Wednesday’s Board Meeting –
Hello My Fellow Espanola-NEA Members –
I sat through most of the board meeting last Wednesday evening at CVMS and I thought I would share with you what my perceptions are of the part of the meeting for which I was present.
One of the over riding perceptions I have received from this and a couple of other board meetings I have observed is how once again power and politics is playing a role where it has no place. What do I mean by this?
At a previous meeting there was on the agenda, under consent items, an item to approve the creation of a local labor board. One of the board members, Joann Salazar, objected to the item being included. It was her opinion, and she expressed herself eloquently, that not enough research and investigation had been done to make a decision at this time, and asked that this particular item be removed from the consent items list for further study and investigation. Her request, was backed by Joe Romero, who stated that in his opinion if any board member objected to any consent item that the item should be removed from the consent list. For those of you who don’t frequent school board meetings, items on the consent list are voted on, en masse, not individually, so it is not possible to vote for item one and against item two, for example. Board president Andrew Chavez did not accept either Mrs. Salazar’s motion to remove the item, or Mr. Romero’s supporting her in his pointing out that previously on the school board that item would be removed, that a motion was not needed, that all that was needed was for one member to object to any particular item. He forced a vote on the consent items, Joann Salazar voted no, and made it clear her vote was based on her objection to the creation of the local labor board at this time. It is important to note that she did not say she was opposed to a local labor board, only that she felt there were many unanswered questions regarding the value and the costs of creating one that needed answering prior to approval. Everyone else voted yes, the motion carried and our school board voted to create a local labor board, which will have to be funded by district funds, office space, staffing, phones, lawyers, legal fees, etc, all unknown at this time. Politics? Best use of district funds?
This past Wednesday’s meeting the issue of selecting a new school board member came up. Apparently from what I was able to understand of the conversation (sometimes the board members did not speak directly into their microphones) there are 4 applicants, two favored by Mr. Chavez and Mr. Valerio, and two others. Mr. Chavez and Mr. Valerio seemed to attempt to eliminate two of the 4 applicants immediately in the interests of saving time and so as to not have to interview all 4 of them. Mrs. Salazar and Mr. Romero wanted to create some sort of mutually agreed upon criteria for judging all 4 applicants, and possibly eliminating a couple of them based on these mutually agreed upon criteria.
There was some finagling going on there that I could not quite follow, followed by a vote, on what, I am not quite sure, but the result of the vote was 2 to 2. Dr. Cockerham declared the vote to be a yes, based on the fact that it was not defeated. I apologize for not having caught more of that exchange, but I found it very interesting that a tie vote between the board members was declared for one side or the other by Dr. Cockerham. Politics?
The net result of all the discussion about selecting the fifth board member (Recall that Joe Guillen resigned to become director of the state school board association.) was that Mr. Chavez would meet with Dr. Cockerham on Monday, June 25, and using lists provided by the other board members they would create the list of criteria by which all 4 applicants applications would be judged. Then on Tuesday the 26th, using that list, the 4 applicants would be winnowed to 2. Finally, I believe, there will be a special board meeting, open to the public is my understanding, where the school board will interview, in public, the two finalists. This meeting will be at CVMS Wednesday the 27th, at regular board meeting time. I have no idea if they will make their decision at that time or not. If it all sounds fuzzy, that’s because it was really hard to follow, and audience participation (as in, excuse me, can you repeat that?) is definitely frowned upon.
If you are in the least interested in who is going to fill that 5th seat, I strongly recommend you attend the board meeting, which I believe is at 5 pm CVMS Wednesday 6/27/07. You may not get to say a thing, or participate in any way, but at least you will see how our elected officials, our elected leaders, operate. This will help us tremendously during negotiations in our collective bargaining, and in deciding how involved we want to be in local elections in the future.
One of the most important, and interesting things I have learned in my 3 weekends of training is to discover how very fragile our right to collective bargaining is. Every time the legislature meets, (every year) it is possible for them to pass laws limiting our rights as people and as employees. Our participation and involvement at local, state, and national level is incredibly important. I urge you to be involved, be informed, be educated and to participate.
Again, more later.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Friday, June 22, 2007
New Experience for Espanola-NEA
Hello Fellow Members!
We had a totally new experience in the annals of Espanola-NEA yesterday. You should have been there! Ha. That was actually not the place for all of us to be, but here is where I was, and why it was such a new experience.
I (Brian Every, President Espanola-NEA) was with Juan Montoya of PELRB (Public Employees Labor Relations Board), Dr. Cockerham (Superintendent, Espanola Public Schools), and Charles Goodmacher (NEA UniServ Consultant) at Mr. Montoya's office on Coors Blvd in Albuquerque. We were there, at a legal hearing as total equals to Dr. Cockerham. It was the first time that I am aware of where we, Espanola-NEA and Espanola Public Schools met as total equals. This was not our usual stand before the Board, or meet with Dr. Cockerham at his office, we asking (begging) for some favor or boon,and they having every right to refuse it. NO, this was the two of us standing before a higher authority, each with equal rights, each with our own story, our own wants and needs, negotiating the future. No superior, no inferior, just two equal entities trying to settle on how things are going to go.
