts in bargaining have brought about positive changes that will strengthen our contract, such as contract status, involuntary transfers, and the grievance procedure, your team made the choice to declare impasse tonight on the remaining issue of salary. The next step in the impasse procedure is for the teams to participate in the mediation process with a neutral from Federal Mediation and Conciliation Services. This will be an opportunity for the teams to work with a third-party mediator who is trained to help the parties to reach a voluntary agreement.  If our efforts in mediation are fruitless, our intent will be to participate in the final step in front of the school board before this school year ends.

While your bargaining team has put in many hours of hard work getting to this point, SEA needs every member to stand ready to advocate for the respect and appreciation every teacher deserves. Having the SEA leadership and Fac Reps standing alone is not enough...We need YOU - to talk to school board members, to come to school board meetings and speak, and to participate in any organized activities to help SEA win this fight. This will not be an easy process, but together we can accomplish more!

PLEASE STAY TUNED FOR MORE INFORMATION. WE NEED EVERY SEA MEMBER TO STAND UP AND JOIN IN THE FIGHT!

NOW IS THE TIME.

Do You Have a Student Teacher in Your Classroom?  

If you do, please let him/her know that as a university student he/she qualifies to be a member of the Student FEA/NEA program.  Enrolling is easy, just go to https://sites.nea.org/JoinNea/ and join. For $31 a year, students receive Educators Employment Liability Insurance and $1 million professional liability insurance and representation from trained education advocates and attorneys who specialize in Florida Law.  Additionally, members receive the same benefits as an FEA/NEA/AFT member, including the FEA Access card which provides up to $1,500 per year in savings.  

Any student who is preparing to be an educator may join Student FEA.  This includes student interns, student teachers, students enrolled in the college of education, or simple a student in the math department who is planning to become a teacher.  Students currently under an employment contract with a public school system are not eligible for student membership.  Student members also have the option of attending the Student FEA conference and if he/she is interested can run for leadership positions on the Student FEA Board.  

Student FEA also offers a wide variety of professional development to its members in the following areas:   

·       Foundation of Effective Teaching 1 (Organizing a classroom environment for teaching and learning)

·       Foundations of Effective Teaching 2 (Building on Academic Success)

·       Beginning Reading Instruction

·       Reading Comprehension

·       Thinking Mathematics 1 (Ten principals of Additive Structure)

·       Thinking Mathematics 2 (Multiplicative Structures, Proportional Reasoning)

·       Thinking Mathematics 3 (Fractions, Decimals, Ratio)

·       Thinking Mathematics Middle School Journey on Algebra

·       Instructional Strategies that Work

·       Managing Anti-Social Behavior

·       Home School Connection

If you have contact with a student teacher or a student who is considering/pursuing the teaching profession, please encourage him/her to go to: https://sites.nea.org/HowToJoin/stateStudent.do?mbrType=STUDENT&sea=fl and join Student FEA today!

Click on the following links to read how SB 736 will affect you and what changes it brings to teaching in general.