Tipp City Educators Vote To Form A Union

COLUMBUS – March 18, 2015 – On Wednesday March 18, educators in the Tipp City School District voted overwhelmingly to establish the Tipp City Education Association (TCEA) and to become members of the Ohio Education Association. The elections were conducted through the State Employee Relations Board (SERB).

The Tipp City School District, which has been rated “Excellent” on the state report card for the last seven years, has seen an alarming number of educators leave their jobs due, in part, to non-competitive wages. Teachers recognize that by having a unified voice they will be able to stabilize their workforce and allow dedicated professionals to maintain the high quality education of students in the Tipp City Schools.

“As one of many dedicated employees of Tipp City Schools for more 20 years, my colleagues and I work hard to develop and maintain our tradition of excellence. We highly value a stable and productive work environment that promotes the quality education that our kids deserve,” said veteran teacher and TCEA spokesperson Joe Bellas. “The members of TCEA look forward to collaborating with the district to enhance the stability, responsibility, and integrity of our schools.”

“We welcome the Tipp City educators to our union” says Becky Higgins, OEA president, “Their determination to sustain the excellent education being provided to students in Tipp City is commendable. We look forward to standing with them as they seek to become even stronger advocates for their students.”

The new union is comprised of classroom teachers, reading specialists, counselors, librarians, school psychologists, nurses, tutors, speech pathologists, and intervention specialists,. TCEA joins more than 121,000 teachers, faculty members and support professionals who are currently part of OEA.

Join the conversation @OhioEA and Like Us at OhioEducationAssociation

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The Ohio Education Association (ohea.org) represents 121,000 teachers, faculty members and support professionals in Ohio’s public schools, colleges and universities.

CONTACT: Michele Prater
614-227-3071; cell 614-378-0469, praterm@ohea.org

COLUMBUS – March 10, 2015 – Ohio Education Association (OEA) President Becky Higgins today urged members of the Ohio Senate Education Committee to reduce the amount of time being spent preparing for and taking tests, and to extend to 3 years a moratorium on high-stakes decisions based on student test scores. Read her complete testimony.

Higgins said current testing measures are flawed. “Teachers are beyond frustrated with the increasing amount of time spent on testing and the way it has crowded out time needed to teach and engage students in dynamic ways. They tell me about the anxiety felt by their students and the growing number of parents who are considering having their children ‘opt out’ of tests. There is a fundamental imbalance that needs to be corrected.”

In her testimony, Higgins proposed four steps that policymakers could take to bring about much-needed change:

“First, reduce the amount of time spent on testing,” said Higgins. “There is too much time devoted to testing. It’s crowding out time for teaching and learning, limiting student engagement and narrowing our curriculum. The disproportionate time spent on testing is being felt by students, parents and educators. It’s time to focus more clearly on our students and their needs.”

“Second, address problems with the tests. The transition to the new tests, including PARCC, is producing mixed results at best,” said Higgins. “A myriad of issues have been raised including technology, lack of timely guidance, tests not properly aligned to standards, age appropriateness of tests, insufficient accommodations for special education students and a lack of timely results from the assessment. These problems must be fixed.”

“Third, use the data appropriately to focus on helping students. Timely data from testing should be used to inform instruction, advance student learning and promote the growth of educators in their practice. It is not appropriate to tie high-stakes decisions to testing results,” testified Higgins.

“And finally, allow time to get implementation right. As Ohio makes the transition to new standards and assessments, there needs to be sufficient time to make adjustments. OEA renews its call for policy makers to hit the pause button and extend to 3 years a moratorium on the use of student test scores in measuring student growth, evaluating teacher performance and any adverse consequence on local schools,” said Higgins.

“OEA believes it is important to limit both the time spent on testing and the use of test results to make high-stakes decisions. The current fixation with testing is sucking the oxygen out of our education system. Students, parents and educators are saying enough is enough,” said Higgins.

