The plan includes creation and assimilation of additional charter schools, closing or reconstitution of failing schools and flexible business practices that would give administrators the authority to override policies mutually negotiated over many years.

Gov. Kasich asked the State Board of Education to support the Cleveland Plan. We don’t know what the official language will look like, but it won’t be good. The plan will:

* Allow the Cleveland district to share money with charter schools
* Create a new teacher evaluation system that considers additional factors and weakens seniority
* Start the collective bargaining agreement from scratch
* Allow administrators more flexibility and independence to deal with staffing and financial matters, including determining contract duration, terms and non-renewal criteria

CEA President Rhonda Johnson told NBC 4, “All this is a sampling of Senate Bill 5. I think the way to go about changing schools and changing the culture is working with the teachers’ union and with the teachers in the school district, not working against them.”

Melissa Cropper, President of the Ohio Federation of Teachers, told the station: “This whole idea of a fresh start contract where you just throw away the existing contract and start with whatever the administration hands to you, and say accept this or don’t, that’s Senate Bill 5 all over again.”

Cropper has said teachers want to collaborate to improve Cleveland schools, but they have been shut out, even though the Cleveland Teachers Union has been collaborating with the Cleveland schools on peer review and teacher mentoring, has deferred $25 million in pay increases and has supported the transfer of teachers and the reconstituting of schools.

Cleveland teachers already have great ideas for improving student achievement. For instance, their New Generation School would place intense focus on reading and math in third and fourth grades.

Teachers want to see their students succeed, but big business in Cleveland is holding students hostage, hoping to force teachers to do what they want or force the district into receivership, in order to take away teachers’ rights.

We need your help to fight back. Tell legislative leaders not to pass this SB 5-like plan. Instead, urge the mayor to sit down and talk with teachers, listen to their ideas about how to improve student achievement and collaborate on new ideas. Go to www.legislature.state.oh.us/search.cfm to contact your state legislators.

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We said back in 2007, when 183 Title I safety net teachers switched their focus to science and math—placing a greater burden on regular classroom teachers for specialized reading instruction—that students would suffer. Five years ago, our president, Rhonda Johnson, said, “Everyone knows that the math and science tests are essentially reading tests. Continue to provide intensive reading instruction, introduce complex vocabulary and provide intervention. The math and science scores will rise, too.”

But there is still a problem. The interview process for these positions has been centralized, and we believe this is wrong thinking. Instead of letting building interview committees work with their principals to consider the best candidates for their buildings’, our central administration is taking the process to Northgate. Afterwards, building principals will be asked for their “consideration” of finalists.

Everyone learns in Classroom Management 101 that you don’t need to keep the whole class in for recess just because a few students misbehave. Maybe we have examples of cronyism in the district, but most building administrators work well with their interview teams and select the most appropriate applicants.

Maybe it’s time for principals to organize and speak out. Although technically this new interview arrangement does not violate the CEA Agreement, we believe that it sends a negative message to principals that they don’t know how to choose the best people for their buildings.

Selection of these specialists is important, and we should not exclude building leaders and colleagues who understand what their students need. Given that academic success is directly related to reading ability and that nearly 40 percent of high school graduates do not have the sophisticated reading skills employers expect, we must be inclusive, if not for ourselves, then for future generations.

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• Property taxes remain the chief way we pay for our schools.
• Unfortunately, the amount of taxes collected for school districts does not increase when property values increase, nor do they increase to cover the rising costs of education services. It takes approval from the voters to collect taxes at a higher rate.
• More is expected of us in the classroom every year; but, without the funds, that will make these mandates impossible.

Not all the programs we cherish are funded by the state. It is up to us to maintain the high quality of art and music programs, to address classroom overcrowding and to provide additional supplies and experiences that give our kids the education that prepares them for life.

Show you care about the future: Vote YES on Issue 8 for South-Western City Schools and YES on Issue 10 for Westerville City Schools. Remember, education is the means through which our children and grandchildren (ours and our neighbors’) will grow into productive citizens.

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Respect, by Flickr user ibtrav.

CEA received a call from the news media last year about our academic progress. When we picked up the paper to look at the articles, we were pleasantly surprised. They cited Columbus’ achievements: “By disciplining itself and focusing its efforts, that city’s school district was able to improve its graduation rate from an anemic 59.9 percent in 2002–03 to 77.6 percent in 2009–10.”

The articles quoted board President Carol Perkins as saying, “We came together on goals, and everyone could see that we were not that far apart…Everyone saw the need to do it.”

That paper was not The Columbus Dispatch. It was The Buffalo News in New York.

