Members giving notice must be aware of this Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) and their rights and responsibilities related to this MOA.

Click the link at the right to open and print the MOA: MOA Notification of Intent to Retire

The text of the MOA is provided as follows:

MEMORANDUM OF AGREEMENT

U-46 and the Elgin Teachers Association

Notification of Intent to Retire, Article XXVII, Section 27.10.2

Article XXVII, Section 27.10.2 Eligibility and Application, of the 2010-2011 Elgin Agreement requires eligible members who elect to retire under the provision to give irrevocable written notice to the District by March 1. Since negotiations of the successor agreement are ongoing, it is recognized that giving irrevocable notice in compliance with this timeline is a hardship.

It is therefore agreed that upon approval of the successor agreement by the Board of Education of U46 teachers who have given notice after March 1, 2011 and prior to the end of the business day on March 1, 2012 shall have thirty (30) calendar days to withdraw their notice. Withdrawal shall be at the sole discretion of the teacher.

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Additionally, there is form letter for members to complete to provide notice of their intent and to acknowledge their rights and responsibilities as provided by the MOA.

Click the link to the right to open and print a copy of the form letter: Notification of Intent to Retire

The text of which follows below:

Notification of Intent to Retire

This signed letter shall serve as my notification of my intent to retire under the successor agreement to the 2010-2011 Elgin Agreement and in accordance with the Memorandum of Agreement dated February 11, 2012 pertaining to Article XXVII, Section 27.10.2 Eligibility and Application.

Per the Memorandum of Agreement:

• I understand that I have thirty (30) calendar days from the date of approval of the successor agreement by the Board of Education to rescind my letter of intent to retire.
• I understand that if I choose to exercise the right to rescind I must do so by notifying Human Resources in writing within the thirty (30) calendar day timeline. (bethberg@u-46.org)
• I understand that if I do not notify Human Resources of my expressed intent to withdraw my notice  of intent to retire that my notice of intent to retire will be accepted and all the relevant terms and conditions shall be in force.

IEA held its GPA mini-conference February 3&4 in Springfield.  Friday evening was spent reviewing the legislative landscape that may impact IEA members. A variety of educational issues, including ESEA waiver, educational certification and licensure, vouchers, funding and of course pensions were discussed.  Saturday was quite an amazing experience. We acted on a simulation that followed a bill through the committee process. Many of us role played  as members of the community and testified in the committee. We were allowed on the Senate floor and both Senator Righter (R) and Senate Sullivan (D) spoke with us about our role in the legislative process. They adamantly reminded us about the importance of back home lobbying and building a working relationship with elected officials. They both stated that even though the IEA lobbyist are some of the best in Springfield, there is nothing more powerful than hearing from their voters. It truly was an awe inspiring privilege to sit in the chairs of our elected officials.

The Spring Legislative session begins January 30, 21012. You should be receiving IEA email updates. Clearly school funding and our pensions are the main focus of discussion. We will need members to help speak with legislators and make our story clear and strong. IEA recommended candidates and our local political action plan will be posted here and shared through our ETA email. Please stay informed.

Grading Committee met for the 8^th time February 2. The committee is composed of administrators, ETA teacher leaders and community members. These meetings have been facilitated by Dr Connie Kamm of the The Leadership and Learning Center.

Little progress has been made over the past 3 sessions. After we agreed on the 7 guiding principles as the focus for further professional development,  it has been difficult to agree on what this may look like for our members.  We have had many spirited conversations on what grades represent to our students, their families, and our community. We had hoped that each secondary site could have had significant conversations so that all teachers would have had time to reflect on their current grading practices.

Session 8 included a presentation by Infinite Campus. As impressive as Infinite Campus is, some of us have concerns as to how we can implement our new grading practices into the grading portion of this program.  Currently the work of the Grading Committee and the program do not complement each other.

All sites should have had a discussion with their administration on the grading practices. Articles and research has been provided to the committee to share with their staff.  We will be posting as much of the information as we can on the ETA website following the Grading meeting on February 17^th.

The State evaluation descriptors have been completed by the rubric subgroups and will be compiled by TAP Oversight. There was very hard work done by the members of those constituent groups and the TAP Committee was very appreciative. These will be part of the Tentative Agreement.

The number of teachers responding the TAP winter survey dropped significantly, and frankly that is no surprise. It is currently the only measure we have of the perceptions of implementation, so I think there will be another this spring, but most likely with revision.

