Klein TSTA secretary took PAC fund raising to an entirely new level last night at the TSTA Leadership Institute Karaoke and Dance Party last night. She and other new leaders were reminded that day that TSTA/NEA dues monies cannot be used for endorsing candidates or electing public officials. They also learned how TSTA will be affected by Texas State Representative Leo Berman (R-Tyler), chair of the House Elections Committee and the Texas Attorney General by making teacher payroll deductions for political action committees illegal in Texas. Rep. Berman specifically cited TSTA’s PAC committee and TSTA views this as a direct attack on first amendment rights for teachers.

Vanessa Riley got “riled” up and showed up to the Dance Party with a plan. She knew full well her strengths and weaknesses, and she knows how to capitalize on them. After a few songs, she marched up to the microphone and announced that she was raising money for PAC, and for $20, she’d stop singing.

At first, the audience thought it was a joke, politely laughing. But once she started singing, the audience knew that she wasn’t joking. She started out singing “Delilah” by Tom Jones. She didn’t even make it through the chorus before someone ran up with a twenty dollar bill in her hand.

Disappointed, Vanessa sat back down, scheming. She ran on stage a few songs later, this time demanding even more money. She chose to dedicate her next song to the friends she had met in her Emerging Leaders training: “Friends in Low Places” by Garth Brooks.

She has issued a challenge, and TSTA responded. While Vanessa was on stage assaulting ears and dancing around the room, a serving tray was being passed around, with people throwing money on the plate to get her to stop singing.

All in all, Vanessa raised $74 dollars for PAC.

Klein TSTA would like to welcome 25 new members to the association. We hope that you will take full advantage of all socials, general meetings, and workshops!

On that note, two trainings that are coming up next month are a Science Curriculum workshop on on September 18th from 9:00 – 12, and a Member’s rights training on the 28th from 4:30 – 7:00. These workshops are *free* to all TSTA members, but please feel free to invite prospective members. Let’s show them that TSTA is not just a “good” organization, but a “GREAT” organization!

• 102,000 calls to Congress;
• 42,000 postcards; and
• 301,000 e-mails.

Four of every 10 Texas teachers moonlight during the school year to make ends meet, and 56 percent take extra jobs during the summer, according to a survey by Sam Houston State University commissioned by the Texas State Teachers Association.

The 40.8 percent of respondents who said they held second jobs during the current school year was the highest percentage since TSTA first started sponsoring the biennial survey, “Texas Teachers, Moonlighting and Morale,” 30 years ago. It was a significant jump from the 28 percent who reported moonlighting in 2008 and the 22 percent who reported having extra jobs when the first survey was conducted in 1980.

“It is a shame that so many of our dedicated educators have to struggle with extra jobs to support their families, but they have no choice,” said TSTA President Rita Haecker. “They are to be commended for going the extra mile each day for their students and their families. It is past time for our elected state officials to give these professionals the professional pay that they deserve.”

Almost half of the respondents (46.7 percent) said they were seriously considering leaving the profession, but the fact that 58.6 percent also were their family’s major breadwinners made that prospect difficult for many teachers.

The online survey of 907 teachers was conducted this spring by faculty members at Sam Houston State University.

The average number of hours, 15.2 percent, that teachers spent on extra jobs each week during the school year also was the highest amount recorded for the survey, as was the 56.4 percent of teachers who took summer jobs. In 2008, the average number of hours spent moonlighting each week during the school year was 11.5, and 34 percent of respondents reported summer jobs.

Some 68.6 percent of the moonlighting teachers believe their teaching quality would improve if they didn’t have extra jobs but said they couldn’t afford to give up the additional income without a raise in their teacher pay. Most (63.2 percent) said they would quit their second jobs during the school year if their teaching jobs paid more. On average, they said that would require a raise of $8,534 a year.

The average salary of teachers responding to the survey was $50,019 a year. Their average classroom experience was 17.7 years.

Overall, the average teacher salary in Texas, according to data for the 2008-09 school year, the most recent available, was $47,157. That was 34th in the country and $7,176 below the national average.

Other findings from the survey included:

*The respondents’ average age is 49.
*78.9 percent are women.
*43.8 percent have master’s degrees.
*Only 28.8 percent consider the quality of teaching at their schools better than it was five years ago.
*They spent an average of 15 hours a week outside of class on school-related work.
*Their out-of-pocket expenses on school supplies averaged $564 a year.
*Their average out-of-pocket expenses for health insurance averaged $222 a month.
*Only 32.1 percent believed they had adequate time to prepare and teach.
*Discipline (57.7 percent) and paperwork (22.3 percent) were identified as the worst problems in their schools.
*Only 6 percent believed a single standardized test should determine whether a student gets promoted.
*51 percent of respondents taught in urban districts and 38 percent in suburban schools.
*37.4 percent taught in high school, 35.9 percent in elementary grades and 24.9 percent in middle school.