I was also impressed by the fact that it became clear to me in that meeting that we were going to end up with collective bargaining. Dr. Cockerham had originally submitted every name of every person in the district as part of our bargaining unit. Even his own! Imagine, he wanted us to represent him! In all we submitted a list of 73 names of district employees who we thought should be excluded from the bargaining unit, and once Dr. Cockerham saw them, pretty much agreed that these people should be excluded.
It was also obvious that this was another stalling tactic. In fact if I got one thing out of the entire hour plus meeting it was that Dr. Cockerham and possibly the School Board are going to stall at every possible opportunity. This was an obvious stall because Dr. Cockerham and his new lawyer, John Martinez, widely known around the state to represent school boards against Employees, had to have known that Dr. Cockerham and the other 73 people on our list were not eligible to be part of the bargaining unit. So instead of our having walked out of there with an agreement on who was part of the bargaining unit. What we got was..."I will have to look this over and get back to you." from Dr. Cockerham. Another few days between now and our sitting down to negotiate. In fact he said, and this is a direct quote "I am not in any hurry!" in response to setting a date for the next meeting.
I say the school board might possibly be involved in the stalling action because I wondered how much of the real truth the school board was getting. I am not saying that Dr. Cockerham was not telling them the truth, but you know how you can slant any story, spin any situation to favor one side or another. Dr. Cockerham and the school board have hired an attorney, John Martinez, who is well known for making his living fighting for school boards and against employee interests. This is also the reasoning behind the tactic of the school board voting for forming a local labor board, because that can take time, time for PELRB to approve the local labor board, time to assemble it, time for it to get it together to hear anything...sometimes as much as a year. Aren't we glad that their decision to form a local labor board came after our petition for Collective Bargaining? Because we filed first, the state labor board will hear all issues related to our certification for exclusive bargaining rights, not the local labor board, so we will proceed forward as quickly as possible with out the delay they tried to create by creating an expensive to the district, local labor board.
Yet another stalling tactic Dr. Cockerham trotted out at the meeting yesterday was his insistence on creating two bargaining units (after it was pointed out to him that he and the other administrators, principals, etc couldn't be in the bargaining unit) one for certified and one for classified employees. He was concerned that we had different issues and that the teachers would over ride, or ignore our fellow employees, the custodians, the cooks, the secretaries. Look at their pay raises this coming year, and see if you can figure out who is really ignoring them!
It turns out that the Labor Board will decide what the appropriate bargaining unit is, and even if we are split into two bargaining unit, there is only one union, us, and we decide who sits at the negotiating table, and our MEMBERS decide if they like what we agreed to or not. NOT THE NEGOTIATING TEAM. So while again this may delay actually sitting down at the table by a few days it is not anything other than another sign of the fear that Dr. Cockerham, and possibly the board has of meeting with us as equals and trying to figure out what is really best for our kids.
Signs of desperation abound, hiring an expensive attorney to advise them, setting up an expensive local labor board, stalling at every possible turn. Think of how much money Dr. Cockerham and the school board is wasting trying to keep from meeting with us as equals - while at the same time the board approved a nearly $7,000 raise for Dr. Cockerham. Need any chalk, or white board markers, cleaning supplies, a new mop? Or construction paper, text books, a new broom, or other school supplies? Maybe you need to buy them from your own huge raise because the district keeps pleading poverty to us doesn't it?
I have a lot more I want to tell about many things that have been happening the past several weeks, I hope to get that info up here soon. Please let me know you are checking in and if you are ready to help us in our efforts for fair and equitable treatment. We are organizing all kinds of committees to deal with the many different aspects of being a truly representational organization and we can use all the help we can get. Just think, if everyone of our membership volunteered one hour a month to our efforts what we could accomplish.
Oh, and by the way, after reducing the districts 'bargaining unit' to the appropriate size, we had 77% of the eligible district employees signing the cards in the card drive, not the 64.47% that included Dr. Cockerham. I think maybe we do need to represent him too, what do you think?
We had a totally new experience in the annals of Espanola-NEA yesterday. You should have been there! Ha. That was actually not the place for all of us to be, but here is where I was, and why it was such a new experience.
I (Brian Every, President Espanola-NEA) was with Juan Montoya of PELRB (Public Employees Labor Relations Board), Dr. Cockerham (Superintendent, Espanola Public Schools), and Charles Goodmacher (NEA UniServ Consultant) at Mr. Montoya's office on Coors Blvd in Albuquerque. We were there, at a legal hearing as total equals to Dr. Cockerham. It was the first time that I am aware of where we, Espanola-NEA and Espanola Public Schools met as total equals. This was not our usual stand before the Board, or meet with Dr. Cockerham at his office, we asking (begging) for some favor or boon,and they having every right to refuse it. NO, this was the two of us standing before a higher authority, each with equal rights, each with our own story, our own wants and needs, negotiating the future. No superior, no inferior, just two equal entities trying to settle on how things are going to go.
