Board of Supervisors VOTE on FY13 Budget this afternoon at 3:00pm

The Chesterfield Board of Supervisors will vote on the FY13 Budget and the supporting tax and fee rates, as well as the Capital Improvement Program (CIP), during the afternoon session of their meeting tonight. The session begins at 3:00pm and breaks for dinner at 5:00pm. The evening session begins at 6:30pm, but will not deal with the budget. Please attend if you can, and show support for the CCPS financial plan, including allowances and contingencies for changes in VRS funding requirements currently being enacted by the General Assembly as they finalize the state budget.

"A Statement of Grievances is in Order"

This week, in place of his usual blog post on Living in Dialogue--one of my highly recommended regular reads for educators, by the way--Anthony Cody yields his space to reprint the speech of School Superintendent John Kuhn, who spoke at a "Save Texas Schools" rally this past Saturday.  The speech really is amazing, and worthy of sharing here as well.  As you read Kuhn's words, substitute "Virginia" for "Texas," and "Richmond" for "Austin," then tell me you don't feel the larger connection of a national agenda that replaces the politics of "Hope" with the politics of "Blame."

Here's just a teaser; please click the link below to read the whole speech.

"This government has neglected the classics and has called on our children to become technicians instead of humans, regurgitators of math and science facts, who produce well-rounded bubbles in place of well-rounded souls; it has sought to make our children quantifiable shells of people, their guiding light of curiosity snuffed out by an idiot's opinion of what constitutes a human education."

http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/03/john_kuhn_roars_back.html?cmp=SOC-SHR-FB

The Chesterfield Carol

If you missed the BoS Public Hearing on the Budget, Wednesday night, you missed a great display of collective action by CEA Members from Midlothian HS. Thanks Amy, Daniel, Brittany, David, and Geri. 


Great message, great collaboration. 

Follow the link to our parallel Member-written blog, CEA Stories, to read "The Chesterfield Carol" in its entirety!  http://ceastoryteller.blogspot.com/

And as always, you can get the text of any of my testimonies for School Board, Board of Supervisors, or other public forums at http://ceafranklyspeaking.blogspot.com/

BoS Public Hearing TONIGHT!

The Board of Supervisors will hold their annual Public Hearing on the Tax Rates and the FY2013 Budget tonight beginning at 6:30pm. 

Since they have already advertised the real estate tax rate at $0.95/$100 assessed value (the same as last year and the year before, even though housing values have declined for the 4th year in a row), there is no opportunity to generate additional money for schools. However, it is critical that educators show up to support full funding of the school board's approved budget (the one that puts back the lost salary cuts!) because there will be plenty of people there to say, "lower my taxes AGAIN!"--even though many of them qualify for exemptions even with a higher earnings threshold ($52k) than you, and a net worth of up to $350k (not even including their home!)--in addition to people who would rather see the existing revenue directed to projects other than schools.

There will be a sign-up sheet at the door for anyone who wishes to speak on the budget. In years past I have provided lots of data to use when arguing against cuts; this year the message is pretty straight-forward, "Support the school board's approved financial plan, AND please hold the school board budget harmless against any additional costs that result from the general assembly's changes to the Virginia Retirement System (VRS)." Short, sweet, to the point. If you want to give personal stories about what full funding means to your classroom, that's good too, but at least drive home the central theme. Please turn out to support your colleagues!

The meeting is held at the Public Meeting Room, 10001 Iron Bridge Road, Chesterfield, VA 23832.

Bring your friends!

Lemons, Tirades, and Brass: Oh MY!!!

This is a LONG post, but worth investing some time in reading/watching, as it is the culmination of a long, hard fought battle over changes to continuing contract law.  There are three distinct parts to the post: an introduction and some thanks, a press release from VEA President Dr. Kitty Boitnott, and the video footage of the actual Senate debate on the bill and the corresponding vote.
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First, I'd like to thank all the CEA Members who called, wrote, and emailed their Delegates and Senators over HB576.  They received literally THOUSANDS of comments statewide!  This was truly an example of the power of collective action.  In addition to all the direct "touches" from Members to their legislators, there were many other facets to this accomplishment, including the physical demonstrations of solidarity through wearing black, attending rallies, and holding "grade ins." VEA Staff gathered behind the scenes legal research for precedent of constitutional "property rights" of teachers who already attained continuing contract, not to mention all the data crunching to provide demographic support for the kind of "market comparison" that would affect teacher recruitment and retention versus neighboring states.  This was a great team effort and should be pointed to with pride as a reason for belonging to the VEA: not only the outcome, but the whole process!
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Contract Bill Decision a Win for Public Education
VEA President Dr. Kitty Boitnott issued the following statement on the defeat of HB 576:

The defeat of this poorly conceived bill is a victory for public educators and students. And the bipartisan vote shows that the facts are on our side, as the 23 Senators confirmed.

Virginia has much work to do to make sure the best teachers are in front of students across the state. But this bill would have had the opposite effect—it would have made it easier to arbitrarily fire teachers while doing little to enhance the support all teachers need to be successful.

Arguments that the Governor and others made in support of HB 576 were without merit. Teachers can be—and are—dismissed every year for underperformance. But they are afforded the opportunity of a hearing and proof of good cause. The biggest change that HB 576 would have made would be to make it easier to dismiss teachers for specious reasons, such as refusing to change a star athlete’s grade, or for speaking out at a school board meeting.

Now is not the time to make Virginia a less attractive place to teach. Our average salaries currently trail the national average by $7,000, ranking us 31st. Teachers’ retirement benefits are under attack. HB 576, by gutting the limited job security that our teachers do have, would surely have made it harder for the state to recruit the best and brightest into our classrooms. Teachers that might have come to Virginia would opt for other states with better pay and working conditions.

We call on Governor McDonnell to turn his attention to the things that really matter for kids—smaller class sizes, better training and professional learning opportunities for teachers, and up‐to-date textbooks and instructional technologies.
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RT-D Correspondent of the Day

A little bonus content for you today: for those who have not seen CEA Member and Cosby HS Government Teacher Renee Serrao's Letter-to-the-Editor in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, I have posted it up on the CEA President's blog, Frankly Speaking...

Way to go Renee!  Thank you for speaking up for your colleagues and our profession.

The Longer they Stall, the MORE We'll CALL!

For the third day in a row, the Senate opted not to act on HB576, the bill that eliminates continuing contract for Virginia teachers.  Chesterfield Senator Steve Martin requested that the bill be passed by for the day, after taking a quick look around the room.  This leads me to believe that he doesn't feel that he has the votes to get the bill passed!  That is a good thing: it means that our efforts to show the senators how this bill will negatively impact public schools for the future are working!  Keep up the message, don't let the pressure off.  Call Senators Watkins and Martin, and tell them as a constituent you want them to vote "No!" on HB576.  The vote has been delayed until Monday; call today, tomorrow, and Saturday.
John Watkins (804-698-7510)
Steve Martin (804-698-7511)


All other Virginia Senators:

http://apps.lis.virginia.gov/sfb1/Senate/TelephoneList.aspx