| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| every member matters at DSEA | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| • YOUR REWARD•
Go to the DSEA web page and click on Professional Development/Classes Find information on these workshops and seminars:
Also,
mark your calendars for the DSEA --
Winter Advocacy Retreat February 29-March 2, 2008 Rehoboth Beach, and ESP Conference March 15, 2008 Dover Downs Conference Center Stay
tuned.
New membership card
coming in November Your current DSEA membership card is good through November. A new one will come to you, at your home, in November. Please watch for it. It is good for two years. Your membership identification number, by the way, doesn't ever change. Don't forget to use it for hundreds of discounts. Go to www.dsea.org, click on the picture of the DSEA membership card to the left, then log in and start saving! |
October
12, 2007 •YOUR PROFESSION •
One more step for relicensure If you are one of the many teachers or
specialists whose 90 clock hours for relicensure are due October 31,
there is one additional step.
DSEA and the district
Personnel Directors were just informed this week that the relicensure
regulations require that you also affirm that you have no criminal
record.
Even if you have
entered all of your hours on DEEDS and your district has verified
them, you must still complete this addtional step.
DoE auditors brought
this to everyone's attention, citing this regulation:
"1511: Section 10 Criminal Conviction History An
applicant shall disclose his or her criminal conviction history upon
application for a Continuing License. Failure to disclose a criminal
conviction history is grounds for denial or revocation of a
Continuing License as specified in 14 Del.C.
§1219."
You can view
the entire regulation on the state's web
site.
The
affirmation link will be available beginning Monday, October 15.
If
you have already completed entering your 90 hours,
The whole process should
take you less than five minutes. The
deadline for completing this final task is October 31.
All affected educators whose licenses are up for renewal now, and whose accurate email addresses are on record on DEEDS, will also receive a reminder e-mail directly from DEEDS. We expect that you will also be notified by your Human Resources Dept. When
will you receive your new continuing license?
All indications
are that you will recieve your new continuing license by the end of December or shortly
thereafter, through the U.S. mail to your home address. Be
sure that the address listed in DEEDS is your correct address.
Licenses cannot be issued until the old licenses expire. The Dept. of Education will use the weeks following to hand-check them all in order to minimize errors. Are you concerned that you can't get this all completed by October 31? The State Board
of Education, at their October meeting, passed a new regulation
which states, "A continuing license
may be extended, upon showing of exigent circumstances, for a period
not to exceed one year."
Such an extenstion will only
be valid until the end of the 07-08 school year. If you have not
successfully completed the process by then, your teaching license
will expire and your district may terminate your contract.
If you believe your situation fulfills "unanticipated circumstances or circumstances beyond the educator's control," promptly notify your Human Resources Dept. They must concur and allow you to complete the process. Should you receive an extension, the effective date of your new license will still be December 1, 2007. Any professional development hours you enter during your extension MAY NOT be used toward your new license, which will expire on November 30, 2012. You are
invited to a conference/discussion with the nation's leading experts
on ~
Career Paths, Compensation and Collective Bargaining in the 21st Century Friday evening, November 9 and Saturday, November 10
What's the latest with
"Alternative Forms of Compensation?" What does the research say? Who
has bargained something different? Is anything working? Is it
possible to bargain a different way of compensating teachers? What
is the role of professional development? Are there models of
effective career paths for teachers?
Come hear from
the experts, including Researcher
Allen Odden from the Wisconsin Center for Education Research,
as well as union leaders from
Denver, Montana and Wisconsin
- colleagues who have bargained compensation models that are
not your traditional education/years of service salary schedules.
This is a free conference, jointly
sponsored by DSEA, the Delaware Public Policy Institute, and Vision
2015. First suggested by DSEA leaders, it will provide you, as well
as Delaware's policymakers, with the latest information about this
subject so that we can jointly consider how to most effectively
attract and retain highly competent educators.