The initial challenges of process may have improved, but the deeper issues of reliability and fidelity of application are still a growing challenge. Though there has been no funding for teacher training beyond our initial rollout, the members of the TEI Department will attend any meeting at teacher’s request for additional conversation around the topics of the training. There was no conclusion by the committee as to how to address the larger issues. Individual concerns will continue to be funneled to Lisa Jensen in HR and will be addressed in a case by case basis manner. Based on what we have dealt with this year, I would say our priorities continue to be the use of checklists, informals used as disciplinary measures, and collective understanding of the ratings, TAP and SB7.

The University of Chicago will be working on a report of how school districts in Illinois have changed their evaluation programs and will be looking at our history of development and roll out for their report.

We are hoping to add the experience of working with a student teacher as well as those who provide professional development courses in our district the opportunity to include this as a PD option in the TAP program. The District Staff Development Committee is looking at a defined process for development and approval so teachers can begin to submit proposals for possible offerings. This is all still in discussion stages, so more will follow as things progress.

Kathryn Castle

Staff Development Committee Survey:

• The Staff Development Committee designed a survey for teachers to provide input on professional development opportunities.
• 250 people completed the survey in November.
• Committee members want teachers to have another opportunity to provide input so the collected data is accurate.
• The survey is currently open and will remain open until February 17^th.
• Staff who did not complete the survey before are encouraged to do so now.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Staff_Development_Committee_Survey

The showing is free, but we will be accepting donations at the door. Our Future Teacher Clubs will also be accepting food donations for the local food pantry.

A preview of the film is at www.theteachersalaryproject.org

The viewing will take place on Thursday January 19, 2012 at South Elgin High School’s auditorium.  Doors will open at 4:00 pm with the film beginning at 4:30.

The Elgin Teachers Association has not waited for outside pressure to look for ways to improve the educational environment. The ETA’s participation with reform organizations such as the Teacher Union Reform Network, programs offered by the Consortium for Educational Change, and the NEA Foundation all support our desire to move our members to a deeper professional level. Our members individually have personally pursued numerous professional development paths, always looking to improve practice through proven methods.

We have worked collaboratively to bring forward an award winning mentor program and a teacher appraisal that others look to as a model of how to reform their plan. We supported the Continuous Learning Calendar that unfortunately was part of a major budget cut. For years we have had a process so that teachers at a site could request to be exempt  from contract language if they wanted to make significant changes to improve learning. To address increasing crisis situations in our classrooms, we crafted the Para-Interventionist Teacher program to add emergency assistance to keep all students and staff safe and learning. We believe change can lead to success when the practitioner is part of the collaborative planning.

However, we will always question change without purpose and thoughtful planning. There are endless studies and many private businesses that would seem to promise a silver bullet for meeting all student needs. There are numerous examples of how limited resources have been directed to canned programs that cannot be sustained, or that in their pre-packaged form, do not address our needs. External studies may point the way, but they have to fit our unique needs. We believe while we can learn from those outside experts, we first need to know what our needs are, and then craft solutions that fit identified concerns.

The research does support the need to deeply consider a fundamental change to the structure of our student’s learning day and the need for collaborative professional behavior. During the 2007 bargaining, we agreed that we needed to better understand the changes of curriculum and student learning to begin to know how to fundamentally make the best use of one of our most important resources, time. We crafted language that would have created a time audit, to really understand how we were using our time and how to improve. The audit did not occur. The ever growing professional responsibilities beyond the school day are still not quantified for our teachers. The current research also shows that a collaborative culture supports teacher effectiveness. A researched based culture survey that could help access our site cultures was agreed to in bargaining. However, the plan to implement was rejected by administration and no such survey was ever done. We continue to believe that reliable data can be collected and used to make the best decisions to improve practice.

The members of the ETA will continue to advocate for the best learning environment possible within the limited resources of our District. We will continue to actively pursue collaborative partnerships to enhance the good work our teachers and students are doing now. We believe we can be more effective by using the expertise of the practitioners in the classroom. We will never be satisfied with the status quo and are committed to the improvement of student learning for all students.

On your drive, you are listing needed contacts,
hoping that you are going to be able to reach Susan’s mom today. You are
worried about Susan’s reading struggles and extreme shyness. Mom is working two
jobs and is afraid to take calls at work, so you have tried to arrange to have
another teacher cover your class while you get her on the phone. Then the set
up for the art enrichment will need extra time today too since the cuts, the art
teacher no longer has time for last year’s activities. That of course will put
you off of the “suggested pacing guide,” so there could be a reprimand from
administration, but it is worth the try.

