Dear Members,

Senate Bill 191 passed the Senate Education Committee yesterday. Senator Evie Hudak, one of those with whom I spoke privately yesterday, was the lone voice who voted NO. So, the fight rages on. SB 191 will now go onto the Senate Appropriations Committee and we have another chance to kill this bill.

Appropriations means MONEY…and there is a piece in SB 191 that is all about MONEY–the bill states that all of these new provisions outlined in SB 191 will be funded by grants, gifts, and foundations. This seems ludicrous at best…how do you fund education through grants, gifts, and foundations? What happens when the gift is not there–or the grant runs out—or the foundation changes its mind. Worse than that–many of these foundations are funded and controlled by people like Jake Jabs, Independent Institute, and others seeking to dismantle public education.

We need to take action today and be willing to come to the front of the line to stand for our profession and our kids. Below are names of the members of the Senate Appropriations committee. We need to flood their emails and their phones starting today and not stop! Let them know what happens to your classrooms when grants and gifts are gone.

The names of these Senators are:

Sen. Abel Tapia 303-866-2581 abel.tapia.senate@state.co.us
Sen. Al White 303-866-2586 al.white.senate@state.co.us
Sen. Keith King 303-866-4880 keith.king.senate@state.co.us
Sen. Bob Bacon 303-866-4841 bob.bacon.senate@state.co.us
Sen. Rollie Heath 303-866-4872 rollie.heath.senate@state.co.us
Sen. Moe Keller 303-866-2585 moe.keller.senate@state.co.us
Sen. Ted Harvey 303-866-4881 ted.harvey.senate@state.co.us
Sen. Chris Romer 303-866-4852 chris.romer.senate@state.co.us
Sen. Mike Kopp 303-866-2638 mike.kopp.senate@state.co.us
Sen. Mary Hodge 303-866-4855 mary.hodge.senate@state.co.us

Call them ASAP…they will meet this Monday at 11am.

Look for other plans we will be developing and invite your colleagues and parents to join us in protecting our rights and our students.

Please keep up the fight. This is moving quickly and your help is needed now.

Jerri Modrall
President, SVVEA

Dear Members,

What a morning! Today our SVVEA Delegates and I joined over 600 Delegates attending the CEA Delegate Assembly, stood on the steps of the State Capitol to highlight the shortcomings of Senate Bill 191. Standing in the pouring rain, we listened to Representatives Judy Solano and Nancy Todd speak passionately about why we need to kill this bill. They understand and believe the dire consequences which will occur if this bill comes into law. They know and feel in their hearts the wrong that is being done to teachers and students because of this bill. They spoke out against it in front of the press and in front of their colleagues–because they believe in public education and our students and US!

While the majority of the delegation was outside, I joined our Colorado Association of Presidents inside the Capitol to talk and lobby our Legislators.

I was able to speak with Senator Shaffer, President of the Senate, and Evie Hudak, who is a member of the Education Committee. Both listened intently and I could feel their distress. It is one thing to make a decision from afar…but when you are standing face to face in a conversation, with the person you are harming–that is when it becomes real!

What a privilege it was for me, as your President, to be able to stand in the halls of our State Capitol lobbying on behalf of all of you and OUR STUDENTS. We cannot forget that–this bill will harm our students–because what is good for teachers IS good for students.

With this in mind, I ask that you join with me and try to do just a couple of important actions:

–read and learn about Colorado SB 191
–call or email your State Senator and Representative
–talk with EVERYBODY–your parents, your family, your neighbors;
help them understand that SB 191 is not good for kids
–watch for possible SVVEA efforts to highlight this issue

Join me in the fight to preserve strong public education, due process, our Master Agreement and the rights of all teachers. Let’s defeat SB 191!

Jerri Modrall

Dear Members,

What a morning! Today our SVVEA Delegates and I joined over 600 Delegates attending the CEA Delegate Assembly, stood on the steps of the State Capitol to highlight the shortcomings of Senate Bill 191. Standing in the pouring rain, we listened to Representatives Judy Solano and Nancy Todd speak passionately about why we need to kill this bill. They understand and believe the dire consequences which will occur if this bill comes into law. They know and feel in their hearts the wrong that is being done to teachers and students because of this bill. They spoke out against it in front of the press and in front of their colleagues–because they believe in public education and our students and US!

