June 8 Rally - Albany

STA is renting a bus and taking the show on the road to Albany. Join your brothers and sisters from around the state and demand that we take our profession back.

Click here to find out more and sign up. (The page might load slow)

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2013-14 SCSD Information

The SCSD Board of Education has passed several resolutions in regard to the 2013-14 school year. They are listed below:

2013-14 School Calendar
2013-14 Payroll Schedule
2013-14 Unrestricted Leave of Absence
(1) Members of Unit 1 and Unit 8 (TAs Only) are eligible. (2) Those member who previously took consecutive unrestricted leave for school years 2011-12 and 2012-13 are not eligible. (3) Those members who wish to take an unrestricted leave must notify the Executive Director of Talent Management by May 31, 2013.

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Reform Agenda BOE Resolution

The STA would like to thank the SCSD Commissioners of Education for supporting a more sensible approach to standardized testing and advocating for appropriate resources. By adopting the Reform Agenda Resolution (below) they have taken a bold stand on behalf of teachers and students in the SCSD. Well done!

Full Resolution

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TIF (Teacher Incentive Fund)

The TIF Grant has been described in an email sent to Unit 1 members (classroom teachers only) via SCSD email. The infomration about the grant, the breakdown of school into specific groups, etc can all be found on the document below. Once more information is published we will link here.

TIF Summary/Breakdown

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iZone Information

In light of some persistent misinformation regarding the iZone coming from sources outside the STA, below is a list of false statements along with the truth in each example.

Fiction	Fact
Teachers working in the iZone will lose tenure.	Teachers working in the iZone retain all their tenure and due process rights under New York State Law.
Teachers working in the iZone will lose seniority.	Teachers working in the iZone retain and continue to accrue seniority in their certification area.
iZone schools are charter schools.	iZone schools are not charter schools. They are still governed by and affiliated with the SCSD.
Teachers working in the iZone are no longer members of the STA.	Teachers working in the iZone are still members of the STA and maintain their rights, benefits and salary.
Teachers in iZone schools are being forced to work there.	Teachers all have the ability to opt out of an iZone school.
Teachers working in the iZone will no longer have a grievance process.	Teachers working in the iZone still have the contractual grievance process but some articles will be grieveable to a school-based internal appeal committee.
Teachers working in the iZone are not being compensated for additional instructional and PD time.	All required work beyond the contractual day is compensated.
Once a teacher commits to working in an iZone school, they must stay there for three years.	Teachers working in the iZone will be able to opt in or out annually.
Teachers working in the iZone will not receive their contractual 2% salary increase.	Teachers working in the iZone will receive their contractual raise; the stipends and hourly wages paid for extra time and PD are additional compensation.
Teachers from schools outside the iZone will be forced to work there.	While the need for appropriate staffing ratios may necessitate the administrative transfers of some members into iZone schools, they would not be obligated to work under the iZone rules unless they agreed.

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The Secret to Fixing Bad Schools

WHAT would it really take to give students a first-rate education? Some argue that our schools are irremediably broken and that charter schools offer the only solution. The striking achievement of Union City, N.J. — bringing poor, mostly immigrant kids into the educational mainstream — argues for reinventing the public schools we have. (more)

 When Your Best Is Never Enough

I’ve worked for twenty years in a district that has a wonderful staff. There have been a few unsuitable teachers throughout the years, and the administration had no trouble identifying them and getting rid of them; a few others who just needed a bit of guidance were mentored and became better teachers. (more)

Holding Education Hostage

For weeks, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the United Federation of Teachers have been battling over the issue of teacher evaluation. Governor Andrew Cuomo set a deadline for them to reach an agreement, but they failed to do so, potentially costing the city schools hundreds of millions of dollars. The state education commissioner, John King, jumped into the fray by threatening to withhold over a billion dollars in state and federal aid if there was no settlement between the parties. Now, Governor Cuomo says that he may intervene and take charge of the stalemated negotiations. (more)

Big Surprise: Yet Another Ed Reform Turns Out to be Bogus

Do high schools with higher standards get better performance from their students? If you require everyone to take college prep classes, will more kids go to college? The San Jose school district has long been a poster child for this notion, but guess what? It turns out it was all a crock … (more)

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2011-12 State Growth Information

On November 30, teachers were given access to their growth scores through the SED portal. Teachers will only have access to their own information. SED has prepared a nine-page explanation of the growth score information available here. In order to assist you in understanding the growth score report, NYSUT has developed a two-page document which can be found here. It provides a description of the key elements of the report. Per their commitment, NYSUT has two expert consultants analyzing the technical report on SED’s growth model.