The Buffalo News praised CEA’s partnership with the school district for helping to raise test scores and graduation rates. “One of the components of the dramatic improvement in the Columbus, Ohio, school district was its partnership with the Panasonic Foundation,” stated editorial columnists, referring to a third-party consultant brought in to help negotiate a solution to the district’s problems.

The Buffalo News quoted CEA President Rhonda Johnson commenting on the difference cooperation with the board and administration made in Columbus: “Before the Panasonic Foundation, we were killing each other.”

Our question is: Why aren’t we receiving these kudos from our own media? At every turn, they have focused on the negative. Even when we begin to make progress, reporters write that the changes are too little. We should be doing more. We spend too much money. Rarely do they look at the big picture or look behind the scenes.

The Buffalo News editorial capped a series about the Buffalo schools’ problems and praised the efforts of the Say Yes to Education Foundation, which is bringing to the district a plan to increase high school and college graduation rates. The series pointed to successes in other districts, including Columbus, and hoped for the same results.

We thank The Buffalo News. It acknowledges that our strategies are working, including “establishing a system of feeder schools (that) helps middle schools and high schools prepare for the students they will be receiving.” And “a system of ‘vision cards’ (that) not only helps the district to set goals, but to measure, monitor and adjust as needed.”

We deserve the credit. The reality is that working together—successfully—is no small feat. It took months of meetings and years of hammering on our mutual shortcomings until we found a way to agree. It’s monumental.

Columbus City is the largest school district in Ohio. We serve students from diverse economic backgrounds and from an array of personal circumstances. Our union is the largest. Yet we and the school board have achieved a unity of purpose rarely seen in districts a quarter of our size.

We commend The Buffalo News for holding us up as the model we truly are. At least someone from among the news media realizes it.

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"Gold top 10 winner" by Flickr user sam_churchill.

2011 was a year like no other; it brought us Senate Bill 5/Issue 2, a new two-year contract and much more. Here are the 10 most-read posts from the CEA blog in 2011.

10. Greg Mild, proud member of TBS

9.    Courtney Johnson, proud member of TBS

8.    A pictorial history of CEA’s 280 day fight against Senate Bill 5

7.   Make them see red

6.   SB 5 Action Resource Center

5.   Brace yourself for attacks

4.   District creating couch potatoes

3.   Speaking out against Issue 2: By Ezetta Nicole

2.  HB 191: Tourism v. Teaching

1.  Governor’s office invites Ohio teachers to a meeting and stands them up

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On the first day of testing,
my students gave to me
an unfinished TRC.

On the second day of testing,
my students gave to me
Two ScanTrons,
and an unfinished TRC.

On the third day of testing,
my students gave to me
Three flash cards,
Two ScanTrons,
and an unfinished TRC.

On the fourth day of testing,
my students gave to me
Four erasers,
Three flash cards,
Two ScanTrons,
and an unfinished TRC.

On the fifth day of testing,
my students gave to me
Five pacing guides,
Four erasers,
Three flash cards,
Two ScanTrons,
and an unfinished TRC.

On the sixth day of testing,
my students gave to me
Six PD workshops,
Five pacing guides,
Four erasers,
Three flash cards,
Two ScanTrons,
and an unfinished TRC.

On the seventh day of testing,
my students gave to me
Seven long staff meetings,
Six PD workshops,
Five pacing guides,
Four erasers,
Three flash cards,
Two ScanTrons,
and an unfinished TRC.

On the eighth day of testing,
my students gave to me
Eight encore classes,
Seven long staff meetings,
Six PD workshops,
Five pacing guides,
Four erasers,
Three flash cards,
Two ScanTrons,
and an unfinished TRC.

On the ninth day of testing,
my students gave to me
Nine urgent emails,
Eight encore classes,
Seven long staff meetings,
Six PD workshops,
Five pacing guides,
Four erasers,
Three flash cards,
Two ScanTrons,
and an unfinished TRC.

On the tenth day of testing,
my students gave to me
Ten brand new students,
Nine urgent emails,
Eight encore classes,
Seven long staff meetings,
Six PD workshops,
Five pacing guides,
Four erasers,
Three flash cards,
Two ScanTrons,
and an unfinished TRC.

On the eleventh day of testing,
my students gave to me
Eleven shortened specials,
Ten brand new students,
Nine urgent emails,
Eight encore classes,
Seven long staff meetings,
Six PD workshops,
Five pacing guides,
Four erasers,
Three flash cards,
Two ScanTrons,
and an unfinished TRC.

