–It raises state contribution rates and ensures that state and district contributions combined will exceed employee contributions;
–It phases in higher employee contributions gradually over four years;
–It exempts all current education employees from adverse benefit changes; and
–It provides cost-of-living relief to nearly all current retirees.

Now the House-Senate conference committee appointed to negotiate the final version of SB 1458 needs to support the House amendments that put those last two elements of a fair deal into the bill. Please send a message of support for the bill as improved by the House to all ten conferees and to your own senator and representative.

One piece of that agenda is embedded in SECTION 2 of the Senate version of SB 2. This provision would let school districts turn campuses rated low-performing into charter schools exempted from state safeguards for students, parents, and teachers. Safeguards such as class-size limits would no longer apply, and parents and teachers alike would have no right to opt out of one of these “charterized” campuses. This provision needs to come out of SB 2!

Another piece of the privatizers’ program is SB 1718, the so-called “achievement district” bill authorizing the state to take over neighborhood schools rated low-performing and turn them over to private charter operators. The private-interest lobbyists tried and failed once already to add SB 1718 to another bill still moving in the legislative process. More attempts can be expected. There’s talk of amending SB 1718 onto SB 2, the charter-expansion bill; there’s even talk that they will try to engraft their “charterization” schemes onto HB 5, the unrelated bill to reduce standardized testing!

Both of these latter two schemes would require a majority vote in the House and Senate to “go outside the bounds” of what representatives and senators already have passed in their chambers’ respective versions of SB 2 and HB 5.

You can help fight back against this last-minute attack on neighborhood schools by sending a new letter to your representative and senator from the Texas AFT Web site. Please send your new e-letter now so that lawmakers see a grass-roots army of supporters of public education arrayed against the army of lobbyists for the privateers.

Thousands of students across San Antonio Independent School District are benefiting from a grant program to fund projects that enrich learning. On Tuesday morning, administrators announced a plan to disperse grant money totaling $109,174.

The funds were made possible through the SAISD Foundation’s Excellence in Education Innovative Grants Program. Winners of grant money are being surprised at schools throughout the week.

Briscoe Elementary was the first to receive their grant. Teachers there were surprised with a $5,000 grant to fund a school-wide art program, which will provide cameras and printers for photography and sketchbooks for every student. Read More

Under Texas Education Code, Section 11.253(e), “The campus-level committee must approve the portions of the campus plan addressing campus staff development needs.”

Staff development days are 7.5 hour days for professionals. The following guidelines should be implemented:

• A minimum of 4 hours designated to the campus professional development based on the student/staff needs.
• Lunch breaks should not exceed 1.5 hours.
• A maximum of 2 hours will be teacher professional time. Teachers shall use this time for instructional planning.

Alliance members with questions/concerns may contact the Alliance office at 210-225-7174.

Reminder: For 183-Day Employees (Clerks, Instructional Assistants, HS & MS Attendance Clerks) May 27th (Memorial Day) is a workday.

After being forced to go back to the drawing board last month, the San Antonio Independent Board of Trustees have gone with a candidate they know: interim superintendent Dr. Sylvester Perez. Perez was appointed to the position with Dr. Robert Duron resigned in Feb. 2012.

“The Board has been very pleased with Dr. Perez’ performance as interim superintendent and we believe he is the right person to continue leading this District forward and to help us progress to the next level,” said Ed Garza, SAISD board president in a press release. More

Help stop this state takeover of neighborhood schools and handover to private operators by sending a new e-mail letter to your state representative immediately! Lowering state quality standards is not a school-improvement strategy. Rather than lower state quality standards, legislators should support “intensive care” for struggling students and their schools:  provide smaller class sizes, ensure that teachers at these schools are properly certified in the subjects they teach, and support these students and teachers with essential resources. As our friends at the Save Texas Schools parent/community coalition have written of SB 1718:  “This is NOT a school improvement bill. This is a way to force schools out of public hands into those of charter operators without due process. While you may or may not be a fan of charter schools, local communities have a right to choose the direction of their schools. SB 1718 is a poorly developed, heavy-handed effort to force privatization where it is not needed.”

Please send your letter in opposition to state takeover and transfer of neighborhood schools to private operators right away! And then follow up with a call as early as you can on Tuesday via the Texas AFT toll-free line to the state capitol, 1-888-836-8368, using the points made in the letter to urge a NO vote on SB 1718.

1. It exempts all current school employees from adverse benefit changes;
2. It provides cost-of-living relief to nearly all current retirees;
3. It raises state contribution rates and provides that state and district contributions combined will exceed employee contributions; and
4. It phases in higher employee contributions gradually over four years.

Now the Senate needs to be persuaded to accept the House amendments that put the first two of those four elements in place. Please be ready to act on an alert tomorrow to send your legislators a message of support for the bill as amended by the House.

Inspire a fellow educator by uploading your best teaching resources to Share My Lesson. As a thank you, the five people who upload the most quality resources between April 1st and May 31st will each receive a $1,000 airline ticket voucher. So start sharing now and then plan that vacation getaway!

How to enter

Log in to Share My Lesson  and share your resources. It’s a simple process that  takes only a couple of minutes. Watch this video to see how easy it is.

The  more resources you share, the better your chance of winning! Share all sorts of  resources – worksheets, lesson plans, posters, videos, bulletin board ideas –  just make sure they meet the criteria for eligibility and the terms and conditions.

Why Share?

• Receive invaluable feedback from educators who have       used your resources in their own classrooms.
• Build your professional network as you help a       colleague.
• Feel great knowing your resources are inspiring others.

The  competition runs from April 1st to May 31st, 2013. Please contact us if you have any questions.