Vol. 4, September 2004
The
Professional
A
Publication of the Minnetonka Teachers Association
Members of Education Minnesota, NEA, AFT, Minnesota
Local #7173
http://www.minnetonkateachers.org
Editor,
Mary Tingblad, mary.tingblad@minnetonka.k12.mn.us
MM-West,
6421 Hazeltine Blvd., Excelsior, MN 55331
2004-2005
Minnetonka Teachers Association Governance Board
~
President Joseph Ricke ~ Vice President Jan Nelson ~
~
Secretary Mary Tingblad ~ Treasurer Melanie Casiday ~
~
DEC Linda Morantez ~ Deephaven Margaret Ruffino~ Groveland Pam Wertjes ~
~
Excelsior Sara Macke ~ Minnewashta Melanie Casiday ~
~
Clear Springs OPEN ~ Scenic Heights Katie Tuthill ~
~
MM-East Heidi Bunde & Sandy Gosen ~
~
MM-West Mary Tingblad & Jeri Goodspeed-Gross ~
~
MHS Doug Kennedy, OPEN, Mike Cutshall & Miles Mortensen ~
J
WELCOME! New Names and New Faces! J
Welcome
to the new school year, and a special welcome to the new kids on the block!
Practice their names—test in two weeks!
J Katie Anthony,
Matt Arnold, Jessica Burkhart, Francie Byers, Lindsay Carey, Sarah CaveLie,
Jennifer Cho, Heather Daldoul, Tabitha Dalman, Gina Daniels, Cody Geisler, Dan Gough,
Angelique Gunderson, Jennifer Hahn, Jennifer Hanson, Xin Heng, Shelly Hesse,
Andrea Hoffmann, Alison Kaufenberg, Katie Knewtson, Sandy Krantz, O’Neil, Sara
Kuiti, Jennifer Larson, Nancy Mallak, Amy Marks, Kelly Mosiman, Eva Nielsen,
Kari Palmer, Ken Pauly, Liz Reason, Marlys Sand, Kate Sandvig, Ryan Sawtell,
Abby Shubby, Kathy Smith, Eric Stainbrook, Cheryl Street, Julia Taylor, Tracy
Thomson, Shelly Washburn, Grace Xie. J
~~ From the President ~~
MTA President, Joseph Ricke,
joseph.ricke@minnetonka.k12.mn.us
Welcome back everyone! I am
looking forward to a fantastic year serving as your president of this vibrant
union. I trust that all had a great start to the school year.
I have survived two weeks
with no release time, in the hottest room in the district and working with an
incomplete tech lab, only to realize that it could be worse and that I still
have a passion for teaching 8th graders. Yes, it has been difficult
to stay on top of MTA issues, but the good news is that we have a great
Teachers’ Rights team and a dedicated Governance Board team. We have teachers
working together to solve problems and continue to produce academic excellence.
Each day, I continue to see the value and the joy of being president of the MTA
membership.
As I look ahead, there are two themes
that stand out as areas for our continuous involvement:
1) being involved in
building and district initiatives
2) preparing for very
difficult contract negotiations.
It is important that we
continue to look for ways to improve. We must also be mindful that our contract
is our vehicle for maintaining a positive and healthy working environment – to
be well paid for our work and to have the time and working conditions conducive
for high achievement. Each item will need our careful attention.
I am asking each of you for
your involvement in the planning, preparation and committee work necessary for
a successful negotiation effort, as well as, your assistance in recruiting at
least two members to become negotiators. Please e-mail or call me if you are
interested. Any MTA member can be a
negotiator. There is a stipend for the task.
In closing, I would like you
to think about our very demanding work load and our continuously diminishing
prep time with this question in mind: Who is watching out for the morale and
health of the district employees as we are being asked to do more with less?
There is an increasing number of indicators suggesting that people are starting
to grow weary of their demanding schedules—the results leading to poor health
and testy attitudes. I know that the MTA leadership is watching and paying
attention to how our members are feeling—both physically and mentally.
I am grateful of your
support and valuable input. Best wishes for a successful year, teachers.
~~
Contract Administration ~~
MTA President, Joseph Ricke,
joseph.ricke@minnetonka.k12.mn.us
No new significant contract
issues have occurred, but more items affecting our workload are being
considered. Items discussed at the September 14, 2004, meeting:
·
TIP
Committee will be making recommendations soon and meeting to discuss Teacher
Policies.
·
Distinguish
Educator Program will meet soon to discuss next steps.
·
Dr.
Lovett is auditing traveling teacher schedules to make sure all have proper
prep and travel time and a duty free 30-minute lunch.