On the twelfth day of testing,
my students gave to me
Twelve long sleepless nights,
Eleven shortened specials,
Ten brand new students,
Nine urgent emails,
Eight encore classes,
Seven long staff meetings,
Six PD workshops,
Five pacing guides,
Four erasers,
Three flash cards,
Two ScanTrons,
and an unfinished TRC!

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"Empty Classroom" by flickr user Max Klingensmith

A bill scheduled for a hearing in this week’s House Education Committee meeting would make significant changes to Ohio school districts’ school calendars.

House Bill 191 was introduced in early April of this year by State Representatives Bill Hayes and Bill Patmon and would change the length of the school year. It would switch how the state measures the minimum amount of instructional time from days to hours, simultaneously lengthening and shortening the school year.

Currently, Ohio law requires school districts to provide 182 days of instruction to students, which equates to 910 hours for elementary students and 1,001 hours for middle and high school students. The requirements set forth in HB 191 would lengthen the school year by requiring school districts to add 50 more hours of instruction for elementary, middle and high school students.

Conversely, HB 191 would shorten the number of days in the school year by prohibiting schools from holding classes before Labor Day and requiring them to end before Memorial Day. This would increase the length of summer break and could affect students’ summer learning loss. The legislation does exempt summer school and year-round schools from the start and end requirements.

The bill could also affect how often Ohio’s traditional public school districts close for emergencies. House Bill 36, signed into law by the governor on April 6 of this year increased the number of calamity days for school districts from three to five. HB 191 was introduced the next day and proposes to completely eliminate calamity days for traditional public school districts. However, it exempts charter schools, allowing them to use “calamity hours” given to them in HB 36.

Presently, school districts that shorten their school day by up to two hours due to a late start or an early dismissal still receive credit for a full instructional day under state law. HB 191 removes this provision from the Ohio Revised Code. If a school district decided its schools should start late or dismiss early, the hours of instruction lost would not be counted towards their state-mandated minimum number of hours of instruction under this legislation.

If HB 191 were to become law, it would take effect in the 2012-2013 school year. It would not affect teacher union contracts (including the CEA Master Agreement) entered into before the bill’s effective date. However, any contracts entered into after the bill’s effective date would have to comply with its provisions.

An Ohio Legislative Service Commission fiscal analysis of the bill shows that it will not increase costs for the state, but that schools not currently meeting the bill’s requirements “will likely incur an increase in operating costs.”

So why is there a need to lengthen the summer break of Ohio’s schoolchildren despite repeated calls from educational experts to wage war on students’ summer learning loss?

In a released statement, the bill’s primary co-sponsors gave a variety of reasons for its introduction. According to the statement, the bill would help Ohio families by allowing them to “schedule school year and summer time child-care arrangements with more ease.” The longer school break would also allow families to have “a larger time frame to schedule summer vacations.”

HB 191 specifically prohibits Ohio’s school districts and community schools from holding extracurricular events on the Friday through Monday of the Labor Day weekend. Why? The ultimate reason for the expanded school break, according to the statement is to “create a broader scope of time for Ohio’s tourism, recreation and retail industries to benefit.”

Rep. Hayes has gone on record as being inspired to write the legislation by a Buckeye Lake “boat storage guy” who lamented to the lawmaker about how the school year shuts down the economy of the state.

Since its introduction on April 7, members of the Boating Associations of Ohio, the Ohio Campground Owners Association and other tourism groups have lobbied in support of the legislation. According to the Ohio Secretary of State’s Campaign Finance records, Rep. Hayes filed reports showing he received campaign contributions from the Ohio Tourism PAC as well as the Boat Ohio PAC within a month of dropping HB 191. Additionally, less than one month prior to introducing the legislation, Hayes reported receiving a campaign contribution from the Ohio Campground Owners Association PAC.

Boating Associations of Ohio Executive Director Ken Alvey affirmed the importance of HB 191 at a May legislative conference, saying:

“More and more schools have been opening up before Labor Day, which cuts into the boating season and takes away a number of recreational opportunities for families. When you think about all the vacation and tourism dollars at stake, it really is a big deal.”

Colton Henson, Hayes’ legislative aide expects the legislation to clear the House Education Committee and go to the floor of the House in early 2012. He reaffirmed the economic aspects of the bill when he was quoted in an article in the HudsonHubTimes.

“Many tourism businesses in Ohio count on summer as the time when they do almost all of their business,” said Henson. “Tourism is Ohio’s third largest industry. In this economic climate, we want to work together to promote our economy.”

HB 191 is scheduled for a hearing in the Ohio House Education Committee which meets Wednesday, Dec. 14 at 5:00 p.m. in Room 313.

