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• YOUR REWARD •
 Watch
for your new DSEA Membership Card in the mail this week
All
DSEA members are being mailed to their homes this week a new DSEA
membership card.
If you are a new member, welcome! We urge you to "register" using
your membership number on the DSEA
web site.
By doing this, you will have access to all of the pages there, including
all of DSEA's local contracts and a long list of member-only discounts.
And veteran members, if you haven't gone to the DSEA
web page and clicked on "Members Only Section - Log in
here," we urge you to do so so that you too can see all that is on
your state Association web site.
WJBR
99.5FM sponsoring Teacher of the Month salute and DSEA is sponsoring it!
WJBR
doesn't reach all the way into Sussex County, but that doesn't mean we
can't encourage folks to nominate a great teacher for this honor from lower
Delaware!
Go to the Teacher
of the Month web site for all the details.
Nominations are made at this site.
Save the Date
April 28, 2012
Sheraton Inn Dover
8am to 3pm
Second annual Ethnic Minority Leadership Conference
Identity Theft
Workshops
Tues., Nov. 15 at
the DSEA office in Stanton, and
Wed., Nov. 16 at
the DSEA office in Dover
5:30-7pm. FREE to
members
Drinks and snacks will be provided.
Sponsored by DSEA and NEA Member Benefits.
Bring a family member. Learn ways to reduce your exposure to identity theft
as well as what actions to take if you should become a victim.
To register for
either workshop, contact Tammy Wagner at 1-866-734-5834 or by e-mail
at tammy.wagner@dsea.org by
November 11.
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• YOUR VOICE •
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DPASII-Revised Update
Discussions
with Governor and Dept. of Education continue about Component 5
This past Monday, President Jenner and several DSEA staff met with
Governor Markell and Secretary Lowery. During the meeting, DSEA leaders
reiterated that using test scores from students whose work has no direct
connection to individual teachers, specialists, and other educators makes
little sense.
It is difficult to support using school-wide test scores for Component 5
as a valid indicator of educator effectiveness. While we agree that all
educators in a school contribute to the success of all students, we
cannot agree with DOE’s position that the combined scores of all students
should be the basis for a significant portion of an educator’s
evaluation.
Of equal concern is the plan to measure both student and teacher success
using the current state testing system with students whose meaningful
progress cannot be measured by standardized tests. The progress and
growth of students in ILC’s, special programs, and special schools should
not be judged by a computerized test that does not capture the teacher contribution
to social and behavioral growth as well.
Likewise, it will not serve any valid instructional purpose for many
teachers, parents or students.
The current interim process for Component 5 is causing great distress
amongst Delaware’s fine educators, most specifically, ILC educators,
grades 1-2 and 11-12 teachers, and faculty members who do not give
grades.
“What doesn’t make sense,” says President Jenner, “is using school wide
scores in mathematics or English Language Arts to evaluate people who don’t
teach those subjects. This evaluation system acknowledges the work
educators are doing in Components 1-4. It is, therefore, illogical
to acknowledge their impact on student growth in Component 5 using scores
for students they don’t have or from subjects they don’t teach. Something
is fundamentally wrong.”
For more about DPASII-Revised 24/7, bookmark www.dsea.org/Accountability/DPASII.html.
For
the truth about DPASII-Revised - as opposed to some of the outrageous
statements you may be hearing - go to www.dsea.org/Accountability/UrbanLegends.html.
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•
YOUR ASSOCIATION •
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Latest
digital edition of ACTION! publication
now available!
From
your computer, you can copy text, print stories, e-mail stories, check
out live web links! Here's the October
2011 issue.
Go to Archives at the top to see the September issue.
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• YOUR FUTURE •
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DSEA Election
petitions now available
Time
to submit your name for DSEA Exec. Board and/or state delegate to the NEA
Representative Assembly
We urge you to consider stepping up and running for
DSEA treasurer;
to be a member of the DSEA
Exec. Board and/or
a DSEA delegate
to the annual NEA Representative Assembly.
The treasurer term is for three years, begininng Sept. 1, 2012.
