March LAFSE News
Negotiations Update
Certified Staff:
- Separating our additional 2 paid professional development days so there will now be one in August and one in January instead of having both at the beginning of the school year.
- Increasing union leave days from 5 to 7. This will provide union leadership both now and in the future some flexibility to participate in union professional development without having to worry about personal leave days being impacted.
- Language establishing quarterly meetings between union leadership and the Superintendent or their designee to discuss professional development needs.
- Language establishing Indigenous Peoples' Day as a holiday. This is important as our previous language read that we will get any holiday that LANL gets and LANL no longer has this day off.
- Duration of agreement. This language change states that our contract remains in place until a new one is agreed upon. This is a change to the previous language which states that our contract will expire in November if a new one is not agreed upon.
Classified Staff
- Changes to the job posting language which will now read that available jobs will be posted online. This language change matches the current practice.
- Professional development language similar to the language we proposed for Certified Staff. This language states that the District and the Federation will work collaboratively to develop and implement job-related programs of in-service professional development for employees.
- Representation language- this language mirrors Weingarten Rights and states that an employee has the right to representation in meetings which could result in discipline but they must request it.
- Duration of agreement language. This language change states that our contract remains in place until a new one is agreed upon. This is a change to the previous language which states that our contract will expire in November if a new one is not agreed upon.
- IA holiday pay- The following holidays will be paid based on contracted daily hours to employees in the classification of Instructional Assistant.
These days are:
Christmas Eve
Christmas Day
New Year’s Day
Chain of command chart- this language states that a change of command chart will be available online.
Union leave- increasing the days of union leave available to our leadership team from 5 days to 7 days.
Save the date- AFT NM Summer School
This is a great day filled with quality professional development. As we get more information about the classes provided, we will let you know. For now, save the date!
Proposed Contract and By Laws Update
The cliff notes version of these updates are:
- Updating how LAFSE officers are elected and how nominations are shared
- Including language about our Committee on Political Education
- Updating the duties outlined for President and both Certified and Classified Vice Presidents
- Including language about our worksite representatives
- Correcting a spelling and numbering error
- Updating the dues structure (what we currently have written is incredibly outdated, long-winded, and lacks protection from dues increases.
- Language about our drop window to be in compliance with the PEBA law changes (HB 364).
- Wording that says that any policy changes need to be made available to the union membership at least one week before the meeting
School Board Work Session 2/27
- A conversation about the White Rock Schools planning committee. The process for this is outlined as follows:
-The Pinon Staff and the Chamisa Staff will create a vision for each school from there, the planning committee will meet (co-chaired by Ivanna Austell, Craig Washnok, and Jennifer Guy). The expectation is that this committee will meet every two weeks and eventually will move to meet once a month. From March 2020 to July 2020, this group will conduct research, teacher and Principal interviews, neighborhood surveys, community conversations, and work sessions
-From there, there will be a presentation to the School Board sharing the 10-year plan for these two schools to be shared at the August 11th meeting to start the bid process for architect(s)
-The first meeting of this committee will take place on Tuesday, March 17th at 6:00 pm. in the Chamisa Elementary Gym. - Update on GATE at the middle school. Many middle school students choose not to be in GATE at the middle school level because of the passion project, the district anticipates 136 incoming 7th and 8th-grade students identified as gifted by New Mexico criteria- nearly a quarter of anticipated enrollment. The current model in place only provides services only in social studies and science. The proposed idea is cluster grouping- a content area class of 20 students would have 5-10 identified gifted students and likely another 5-10 high ability students. All six teams at the middle school will have clusters of gifted students with clusters of 5-7 students scheduled in ELA, Social Studies, and Science classes on each team. In the new model, one full-time gate teacher will be hired to serve each grade level and this grade level gate teacher will meet individually with students to develop IEP goals individually targeted to each student’s strengths, interests and needs. There will be no required additional projects and enrichment will be provided beyond just social studies and science.
Benefits of the cluster model:
-A dedicated GATE teacher who is not responsible for content area classes will focus on differentiation for students who are gifted across all curricular areas
-Students will have more opportunities to meet with heir GATE teacher individually and in groups of gifted peers throughout the year
-Personalized IEP goals and progress measures will be developed the focus will be on addressing individual needs, not on required independent projects
-General ed content area teachers will benefit from different lessons and consultation provided by the GATE teacher (push in and do some co-teaching)
-The GATE teacher will communicate with parents regarding individual progress and group activities - Legislative update, SEG, lease funds discussion:
-The budget is due by 5/14/20
-Out of the legislative session was an increase to the at-risk factor which allocated 50 million dollars statewide
-LAPS showed an enrollment decline on the 80th day count, it was discussed that the likely reason for this decline was unstable housing with families finding houses off of the hill
-Language of an "average" 4% raise for all public school employees, it was discussed that it will be a "tiny bit more difficult" to fund the 4% raise due to the majority of the increase in public school money being tied to the at-risk index which does not help LAPS much.
*LAFSE Leadership is looking into how exactly this raise was funded and how much money LAPS will have to take from their own checkbook to fund this raise*
An increase in NMPSIA rates was also discussed, Dr. Steinhaus said that he has not heard of any potential rate increases but we believe that there will be. As soon as we know for sure what the rate increase will be, we will pass that information along. - A discussion about which additional pots of money to apply for:
-A unanimous agreement to apply for additional New Mexico Pre-K money. It is the district's belief based on conversations they have had at the state level that they could receive enough money to add pre-k classrooms at all 3 uptown elementary schools.
-Extended learning money has flexible guidelines and can be used with more teacher autonomy and is an easy way to enrich our students and provide extra revenue for involved teachers
-Community Schools Funding; this is a project that is near and dear to our friends in the Albuquerque Teachers Federation's hearts. Community schools are partnerships between public schools and community resources, with a focus on academics, social services, and community engagement. The School Board decided to move forward with pursuing some of the available money and suggested that it's possible that one of the White Rock schools might work towards integrating some community school elements in their design.
-K-5+ Last year, the legislation passed the K-5+ initiative which was not fully utilized by New Mexico public schools because of the strict criteria and increased demands on staff and students. The fiscal year ended with approximately 90 million dollars leftover. The School Board decided to move forward with pursuing some of the money in this pot but it was the consensus of the board to start by surveying the staff to see if there is any interest in a program that is structured this way. The criteria include an additional 25 days to the school year and a threshold of 80% of the same students from the "regular" school year.
-K-12+ ramp up money: it is our understanding that this extra pot of money includes some of the leftover K-5+ money from the previous fiscal year. At the time of this writing (3/6) the PED has not published rules or criteria for what this money can be used for but it is the understanding of the District that this will be more flexible than the K-5+ money and can be used in partnership with community organizations. The district decided to move forward with this application with a "cautious green light".
Thank YOU!
Contract Negotiations can feel like walking a tight rope at all times- we know that we will never make everyone happy but we also believe in doing what is best and keeping in mind that what Spock says (yes, we watch Star Trek when we aren't writing contract proposals...) is true: The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.
It meant a lot to us to have feedback to share with the district. We believe it was powerful for them to be able to see a wide variety of perspectives and to have push back about a proposal that was seemingly no big deal to them but directly impacted the livelihood of us.
At this time, we have declined that proposal and will continue to work to find ways to improve the working conditions for all employees.