While the majority of the delegation was outside, I joined our Colorado Association of Presidents inside the Capitol to talk and lobby our Legislators.

I was able to speak with Senator Shaffer, President of the Senate, and Evie Hudak, who is a member of the Education Committee. Both listened intently and I could feel their distress. It is one thing to make a decision from afar…but when you are standing face to face in a conversation, with the person you are harming–that is when it becomes real!

What a privilege it was for me, as your President, to be able to stand in the halls of our State Capitol lobbying on behalf of all of you and OUR STUDENTS. We cannot forget that–this bill will harm our students–because what is good for teachers IS good for students.

With this in mind, I ask that you join with me and try to do just a couple of important actions:

–read and learn about Colorado SB 191
–call or email your State Senator and Representative
–talk with EVERYBODY–your parents, your family, your neighbors;
help them understand that SB 191 is not good for kids
–watch for possible SVVEA efforts to highlight this issue

Join me in the fight to preserve strong public education, due process, our Master Agreement and the rights of all teachers. Let’s defeat SB 191!

Jerri Modrall

THE SCHOOL BOARD’S SALARY PROPOSAL IS MORE THAN A
SALARY FREEZE!
THIS IS TAKING BACK THE LOST STEP WE NEGOTIATED
THROUGH FACT FINDING THIS FALL!

We’ve said it quite a few times: our local associations are working together to ensure that all our members are informed and united as we work through an unprecedented legislative session and very challenging negotiations.

In the last email, we showed you a list school superintendents and principals developed, indicating where they are likely (or not) to cut district budgets this year. We’ve already addressed some of the most common topics: furlough days, salary schedule changes, shorter school weeks, and contracting out. We aren’t saying districts are going to do any of these things nor that our locals will agree to them. But we want to make sure we all understand them in case we face them in our districts.

Metro Area locals are currently along the bargaining continuum: from the early stage of surveying our members and researching and writing proposals to meeting at the table with the district. Some may delay bargaining until the Legislature deals with 2010-11 school year funding. Lawmakers will begin that debate very soon with the goal of completing it in late March, before the state budget bill comes before them.

Whether your local association bargains in a “traditional” way or uses an “interest-based process,” we will be bargaining this year despite the economy and the state budget. You deserve to be paid a professional salary; we will not give up on our goal to achieve this salary for every educator. And because this is an Association core value, we will be seeking salary increases. We will not ask for “nothing!”

What happens in bargaining will vary from that starting point, however, because one local contract is different from a neighboring local’s contract in more ways that the negotiations approach we use. For example, some of us bargain insurance; others decide insurance benefits and cost questions through an insurance committee separate from bargaining. The same holds true for class size, curriculum issues, staffing, student contact time, and a whole host of other topics. As we do not have a collective bargaining law in Colorado, the scope of bargaining is determined by the parties that bargain: our local and the school board.

During times like these, local negotiators may use this opportunity to enhance non-economic provisions of the contract as some of our Metro Area locals plan to do. They will consider contract language for work load reductions; improved performance evaluation; a better mentoring process for new teachers; strengthening due process rights; improvements in leaves and planning time; a stronger teacher voice in decision making; and many other issues.

Though our environments are vastly different, WE WILL BE BARGAINING and we need you with us, unified and strong. No local association is an island. All of us are stronger than any of us alone.

Here is the link to the Times Call article about last night’s school board public meeting. This coming week CEA staff and leaders will be coming in for a Capacity Assessment for SVVEA and we go to fact finding Oct.12-15. We are committed to standing strong and advocating for the reinstatement of a lost step and 3%.

To keep you updated on the events regarding Fact Finding, SVVEA presents…

Friday Focus on Fact Finding

• A fact finder has been decided upon. His name is Ben Aisenburg. Please read below for his resume.