Under the new privacy law, SED is required to release aggregate data on teacher evaluations. Release of the data is being delayed by SED's efforts to ensure release of the data will not identify any individual teachers NYSUT has developed a fact sheet, which explains the requirements for the release of rating categories and composite scores to parents by school districts. It also provides information on the aggregate evaluation data to be released by SED.

The release of last year’s composite scores for those of you evaluated under APPR will be released shortly. The STA has been working with the SCSD to verify the process and ensure fairness.

Understanding Your Growth Score

APPR Privacy Law Summary

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Tripod Survey Information

Below are several links to help you better understand the Tripod Surveys that will be used in the 2012-13 APPR for Unit 1 members.

Student Survey Q & A
Practitioner Brief About Asking Students
Tripod Summary
Ensuring Accuracy
MET Project Elementary Summary
MET Project Secondary Summary

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Questions on APPR

Please forward any questions you may have about APPR to appr@syrteach.org and appr@scsd.us. We will follow up with any questions submitted with the SCSD.

2012-13 School Calendar

The Association has submitted the calendar to the Superintendent and the Board will vote on it on June 13, 2012. Below is a copy of the version of the school calendar that will be voted on as our school calendar for the upcoming school year.

2012-13 School Calendar

STA and SCSD Agree to APPR for the 2012-2013 School Year

Earlier this week the STA and the SCSD reached an agreement on teacher evaluation (APPR) for the 2012-2013 school year, meeting the July 1st deadline imposed by the state. All teachers K-12 will be covered under the agreement per New York State law.

The new evaluation system will feature several important changes:

• K-5 teachers will be evaluated using the state approved SCSD Teaching and Learning Framework rubric. The rubric was developed through a joint task force over the course of last year and is directly aligned with the common core standards. It will be evaluated this year as a potential instrument for the entire district in the future. Training on the rubric will begin in August and continue into the school year. Teachers 6-12 will continue to be evaluated using the Danielson Rubric.
  
• Local measures of student growth at the high school level will be expanded to include the five gatekeeper Regents exams (Global, Algebra, ELA, Living Environment and US History) as part of the school-wide goals. The state will no longer allow increases in promotion rates to be used as a growth measure.

• Local student growth measures for elementary and middle school teachers will still be based on school-wide student performance on state ELA and Math exams. These measures, however, will be broken out to include decreasing the number of students scoring below proficiency and increasing the number of students scoring at or above proficiency.
  
• Peer observers will be used to provide content-specific feedback as part of the professional practice portion of the evaluation. Peer observations will count for all non-tenured teachers. Tenured teachers will have the option whether or not to count the peer observation as part of their overall observation.
  
• Tripod Student Survey results will compose 10% of the professional practice portion of the evaluation system. More information about these surveys can be found at The Tripod Project and The Met Project.
  
  The STA and the SCSD will be publishing much more information about the 2012-2013 evaluation system. Please make sure that you stay up to date by reading our emails and checking our evaluation website. You can also call the office at x4526 with any questions.

STA Evaluation Information Page

SCSD Evaluation FAQ Page

NYSUT FAQ on Teacher Evaluation Settlement

Unit 1 Contract Grids

Below are the new grids for the 2011-2014 Contract Extension. Other contract information can be found on the Contracts page or more information will be posted as soon as it's available.

• 2011-12 Unit 1 Contract Salary Grid
• 2012-13 Unit 1 Contract Salary Grid
• 2013-14 Unit 1 Contract Salary Grid

There is also changes to the health insurance for the upcoming year. Use the chart below to verify the proper amount is being deducted from your paycheck.

• 2009-2014 Health Insurance Rates

 

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Don't Forget About VOTE-COPE!!! You Can Always Sign-Up!!!
Contact Nancy Juliano with any questions.

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