Capitol Bathed in Pink on the Eve of Pink Friday

PINK FRIDAY - A teacher rally was held today at the west steps of the Capitol and the President of CTA was joined by the presidents of the Sacramento area school districts to speak to the crowd of pink shirted educators.
See video:
http://www.kcra.com/video/18928725/index.html
http://www.cbs13.com/video/?id=49910@kovr.dayport.com

School Board Meeting Update - March 11, 2009

The following was written by school board member Lisa Kaplan. Thank you Lisa for your summary, and thanks to the board and Dr. Farrar for demonstrating that you are truly working with your bargaining units on budget saving ideas. Much appreciated!

Good Evening:
In a short version since it is late tonight, the following is a brief summary of the major actions the Natomas School District made tonight:

1) The Board approved expanding NP3 from a 9-12 to include 6-8, thus creating a 6-12 charter school.

2) The Board approved opening HAH middle school by moving next year all existing students at Natomas Middle School over to HAH middle as a full middle school - by doing this the District saved the start-up costs associated with opening a brand new middle school and ordering all new text books and supplies.

3) The Board approved moving NP3 over to the Natomas Middle School campus to share with Westlake Charter School. This decision saved the District approximately $1.2 million dollars its first year and approximately $700,000 thereafter by not renting property in the community to house NP3. NP3 middle will open next year with 150 - 6th graders / 50 - 7th graders and 50 - 8th graders, thereby easing overcrowding at both middle schools.

4) The Board gave direction to the district to work with the middle school design team (MSDT) to create partnership academies at each middle school (the intent is to create 2 small schools within each middle school with approximately 450 kids at each school)

5) The Board approved approximately $ 6million dollars in cuts (including savings by moving NP3 to NMS campus / increasing class size by 1 student district wide approx $1 million - the other cuts include deferring retirement costs / moving categorical money around with the flexibility given to us in the State budget and a host of other cuts that none of the board really like making). These cuts were needed because the State already reduced our budget by 15% this year and is cutting the District funding by 20% next year.

Don't hesitate to call the District 567-5400 (ask for John Christ - email our business director jchrist@natomas. k12.ca.us) or send me an email if you have further questions.

Lisa Kaplan
General Counsel, L&B AssociatesTrustee, Natomas School Board

Natomas Teachers’ Association Newsletter, March 2009

Natomas Teachers’ Association Newsletter
March 2009

Calendar of Events:
§ Rep Council Meeting – Thurs, Mar. 5th 4:00 pm, LFG, Room 406
§ School Board Mtg. – Wed, Mar. 11th, D.O. 6:30 pm
§ Sacramento Educ. Coalition, Tues. Mar. 10th, 5:30 pm at CTA on Truxel.

Board Member Meetings:
§ Lisa Kaplan - Monday, Mar. 9th, 4:00
§ Jules Tran, Sue Heredia- Monday, Mar. 9th, 6:00 pm
§ Bruce Roberts- Tues. Mar. 10th, 4:00
§ Teri Burns – Tues. Mar. 10th, 5:30pm

Board member meetings will all be held at Giovanni’s Pizzeria (2701 Del Paso Rd) and are generally the Monday and Tuesday before board meetings each month.

Don’t forget to check out the NTA blog:
http://natomasteachers.blogspot.com

Negotiations Update
Negotiations were held Thursday, February 19th You should have received an update last week. T & R, Class Size, Special Education, Compensation, and Calendar were among the items discussed. Please refer to the update or your site rep for the details.
May 19th State Initiatives – 1A through 1F – please vote yes!

Transfer and Reassignment
For this year only, T & R timelines have been extended. Teachers will receive their T & R form by April 20th, to return the forms by May 1st. You will then be notified of first round changes by May 15th. By delaying this process, teachers will have a better idea of what job might be opened for the upcoming year. We advise teacher to put on the list your ideal position because you never know what could open up at the last minute.

Natomas Budget Watch
A community forum was held this week to discuss the opening or delaying of Hight Middle, and the best use of categorical flexibility. There was some Natomas staff that attended, as well as parents that spoke. In general, the teachers/staff that spoke were concerned about spending the million it would cost to open Hight, but the parents that spoke all spoke in favor of opening. And on the catagoricals, GATE parents spoke up for maintaining and increasing GATE, while others expressed concern about a lack of instructional materials and resources for classrooms, recognizing the need to increase resources. Yes, even the parents can see we are short on resources in the classrooms!
Next Wednesday’s Board meeting – March 11th – will be when board members make their final decisions on budget cuts.