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Pastor Dale B. Snyder, senior pastor of Bethel AME Church in Linden, is a third-generation social activist. He started early, talking about social justice around the dinner table and on the many fishing trips he took with his father, an African Methodist Episcopal minister, and grandfather. His older brothers were involved in black nationalist politics and issues of black identity. Conversation was always about liberation and human rights. Snyder also learned the value of organizing, when his father started a construction company rehabilitating homes, and the business grew into a unionized company focused on street and highway projects. He followed along, becoming a journeyman machine operator.

After attending business school and Ashland Theological Seminary, Snyder worked for government and private firms, and along the way, always supported union activities. He lobbied for Ohio House Bill 584, supporting set asides for minority contractors. He lobbied to include minority contractors in the construction of Linden-McKinley HS. He joined with the NAACP demanding minority contracting opportunities during Ohio State University’s building spree. Pastor Snyder has joined the city’s efforts to reduce violence among African-American youth.

During this past election campaign, Snyder rallied 96 AME churches to gather signatures against SB 5 and became Franklin County’s outreach coordinator for We Are Ohio. He also helped persuade officials to allow weekend voting before the election and brought in a record number of new voters, helping the disenfranchised gain a voice.

Priscilla R. Tyson has been focused on giving back during most of her career, always bringing her passion and talents to the task of improving the community. A business graduate of Franklin University, Tyson served as vice president of community development at National City Bank and at Grant/Riverside Methodist Hospital. She was founding executive director of City Year Columbus, providing leadership to the entire Midwest program, inspiring young people to invest in their communities and improve life for their neighbors and themselves.

Tyson served as president of the Columbus Civil Service Commission, promoting excellence in city services, and on the board of the Greater Columbus Arts Council and Greater Columbus Creative Cultural Commission, both dedicated to growing and sustaining the arts locally. Elected to Columbus City Council in 2007, Tyson has specialized in consensus building, problem solving and planning, serving on multiple committees. She wholeheartedly commits herself to making our community a better place to live.

Jimmie K. Beall, is a guidance counselor at Monroe Alternative MS. Beall has devoted a large part of her educational career to protecting human rights. She has been an active member of the CEA GLBT caucus and opened our eyes to the need for social justice for GLBT Association members and students. She conducts workshops on GLBT awareness for Columbus teachers and counselors, confronting issues of bullying and creating a safe learning environment for employees and students. Her sessions during professional development conferences are among the most popular for teachers from all backgrounds.

Beall, who is now pursing her doctorate in urban educational administration, has lived what she preaches. With a great deal of courage, she filed what would be a landmark discrimination lawsuit against the London City Board of Education. In 2006, a federal judge ruled that gay men and women are entitled to fundamental rights and protections in the workplace.

The Jan. 12 dinner at the Hyatt Regency will feature keynote speaker Rev. Jesse Jackson. While an undergraduate, Jackson became involved in the civil rights movement. In 1965, he went to Selma, Alabama, to march with Dr. King. He was in Memphis with King when the civil rights leader was assassinated on Apr. 4, 1968. In the 1980s, he became a leading national spokesman for African Americans. After being appointed special envoy to Africa, he was awarded the 2000 Presidential Medal of Freedom.

We congratulate these outstanding community members who serve as role models for us all. Come and help us honor them. Get your tickets, $30 each, now by calling CEA at 253-4731.

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We  participated in countless meetings and rallies, helped collect many of the 1.3 million petition signatures, made untold numbers of phone calls, sent thousands of email messages and knocked on many doors to help achieve the more than 2.1 million “NO” votes on Issue 2 from Ohioans on Election Day 2011.

We have preserved for posterity our members’ efforts in more than 1,500 pictures of the many events surrounding our nearly year-long fight against this unfair, unsafe legislation that threatened all Ohioans.

Click HERE to see our members united in solidarity, fighting and helping to win a victory for all Ohioans.

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CEA has been asked to recruit members to attend Tuesday’s show, which will be held at the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) Union Hall located at 379 West Broad Street. The show will air twice, from 8-9 p.m. and 11 p.m.-12 a.m.

Call CEA at 253-4731 or send an email to tellcea@ceaohio.org by noon on Monday, Nov. 7, to reserve your space in the audience of “The Ed Show.” Be at the IAFF Hall by 7 p.m. for the 8 p.m. show. Wear your red CEA Solidarity T-shirt.

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Governor,

Is it so bad to have a people committed to the value engraved in every child that ever stood in a classroom with their right hand hugging their heart?

Do our voices cause a stiff ringing in your ears? Democracy is so loud and pure.
Democracy, with it’s social equality and head held high. It is proud and you came to bring it to it’s knees.