The other two are two-year positions.
People running for NEA RA delegate always want to know where the RA will
be: The next two NEA RA's are in Washington, D.C. (2012) and then
Atlanta, Georgia (2013). They are always held during Fourth of July
week. Basic state delegate expenses are picked up by DSEA.
There are vacancies for five two-year terms, and one one-year term (the
D.C. RA only).
The two-year Executive Board positions begin September 1, 2012.
There will be two
Kent County seats open; two Sussex County seats; and five New Castle County seats.
In addition to filling out a form that states that you would like to have
your name put on the ballot, you must also obtain signatures of at
least 20 DSEA members if you are running for NEA RA delegate or Executive
Board, or 50 signatures if you are running for treasurer. The
signatures must be from members who are attesting that they also
would like to see your name on the ballot.
You must also submit:
a statement and/or
resume about your qualifications and/or why you are running for office,
and
a color
photograph/head shot of yourself.
The statement and photo will be used to help members decide for whom to
vote. The word limit for treasurer statements is 300 words; for
Exec. Board and RA delegate it is 150 words.
We call these applications nomination "petitions," and the
official petition forms are now available at both DSEA offices (www.dsea.org/AboutDSEA/Directions.html)
or by clicking
here and printing the petition yourself.
The
deadline for submission of all petitions is Friday, December 16.
All petitions must be at the DSEA office in Dover (136 E. Water
St.) by 5pm on that day. If you miss the deadline, your petition will not
be accepted.
All of the signatures on the petitions will be validated to make sure the
signors are active members.
DSEA Elections
Timeline
Dec. 16: Deadline to file nomination petition and color photo
Dec. 20: Lottery drawing for name placement on the ballot
Dec. 22: All candidate statements/photos posted at http://www.dsea.org/AboutDSEA/DSEAElections.
Feb. 15: Voting opens
Feb. 29: Voting ends
March 5: Ballots counted/verified
March 6: Preliminary results announced
March 12: Challenge deadline
March 13: Exec. Board conference call to ratify results
March 17: If necessary, election of any remaining vacancies at the DSEA Representative
Assembly.
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• YOUR
ASSOCIATION •
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Local
Political Action Leader (PAL) training this week
Following
DSEA's annual Leaders Weekend, (www.dsea.org/AboutDSEA/Unions.html)
interest in Political Action training is high.
One reason, of course, is Election 2012 when all 62 Delaware House and
Senate seats will be up for election because of redistricting (which took
place last year).
PAL training at the DSEA office in Dover is tonight; and at the Stanton
office of DSEA on Thursday. Training is from 5-7pm and includes dinner.
Questions?
Please contact Tim Barchak, DSEA's director of legislation and political
organization, at tim.barchak@dsea.org.
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IN SOLIDARITY WITH OHIO:
NEA affiliate
staff and leaders from many states respond to Ohio's call for help with
Nov. 8 election to save collective bargaining
Five from DSEA leaving tomorrow
In an unusual turn of events, citizens in Ohio, led by OEA
and other public sector unions, have collected more than enough
signatures to force a vote next Tuesday, November 8, to save
collective bargaining for public employees.
That is because, in Ohio, voters may petition for a "Citizen
Veto" of bills that have passed their legislature.
As many Ohio-watchers noticed, after the Ohio Legislature and Governor
stripped collective bargaining rights last spring, it awakened a
sleeping giant. Recent polls are showing a slight majority
supporting the right of public workers to negotiate collective bargaining
agreements.
But it's still very close. The Ohio Education Association is in need of
people on the ground to get out the people who will support them since
they don't have many advertising dollars for TV and other media to
get out their message.
DSEA Exec. Director Howard Weinberg responded and offered staff and
leaders the opportunity to spend a few days helping their union
colleagues.
Leaving tomorrow for Columbus are DSEA UniServ directors Wendy Cannon,
Toby Paone, Jocelynne Jones and officers Frederika Jenner and Mike
Hoffmann. http://www.facebook.com/dseafan
Watch for their postings on the DSEA Facebook page at www.facebook.com/dseafan.
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