·
Calendar
Committee will be meeting in the next month.
·
Grading
and Reporting Committee should have recommendations for the School Board by
summer. A web page by all teachers for grading and assignment updates is being
considered. A software package is being evaluated.
·
Reviewing
how to determine seniority for teachers working part of the year.
·
MTA
is looking at how the IB program is impacting class size and work load.
·
Continue
to collaborate on Alternative Teacher Compensation concepts.
~~ AFT
Convention Report ~~
Mary Benson, MTA Delegate to
the AFT Convention
Welcome back
colleagues! We hope everyone had a very relaxing and memorable summer. MTA
Teachers’ Rights Co-Chairs, Anita Otten and Mary Benson, attended the AFT
Convention in Washington, D.C. in July. The information below pertains to
resolutions and specific topics that were covered at the convention, and is
taken from the AFT website.
AFT CALLS FOR REFORMING PATRIOT ACT: AFT convention delegates called for
major changes in the USA Patriot Act, contending that "there is no
inherent conflict between the national security and the preservation of
liberty; Americans can be both safe and free." Delegates called on the
Bush administration and Congress to reinterpret the way the law is implemented
and urge Congress to hold open hearings before renewing the Patriot Act. The resolution calls into question the Bush
administration's use of the Patriot Act to detain citizens and resident
non-citizens at undisclosed locations without charges, to deny access to legal
counsel or notification to the detainees' families. The union resolution also
questions the use of electronic surveillance in criminal and anti-terrorist
investigations free of oversight by federal courts. The AFT singles out as
particularly outrageous the administration's use of the USA Patriot Act and
Department of Homeland Security regulations to deprive federal workers of the
right to join a union. The AFT calls such use "counterproductive and
incredibly cynical." The AFT resolution also states its concern that law
enforcement and intelligence agencies have been empowered to review personal
medical, financial, library and education records at both the K-12 and higher
education levels with almost no judicial oversight. The AFT also calls for
expanded surveillance to be limited to suspected terrorists rather than to
ordinary crimes.
DELEGATES BACK NCLB ACTION PLAN: AFT convention delegates overwhelmingly
adopted a resolution that sets out an action plan for fixing problems
associated with the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). The policy
statement traces many of the ills of NCLB--including unsound school improvement
interventions, chronic under-funding, inconsistent standards for "highly
qualified" teachers and few resources for paraprofessionals--to inept, opportunistic
implementation and broken promises from President Bush and his administration.
The resolution,
adopted at the union's convention in Washington, D.C., July 14-17, also pledges
to lobby Congress to "address the defects in this law that harm children
and the schools they attend and to fully fund the amended NCLB."
Additionally, the AFT resolution pledges to help state and local affiliates use
contract agreements and other tools to mitigate NCLB's problems, wherever
possible, and to lobby and communicate effectively at home about the need to
change and fully fund the law. AFT vice president Tom Mooney called the
resolution "a strong new position that outlines what needs to be done to fix"
the law.
FELDMAN: FIGHT FOR “A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD”: A hallmark of Sandra Feldman's
presidency of the AFT--indeed of her life--has been her relentless championing
of equal rights and the needs of our nation's schoolchildren. To no one's
surprise, Feldman's final address as AFT president reflected those ideals. In
her July 14 keynote speech at the AFT convention, the outgoing president urged
AFT members to keep fighting the good fight for measures such as higher
academic standards for all students, high-quality preschool programs, universal
healthcare, better wages for workers and, maybe most of all, "a level
playing field for all children, in and out of school." It remains a source
of real anger to me--and I hope to you--that the needs of children, especially
poor children in this wonderful, wealthy society of ours, are still neglected.
Not just in school, but in general," Feldman said. She pointed to
achievements ranging from the introduction of Title I in the 1960s to the fight
for high standards and accountability in the '80s and '90s. Yet, 50 years after
the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling
that outlawed segregation in America's public schools, "we still have two
school systems--wealthy and poor--and still often separated as much by color as
by class," Feldman observed. "We will never be fully successful if we
don't achieve equity--and that fight takes great solidarity. Because it is very
easy for haves and have-nots to turn against each other--or, at the very least,
not to help each other."
News From Education Minnesota
~~ Enhance Your Professional
Skills at the Conference ~~
Plan now to attend the 2004
Education Minnesota Professional Conference at Saint Paul RiverCentre, St.
Paul, MN, October 21-22, 2004. The annual Education Minnesota Professional
Conference is the state’s largest professional development event for educators.
