{"id":9335,"date":"2012-05-21T11:18:34","date_gmt":"2012-05-21T19:18:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stellerschool712.org\/flash\/?p=9335"},"modified":"2012-05-21T11:18:34","modified_gmt":"2012-05-21T19:18:34","slug":"urgent-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stellerschool712.org\/main\/urgent-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Urgent!"},"content":{"rendered":"
By now, you have probably all heard that our art teacher Lee Weiland has been laid off due to the ASD budget cuts. \u00c2\u00a0We are asking all Steller students and parents to join together to do all that we can to prevent this from happening. \u00c2\u00a0Please see some extra info below from Steller parent Janice Banta who has experience with this issue through staff cuts as she experienced them at Denali. \u00c2\u00a0Also see<\/div>\n
attachments containing emails and contact information for school board members and the executive board of the Anchorage Education Association. \u00c2\u00a0There are also “talking points” for writing letters or making calls. \u00c2\u00a0 We need to bombard them with phone calls and emails. \u00c2\u00a0They are all trying to tell us that there is nothing that can be done, this is purely a contractual issue, but we feel strongly that there are always exceptions and that Steller should be that exception. \u00c2\u00a0Get you kids involved. \u00c2\u00a0Encourage them to fight for their school and their school’s philosophy. \u00c2\u00a0Encourage them to speak at the school board meeting.<\/div>\n
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“Like” \u00c2\u00a0the the Save Lee Save Steller page on Facebook to stay up to date with what is happening. \u00c2\u00a0http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/Save-Lee-save-Steller\/241625669276694<\/wbr><\/wbr><\/a><\/div>\n
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We are planning to show up to the school board meeting on Monday evening,\u00c2\u00a0May 21, 6:30, at the ASD Education Center, 5530 E. Northern Lights Blvd. At the intersection with Boniface.\u00c2\u00a0to testify and show support. \u00c2\u00a0We need everyone to come! \u00c2\u00a0Sign up to be a speaker here: \u00c2\u00a0http:\/\/www.asdk12.org\/school_board\/members.asp<\/wbr><\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n
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What else can we do? \u00c2\u00a0What are other ideas? \u00c2\u00a0Please email\u00c2\u00a0alyse.galvin@gmail.com<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0orbeckinak@gmail.com<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0if you want to make sure that you are kept in the loop in regard to further plans and actions.<\/div>\n
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Time is short. \u00c2\u00a0We have to act NOW. \u00c2\u00a0Write an email or call today and plan on being at the meeting on Monday.<\/div>\n
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Ideas for Talking Points<\/a><\/div>\n
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Possible contact information for AEA and ASD<\/a><\/div>\n
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Hi All…This is Janice, returned from the depths of emptying out a classroom of 10 years of stuff! \u00c2\u00a0Sorry I haven’t been able to provide input until now.<\/p>\n
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Because my subgroup of ASD employees (elementary school counselors) was one of the few job titles targeted for elimination, we had Robb Donohue-Boyer (from ASD HR) and Jim Lepley (from AEA) come to our meeting to explain the process of displacement. \u00c2\u00a0I’ll do my best to explain, but the process is very complex and my primary recommendation would be to see if either or both of these very knowledgeable folks could meet or conference call about the specifics of our situation.<\/div>\n
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So here’s my guess…Lee’s position was not eliminated, but some teacher (teacher X) was displaced because of a specific position cut (for example, many career coaches were cut at the middle school level, but it could be something different). \u00c2\u00a0Based on contractual obligations with the union, ASD would be required to provide displaced teacher X \u00c2\u00a0a position for which they are qualified to teach. \u00c2\u00a0There may have been a whole series of bumps before the person taking Lee’s position reached the end of this domino effect. \u00c2\u00a0I don’t know the actual title for Lee’s job posting or the qualifications it required, but in other instances, for example, a French teacher ends up taking a position held by a Math teacher (or an Art teacher) because they happen to also be highly qualified to teach that discipline.<\/div>\n
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Seniority then plays a role, but it’s not the case that the lowest 35 or 55 teachers (I’ve heard both numbers) are those left without a job. \u00c2\u00a0It depends on the chain of displacements that starts with the first eliminated position.<\/div>\n
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This process complicates our ability to advocate specifically for Lee’s position or to know where to direct our concerns. \u00c2\u00a0It does make sense to talk to the School Board about their priorities for the budget, because that helped to create these results. \u00c2\u00a0Beyond the career counselor cuts, we would have to go back and look at the specific positions identified for elimination to hold them accountable for this. \u00c2\u00a0They will want to shift the blame elsewhere, of course, primarily because they had a limited budget amount to work within, but I think we could challenge them on their prioritization process. \u00c2\u00a0I certainly felt eliminating elementary counselor positions, when they want to promote graduate rates is short sighted, since research supports early intervention (that’s another battle, though, I know!).<\/div>\n
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We may wish that Steller could be treated differently when there are position cuts, since we have such a small staff and specialized mission. \u00c2\u00a0Other schools are similarly impacted. \u00c2\u00a0If elementary teaching positions were cut, Denali could lose a trained Montessori teacher, and replace him\/her with an ABC teacher. \u00c2\u00a0The contract doesn’t allow any flexibility in this. \u00c2\u00a0But I think labor law would only allow changes to that process in the contract itself. \u00c2\u00a0Kind of doubtful, I think.<\/div>\n
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So, it all comes back to money. \u00c2\u00a0If funds were restored over the summer, laid off teachers are called to be rehired. \u00c2\u00a0But unless the person who fills Lee’s position wants to move into a different open job, I don’t see how Lee can be restored to Steller’s Art position. \u00c2\u00a0I could be wrong (hope I’m wrong), and would encourage communication with Robb and or Jim to clarify on this.<\/div>\n
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We could explore grant funding for an Art Specialist at the school and pay for it outside ASD, but then he wouldn’t get retirement\/benefits, etc. \u00c2\u00a0I think I have the summer grants list on my computer somewhere and will see what’s there, but I’m not sure what Lee would think about that.<\/div>\n
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Bottom line: \u00c2\u00a0Make a way to clarify options with Robb and\/or Jim; challenge the School Board on their funding priorities (will need to research specifics on that); explore ideas for using different criteria in the next contract for optional school teaching positions (doubtful); pressure the city and state for more and more consistent education funding.<\/div>\n
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Now that school is out, I’m glad to help on this.<\/div>\n
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Janice<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By now, you have probably all heard that our art teacher Lee Weiland has been laid off due to the ASD budget cuts. \u00c2\u00a0We are asking all Steller students and parents to join together to do all that we can to prevent this from happening. \u00c2\u00a0Please see some extra info below from Steller parent Janice […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-announcements"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stellerschool712.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stellerschool712.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stellerschool712.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stellerschool712.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stellerschool712.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.stellerschool712.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9335\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stellerschool712.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stellerschool712.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stellerschool712.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}