We need as many DSEA teacher members as possible to be informed as well as to contribute to the conversations that will take place at this conference. What makes you a better teacher? more money? additional skills and knowledge? a supportive team of colleagues? making a difference? What will enhance the profession of teaching? This
conference/conversation is open to educators, school board members,
administrators, business leaders, legislators, and interested
citizens. Although the conference
is free (including breakfast and lunch on Saturday), pre-registration is
required.
•YOUR VOICE
•
 Ennis gets the DSEA nod for State Senate District #14
seat in special election November 3We join Delawareans in mourning the death of long-time public servant and State Senator Jim Vaughn who passed away Wednesday. Knowledgeable and accessible, he was a friend of DSEA and public education. The special election to replace him is set for Saturday, November 3. The 14th district includes parts of Appoquinimink, Colonial, Smyrna and Capital School Districts. This past week
members from the locals in these school districts gathered to
interview the two candidates, Rep.
Bruce Ennis (D) and Joanne Christian (R, also endorsed by Delaware's
Independent Party), president of the Appoquinimink School
Board.
Bruce Ennis was
the clear choice of the DSEA interview team based on his strong
record of support for public education, DSEA and labor issues during
his career in the state House of
Representatives.
This recommendation was confirmed by the DSEA Executive Board during a conference call. It carries with it the offer of a political contribution from the DSEA PAC as well as help with his campaign, such as phoning and literature drops. Local leaders and DSEA staff are currently talking to Rep. Ennis to determine how we can best help. Imagine
...
if all 11,500 of our members called Castle, Carper and Biden and
urged them to vote against the current House and Senate draft
versions of the federal education reauthorization law,
ESEA.
We can do that! DSEA President Barbara Grogg has identified Wednesday, October 24 as ESEA Call-In Day. All DSEA
members are urged to use their break or planning time to call the
three members of Delaware's Congressional delegation and ask them
NOT to support the current drafts of the reauthorization of the
federal education law, currently known as No Child Left Behind.
Why?
Kent County commissioners ok
construction financing for Providence Creek Charter School
This past Tuesday evening (Oct. 9), the Kent County Levy Court commissioners (similar to a county council) voted 5-1, with one member not voting, to approve a $15 million ‘conduit’ bond funding application from the Providence Creek Charter School. Passage of this bond issue will allow Providence Creek to purchase 33 acres of land and construct three buildings for its current 670 students (in grades K-8). DSEA had asked
the commissioners to delay action on this proposal until the General
Assembly re-convenes in January, when it is expected to review the
use of conduit bonds by charter schools for capital construction
projects.
Levy Court Vice President Allan Angel (D),
a former DSEA member, offered a motion to table the
application. That motion was defeated by a 5-2 vote. Levy Court
member Harold Brode (D) joined Angel in voting to table the
motion.
Levy Court
members who voted to defeat the motion to table were: Brooks
Banta (D), Brad Eaby (D), Richard Ennis (D), Eric Buckson (R), and
W. G. Edmanson, II (R).
During the public
hearing portion of the meeting, Commissioner Angel noted that, while
conduit bonds are offered under a County ordinance having to do with
economic development, there were related education policy issues ---
direct or indirect state or county support for charter school
capital construction --- that needed to be addressed by the General
Assembly.
The motion to
pass the application for funding was offered by Brad Eaby. Voting in
favor were: Eaby, Buckson, Ennis, Banta, and Edmonson. Brode
voted against the motion while Angel did not vote.
Commissioner Buckson, a DSEA member at Polytech High School in Dover, expressed concern about the issues raised by DSEA and stated that he would not vote for any other conduit bond applications by charter schools that come to the Kent County Levy Court without further direction from the General Assembly. Buckson expressed a reluctance to vote against the Providence Creek application at the proverbial 11th hour (the school risked loosing its lease) when the current County ordinance on the use of conduit bonds permits such a use. DSEA would like the General Assembly to consider these and other matters to improve the current charter school law upon its return to Dover in January. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Delaware State Education
Association | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||