• Ben Aisenberg was to be awarded the Don W. Sears Ethics Award on May 20 at the Colorado Bar Association Ethics Committee Meeting. The award is given to outstanding CBA members who have given tirelessly to the ethical enhancement of the legal profession in Colorado. Aisenberg has been a member of the CBA Ethics Committee since 1986.
Aisenberg is a graduate of Brown University and Harvard Law School. He is a former partner in Gorsuch Kirgis Campbell Walker & Grover (1958–1980). He currently practices under the Law Offices of Bennett S. Aisenburg PC, specializing in litigation, arbitration, mediation and grievance matters.
• Aisenberg has been admitted to the practice of law in Colorado and Massachusetts. He is a member of the Denver, Colorado and American Bar Associations. Aisenberg is a past president of the Colorado Trial Lawyers Association (1984–1985); past-president of the Denver Bar Association (1991–1992); past-president of the CBA (1998–1999); Judicial Nominating Commission member (1988–1994); and an Ethics Committee member (1986–present). He is a member of the Colorado Bar Foundation, International Society of Barristers, American Board of Trial Advocates and the National Academy of Arbitrators.

• Most recently, Mr. Aisenburg worked with the Pueblo EA in their fact finding.

• Fran and I will have a telephone conference call with both Alan Taggart, the board attorney, and Mr. Aisenburg next Tuesday, September 29.

• Fact Finding is scheduled for the week of October 12.

• CEA and SVVEA are working together preparing exhibits for the Fact Finding.

• Please remember the CEA Capacity Assessment Team will be coming to buildings starting on Monday, September 28. Be sure to stop by and have a chat with them.

Thank you for your continued support!

Jerri Modrall
President
St. Vrain Valley Education Association

I understand that it appears the union is quibbling over $160 a year per teacher. After all, it’s just half a percent, right?

Wrong. It is time for this district to show that experienced teachers are valued. Yes, the economy is bad, but I took a punch in the gut long before the general public felt the crunch of a bad economy. A contract I signed was violated by my employer, and the misdeed was never corrected. I have remained faithful to said contract, yet I have been paying for someone else’s mistake for years, and I am not alone. Now the district has the money to make that right and they refuse to do so. They have, in fact, SURPLUS money from last year and yet they still refuse to make right their wrong? I spent my summer “vacation” taking classes, reading books, and writing papers and the district not only refuses to honor the fact that I have reached a new level of education but it also refuses to acknowledge that I have more experience and knowledge.

In the private sector, I might negotiate my salary. I might be rewarded adequately; I might not. However, I doubt I would have started my first job at $9,000, below poverty level at the time.

SVVEA asked for 5.9 percent and to have the “lost step” returned to those teachers affected by it. Recouping the lost step will not make up for short-changing me (or anyone else) approximately $10,000 over the last six years. Dropping our request of 5.9% down to 3% was very reasonable in my opinion. Having the district respond with a 2.5% increase smacks of more nickel-and-dime-ing. It may seem like a $160 compromise, but it is not. It is a compromise on a compromise following an insult. The district’s latest offer will mean about $66 a month more to the average teacher, before taxes. That works out to less than a cup of Starbuck’s coffee per day.

About 2/3 of the teachers affected by the “lost step” have either left teaching or left the district. Those who remain will supposedly see an increase of one step, which will of course mean a greater increase in salary. Those teachers will receive about $167 a month more, before taxes. This simply does not make up for all that we have lost under any circumstances, in any economy.

I remain a member of the association not only because as teachers, we are stronger when we are unified, but because I feel my rights are protected. I gain a lot from my involvement. Personally, I would cut out cable TV and drop all social-activity costs before I would drop my SVVEA membership. I would take a higher deductible on my car insurance rather than leave myself uninsured as an educator. I understand that money is tight, but I also understand that if I don’t stand up for myself now, I will not make any gains when the economy improves. A pat on the back for sucking it up this year just won’t do it for me. $66, less taxes, is just a step above a pat on the back, and it’s about two feet above a kick in the pants.

Kristie Boman
Social Studies
Altona Middle School

Greeley EA and SVVEA share something in common. Both are at Impasse and both teams sit across from Allen Taggart, outside counsel hired by each school board. Greeley goes to mediation on Sept. 25 and in support of their team they are having a candlelight (glow stick) vigil at their Board of Education meeting this Monday.

Your support/attendance would greatly be appreciated. Stand in solidarity with your colleagues up north. If you can attend please email Andi Lee, GEA President greeleyea@msn.com anlee@greeleyschools.org 970-353-4187

Candlelight/Glowstick Vigil
- Monday, September 14th, 7-8 pm
- 1025 9th Avenue, Greeley