Join the conversation @OhioEA and Like Us at OhioEducationAssociation

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The Ohio Education Association (ohea.org) represents 121,000 teachers, faculty members and support professionals in Ohio’s public schools, colleges and universities.

CONTACT: Michele Prater
614-227-3071; cell 614-378-0469, praterm@ohea.org

Franklinton Preparatory Academy Teachers Join State’s Largest Educators Union In Historic Vote

COLUMBUS – March 5, 2015 – Teachers at Franklinton Preparatory Academy, a Columbus charter school, voted today to form a union in an election overseen by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The victory is contingent on the outcome of NLRB hearings on several uncounted ballots, but the union is confident that the ballots were cast by ineligible voters (including managers) and the result will stand. The new union, the Franklinton Preparatory Academy Educators Association (FPAEA), will be affiliated with the Ohio Education Association, the state’s largest union of education professionals. When the union is certified, Franklinton Preparatory Academy teachers will become the first educators at a start-up charter school in Ohio to officially join a union.

“We are excited to get to the bargaining table and begin negotiations toward a first union contract,” said Ryan Marchese, a technology teacher at the school and member of the FPAEA organizing committee. “By gaining a strong collective voice, we are furthering our school’s mission of providing the best education possible for all students.”

The decisive vote to organize comes despite an active effort to dissuade the staff from forming a union. This included numerous anti-union memos to staff, and one-on-one meetings in which teachers were discouraged from joining the union. Nonetheless, the teachers look forward to addressing concerns such as a comprehensive student accountability policy, resources for students, and professional respect as educators.

“We welcome the Franklinton Preparatory Academy staff to our union,” says Becky Higgins, OEA president. “We look forward to standing with them as they build a mutually respectful relationship with administrators and work towards a strong first contract.”

Join the conversation @OhioEA and Like Us at OhioEducationAssociation

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The Ohio Education Association (ohea.org) represents 121,000 teachers, faculty members and support professionals in Ohio’s public schools, colleges and universities.

CONTACT: Michele Prater
614-227-3071; cell 614-378-0469, praterm@ohea.org

COLUMBUS – February 18, 2015 – Ohio Education Association (OEA) President Becky Higgins today urged members of the Ohio House Education Committee to adopt provisions that would close persistently failing charter schools and to revise the way in which charter schools are funded so that local public schools are not disadvantaged. In her testimony on House Bill 2, Higgins called HB 2 a good foundation upon which more comprehensive charter school reform should be built. A complete copy of her testimony is attached.

Higgins said Ohio’s current charter school law does too little to ensure good choices. “The result is that real choice is too often the exception, not the rule,” said Higgins. “Too many students are going to charter schools that do not perform as well their local public school.”

OEA agrees with StudentsFirst Ohio Executive Director Greg Harris, who told the Columbus Dispatch, “We think a lot of them (charters) need to be closed, because they’re not doing a good job. We think charters have a role in the education base, but we also think most of the charters in Ohio stink…..”

Higgins offered three principles, in her testimony, that OEA believes should be part of comprehensive charter school reform.

“First, accelerate the process for closing failing charter schools. Many charter schools have been persistently underperforming for years,” said Higgins. “We urge you to adopt provisions that would shut down failing charters more quickly.”

She cited research at Stanford University showing that charters that fail after 3 years will almost always fail.

“Second, ensure that charter schools are subject to the same public records laws and financial transparency standards as any other public entity,” Higgins testified. “We urge you to make charter schools, their sponsors and operators subject to the same public records, meeting and financial inspection requirements as any other public entity.”

She noted that for too long, the public has not been able to see many of the financial dealings of charters, their sponsors and operators.

“Third, fund charter schools in a way that doesn’t penalize local public schools,” said Higgins. “We urge you to find ways in which to fund charter schools so that children in local public schools aren’t deprived of needed resources.”

She noted several ways this can be done, such as having the state directly fund charters or limiting the money taken from local districts to the amount of the state’s per-pupil share. Under the current system, said Higgins, “too much money is going to poor performing charters at the expense of kids in local public schools.”