The parking lot is dark as are the hallways. In
the effort to save funds, lights and heat won’t be on until 15 minutes before
the first student arrives, which is another 90 minutes away. So you tread
carefully to your room, spread out the bags, the papers, the supplies and get
to work. You hear the hello’s and good morning’s from those passing by,
teachers and support staff, all trying to get a jump on the day. And this is
the moment you stop to take a breath. All the worry about the students and
their struggling families, the materials you wish you had, the 12 and 15 hours
you have been working every day for weeks, the additional students that seem to
be appearing daily to your already over-sized class  runs over you like a 10 ton truck. You wonder
if you will be able to keep up this every increasing load and endless pile of
responsibilities. You know that the school is sometimes the only help our
students receive, and you want to give as much as you can, but will it ever be
enough? And you sigh, and remember, that this is what you wanted in the
beginning. You wanted to serve the public. You wanted to make a difference, and
you know you have, but it is hard to hang on to that certainty in today’s
political climate.

Of course this is not an experience unique to one or two of
us, it is  what every adult serving
students in public schools is facing on a daily basis. Most of us do not take
time to share these frustrations and burdens, because there simply isn’t time.
So we keep adding on to the frustration and worry, sometimes not even realizing
that in the next room, the same scenario is playing out. Somehow we must find a
way to join with that colleague in the next room. Pushing through to find the
right answers for today’s challenges is going to take our collective
professional voice. We are the practitioners that know what is needed and we
must continue to speak out for what our schools need today. We know there are
no easy answers, because we would have been there long ago. But the answers
will and are being crafted every day as we continue to stand up for what our
students need. The collective talent of the Elgin Teachers Association has
always moved us forward and it will continue to do so, even in these
challenging times. Our school families need us more than ever and we are
grateful for the opportunity to serve.

As the ETA President, it is a privilege for me to serve this
membership in these difficult times, and I will continue to strive to tell your
stories whenever the opportunity exists, and there are those interested in
listening. Please have a restful holiday with you family and friends.

Present were Katie Stan, Ken Kubycheck, Renee Zabel, Kathryn Castle, Joyce Houston, and Jack Janezic

UHC presented the quarterly usage statistics which will continue to be compared to the previous quarters. There were no new trends noted at this time. We do want to share some facts as we do our work. For example, even though we continue to work to contain costs, the current premium cost of the Family Coverage of plan C is over $22,000.00 per year divided between you and the district.

As of the meeting date, there were still 24% of all employees that had not enrolled. The ETA representatives felt through anecdotal reporting that this may be due to the many competing responsibilities needing their attention.

We will be sending out the satisfaction survey after the holidays. It is used to gather information about member experiences and to help inform. The committee is still surprised to hear that members do not know they have vision coverage or 8 free sessions through the EAP, Employee Assistance Program.

If you need to learn more about what is available, or to check your own personal information, please go to the United Health Care website for members. It is a valuable resource and will become the best source to get information on our busy schedules.

We hope to continue to update you quarterly as we study the changes in health care that will shape our work.

I have just spent the past 2 days at National TURN (Teacher Union Reform Network).   Locals that participate in TURN are committed to union reform and innovation, teacher quality and teachers’ work, school quality and structural change, systematic reform, and non-school issues that impact students’ readiness to learn.  Topics of the conference included Research on Teacher Effectiveness by WestEd’s Ken Funternick, reports on what has been happening in the regional TURN networks, an opportunity to watch the documentary American Teacher, Peer Review and Teacher Quality and insightful commentary and news out of the US Department of Education by Jo Anderson.   The highlight of the conference was listening to other locals share their stories about challenges and successes in their individual districts (and Jack’s presentation about how the ETA has benefitted from participating in Great Lakes TURN).

As we do our work day in and day out, it is difficult to take a step back and see all the progressive work the ETA is accomplishing.  We, the ETA, are fortunate to have an organization that has continuously worked to put initiatives in place that keeps us ahead of the curve in the transformational field of education.  It is hard to capture the specific pieces that keep us ahead, because they are so intertwined.  The use of the Danielson Framework as a basis for the language of teaching in U46 is a large portion.  The Framework is a common thread through our innovative initiatives based on teacher quality and teacher work.  The learning, conversation, and implementation has been in the works for almost a decade.  Change and transformation may not be immediate, and we need to keep up the progressive work as we continue to define our profession in our state and U46.