Stand Up For Schools
Pink Friday is March 13th – a gathering /event at the Capitol at 4:30 – supporting teachers across Sacramento County, and our schools that have substantially lost precious funding. There will be stickers and signs at the event for teachers to wear and hold. Teachers can wear their NTA shirts to that event, if they have one, so don’t let the “pink” attire thing keep anyone away.
If you are planning to attend, please let your site rep know or email exec bd so that we can let the organizers know.

Did you know that you can save money as a CTA member and Natomas teacher? Here are some ways:
Cell Phone companies will give you a discount on your plan– call them and find out how.
If you have BlueShield PERS Choice – go to their on-line contact and complete a survey and you can receive $50.

THE 2009 BICYCLE AND BICYCLE ACCESSORY REBATE Opened NOW through April 30th
Who is eligible?
Because you work in North Natomas, YOU are!
How do I sign up?
Just fill out an application and visit a local bike shop for a quote! They will help you get fitted for the correct bike for your needs, abilities and body type.
Just looking for an accessory to make your riding better?
A bike shop can help you pick up just what you need to make cycling a reality.
Detailed instructions are on the application and are available online at NorthNatomasTMA.org or in hardcopy in Heidi Van Zant's Office. If you
have questions, contact the North Natomas TMA at 916.419.9955 or sarah@northnatomastma.org.


If you have any association questions or issues please contact your site rep(s):
· American Lakes: Naomi Nakahara
· Bannon Creek: Linda Wells
· Discovery HS: Therese Collentine
· H. Allen Hight: Allyson Kirby
· Heron: Kou Moua, Peter Talbot, Cara Kruse
· Inderkum HS: Patricia Hite-Leach, Ken MacPherson, Scott MacMillan
· Jefferson: Maureen Ramos
· Leroy Green MS: Kristen Rocha, Justin Vorhauer
· Natomas HS: Joel Schweiger, Ruth Ward, Ben Layne
· Natomas MS: Emilio Moran, Anthony Katsaris
· Natomas Park: Lauren Frazer
· Two Rivers: Phil Cox, Jerry Lovejoy
· Witter Ranch: Tanya Praest, Jim Clarke, Kim Chambers

Here are the school board members home
e-mails. Feel free to contact them:

Bruce Roberts bruceroberts4natomas@yahoo.com
Jules Tran jules.tran@sbcglobal.net
Sue Heredia heredias@csus.edu
Teri Burns terib@sia-us.com
Lisa Kaplan kaplan4kids@yahoo.com


Future Events of interest:

Pink Friday – March 13th – Capitol at 4:30 pm

Transfer and Reassignment paperwork and processing – April/May

May 3-9th – Teacher Appreciation Week

California Day of the Teacher – May 13th

Election of NTA Officers – May


District Outlines New Priority List at February Board Workshop
The district outlined at a recent board workshop their own personal wish list of priorities for the categorical flexibility and here is what they mentioned:

1. 90 minute weekly collaboration time ($500,000)- [NTA estimated the cost to be $1,300,000]
2. Hire instructional coaches for ELA, Math and EL – 4 for Elem, 3 for Middle and 3 for HS, at approx. $900,000. [Maybe TESA?]
3. Professional development, Professional Learning Communities, Cultural Competency $100,000+ instructional materials adoption at approx. $1,000,000
4. Basic Core Instructional Materials approx $1,000,000 + intervention, acceleration, culturally diverse pops. $250,000.

These are items we might want to speak with board members and district office staff about. I am not sure what teachers groups were consulted when coming up with these priorities. Maybe this was gathered by talking with administrators. In any case, it doesn’t appear that the catagoricals in Tier 3 add up to these amounts, but perhaps as funds permit these will be looked at to be adopted. Although all of these are aimed at teacher training and classroom materials, I would be interested in gathering further information from teachers as to their thoughts on these items. Please send us your input!

PINK FRIDAY IS MARCH 13th

Fight Pink Slips, Stand Up For Schools

Join teachers, parents, students and community members and Stand Up For Schools on March 13, the deadline for teacher layoff notices from school districts. Thousands of educators are expected to receive pink slips -- or Reduction in Force (RIF) notices -- this year. In fact, 17,777 pink slips have already been issued!
For more information, please go to http://www.cta.org/

Here is our local activity - please join us:
On March 13 (Fri) we are planning a 4:30 rally of our members converging on the capital. WE would love to have a show of solidary with all of the teachers from districts surrounding the capital to join us. We will ask our teachers to wear their NTA T-shirts or school shirts and we will have stickers and some will wear pink armbands. I know there will be a lot of frustration and anger and this provides an outlet with an organized activity, and it would publicize how teachers are being effected by the budget cuts. Please let us know if this is something you can participate in. Other local districts will be joining us such as Sac City TA and San Juan TA among others. It would be a great show of solidarity for ALL CTA TEACHERS in the area to join together - "an injury to one is an injury to all".