Join the conversation @OhioEA and Like Us at OhioEducationAssociation

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The Ohio Education Association (ohea.org) represents 121,000 teachers, faculty members and support professionals in Ohio’s public schools, colleges and universities.

CONTACT: Michele Prater
614-227-3071; cell 614-378-0469, praterm@ohea.org

COLUMBUS – February 12, 2015 – The following statement is attributed to Becky Higgins, president of the Ohio Education Association:

“As Ohio gets ready to implement the new Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) tests, a school superintendent recently told the Senate Education Committee what has been apparent to OEA members for some time – ‘Ohio is not yet ready for it.’ Matthew Miller, superintendent of the Mentor Schools in Lake County, described ‘fatal errors’ in the practice run of the PARCC assessments recently conducted at the Mentor Schools.

He said numerous students were booted off the system and ‘could not resume even after refreshing teacher screens.’ He also described bugs in the system that prevented students from submitting their answers even after responding to all the questions. Superintendent Miller told the Committee that if Mentor is having a problem with PARCC – with its ‘robust technology infrastructure’ – then “the rest of Ohio’s schools will be having issues as well.”

Other superintendents pointed to what teachers all across the state have been saying – the ‘lack of timely and firmly established guidance’ from the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) in helping districts to get ready for the PARCC exams. Several superintendents agreed with another issue for which OEA has been advocating. It was articulated by Sue Lang, the superintendent of the Wyoming City School District in Hamilton County, who urged the Committee to ‘consider this year as a PARCC transitional year……do not count the PARCC on the state report cards and do not count scores against teachers and students.’

Well before this year’s implementation of PARCC, OEA has been urging state lawmakers to go beyond the ‘safe harbor’ provisions that were signed into law last year that placed a one-year hold on high-stakes decisions based on test scores. It is increasingly clear that ‘safe harbor’ protections must be extended beyond the current school year and should also be granted to students.

The urgency of addressing the problems associated with PARCC is also part and parcel of the need to do something about the overall excessive use of testing in our schools. More and more superintendents are echoing what professional educators in Ohio have been saying for some time – allow more instructional time, and less testing, to drive student achievement. The longer it takes for lawmakers to address the testing issue, the greater the likelihood is that more parents will choose to have their children ‘opt out’ of some of these tests.

The growing number of ‘opt-outs’ puts educators in an untenable situation. Not only could educators see their own evaluations adversely impacted by high-performing students who chose not to take a test, the results of which are a factor in measuring teacher performance, but as the Avon Lake Superintendent told the Senate Education Committee, he doesn’t want to have teachers placed in a position of lying to parents that all this is workable.

Changing the way students are tested and teachers are evaluated in Ohio cannot happen soon enough. OEA will continue to push hard for that to happen.”

Join the conversation @OhioEA and Like Us at OhioEducationAssociation

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The Ohio Education Association (ohea.org) represents 121,000 teachers, faculty members and support professionals in Ohio’s public schools, colleges and universities.

CONTACT: Michele Prater
614-227-3071; cell 614-378-0469, praterm@ohea.org

COLUMBUS – February 11, 2015 – The following statement is attributed to Becky Higgins, president of the Ohio Education Association:

“Any effort to increase funding to Ohio’s schools is a welcome development. However, like many lawmakers, we have questions about the basis for determining which districts are ‘needy’ and which districts have the ‘capacity’ to generate more local revenues for their schools. Under this plan, more than half of the school districts would receive less funding than in the previous budget. Additionally, money will continue to flow to charter schools at the expense of local school districts. A recent study estimated that one third of the school districts slated to receive an increase in state funding will see that funding wiped out because of the way the state funds charter schools.

All of this comes at a time when state revenues are growing. This is an occasion to make investments in Ohio’s future, and what could be a better investment than doing more for our students and schools?