I was also impressed by the fact that it became clear to me in that meeting that we were going to end up with collective bargaining. Dr. Cockerham had originally submitted every name of every person in the district as part of our bargaining unit. Even his own! Imagine, he wanted us to represent him! In all we submitted a list of 73 names of district employees who we thought should be excluded from the bargaining unit, and once Dr. Cockerham saw them, pretty much agreed that these people should be excluded.
It was also obvious that this was another stalling tactic. In fact if I got one thing out of the entire hour plus meeting it was that Dr. Cockerham and possibly the School Board are going to stall at every possible opportunity. This was an obvious stall because Dr. Cockerham and his new lawyer, John Martinez, widely known around the state to represent school boards against Employees, had to have known that Dr. Cockerham and the other 73 people on our list were not eligible to be part of the bargaining unit. So instead of our having walked out of there with an agreement on who was part of the bargaining unit. What we got was..."I will have to look this over and get back to you." from Dr. Cockerham. Another few days between now and our sitting down to negotiate. In fact he said, and this is a direct quote "I am not in any hurry!" in response to setting a date for the next meeting.
I say the school board might possibly be involved in the stalling action because I wondered how much of the real truth the school board was getting. I am not saying that Dr. Cockerham was not telling them the truth, but you know how you can slant any story, spin any situation to favor one side or another. Dr. Cockerham and the school board have hired an attorney, John Martinez, who is well known for making his living fighting for school boards and against employee interests. This is also the reasoning behind the tactic of the school board voting for forming a local labor board, because that can take time, time for PELRB to approve the local labor board, time to assemble it, time for it to get it together to hear anything...sometimes as much as a year. Aren't we glad that their decision to form a local labor board came after our petition for Collective Bargaining? Because we filed first, the state labor board will hear all issues related to our certification for exclusive bargaining rights, not the local labor board, so we will proceed forward as quickly as possible with out the delay they tried to create by creating an expensive to the district, local labor board.
Yet another stalling tactic Dr. Cockerham trotted out at the meeting yesterday was his insistence on creating two bargaining units (after it was pointed out to him that he and the other administrators, principals, etc couldn't be in the bargaining unit) one for certified and one for classified employees. He was concerned that we had different issues and that the teachers would over ride, or ignore our fellow employees, the custodians, the cooks, the secretaries. Look at their pay raises this coming year, and see if you can figure out who is really ignoring them!
It turns out that the Labor Board will decide what the appropriate bargaining unit is, and even if we are split into two bargaining unit, there is only one union, us, and we decide who sits at the negotiating table, and our MEMBERS decide if they like what we agreed to or not. NOT THE NEGOTIATING TEAM. So while again this may delay actually sitting down at the table by a few days it is not anything other than another sign of the fear that Dr. Cockerham, and possibly the board has of meeting with us as equals and trying to figure out what is really best for our kids.
Signs of desperation abound, hiring an expensive attorney to advise them, setting up an expensive local labor board, stalling at every possible turn. Think of how much money Dr. Cockerham and the school board is wasting trying to keep from meeting with us as equals - while at the same time the board approved a nearly $7,000 raise for Dr. Cockerham. Need any chalk, or white board markers, cleaning supplies, a new mop? Or construction paper, text books, a new broom, or other school supplies? Maybe you need to buy them from your own huge raise because the district keeps pleading poverty to us doesn't it?
I have a lot more I want to tell about many things that have been happening the past several weeks, I hope to get that info up here soon. Please let me know you are checking in and if you are ready to help us in our efforts for fair and equitable treatment. We are organizing all kinds of committees to deal with the many different aspects of being a truly representational organization and we can use all the help we can get. Just think, if everyone of our membership volunteered one hour a month to our efforts what we could accomplish.
Oh, and by the way, after reducing the districts 'bargaining unit' to the appropriate size, we had 77% of the eligible district employees signing the cards in the card drive, not the 64.47% that included Dr. Cockerham. I think maybe we do need to represent him too, what do you think?
Saturday, June 16, 2007
CB Update
Hi Everyone -
As usual there is a lot going on, and nothing happening all at the same time. Our bid for collective bargaining is on schedule - the school board has decided to form a local labor board. This does not stop or slow down our bid for CB at all as I understand it. What does slow us down is their refusal to voluntarily grant us bargaining rights. This is OK. We have a meeting on the 21st of June at the PELRB where an election date will be set. This will most likely be sometime in August or September. The big deal on the election will be to get everyone to vote. It will be a secret ballot vote, just as all other elections are. The election will most likely be overseen by the County Clerk's office.
