• Session Engages Members on Creating Community Schools
  
• Solis Pledges To Work with AFT on Top Priorities
• Strong Coalitions Seek To Improve Schools
  
• 2009 Porter Scholars Announced
  
  

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Session Engages Members on Creating Community Schools

AFT president Randi Weingarten, AFT members and their community partners got down to the nitty-gritty of learning about community schools through a wide-ranging discussion during the QuEST conference on July 14.

Weingarten led the plenary session, as the group took a new look at an old idea that began with Chicago's settlement houses in the 1890s and evolved into public schools being the hubs for a variety of social services. She urged educators to advocate for community schools so all kids can succeed.

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Randi Weingarten, center, with panelists from New York City and Cincinnati. Watch video highlights.

The discussion began with a thumbnail description of community schools by Darlene Kamine, coordinator of the Cincinnati Public Schools' Community Learning Centers. She said the centers:

• Share a vision agreed upon by civic and school officials, union leaders and community partners;
• Grow from the ground up, with buy-in from the whole community, keeping in mind that in a typical community, roughly 80 percent of residents do not have children in school;
• Become part of the established infrastructure of the community; and
• Measure results of their collaborations on children's learning and well-being.

The panelists quickly moved on to describe what a community school looks like, noting that each school draws on the unique resources in its neighborhood and serves the unique needs of its community. Kamine described a job fair held at a community school; half the parents who attended found employment.

Tiffany Braby, a United Federation of Teachers chapter leader and community school teacher at M.S. 319 in New York City, described a mobile health services unit that provides basic healthcare, saving parents trips to the doctor. "When you save a parent a day of work, that child gets to eat another day," she said.

Braby and Julie Sellers, president of the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers, described the necessity of having a full-time facilitator at the school to coordinate services. In the case of M.S. 319, that is Marinieves Alba, the school's director, who stressed the importance of helping remove barriers to learning in children's lives.

Speaking at a microphone from the crowd, UFT member Albania Sepulveda described how her school provides mammograms for mothers and English language instruction (including child care) after hours. She never knew she worked at a community school, she told the crowd. "I'm going to go back to the school and say, 'Hey, you're doing really great.' "

For details on what works in community schools and what AFT members are doing to bring this model to their districts, see the summer 2009 issue of American Educator.

Solis Pledges To Work with AFT on Top Priorities

U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis closed out the 2009 QuEST conference July 15 by praising educators for their efforts to provide opportunities to help all children reach their potential. And she pledged to work with the AFT on vital issues such as education, healthcare and workers' rights.

Solis, who grew up in a strong union household, said her teachers were key to helping her succeed in life. "I had good public school teachers who taught me I could believe in myself," she said. Instead of aspiring to be a secretary, which was a common career for women, "now I proudly say I have the title of Cabinet secretary."

"You mold the lives of so many young people and even older adults who come back into education," she told the QuEST attendees. "You help them, you push them, you motivate them to believe in themselves. That is very special."

Solis also talked about how much she already has restructured the Department of Labor in the few months she's been on the job, with a focus not only on helping get people back to work but also on protecting the rights and safety of those on the job. That includes getting out expanded unemployment benefits, boosting worker training programs, and stepping up enforcement of health and safety regulations.

"We can make strategic changes to the economy to make it work for everybody-not just the folks who work on Wall Street, but people who live on Main Street and work in our communities," she said.

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Watch highlights of Solis address

On the Employee Free Choice Act-a top priority for the labor movement-Solis said she and President Obama are strongly behind the legislation, which could help expand collective bargaining rights to more workers. She urged the AFT members, who already know the importance of strong union representation, to tell their elected leaders in Congress why passing the act is so important. "You're the best salespersons to do that with [lawmakers] who don't know what the labor movement is all about," she stressed.

In introducing Solis, AFT executive vice president Lorretta Johnson told the audience that a longtime AFT member-Democrat Judy Chu-had won a special election on July 14 to fill Solis' former seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Chu, who teaches psychology at East Los Angeles Community College, is a member of the Los Angeles College Faculty Guild.

Strong Coalitions Seek To Improve Schools

Ocynthia Williams, a parent leader with the New York City Coalition for Educational Justice, admits to having had some doubts about working with the United Federation of Teachers. She figured parents and teachers would have very different ideas as to what should be done to improve the city's public schools.

Those concerns evaporated, however, after both sides agreed to set aside their preconceived notions and get to know each other. "Once we got rid of the wall between us, and agreed not to blame each other" for the problems in our schools. "We were able to work together to develop one vision of what we can do to help our kids," says Williams, who was a presenter at the QuEST workshop titled "Community Engagement: A Must To Sustain School/District Improvement."

The session highlighted the work of community-based coalitions in New York City and New Orleans that include each city's respective AFT affiliate. United Teachers of New Orleans (UTNO) president Larry Carter said the need for forging coalitions has been heightened by the dramatic--and challenging—changes the school district has undergone since Hurricane Katrina. He outlined some of them, most notably the district's fragmentation into three separate and distinct school systems. "We realize as school employees that we can't go it alone," said Carter, pointing out that UTNO is an active member of a longstanding community coalition that includes, among others, the NAACP, ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), parents' organizations, clergy and other labor unions.

The Rev. Arthur Wadsworth Jr., who is a member of the New Orleans coalition, said the education system in the Crescent City is "still in a state of distress," adding that he is deeply concerned about the inequities that exist within and among the three school systems in New Orleans.

Wadsworth criticized state and local officials for what he called the "privatization of public education" in New Orleans. "Everybody talks about the kids, but in the city of New Orleans it's really about the money."

 

2009 Porter Scholars Announced

AFT executive vice president Lorretta Johnson announced the 2009 Robert G. Porter Scholars Program winners at the closing session on Wednesday. The winners are listed below.

4-Year Winners:

• Spreeha Debchaudhury (mother, Sudata Debchaudhury, is a member of AFT Guild, San Diego Community College (CA), local 1931)
• Jason Karelis (father, Richard Karelis, is a member of Brookhaven Memorial Hospital FHP (NY), local 5077)
• Chandan Lodha (mother, Madhu Lodha, is a member of Cabrillo College Federation of Teachers (CA), local 4400)
• Hannah Slater (mother, Laurel Slater, is a member of AFT Guild, San Diego Community College (CA), local 1931

• Barbara Andrews-Jenkins (University of Medicine & Dentistry Professionals (NJ), local 5094)
• JoAnne Cain (School District of Maple Support Staff (WI), local 4237)
• Suzanne Chaves (Red Hook Faculty Association (NY), local 2949)
• Marcia Colter (Seminole Education Association (FL), local 7457)
• David Goldberg (Bellmore Merrick United Secondary Teachers (NY), local 3043)
• Amy McLeod (Alaska Supervisory Unit, local 4900)
• Dawn Pavlu (Englewood HPAE (NJ), local 5004)
• Tiffany Smith (Franklinville Teachers Association (NY), local 3050)
• Kathleen Steele (Wayne Finger Lakes Association of School Support Personnel (NY), local 4156)

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AFT Online coverage of the QuEST 2009 conference is prepared by the AFT communications department. Photographs are by Michael Campbell. Video by Matthew Jones and Brett Sherman.