Once More, With Feeling!

Urgent! Call Chesterfield Senators John Watkins (804-698-7510) and Steve Martin (804-698-7511) and let them know that as a professional educator, parent/grandparent, registered voter, and tax paying citizen you strongly want them to vote NO on HB576.
(If you live outside of Chesterfield, the full list of Senators and their contact info is at the bottom of this post.)

The final vote on HB576, the bill that will eliminate continuing contract rights for all future teachers in Virginia will be voted on by the full Senate within the next two days. Supporters of the bill (which include the Virginia School Board Association, Virginia Association of School Superintendents, the Virginia Board of Education, and private business groups) continue to maintain that this bill creates parity with other PRIVATE workers in the state, and will somehow magically improve education by removing due process rights from employees.

Former Robious MS Principal and now Deputy Secretary of Education, Javaid Siddiqi, offered testimony that the people who had had the greatest reservations with the original language [i.e. the VEA] should now be appeased since they had been grandfathered in, and he proposed that this new language would somehow improve instruction and bring into greater alignment the work being done by principals and teachers to improve classroom instruction in the future.

Once again, the rhetoric is completely disconnected from the change in the law: how does taking away an employee's right to know WHY s/he is not being offered a new contract, as well as an opportunity to appeal the decision, "bring into greater alignment the work being done by principals and teachers to improve classroom instruction in the future?" It would seem counter-productive to strengthening the relationship between principals and teachers for the former to be able to destroy the career of the latter without having to give any evidence to support the decision. I suspect that will create a very cautious and guarded relationship, not one that promotes open exchange of ideas.

Senate Phone list (call the Capitol Office, not District at this point):
http://apps.lis.virginia.gov/sfb1/Senate/TelephoneList.aspx

"We wore black by the thousands last week. Now we need to take action by the thousands…this is a serious attack on our professionalism and we must not let it stand!"
~Kitty Boitnott, VEA President

Last Rites for Public Education?

Protect Your Continuing Contract and Due Process Rights: Take Action Now!

This post includes information that VEA President Kitty Boitnott shared with all local presidents this morning, and is an IMMEDIATE CALL TO ACTION for all CEA Members!

The link below gives the latest details of how the House of Delegates is trying to change continuing contract law. As HB576 is currently written, the legislation will allow you to be non-renewed at the end of each contract period for any reason no matter how long you have been teaching, and without a guarantee to due process rights. http://www.veadailyreports.com/

Along with the synopsis provided by VEA Government Relations Director Rob Jones is a link to the full text of the bill itself so that everyone can see that this is not a case of the union crying "The Sky is Falling!" as supporters of the bill would try to misdirect public opinion. The members of the sub-committee who you need to contact are Keam, Cole, Morrissey, McClellan, Yost, Yancey, and Robinson.
Roxann Robinson (House 27th) represents many CEA members in a wide swath of Central Chesterfield County. Here is a link to a map of her voting precincts:
http://www.chesterfield.gov/WorkArea/linkit.aspx?LinkIdentifier=id&ItemID=12417

Her contact info is:  DelRRobinson@house.virginia.gov
(804) 698-1027 (Capitol Office: Room 806 General Assembly Building, Richmond);
(804) 308-1534 (District Office, Suite F-1 Rockwood Office Park, 9409 Hull Street Road, Chesterfield)

We must convince her to vote "No" on this bill.

Rob Jones previously offered a Cyberlobbying message and link on the VEA website a few days ago. The link below will take you to a pre-written message that you can send your legislator regarding this issue.  You can send the message as is, or modify it to express your personal experience. Just make sure that you send it from your HOME computer, NOT FROM SCHOOL. http://capwiz.com/nea/va/issues/alert/?alertid=60621591&queueid=7822344256

Here are some key talking points you can use in your email to the legislators.

1. Who will want to teach under a system that would allow any complaint by parents, accusation by a student, or an honest mistake to result in loss of a job, with NO ability to appeal or contest the decision regardless of validity?

2. Who will want to come join us teaching in Virginia if they have no ability to earn job security that they can obtain in surrounding states? This bill will make it harder for Virginia localities to recruit and retain the best and brightest teachers.

3. What will the workplace atmosphere and environment be like with the threat of capricious termination (at the end of the year) hovering over every teacher in the building? People do not perform at their best when placed into high stress situations.

4. This is NOT about unions protecting the so-called “bad” teacher who may be lurking in classrooms out there. The current system already allows administrators to remove a “bad teacher” whenever they need to: they just have to use due diligence, and use the system we already have the way it was intended to be used.

5. This IS about fairness and due process rights. Under the proposed bill, a teacher could be non-renewed after a specific term contract period and not be given any reason. There would be no grievance procedure and no legal recourse for that individual.

6. This is BAD PUBLIC POLICY and would have a tremendous negative effect on Virginia’s teachers (while we are still ranked 4^th in the nation in providing the best education according to Education Week) and on our ability to recruit and retain the best and brightest talent to Virginia’s classrooms in the future.

Remember, the sub-committee meets Tuesday a.m. at 7:30! Weigh in and let your voices be heard. Email this weekend, PLEASE!

If you have already written, thank you! If you haven’t, please do so immediately, and please get the message out TODAY that everyone needs to get busy RIGHT NOW!!!!