Do we look like fools to you? Like people who will buckle and hide at the sign of an intruder?
You mistook Ohioans for cowards; Buckeyes for the silent type.

You, my dear, were wrong.

We will stand and fight and take our house back.
You cannot have our state, our classrooms, our rights!
These are our streets and this is our home.

Your need to sort, scatter and separate with classism was not hidden from us!
We are educators, with the state standards tattoos under our eyelids.
You are lacking progress and empathy.

We are nurses holding the hands of those you’ve slapped in the face with your righteousness.
Nurses who speak for babies with eyes to heaven and wonder in their minds.

We are firefighters and policeman. We are the reason your house is safe.
The strength in the middle of the night when hope brews and faith is tested.

We are a people of service, not slavery.
We will not allow your bill to turn into shackles at our ankles, clinking chains and slithering screams.

We are the Ohio Impact. We are more than you ever believed.

There will come a day. A day for us to sing and shout, united in love and self worth, united in the belief of fairness.
A day of victory, not defeat.

Will your red pen be available then? Will it be ready to strike out the 304 pages of indignation, setting on fire your lies? No? Well, let me be that good citizen and let you borrow mine.

We are that kind of people.

We, the people, forming a more perfect union, establishing justice, insuring domesting tranquility, promoting the general welfare of all and securing the blessing of liberty to each and every back you have tried to break, Do ordain this bill as Unfair, Unsafe, as your way of Hurting Us All and we will never give you our voices.

Not without a fight!

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Just remember and tell everyone: NO on Issue 2 means we DON’T want Senate Bill 5 to remain on the books. We want it repealed. We need to encourage our friends, family and associates to vote NO when they see 2. How can we do this? It’s easy:

* Ask some folks over for coffee and dessert. Tell them why a “no” vote is personally important to you. Ask them to pledge to vote NO.

* Change the greeting on your cell or home phone to a short message reflecting your voting preference on this issue, and use the phrase: ” ‘No’ means ‘no’ on Issue 2.”

* Organize a group of supporters to gather for early voting. Sit together over coffee and fill out your absentee ballots, and then submit them together.

* Get creative! Make a T-shirt or a lawn sign, or even one to hang from the front of your house.

* Don’t forget to wear red every Thursday until we defeat Senate Bill 5.

* Visit http://bit.ly/helpwao or http://www.waofriends.com to build a team and keep in touch through your account.

Need talking points? Here are some:

* Issue 2/SB 5 eliminates our right to bargain over class size, restricts our consideration of longevity and use of step increases and limits the amount of sick leave you can accumulate. It prohibits new continuing contracts, requires merit-based pay, eliminates the right to strike and caps severance pay. If parties are unable to reach agreement on a contract, the public employer can choose to implement its own best offer.

* Issue 2/SB 5 puts the safety of all our families at risk by making it illegal for nurses, teachers and emergency responders to fight for safer staffing levels, critical safety equipment and training that protects them and safeguards our communities.

* Issue 2/SB 5 hurts Ohio families and blames public employees for a mess caused by Wall Street’s greed.

The people abusing the system are not the hard-working people of Ohio. They are the politicians making a special exemption just for themselves and upper management. The real crime here is the thousands of middle-class Ohioans whose rights have been stripped away while politicians pay back corporate donors.

You don’t solve the problems facing Ohio families by attacking them and putting their safety at risk.

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CEA member Traci Arway at the Columbus taping of MSNBC's "Ed Show" earlier this fall.

Members of the Columbus Education Association have fought Senate Bill 5 (now Issue 2 on the November ballot) since it was introduced in the Ohio Senate in February of this year.

The CEA Blog is showcasing the hard work of CEA members who are leading the way to make sure Ohioans vote NO on Issue 2 and SB 5 in November.

One such CEA member is Traci Arway, an 11-year veteran of CCS. For the past seven years, Arway has taught students with multiple disabilities at Livingston ES. She and her husband, Whetstone HS Kevin Arway have two young children.

“I remember when I first heard about SB 5. I was in my living room, and got a text message from Greg Mild. He had posted something on Facebook and told me to check it out. That was when I was sense of what things were at stake and how scary it was.

Since that time, Traci has been highly involved in fighting SB 5 since February, attending countless rallies, circulated petitions and helped enter petition data at SEIU. She also marched in We Are Ohio’s “We The People Parade” to deliver more than 1.3 million signatures collected to put SB 5 on the ballot.

“The thought of Issue 2 passing makes me sick, literally,” said Arway. “I think a lot of people don’t realize how hard our profession will become for us if this we don’t get enough people to vote NO on Issue 2.”