It is very important when we get to the election that EVERYONE VOTE! So please, when election time rolls around...make sure everyone you know goes and votes. This is your constitutional and legal right here in NM to engage in Collective Bargaining. Naturally I am hoping you will vote in favor of Espanola-NEA being your exclusive bargaining agent, but I would rather that you voted no, than you didn't vote at all.
So that is where we are now. I will know more after the meeting at PELRB and will give an up date by next weekend. I would love to get the update posted on Thursday but I will be en route to Ruidoso for more NEA Training...Collective Bargaining training actually, and am writing this while at an NEA training learning about employee rights and due process. I will try hard to be at the board meetng this coming Wednesday, but I don't expect to be asked or allowed to speak.
I hope to see some of you there regardless. We need the board to see that we are there and that we care. After all, we are the experts in education...that is what our degrees say.
As usual there is a lot going on, and nothing happening all at the same time. Our bid for collective bargaining is on schedule - the school board has decided to form a local labor board. This does not stop or slow down our bid for CB at all as I understand it. What does slow us down is their refusal to voluntarily grant us bargaining rights. This is OK. We have a meeting on the 21st of June at the PELRB where an election date will be set. This will most likely be sometime in August or September. The big deal on the election will be to get everyone to vote. It will be a secret ballot vote, just as all other elections are. The election will most likely be overseen by the County Clerk's office.
It is very important when we get to the election that EVERYONE VOTE! So please, when election time rolls around...make sure everyone you know goes and votes. This is your constitutional and legal right here in NM to engage in Collective Bargaining. Naturally I am hoping you will vote in favor of Espanola-NEA being your exclusive bargaining agent, but I would rather that you voted no, than you didn't vote at all.
So that is where we are now. I will know more after the meeting at PELRB and will give an up date by next weekend. I would love to get the update posted on Thursday but I will be en route to Ruidoso for more NEA Training...Collective Bargaining training actually, and am writing this while at an NEA training learning about employee rights and due process. I will try hard to be at the board meetng this coming Wednesday, but I don't expect to be asked or allowed to speak.
I hope to see some of you there regardless. We need the board to see that we are there and that we care. After all, we are the experts in education...that is what our degrees say.
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Insult?
Last night many of us went to the board meeting as the board had promised to discuss and vote on voluntary recognition when the results of the PELRB count of our card vote were finished. They were finished early this week. We more than met the burden of proof for collective bargaining. Minimum threshold is 30% of the "bargaining unit." We submitted a list of job classifications that eliminated some of the districts classifications for a variety of reasons, our card count gave us over 75% of those classifications. The district included every single classification and employee, we had cards from 64.7% of that more complete list. We clearly more than met the requirements for certification as the exclusive representative for collective bargaining.
At the board meeting we were not invited to speak. The promised discussion and vote did not occur. Instead the board voted to create a "local labor board." This means that our poor district, poor in the sense that Dr. Cockerham continually uses lack of funds as a reason for not doing many different things like paying our teachers full pay for having to work 3 weeks of their summer vacation, has to spend thousands of dollars setting up and maintaining a local labor board. The district has to pay all the expenses of this labor board, including legal fees for legal council, while the local labor board will be duplicating the services that the state labor board performs. The state labor board is paid for by the state, and is a humongous 30 miles away.
It is clearly much more cost effective to save that 30 miles in wear and tear on school vehicles while paying for different set of lawyers to research questions the local labor board might need answered, or to even take the district to court for what ever possible illegal actions the board might take during negotiations.
Joann Salazar deserves full credit for asking the board to wait on voting to approve the local labor board. She wanted to research and discuss further the wisdom of this move. It was pointed out by Joe Romero, that he believed that board rules required that if one board member objected to anything on the consent list, that it be removed from the consent list. This did not happen. Instead the consent list was voted on, and passed, approving the creation of a local labor board. Mrs. Salazar voted against the entire consent list rather than vote for the approval to create a local labor board. It is not clear at this time if the actual vote for approval of the consent list was legal because of Joann Salazar's objection to the inclusion of the that item in the consent list. It is also not clear what happens if the vote was indeed illegal.
What is important here is to recognize that in spite of there being new faces on the board, nothing much has changed. There is no more respect for the employees than there was before, and the concept of doing what is really best for the students of the district is lost in the shuffle. It is also important to realize that, regardless of this apparent insult and seeming lack of honor as demonstrated by the board, it is we the employees, who get to decide if we want collective bargaining or not, and we have already decided. Collective bargaining will become a reality, this is only a slight delay and nothing to be overly concerned about.
We need to thank Joann Salazar for doing what she believed to be the right thing in wanting more information on the cost and role of a local labor board. We also need to thank Joe Romero for pointing out that he believed it proper protocol to remove the objected to item from the consent list. It would have been nice if he had voted against the consent list and there by back up his belief in following the rules of propriety with appropriate action. It is also important to clarify that we are not opposed to a local labor board, nor are we in favor. A local labor board must do pretty much exactly what the state labor board would do and if it doesn't, either side can appeal to the state labor board, it just costs our district more money. Which if we had plenty of it, wouldn't bother me at all.