It’s free and open to the public—no registration required. The conference
program was mailed in the September issue of the Minnesota Educator. More
information is available online at www.educationminnesota.org.
Pulitzer Prize-winning
journalist Bob Woodward will deliver the keynote address on October 21, 2004.
Art Rolnick, senior vice president and director of research at the Federal
Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and an advocate of investing in early childhood
education, will speak on October 22, 2004. In addition, there are dozens of
workshops, more than 300 exhibits (Thursday only), the big red reading chair
and more!
To make it easier for
members to attend the conference on October 21st, organizers will
again make free parking available at two locations—3,000 spaces in the State
Fair parking lot on Como Avenue west of Snelling Avenue and 1,500 spaces in the
Saint Paul College parking lot (formerly called St. Paul Technical College),
235 Marshall Ave., St. Paul. Parking is available at those locations only on
the Thursday of the conference, from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., on a first-come,
first-served basis. Free shuttle buses will take conference visitors to and
from Saint Paul RiverCentre about every 15 minutes during those hours. Parking
is also available at numerous ramps and lots throughout St. Paul. Parking at
the RiverCentre ramp is $10 per day.
~~ Learn More about
Foundation Grants ~~
If you’ve thought about
applying for a grant from Education Minnesota’s Foundation for Excellence in
Teaching and Learning, don’t miss this opportunity to learn more about the
Foundation and grant writing. The Foundation will have a booth at the
Professional Conference in St. Paul on October 21, 2004, with grant information
and applications. You can meet member grant recipients and enter a drawing. In
addition, you can attend a grant-writing seminar at 2:45 p.m. that Thursday in
room 5 to learn about the ins and outs of applying for a grant.
The Classroom Grant program
awards grants of up to $3,000 for projects that improve student achievement.
The deadline is December 15, 2004. For more information about this benefit of
your Education Minnesota membership, contact Foundation Director Pat Reisenger
at 651-227-9541, or patricia.reisenger@educationminnesota.org,
or visit the Foundation section of “Our Profession” at www.educationminnesota.org.
~~ Win a Wild Time for Your School! ~~
Bring the world of wildlife into your school. Enter to win a visit by
one of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom ambassadors, Jim Fowler or Peter Gros.
Along with their furry and feathered friends, Fowler or Gros will share a
special conservation message and encourage students to take an active role in
protecting the earth’s wildest places. Mutual of Omaha will work with the winner
to schedule a school program on a mutually agreeable date to occur between
November 2004 and January 2005. Register for the giveaway in the “Members-Only”
area of the NEA Member Benefits Website at www.neamb.com.
Giveaway entry begins October 1 and ends October 31, 2004.
~~ Florida Education Employees Need Urgent Assistance ~~
Because of the hurricanes, more than 100 Florida Education Association
members are homeless and the homes of more than 600 others are severely
damaged. Thousands of others will have to repair their less severely damaged
homes and property. FEA leadership created the FEA Hurricane Charley Relief
Fund to help those members with the greatest need. To donate, make your check
payable to: the FEA Hurricane Charley Relief Fund, and send it to: FEA
Hurricane Charley Relief Fund, 213 S. Adams St., Tallahassee, FL 32301.
So, What’s New at YOUR School?
There are “good news” things happening everyday in
our schools. Send your school’s good news to mary.tingblad@minnetonka.k12.mn.us
to be included in the next issue of The Professional. I’ve been told
that this is one of the favorite features of the newsletter. It’s the way that
we can share all the good things going on with our teachers!
News From MHS
Maggie
Pistner is back on stage again! She is currently
in rehearsal at Theatre in the Round for Charlotte Jones’s Humble Boy.
It is a wonderfully sharp, intelligent, funny play with curious parallels to
Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It opens October 15, 2004, and runs weekends
through November 7, 2004. Call the box office for information: 612-333-3010.
News From MM-West
We have reason to celebrate at MM-West! Andrea Hoffmann married returned to us a married woman! Art teacher Ellen Craig and husband are awaiting the arrival of their baby any day now! Science teacher Mitch Elvebak and wife are also expecting a visit from the stork!
News From Deephaven
We
welcome new faces at Deephaven Elementary: Lindsey Carey,
kindergarten teacher; Tracy Thomson,
1st grade teacher; Julie Taylor,
3rd grade teacher; and Eric Stainbrook,
orchestra teacher.
Summer weddings were celebrated! Diane Jost married Mike Daniels on July 10, 2004, and Linda Burkstrand married David Coleman on August 21, 2004. If you haven’t been able to find their names in the address book, look for