Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/15938
fter a barrage of e-mails, letters and phone calls from CTA members, the Assembly Appropriations Committee voted overwhelmingly to defeat a CTA- opposed measure that would have deprived students in decile 1-3 schools of their most experienced educators and undermined teacher seniority rights. CTA-opposed SB 1285/SB 691 (Steinberg) received only three votes from the 17-member panel, with nine votes needed for passage. Assembly panel defeats CTA-opposed rigid layoff bill A CTA members stressed to lawmakers that there was no data to support the as- sumption that this rigid formula would improve instruction. However, a great deal of data shows that students perform better with more experienced teachers. The unintended consequence of the mea- sure would certainly have been that teach- ers with less than five years experience would have comprised the staff of these high-priority schools. The bill would have tied the hands of local decision makers in determining the best layoff procedures to meet the needs of students and schools in the district. It would have also prohibited districts from laying off more teachers at decile 1-3 schools than the average proportion in the district. And it would have required school districts to keep less experienced teachers and lay off more experienced teachers re- gardless of performance. Mini Grants Continued from page 28 provided with tremendous experience on “How every- thing works.” Diane Hunt Roberts (San Luis Obispo), $5,000. This project is designed to enhance the special educa- tion services provided by staff from the County Office of Education. The grant en- ables the four professionals (classroom SDC teacher, speech/language patholo- gist, occupational therapist and adapted physical educa- tion specialist) who work with special education stu- dents to integrate their efforts. This “core” collabo- ration among parents, pro- fessionals and students will enable students to identify and demonstrate abilities in three main areas: focus, strength and caring. Emily Simpson (Cuper- ˆ˜˛ˇ) , $5,000. This project centers around the develop- ment of a community gar- den, located on the Dilworth Elementary School campus. The garden will bring to- gether all members of the school community and inte- grate various curricula in an engaging and meaningful way. It will enable the staff to supplement the science curriculum with a hands-on community building oppor- tunity and to reinforce positive strength-based character traits, such as citi- zenship and responsibility. Ultimately, staff and stu- dents would like to establish a local Farmer’s Market to sell produce and seeds and help sustain the continuing cost of the school garden. Cynthia Soares (Grid- ley), $4,994. This project is to implement Conscious Discipline (CD) into six classrooms at McKinley Pri- mary School (one kindergar- ten and five first-grade classrooms). The school dis- trict will be simultaneously providing parent education classes in the community in both English and Spanish. CD is an integrated social emotional intelligence and character development class- room management system based on current brain re- search. It is built on three strength-based principles: safety, connections and problem solving. Allen Teng (San Mar- cos), $5,000. This project is designed to emphasize stu- dent engagement and active participation in math and science at Woodland Park Middle School. Putting the school on warp speed toward the 21st century, this grant hopes to capitalize on new breakthroughs in augmented reality, which overlays digi- tal images and information on real-world settings. The grant will be used to pur- chase applicable software that will enable staff to do teacher-driven experi- ments and demonstrations that captivate adolescent imaginations. SB 1285/SB 691 would have estab- lished an unproven procedure that would have eliminated local control and aggravated the destabilizing and trau- matic impacts of teacher layoffs on schools and students. The overwhelming defeat of the measure demonstrates the power of educators who know firsthand how this bill would hurt the students that need help the most. LEN FELDMAN Here’s how the committee voted • • • Voting for the bill and against CTA’s “Oppose” position: Assembly Members Charles Calderon, Joe Coto, and Mike Davis. Voting against the bill and in alignment with CTA’s position: Assembly Appropriations Chair Felipe Fuentes,Vice Chair Connie Conway, and Assembly Members Jeff Miller, Nancy Skinner, and Tom Torlakson. Not voting: Assembly Members Mike Gatto, Isadore Hall III, Jose Solorio, Kevin de Leon, Chris Norby, Jim Nielsen, Steven Bradford, and Diane L. Harkey. Assembly Member Alberto Torrico was not in the room during the vote. Their abstentions or absences had the same effect as voting against the measure. SEPTEMBER 2010 | 2009 www.cta.org 31 33