When it comes to money I have a really hard time figuring out this district. On the one hand administration pleads poverty, there is no money for this, there is no money for that, but there is enough to give Dr. Cockerham a $6,930 raise. Last year he got a $10,000 raise. So in two years he has gotten an additional $17,000 in income. While giving some of our teachers and other employees, a paltry $700 one year, and $1,400 this year. Last year in a fit of anger I suggested that Dr. Cockerham's raises should be limited to no more than the highest raise a teacher received. That was pretty stupid as Dr. Cockerham pointed out while thanking me for insuring his raise this year. I should have said his raise should be no more than what was received by the lowest raise given to any employee.
Students of Espanola Public Schools - Pay Attention. If you have a PhD and run a school district, you can make big bucks - and if you let emotion run your mouth, you might live to regret what comes out of it.
Membership and Patience - Professional attitude and actions. This is what will get us to where we want to be. If we can continue to act with these foremost in our minds we will be happy with the results.
At the board meeting we were not invited to speak. The promised discussion and vote did not occur. Instead the board voted to create a "local labor board." This means that our poor district, poor in the sense that Dr. Cockerham continually uses lack of funds as a reason for not doing many different things like paying our teachers full pay for having to work 3 weeks of their summer vacation, has to spend thousands of dollars setting up and maintaining a local labor board. The district has to pay all the expenses of this labor board, including legal fees for legal council, while the local labor board will be duplicating the services that the state labor board performs. The state labor board is paid for by the state, and is a humongous 30 miles away.
It is clearly much more cost effective to save that 30 miles in wear and tear on school vehicles while paying for different set of lawyers to research questions the local labor board might need answered, or to even take the district to court for what ever possible illegal actions the board might take during negotiations.
Joann Salazar deserves full credit for asking the board to wait on voting to approve the local labor board. She wanted to research and discuss further the wisdom of this move. It was pointed out by Joe Romero, that he believed that board rules required that if one board member objected to anything on the consent list, that it be removed from the consent list. This did not happen. Instead the consent list was voted on, and passed, approving the creation of a local labor board. Mrs. Salazar voted against the entire consent list rather than vote for the approval to create a local labor board. It is not clear at this time if the actual vote for approval of the consent list was legal because of Joann Salazar's objection to the inclusion of the that item in the consent list. It is also not clear what happens if the vote was indeed illegal.
What is important here is to recognize that in spite of there being new faces on the board, nothing much has changed. There is no more respect for the employees than there was before, and the concept of doing what is really best for the students of the district is lost in the shuffle. It is also important to realize that, regardless of this apparent insult and seeming lack of honor as demonstrated by the board, it is we the employees, who get to decide if we want collective bargaining or not, and we have already decided. Collective bargaining will become a reality, this is only a slight delay and nothing to be overly concerned about.
We need to thank Joann Salazar for doing what she believed to be the right thing in wanting more information on the cost and role of a local labor board. We also need to thank Joe Romero for pointing out that he believed it proper protocol to remove the objected to item from the consent list. It would have been nice if he had voted against the consent list and there by back up his belief in following the rules of propriety with appropriate action. It is also important to clarify that we are not opposed to a local labor board, nor are we in favor. A local labor board must do pretty much exactly what the state labor board would do and if it doesn't, either side can appeal to the state labor board, it just costs our district more money. Which if we had plenty of it, wouldn't bother me at all.
When it comes to money I have a really hard time figuring out this district. On the one hand administration pleads poverty, there is no money for this, there is no money for that, but there is enough to give Dr. Cockerham a $6,930 raise. Last year he got a $10,000 raise. So in two years he has gotten an additional $17,000 in income. While giving some of our teachers and other employees, a paltry $700 one year, and $1,400 this year. Last year in a fit of anger I suggested that Dr. Cockerham's raises should be limited to no more than the highest raise a teacher received. That was pretty stupid as Dr. Cockerham pointed out while thanking me for insuring his raise this year. I should have said his raise should be no more than what was received by the lowest raise given to any employee.
Students of Espanola Public Schools - Pay Attention. If you have a PhD and run a school district, you can make big bucks - and if you let emotion run your mouth, you might live to regret what comes out of it.
Membership and Patience - Professional attitude and actions. This is what will get us to where we want to be. If we can continue to act with these foremost in our minds we will be happy with the results.
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Why? This is why.
Below these words I am going to print the discussion Dr. Cockerham and I have had regarding the "mandatory" Saturday in-services, and the "mandatory" 3 week summer institutes. Until we have collective bargaining, we can only beg. I tried to do that here. You can see that I was reasonably unsuccessful. We will be bargaining by next school year. We will do what we can retroactively. In the mean time the PERLB has certified our card count at - if my memory serves 66.8% using the district listed bargaining unit, which was larger than ours. More on that at a later date. But rest assured, we will have collective bargaining, and we will have a voice in all of these activities, and all members will get to vote on any changes to our contracts after we start bargaining. So please hang in there, we are making a difference.
