PrintMinnesota settlement reached
AFT, others supported the lengthy strike
Teachers in the Crosby-Ironton school district in Minnesota are back at work. In early April, the educators ratified contract settlements that ended a 39-day strike, the second-longest teacher strike in state history.
“We are thrilled that we are returning to our classrooms and will be with our students, which is the most important part of today’s agreement,” said Stan Nagorski, president of Education Minnesota Crosby-Ironton of the ratification.
The strike centered on salary and health insurance issues. Under the agreement, retiree health insurance has been preserved for all current employees, reports Education Minnesota field staffer Darrell Baty. The district also will make annual contributions to a tax-free benefit account for retiring teachers. Teachers who qualify to use this tax-free fund are those who retire after July 1, 2004, and teachers hired before June 30, 1990, who are at least 55 and retire after 30 years of service, including 15 years in the district.
The new contracts cover two periods, 2003-05 and 2005-07. They give teachers an increase in the maximum contribution the district will make toward family health insurance, to $8,200 annually from $7,560.
Encouragement and support for the 87 teachers represented by the Crosby-Ironton local flowed in from teachers and other unionists throughout the state. Many joined the local’s members on the picket line or donated money and food.
In March, AFT vice president David Hecker presented a $30,000 check to the striking local on behalf of the AFT. “It’s hard to convey the depth of [the local’s] appreciation” for the AFT’s contribution, said Hecker, who is president of the Michigan Federation of Teachers & School Related Personnel.
“Members of the [Crosby-Ironton] local need to know they have our appreciation as well—because while they are the ones doing battle, they are fighting for everyone, and we’re all going to benefit when they win that fight,” Hecker said after he presented the check.
The Crosby-Ironton local also received a joint message of support from AFT president Edward J. McElroy and NEA president Reg Weaver. Education Minnesota is a joint AFT-NEA state affiliate.
N.M. Kindergarten-Plus pilot earns high marks
It started as a straightforward, almost intuitive approach to helping students at risk of academic failure because they lack the advantages their more affluent peers enjoy. Why not give these students additional instructional days in the summers before and after the regular kindergarten year as a way of heading off problems down the road?
Now, the first evaluation of the only Kindergarten-Plus program in the country is in, and it shows that the extra school time helps children flourish both socially and academically, and it increases parents’ involvement in their children’s education. The study examined the New Mexico Kindergarten-Plus program, which began in 2003 as a three-year pilot project administered in four school districts. The New Mexico Office of Education Accountability found that the student population supported by Kindergarten-Plus showed promising trends in literacy skills, particularly in letter naming and word sound fluency; and in some instances, fewer students were classified as having delayed skills. State evaluators also found greater social maturity and increased parental involvement in the Kindergarten-Plus group.
“Study after study shows that many low-income students start school at a disadvantage to their peers,” says AFT executive vice president Antonia Cortese. Former AFT president Sandra Feldman proposed this concept about three years ago, and “this report is the first step in providing proof that Kindergarten-Plus can be an effective way to close the achievement gap,” says Cortese.
States considering Kindergarten-Plus programs include Connecticut, Louisiana, Rhode Island, Texas and Virginia.
“We hope those states will look closely at the data in this report, and create well-conceived Kindergarten-Plus programs of their own—taking into account the recommendations, lessons learned and places for improvement in the New Mexico program,” says Cortese.
The benefits of Kindergarten-Plus are seen daily by Miriam Martinez, a kindergarten teacher at Los Padillas Elementary School in Albuquerque. “Kindergarten is usually the first time [the children] meet with formal education; just in terms of socialization, those extra days are very important,” says Martinez, who is also a vice president of the Albuquerque Teachers Federation. She also has seen literacy skills improve among her students. School often is the only place where many of them are exposed to the printed word.
UFT to open first of two charter schools this fall
When New York City’s public schools reopen in September, one of the most closely watched schools will be the former Intermediate School 292 in Brooklyn. The building, which ultimately will serve students in grades K-5, will house the first charter school to be sponsored by the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) in the nation’s largest district.
As UFT president and AFT vice president Randi Weingarten puts it, the union’s move into charter school management is an effort “to reclaim the original purpose of charter schools.” Former AFT president Albert Shanker is credited with originating the idea of innovative schools run by groups of teachers freed from many administrative regulations in return for providing a top-notch education. That simple concept has been distorted by a charter movement marked by for-profit motives, efforts to weaken unions and lack of accountability.
The UFT plans to open two schools—the first two grades of a K-5 school this fall and a 6-12 school at a separate site in fall 2006. A union charter school task force spent months studying the issue, and the UFT delegate assembly in February overwhelmingly approved the task force’s recommendation for the two charters. “We have the expertise, we have the intelligence, we have the experience to be able to do what works for children,” says UFT vice president Michelle Bodden, who served on the task force.
That focus on “what works” will guide the schools’ curriculum, which will center on research-backed programs in literacy and math. Class sizes will be limited to 25 in the early grades. The schools also will house after-school programs connected to what students learn during the school day.
Rather than a traditional principal, the schools will have a “school leader” chosen in part for his or her collaborative style, as well as a board of trustees composed of school-based staff, UFT staff, parents and students at the secondary school. Teachers, of course, will be members of the union and will be covered by the UFT contract, in contrast with many charters where staff are not unionized.
“Given a level playing field,” Weingarten says, “we welcome the chance to show what teachers and this union can do.”