Traci knew that because of her two young children she wouldn’t be able to participate in Issue 2 canvass activities in the fall. She refocused her anti-Issue 2 energies through We Are Ohio’s “Friends, Families and Neighbors” (FFN) campaign.

Her hard work has paid off– the campaign’s leaderboard shows that Traci is the second most active volunteer statewide using FFN.

“Friends, Families and Neighbors is a great way to get in touch with people if you aren’t able to go out and canvass or participate in phonebanking,” said Arway.

“I’m fighting because Issue 2 directly impacts everyone in my family and everyone in Ohio,” she continued. “I don’t want to wake up on November 9th and have the regret that I should have done more. We all have to do our part.”

Joining the movement to take back our schools and Ohio is just a click away. To download instructions on how to use this program, go to http://bit.ly/helpwao or go straight to http://waofriends.com to get started building your team.

If you would like to nominate a CEA member that has been working tirelessly to help get Ohioans to vote NO on Issue two, click here to fill out a nomination form!

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Help stop this campaign! Vote NO on Issue #2.

When you vote “NO,” you bring down SB 5 which does us all great harm. The law eliminates our right to bargain over class size, restricts our consideration of longevity and use of step increases and limits the amount of sick leave you can accumulate. It prohibits new continuing contracts, requires merit-based pay, eliminates the right to strike and caps severance pay. If parties are unable to reach agreement on a contract, the public employer can choose to implement its own best offer.

Ask everyone who cares about you and public education to take action. Visit www.weareohio.com and look under “events” to find a canvassing activity or rally to take part in. You can search and sort by location and date. The most effective way to answer this attack is with a massive volunteer canvass this weekend to set the record straight.

You also can create your own account on the site and use it to inform your friends and family about the damage being caused by Senate Bill 5. This detrimental law:

• Makes it easier for politicians to continue to cut public school funding, which will lead to larger class sizes and less individual attention for our students.
• Silences the voices of school nurses, teachers, bus drivers, custodians and school employees who help keep our students safe.
• Removes protections against favoritism in layoffs, transfers and other important personnel decisions. If teachers speak up against bad policies, bureaucrats could retaliate by reassigning them to other grades or buildings, thereby punishing educators and hurting students.
• Forces local school districts to base at least 50 percent of teachers’ compensation on student test scores, a method that is rejected by education experts and parents alike because it’s inaccurate, invalid and doesn’t work.
• Forces teachers to do even more standardized testing–taking the focus away from classroom learning, forcing teachers and schools to teach to the test and take a one-size-fits-all approach to student learning.

During his campaign, John Kasich said he wanted to “break the back of teachers unions”; and, as governor, he pushed Senate Bill 5 and Issue #2 to do just that. But Ohio’s educators are coming together to stand up against Issue #2. Together, we can repeal Senate Bill 5!

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CEA is proud to officially announce the unveiling of CEAmobile, our new mobile web app for Android and iPhones. Unlike mobile apps from iTunes and the Andoid store, CEAmobile is a web-based application and does not require downloading or frequent updates.

CEAmobile brings together Association publications like The Voice, the CEA Master Agreement and easily downloadable forms. An integrated CEA/CCS calendar, a list of frequently called phone numbers and a frequently asked questions list puts the power of our profession in your hands.

Go to http://bit.ly/ceamobile on your Android or iPhone to experience the power of CEAmobile. Scan the QR Code or the TagReader code with your smart phone to download the CEAmobile app.

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A critical issue each year is recesses at elementary schools. Teachers should vote on whether there will be one or two 15-minute recesses per day. This vote should take place no later than the second teacher workday of the school year.

Our last contract process determined that recesses take place midmorning and/or mid-afternoon, not adjacent to the beginning of the school day, lunch time, or end of the school day, unless the school elects to do so.

The lunch period for students is 60 minutes, and teachers must have at least one 30-minute uninterrupted lunch period. Do not give up your rights in the contract or take away the opportunity for students to have a much-needed break.

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"Vote!" by Flickr user hjl.

On Thursday, July 21, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted announced that more than 915,000 registered voters’ signatures on Senate Bill 5 referendum petitions were certified by county boards of election throughout the state. Slightly more than 231,000 valid signatures needed to be collected in order to send SB5 to the voters. We Are Ohio, the umbrella organization representing the statewide effort to overturn SB5 collected more than 1.2 million signatures in less than three months.