For poll data and questions, see the Pressroom.
Moonlight_release_data

There will be a special meeting of the Klein ISD Board of Trustees at 6:00 p.m. on Monday, July 26, 2010, in the board room of the central office, 7200 Spring Cypress.

The agenda will include a workshop for the trustees regarding the 2010-11 budget, staff compensation plan, and health plan.

These are all issues that directly involve all KISD staff, so please make plans to attend.

June 29, 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Attorney general protects educators’ pay raise

The Texas State Teachers Association reported today that Attorney General Greg Abbott has issued an opinion protecting a state-ordered pay raise for educators. The attorney general’s ruling, issued today, provides that a statewide pay boost received last year won’t be eroded by local school districts during the upcoming school year.

“This is good news for Texas’ hard-working educators,” said TSTA President Rita Haecker. “This assures a cost-of-living increase that many teachers would not have received otherwise.”

The attorney general said the statewide pay increase approved by the Legislature for 2009-2010 was in addition to step increases under a school district’s current salary schedule, local supplements and career ladder supplements. Teachers will continue to receive those step increases and supplements as previously scheduled for 2010-2011, he said.

TSTA advocated for this interpretation.

A Newbie’s Perspective – by Vanessa Riley
Now that I am back in Houston, I can honestly say that I am hooked. I don’t know if I’ll be elected to attend next year, but I am certainly going to try!

It was a very powerful and motivating event – 15,000 people in one room. I heard that the RA was larger than the Republican and Democratic combined! It was a breath of fresh air to hear people speaking frankly, and be given time and opportunity to let the democratic process be heard. I even got up at one point to ask a question, but they closed debate before I could ask it. It involved a New Business Item requesting that we create a live feed for speeches for people back home could watch the speeches. By “speeches”, they meant the President’s speech, the Teacher of the Year Speech, the ESP of the Year Speech, and the Friend of Education Speech. The live feed did not include debate on the house floor. By creating a live feed, there was a hefty price tag involved. My question: Doesn’t the NEA already post these speeches to their YouTube page? Quite honestly, I can’t see what the difference of a live feed will make, especially for that price tag. I’m all for sharing knowledge and getting as many people involved, but I just can’t see how a live feed versus posting videos on the web page and on YouTube will push that. In any case, even though they closed and deferred it to a committee before I could ask my question, I was told that my question would still be given to the committee. I felt vindicated!

Another thing that I found very inspiring was the number of minority leaders on stage, involved in the organization, and speaking on the microphone. The RA was also a cultural experience for me: according to Klein’s AEIS report, and overwhelming 80% of teachers are white. Texas is represented by a strong Hispanic population and while I was there, I met many motivating black educators. It was a startling glimpse at reality. While I was there, I actually thought of a colleague from work. I could really see her here next year, getting involved and talking to powerful community activists.

I did mention that they had a caucus for everything, except my passion: at-risk students. So, after going on a giant scavenger hunt, I found the paperwork to create a caucus! I am calling it Educators of At-Risk Students. I will create a Facebook in the near future, as soon as things settle down.

We closed up the RA Tuesday about 7:00, which we were all really happy with – no one wanted to be there at 11:00 at night. Driving home, I had my pen and paper out, jotting down ideas and working the entire time. I am really excited about this coming school year, though I am a little worried about the amount of time and effort I will be putting in. To be quite honest, I think this is the reason that I am looking forward to getting more members involved with TSTA – to share the workload!

Things have now settled, and we are getting ready for the New Teacher Orientation, the Convocation, General Meetings, Socials,and Board Meetings. It’s going to be a busy year, but I’m ready to Get Connected!

A Newbie’s Perspective – by Vanessa Riley
Happy Independence Day! Today was day two of NEA RA Convention. What a rush! There really is no down time. I was stunned when I sat in the Texas delegates spot and looked at just how many teachers were there. It was a jaw-dropping moment. I’ll try to bring my camera tomorrow and take a picture of what it looks like. I’ve been walking everywhere, and even though I have my backpack, there is LOADS of material that we carry.

Any anxiety that I felt when I first arrived has vanished! This is actually kinda… interesting. I won’t say fun, but I am definitely looking forward to each day!

Day one started with a state caucus, so Texas met 7 (some people were meeting even earlier!) to decided where our state stood on the issues being discussed that day. Even with the large number of delegates, it went smoothly. We even had a visitor – Dr. Lawrence Allen from the Texas State Board of Education. Now, I know lots of people are very cranky with this group of people over the social studies curriculum, but Dr. Allen fought against those changes. He has been an educator for 26 years and was very well received by Texas. He was here today to show support for TSTA.

We then made our way to the convention center and the RA. Wow. I had heard President Dennis Van Roekel speak before, but this was very inspiring. The quote that I wrote down: If we are not active in politics, we will be victims of politics.