Here is our conversation with Dr. Cockerham regarding the in-services and the Summer Institutes. I start at the beginning and go to the most recent.
From: Brian Every
Re: Mandatory Summer Institutes, and Saturday In-Services
At the May 16th Board meeting, Mr. Goodmacher and I left a letter for all of you with Frances Frazier asking you to reconsider the "mandatory" summer institutes. We also asked you to respond to the letter. We did not formally bring this to your attention because it is our hope that we can work this out informally.
We believe that it is illegal to require employees who have a contract obligation to work for the period of 186 days, to be required to work beyond that time. As phrased by Charles Bowyer, Executive Director of NEA-NM – "A full day in-service or any other work on a Saturday if outside the contract days enumerated in the instructor's contract (180,182, 184, etc.) would be one party (the district) attempting to change a contract between two parties (the district and the instructor) and not legally binding unless both parties agreed to a contract addendum to allow the member to agree to the work and the district to agree to the compensation. This is really basic contract law and has nothing to do with the school personnel act." And, since it is not the district paying the teachers at all, but rather a grant from LANL, it is our belief that the district has no legal standing at all in requiring employee participation.
We are not anxious to embroil the district in a lot of grievances or lawsuits for breech of contract now or ever. However, we are bound to protect and defend our membership from contract infringement or exploitation and may not have any choice in this matter. I am asking again that you respond to this email, that you rescind the 'mandatory' language used to force attendance for most of the month of June and ask that any who fail to show for the 3 week summer institute for MSA or who failed to show for the Saturday in-service in April, not be punished, slighted or have any pay docked in any way.
I personally, because I believe in professional development, will encourage all who can, to go to the summer institutes. I thank you for your rapid reply to this email as a lot of employees are agonizing over changing plans, defying principals, ruining vacation plans etc.
Respectfully,
Brian Every
President, Espanola-NEA
Mr. Every,
I appreciate your encouragement for this attendance. As you know we need to have all our teachers up to par in Math. You know how in is when your students are not prepared to take the basic Algebra class and you having to fail many of your students.
These workshops are needed if we are to succeed in our new math program. We do compensate each employee who attends as well. What I understand is that if a teacher does not want to participate they will be transferred to a lower grade as to not affect this vital math program. I understand that they can also continue these classes throughout the year and receive compensation as well as a Master which will move them on to Level III.
It is never my intent to punish any instructor or employee but if we are to continue to move this district forward and make AYP in math, I believe all staff will need these workshops.
ALL EMPLOYEES OF ESPANOLA PUBLIC SCHOOLS NEED TO PUT OUR STUDENTS FIRST.
I also believe that we all need this extra effort if we are to succeed. I am hoping that NEA wants all students in Espanola to succeed and we can continue to work in cooperation to make this happen as you stated in your first letter to the Board of Education.
Once again thank you.
Dr. David L. Cockerham
Superintendent
Dr. Cockerham,
I do appreciate our teachers getting all the professional development they can, however we still believe that insisting that they give up three weeks of their very hard earned summer for less than half pay is legally and morally wrong. I believe you should try hard to find the money to pay them full wages, and encourage them to attend. If you are so set on them attending the least you can do is give them their full pay. They deserve no less and you honestly insult them by not offering them full pay or the option of not attending if they have other jobs, family plans or just plain need the break.
Most teachers know they need, and want more meaningful training, beating them over the head with threats of transfers and reassignments and robbing them of fair pay for being forced to attend is hardly a way to get them to willingly or eagerly attend. Offering full pay, and maybe an extra day off at Thanksgiving, or Christmas, or Spring break would do a lot more for getting people there willing and eager to learn than the route they are being forced to follow now.
Regardless, teachers who have family plans that can not be canceled, commitments to work other jobs, or other reasonable reasons for not attending should not be in any way penalized, and we definitely feel that transfers between grades and reassignments between schools based on attendance at these summer institutes is a penalty. Any such transfers or reassignments need to be based on solid educational reasons, more experience, better qualifications etc and backed up by the appropriate paper work and certificates, not based on attendance at one single three week summer institute.
We also ask that any teachers who have been reprimanded for failing to attend Saturday in-services earlier this year have those reprimands expunged, and/or any other penalty set right at this time.
We can and will encourage all of our members to attend if they are being treated fairly and with compassion and understanding, we will protect and defend them if they are not.
I thank you for your understanding and willingness to work with us on this issue.
Respectfully,
Brian
Brian L. Every
President, Espanola-NEA
espanola.nea@gmail.com
Brian,
I would love to pay more. I also know that our Espanola teaching staff are dedicated. We both agree that the only way we will get our Math score up is to have highly qualified teachers teaching our students. Some will earn college credit and get their master and LANL is paying for this as well which will benefits each employee on our pay scale.