With slightly less than four months until the November 8 General Election, the SB5 statewide issue has a few more hurdles to clear. According to the Ohio Constitution, organizations or individuals who wish to dispute the validity of the petitions or their signatures must file a challenge with the Ohio Supreme Court. The deadline for such a challenge is Friday, Aug. 5, 105 days prior to the election. If a challenge were filed, the Ohio Supreme Court would have until Friday, Aug. 15 to sustain or overrule any  challenge(s) to the statewide referendum.

The next step is writing the argument against SB5 that will be seen by Ohio’s electorate when they vote on Senate Bill 5. The responsibility of writing the argument against Senate Bill 5 will fall on the committee that submitted the initial petitions to begin the referendum process. According to the Ohio Constitution, the argument against SB5 cannot exceed 300 words in length, and must be submitted no later than 80 days prior to the election.

The Ohio Constitution says that the individuals responsible for writing the 300 word argument in favor of SB 5 are to be picked by the Ohio General Assembly. However, since the legislature is not in session, the choice of who writes the argument in favor of SB5 goes to the governor. The Ohio Ballot Board is the body that will ultimately decide how the SB5 ballot issue will appear to Ohio voters.

The makeup of the five-member Ohio Ballot Board is prescribed by the Ohio Constitution and state law. The board is chaired by the Ohio Secretary of State, and the four remaining members are appointed by the state legislature. The constitution requires that no more than two of the ballot board members appointed by the legislature be of the same political party. The Current members of the board include Secretary of State Jon Husted, Chairperson, William N. Morgan, Vice-Chairperson, Sen. Keith Faber, Fred Strahorn and Rebeecca L. Egelhoff.

Secretary of State Husted determined earlier in June that the SB5 referendum cannot be split into multiple issues and that the SB5 referendum will appear to voters as a single item. Husted said in a July 21 press release that the board is expected to meet in early August to approve the language of the SB5 referendum issue.

In that meeting, members will determine the wording of the question that will be posed to Ohio voters. Ohio Ballot Board members could approve a question that makes a “No” vote repeal SB5. Conversely, they could also approve a question that makes a “Yes” vote repeal SB5. A full transcript each meeting of the Ohio Ballot Board is kept on the Secretary of State’s website.

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"Waiting for my committee" by Flickr user anneohirsch.

One of the platform points campaigned on by Ohio’s current governor was that he would get rid of Governor Ted Strickland’s evidence-based school funding model, passed in the 2009-20011 state budget. With Ohio the only state in the nation without a permanent school funding model, planning has begun in earnest, as the current Ohio governor hopes to present a new funding model to state legislators before the end of the calendar year.

Leading the effort to create a new school funding model is Barbara Mattei-Smith, Assistant Policy Director for Education in the governor’s office. Mattei-Smith is no stranger to state government, having worked with the state since 1995 and the Ohio Department of Education since 2005. In March of this year, Mattei-Smith assumed her current role as Assistant Policy Director for Education in the Governor’s office.

While the anatomy of the new school funding formula has yet to be determined, the governor’s spokesperson has gone on record saying the new model will be contain the “over-arching principal of driving more money into the classroom.” Mattei-Smith scheduled five meetings over a two-week period inviting teachers, superintendents and principals, but failed to include teacher-leaders from the Ohio Education Association or the Ohio Federation of Teachers until much later in the process.

The email invitation that participants received stated that Mattei-Smith wanted educators’ help to “develop the principles that will guide” the development of a new funding formula. The email went on to say that Mazzei-Smith wanted “participants to come prepared to discuss the kinds of resources they need to do their jobs and help students succeed.”

On Wednesday, July 20, CEA Vice President Sally Oldham and eight other teachers from central Ohio school districts traveled to the Eastland Career Center to attend the final meeting that was called by the Governor’s office. The teachers arrived well before the 10:30 scheduled start time and were fully prepared to discuss the types of resources they needed to help their students succeed.

Unfortunately for the students and the families that those nine teachers represented, the governor’s office wasn’t prepared to discuss anything. No representatives from the governor’s office, including Mazzei-Smith, attended the meeting. Calls made by OEA to notify the governor’s office that teachers were waiting at Eastland Career Center were not returned. All nine teachers waited patiently for more than an hour for someone from the governor’s office to arrive for the previously scheduled hour-long discussion. No one ever did.

“I was looking forward to relaying the concerns of our teachers about how a new school funding model should be created,” said CEA Vice President Sally Oldham. “We are the largest district in the state of Ohio, and we have a perspective that others don’t have. I was quite disappointed that since no one showed up from the governor’s office, I was unable share those concerns.”

Central Ohio teachers wait patiently to meet with Barbara Mattei-Smith, Assistant Policy Director for Education in the governor’s office. Image courtesy Join The Future.