NEA’s Board of Directors submitted New Business Items specifically over the Texas social studies curriculum debacle. The idea behind it was that academic recommendations should not be dismissed of diminished because they contradict a bureaucrat’s political views. curricula should not be subjected to the pendulum swings of competing ideologies of non-experts, but grounded in accepted standards of research and science.

Today, we decided to change some terminology as well – educator includes education support professionals.

So much has taken place that it’s hard to sum it all up without going into boring details. Everyone has been very friendly – veteran RA delegates have taken me under their wings. Even all of the jargon and acronyms are starting to make sense! I’m remembering parliamentary procedure (but I still want to get a copy of Robert’s Rules of Order!).

I we only have two days left, and we haven’t even gotten through half of our new business. It’s a daunting task. My handbook says that the RA sometimes takes as many votes on the fourth day as it had taken on the first three days combined! I am going to be WORN out at the end of this thing!

A Newbie’s Perspective – by Vanessa Riley

Greetings and salutations! To be fair, it is technically the second day that I have been here in New Orleans! We braved the rain of Alex yesterday and checked into our hotel. I spent the night with other delegates from Texas, just trying to learn the lingo and meet people.

Today, I registered and wandered around the convention center at the expo. My back hurts from carrying all the material – and I thought the Klein convocation was crowded! The most popular exhibit was the Expo, Bic, and Sharpie booths. I , however, decided to skip the long lines.

The Essence Festival is taking place is the same building as us, so the place is CROWDED. As evidenced by my avoiding of the Expo booth, I don’t like waiting in avoidable lines, so I chose to walk the 1 mile distance from the hotel to the convention center.

The hotel is right across the street from Harrah’s casino, so we’ve been using Harrah’s as an alternative for expensive hotel food.

I’m a little unsure of what to expect tomorrow. I have to admit, I am a little wary about spending my 4th of July weekend away from my family for TSTA. I’m skipping my cousin’ wedding, and I only know the people from Klein. To further complicate the matter, (here’s a secret) I really have no desire to be a politician – I’m happier in my classroom than in a caucus. But, I’ve always said that the people in positions of power should be the very ones that DON’T want it, so I guess I have to live up to my words on this issue.

Some thoughts as right now:
1. I need to brush up on my parliamentary procedure.
2. I wish my laptop had a working batter so that I could use it on the floor tomorrow.
3. There is a CAUCUS for everything!

Looking forward to finding out what tomorrow will bring!

Vanessa

David Casillas, Vanessa Riley, and Susan Copenhaven are in New Orleans representing Klein TSTA at the NEA’s Representative Assembly. But what *really* is going on?

NEA leaders and delegates from state and local affiliates will gather July 1 through July 6, 2010, at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, Louisiana for the Association’s 148th Annual Meeting and 89th Representative Assembly.

The National Education Association Representative Assembly (RA) is NEA’s highest decision-making body. With over 9,000 delegates, it is also the world’s largest democratic, deliberative body.

The RA is convened every July during the Annual Meeting. The first two days are devoted to discussions, conferences, and exhibits—but the highlight is the Representative Assembly itself. During this important event, delegates debate issues that impact American public education, elect top officers, and set policy for the 3.2 million-member Association.

How do NEA members become delegates?
In balloting conducted by NEA affiliates throughout the country, NEA members elect their peers to represent their concerns at the RA. The delegates represent NEA local and state affiliates, student members, retired members, and other segments of the NEA membership. The elected delegates determine NEA’s strategic plan and budget, legislative program, and resolutions. Delegates also vote, by secret ballot, on proposed amendments to the NEA constitution and bylaws and elect NEA’s executive officers, Executive Committee members, and at-large members of the NEA Board of Directors.

Why is the annual meeting held over the July 4th holiday?
Traditionally, July 4 was chosen because it was convenient for many educators. It was a time when most schools had finished the regular school year. In most cases, July 4 did not interrupt summer school sessions. Now that many schools have to make up snow days, the school year can run through the later part of June.

Is the RA always in the same city?
No. The site of each year’s NEA Annual Meeting is determined by the NEA Board of Directors. Future meetings will be held in New Orleans (2010), Chicago (2011), and Washington, D.C. (2012).

What factors determine where NEA holds its annual meetings?
The NEA Board of Directors decides the location of the annual meeting. These decisions are limited by the size of a city’s convention center, hotel availability, dates and affordable pricing. Many convention centers do not have enough space for the general session (the Representative Assembly).

How many people support the convention while it is going on?
Several convention center personnel such as laborers, food service workers, security personnel, and cleaning personnel help us during the Annual Meeting. Also, there are about 300 NEA staff and almost 250 volunteers who support the convention.

What is the NEAExpo?
The NEAExpo is a trade show for our delegates and members in attendance at the Annual Meeting. If you are interested in exhibiting, please visit the Expo Web Site and click on the link for exhibitors.