As budget deliberations begin, legislators from both sides of the aisle are expressing concerns. These concerns include changes to the state funding formula, a reduction in tangible personal property payments to districts, and changes in transportation funding. We share the difficulty many are having in understanding why seemingly similar districts are treated differently and why the funding for so many struggling school districts is being cut. At this time there are more questions than answers.

OEA is committed to the principle that all children should receive high-quality educational opportunities regardless of where they live. This cannot happen without a school funding formula that provides adequate resources. Ohio’s constitution makes it clear that the state has a responsibility to make sure our schools are adequately funded. We call on the governor and members of the legislature to pass a budget that fulfills this constitutional obligation. Furthermore, we urge elected officials to recognize the opportunity we currently have to strengthen our economy and secure our future by investing more in our children and their education.”

Join the conversation @OhioEA and Like Us at OhioEducationAssociation

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The Ohio Education Association (ohea.org) represents 121,000 teachers, faculty members and support professionals in Ohio’s public schools, colleges and universities.

CONTACT: Michele Prater
614-227-3071; cell 614-378-0469, praterm@ohea.org

COLUMBUS – January 22, 2015 – Educators and staff at the Franklinton Preparatory Academy (FPA) today informed management of their collective and historic decision to form their own union. The Franklinton Preparatory Academy Educators Association (FPAEA) would be the first union at a central Ohio charter school and will be affiliated with the 121,000 members of the Ohio Education Association. The group will file authorization cards with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on behalf of the overwhelming majority of educators and non-management staff at the school. This triggers an NLRB-supervised election to certify FPAEA as the exclusive bargaining representative, which should take place within 42 days.

The decision of educators and staff to seek representation was inspired by the mission of the Franklinton Preparatory Academy, namely the “premise that all students, irrespective of differences, can learn at high levels and graduate from high school.” As advocates for their students and community, the aspiring FPAEA members will press for comprehensive school safety, adequate educational resources for students, and professional respect.

“Educators, whether they work in a charter or traditional public school, are thoroughly committed to the success of their students,” said Becky Higgins, president of the OEA. “We look forward to welcoming the educators and staff at the Franklinton Preparatory Academy into our union, and working with them to carry on our tradition of improving education and the lives of Ohio’s students.”

FPA educators and staff embrace the school’s mission of building “trusting relationships within and among the members of our learning community” and look forward to a mutually respectful and cooperative relationship with FPA administration as they work towards a first union contract.

Join the conversation @OhioEA and Like Us at OhioEducationAssociation

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The Ohio Education Association (ohea.org) represents 121,000 teachers, faculty members and support professionals in Ohio’s public schools, colleges and universities.

CONTACT: Michele Prater
614-227-3071; cell 614-378-0469, praterm@ohea.org

COLUMBUS – January 15, 2015 – The following statement is attributed to Becky Higgins, president of the Ohio Education Association:

“The OEA welcomes the recommendations made today by Dr. Ross, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, on how student testing can be reduced. Seeking an overall reduction of 20% is a good start. We look forward to working with legislators in achieving an appropriate level of testing.

A group of 12 OEA members from across Ohio recently met with Dr. Ross to share their classroom experiences about the impact of excessive testing on student learning. We appreciate having the opportunity to provide this input and thank Dr. Ross for extending this invitation to hear from professional educators before making his recommendations.

The challenge of reducing the number of tests being administered to students in Ohio extends beyond the state and local level. Federal lawmakers also have a role to play. As Congress begins its consideration of the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), we urge members of the House and Senate to recognize that less mandated testing frees up time and resources, creates less pressure to ‘teach to the test,’ and allows educators to focus on what is most important — instilling a love of learning in their students.”

Join the conversation @OhioEA and Like Us at OhioEducationAssociation

###

The Ohio Education Association (ohea.org) represents 121,000 teachers, faculty members and support professionals in Ohio’s public schools, colleges and universities.

CONTACT: Michele Prater
614-227-3071; cell 614-378-0469, praterm@ohea.org