07/21/11 UPDATE #1: According to the blog of a local paper, “While nearly a dozen teachers waited in a conference room at the Eastland Career Center for the governor’s representative to arrive, the aid, Barbara Mattei-Smith, apparently was waiting in a nearby classroom for the teachers.”

7/21/11 UPDATE #2: According to an article from NPR’s StateImpact, a spokesperson for the governor said that the office of Ohio’s chief executive would “try to reschedule the meeting.” The spokesperson characterized the non-meeting as a “simple scheduling snafu.” The article also said the governor’s spokesperson also described “teachers’ suspicions of an intentional snub (as) “politically motivated.”

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National Education Association Vice President Lilly Eskelsen’s rendition of “Solidarity Forever” provides the perfect soundtrack to complement the photographic record of the past five months of our shared struggle, recorded at the NYSUT and NEA RAs.

Special thanks to Lauren Michelle Kinsey for the use of her photos to document this historic period in Ohio history.

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Members of Woodcrest ES wore red on a Thursday during the 2010-2011 school year because Thursday was the day the Ohio Governor signed SB5 into law.

Since Senate Bill 5 was first introduced in February, the Columbus Education Association (CEA) has aggressively fought the legislation to curtail collective bargaining rights for Ohio school employees and other public employee union workers through member activism. Organization, communication and member outreach to colleagues, neighbors, district alumni and friends have been key to the local’s successful work on the referendum to repeal the dangerous law.

CEA President Rhonda Johnson says the local association was organized long before SB 5 and that its infrastructure was crucial in supporting CEA efforts to make sure members attended rallies and participated in circulating and signing petitions.

“We took advantage of this crisis to become even more mobilized and motivated,” she says. Rhonda notes that effective communication—through email, cell phone and text messages, the CEA blog and newsletter and Facebook—has been invaluable.

“We’re doing what OEA taught us to do—communicate seven times in seven different ways,” she explains. “And we’re always looking for the eighth way.”

Of CEA’s success, their leader says, “Our members understand the importance of repealing SB 5 and the importance of collective bargaining in promoting not only the rights of public employees, but also social justice in making sure our students are successful and have the benefit of an excellent education.”

Entering the final week of signature collecting for the SB 5 referendum, 1,547 CEA members have signed a petition that’s been returned to OEA. Leading the way in terms of signatures turned in to CEA and OEA are Courtney Johnson (442 signatures), Tracey Johnson (402 signatures) and Paula Garfield (384 signatures). These three members are 2nd, 3rd and 4th statewide in terms of overall signatures turned in to OEA.

Courtney Johnson, a teacher at Fort Hayes Metropolitan Education Center, found success collecting member signatures at the OEA, signatures of colleagues after school and even those of Columbus City School alumni. She covered her polling place on Election Day evening, canvassed her neighborhood and joined firefighters for signing events as well.

Courtney’s greatest success came from her efforts in her home county, Lawrence, where she collected more than half of her signatures.

“My mother and I staged two impromptu signings at local graduation ceremonies where we also registered 25 new voters,” Courtney says. “I also helped the Shawnee Labor Council at its drive-thru Signing on Memorial Day.”

As she continues working with the goal of reaching 500 signatures this weekend at the Pride Festival, Courtney is thankful to everyone who volunteered as a circulator and to everyone who signed. “We can win this fight only by standing together against these attacks,” she says.

Tracey Johnson, a 20-year elementary and middle school teaching veteran currently working on behalf of CEA members as a staff consultant for her local, says that as an advocate for public education and the rights of all public employees, becoming a petition circulator “was simply the right thing to do.”

She reached out to fellow parishioners, and her pastor agreed to let her use the church as an avenue for getting signatures. “My pastor signed the petition in the pulpit one Sunday, and in between services I had a large table with several petitions laid out for people to sign. I collected approximately 270 signatures that Sunday,” Tracey says. She encourages others belonging to a church, sorority/fraternity or civic organization to utilize these avenues to collect signatures.

Tracey also volunteered to go to schools throughout Columbus after work hours to collect member signatures. At large events like CEA’s Legislative Assemblies and its recent middle school conference she made sure petitions were available. She carried petitions to meetings and used Facebook as a means to communicate about SB 5.

“I had my son complete his voter registration and sign the petition on his 18th birthday and posted pics on Facebook so people could see how important this was to me,” she says.

Tracey notes that being personable is key. “I asked with a smile and I graciously thanked them for their support…these are potential voters,” she says. Her best tip: “Be out there—signers will not come to you. Go to them.”

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