In my meeting with Reprehensive Udall yesterday I again emphasize the need to pay teachers more for schools that are not making AYP. He agreed in this as well.
Once again I will have to continue to have the goal of meeting the children of Espanola needs first. I would hope NEA and our teachers in this district will keep in mind, “The most precious resource we have in Espanola is our students.” I will have to continue to focus on our students first.
Dr. Cockerham
Brian,
I would love to pay more. I also know that our Espanola teaching staff are dedicated. We both agree that the only way we will get our Math score up is to have highly qualified teachers teaching our students. Some will earn college credit and get their master and LANL is paying for this as well which will benefits each employee on our pay scale.
Not all will get college credit, MSA is not offering college credit except if you enter their masters program, many have no desire for a second masters but would like to get credit to advance up the pay scale regardless, this option is not available. So not each employee is benefited by this. How about offering a step for each summer institute attended?
In my meeting with Reprehensive Udall yesterday I again emphasize the need to pay teachers more for schools that are not making AYP. He agreed in this as well.
This is good, but we will not be holding our breaths.
Once again I will have to continue to have the goal of meeting the children of Espanola needs first. I would hope NEA and our teachers in this district will keep in mind, “The most precious resource we have in Espanola is our students.” I will have to continue to focus on our students first.
Sir, you keep talking as if we, the teachers and support personnel, have no clue who our students are, what is in their best interests or what their needs are. We work with those students all day long, every day we are working, and they are on our minds first thing in the morning and last thing at night for over ¾’s of the year. We need to have a life of our own as well. In addition all of us work much more than the 7 hours a day that we are paid for. Yet it is from us that you keep asking for sacrifices. We believe that if sacrifice is necessary that all EPS Employees should sacrifice equally.
Would you and the rest of CO and other administrative staff please donate half of 15 days of your vacation pay to be used for classroom supplies and give up 15 days of your vacation to attend these summer institutes as well? Would you and the rest of all administrative staff district wide please attend these summer institutes? Then during the school year all could help substitute in the classroom as needed so that our students are taught by trained personnel? This would do a lot to improve student achievement.
Respectfully Sir – We would ask that you and the rest of your administrative staff make equal sacrifices for the goal of meeting the needs of our students.
Brian Every
President, Espanola-NEA
Here is our conversation with Dr. Cockerham regarding the in-services and the Summer Institutes. I start at the beginning and go to the most recent.
From: Brian Every
Re: Mandatory Summer Institutes, and Saturday In-Services
At the May 16th Board meeting, Mr. Goodmacher and I left a letter for all of you with Frances Frazier asking you to reconsider the "mandatory" summer institutes. We also asked you to respond to the letter. We did not formally bring this to your attention because it is our hope that we can work this out informally.
We believe that it is illegal to require employees who have a contract obligation to work for the period of 186 days, to be required to work beyond that time. As phrased by Charles Bowyer, Executive Director of NEA-NM – "A full day in-service or any other work on a Saturday if outside the contract days enumerated in the instructor's contract (180,182, 184, etc.) would be one party (the district) attempting to change a contract between two parties (the district and the instructor) and not legally binding unless both parties agreed to a contract addendum to allow the member to agree to the work and the district to agree to the compensation. This is really basic contract law and has nothing to do with the school personnel act." And, since it is not the district paying the teachers at all, but rather a grant from LANL, it is our belief that the district has no legal standing at all in requiring employee participation.
We are not anxious to embroil the district in a lot of grievances or lawsuits for breech of contract now or ever. However, we are bound to protect and defend our membership from contract infringement or exploitation and may not have any choice in this matter. I am asking again that you respond to this email, that you rescind the 'mandatory' language used to force attendance for most of the month of June and ask that any who fail to show for the 3 week summer institute for MSA or who failed to show for the Saturday in-service in April, not be punished, slighted or have any pay docked in any way.
I personally, because I believe in professional development, will encourage all who can, to go to the summer institutes. I thank you for your rapid reply to this email as a lot of employees are agonizing over changing plans, defying principals, ruining vacation plans etc.
Respectfully,
Brian Every
President, Espanola-NEA
Mr. Every,
I appreciate your encouragement for this attendance. As you know we need to have all our teachers up to par in Math. You know how in is when your students are not prepared to take the basic Algebra class and you having to fail many of your students.
These workshops are needed if we are to succeed in our new math program. We do compensate each employee who attends as well. What I understand is that if a teacher does not want to participate they will be transferred to a lower grade as to not affect this vital math program. I understand that they can also continue these classes throughout the year and receive compensation as well as a Master which will move them on to Level III.
It is never my intent to punish any instructor or employee but if we are to continue to move this district forward and make AYP in math, I believe all staff will need these workshops.
ALL EMPLOYEES OF ESPANOLA PUBLIC SCHOOLS NEED TO PUT OUR STUDENTS FIRST.
I also believe that we all need this extra effort if we are to succeed. I am hoping that NEA wants all students in Espanola to succeed and we can continue to work in cooperation to make this happen as you stated in your first letter to the Board of Education.
Once again thank you.
Dr. David L. Cockerham
Superintendent
Dr. Cockerham,
I do appreciate our teachers getting all the professional development they can, however we still believe that insisting that they give up three weeks of their very hard earned summer for less than half pay is legally and morally wrong. I believe you should try hard to find the money to pay them full wages, and encourage them to attend. If you are so set on them attending the least you can do is give them their full pay. They deserve no less and you honestly insult them by not offering them full pay or the option of not attending if they have other jobs, family plans or just plain need the break.
Most teachers know they need, and want more meaningful training, beating them over the head with threats of transfers and reassignments and robbing them of fair pay for being forced to attend is hardly a way to get them to willingly or eagerly attend. Offering full pay, and maybe an extra day off at Thanksgiving, or Christmas, or Spring break would do a lot more for getting people there willing and eager to learn than the route they are being forced to follow now.
Regardless, teachers who have family plans that can not be canceled, commitments to work other jobs, or other reasonable reasons for not attending should not be in any way penalized, and we definitely feel that transfers between grades and reassignments between schools based on attendance at these summer institutes is a penalty. Any such transfers or reassignments need to be based on solid educational reasons, more experience, better qualifications etc and backed up by the appropriate paper work and certificates, not based on attendance at one single three week summer institute.
We also ask that any teachers who have been reprimanded for failing to attend Saturday in-services earlier this year have those reprimands expunged, and/or any other penalty set right at this time.
We can and will encourage all of our members to attend if they are being treated fairly and with compassion and understanding, we will protect and defend them if they are not.
I thank you for your understanding and willingness to work with us on this issue.
Respectfully,
Brian
Brian L. Every
President, Espanola-NEA
espanola.nea@gmail.com
Brian,
I would love to pay more. I also know that our Espanola teaching staff are dedicated. We both agree that the only way we will get our Math score up is to have highly qualified teachers teaching our students. Some will earn college credit and get their master and LANL is paying for this as well which will benefits each employee on our pay scale.
In my meeting with Reprehensive Udall yesterday I again emphasize the need to pay teachers more for schools that are not making AYP. He agreed in this as well.
Once again I will have to continue to have the goal of meeting the children of Espanola needs first. I would hope NEA and our teachers in this district will keep in mind, “The most precious resource we have in Espanola is our students.” I will have to continue to focus on our students first.
Dr. Cockerham
Brian,
I would love to pay more. I also know that our Espanola teaching staff are dedicated. We both agree that the only way we will get our Math score up is to have highly qualified teachers teaching our students. Some will earn college credit and get their master and LANL is paying for this as well which will benefits each employee on our pay scale.
Not all will get college credit, MSA is not offering college credit except if you enter their masters program, many have no desire for a second masters but would like to get credit to advance up the pay scale regardless, this option is not available. So not each employee is benefited by this. How about offering a step for each summer institute attended?
In my meeting with Reprehensive Udall yesterday I again emphasize the need to pay teachers more for schools that are not making AYP. He agreed in this as well.
This is good, but we will not be holding our breaths.
Once again I will have to continue to have the goal of meeting the children of Espanola needs first. I would hope NEA and our teachers in this district will keep in mind, “The most precious resource we have in Espanola is our students.” I will have to continue to focus on our students first.
Sir, you keep talking as if we, the teachers and support personnel, have no clue who our students are, what is in their best interests or what their needs are. We work with those students all day long, every day we are working, and they are on our minds first thing in the morning and last thing at night for over ¾’s of the year. We need to have a life of our own as well. In addition all of us work much more than the 7 hours a day that we are paid for. Yet it is from us that you keep asking for sacrifices. We believe that if sacrifice is necessary that all EPS Employees should sacrifice equally.
Would you and the rest of CO and other administrative staff please donate half of 15 days of your vacation pay to be used for classroom supplies and give up 15 days of your vacation to attend these summer institutes as well? Would you and the rest of all administrative staff district wide please attend these summer institutes? Then during the school year all could help substitute in the classroom as needed so that our students are taught by trained personnel? This would do a lot to improve student achievement.
Respectfully Sir – We would ask that you and the rest of your administrative staff make equal sacrifices for the goal of meeting the needs of our students.
Brian Every
President, Espanola-NEA
Thank you for this information.
I would like to explore some type of credit for not only inservices but also curriculum development and other district committees.
We were working this out in Littleton Colorado when I left. If I recall so many hours would equal unit credit for the pay scale.
Dr. C
I hope to see you tomorrow (6/6/07) at the board meeting. 5pm, CVMS.
Brian
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