Contact Us
Poway Federation of Teachers Local 2357
11031 Via Frontera, Suite A
San Diego, CA 92127
(858)674-2800
(858)674-2805 fax
 Reward Reading
with Six Flags Tickets
Six Flags and Discovery Education are excited to announce the launch of Read to Succeed 2011-2012. We share your commitment to inspiring a lifelong love of learning in students and now, K-6 students who complete six hours of recreational reading can earn a free Six Flags ticket. Best of all, teachers win too!
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Photo by Sam Hodgson |
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VOICE OF SAN DIEGO ARTICLE
by Andrew Donohue
When Candy Smiley talks about the school district, the pronoun she uses subtly belies the unique lesson Poway has to teach.
"We," she says over and over again.
"We didn't spend the $6 million from the feds. We can't control the state budget," she says. "When we got the money, we could've hired teachers. We decided collectively not to, that we would save it so that we could ensure that teacher salaries would return."
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Smiley leads the union for teachers at Poway Unified School District. Further south, things aren't so friendly. The San Diego Unified School District has repeatedly made end-of-days financial warnings, only to find a way to put off painful cuts at the last second. Meanwhile, union leaders have engaged in a full-throated campaign to discredit the district's numbers and the people that produce them. Nobody trusts the numbers; nobody trusts each other.
Things used to be like this in Poway, too. Read more
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Take the Sting Out of Education |
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Governor pulls old petition from streets |
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April 5, 2012—The coalition behind the Millionaires Tax and the Governor merged our two initiatives into one progressive tax initiative last month. When that occurred, because of financial and logistical burdens, the Millionaires Tax coalition agreed to pull our signature gatherers from the street and put our effort into the new merged initiative. The Governor wasn't certain of the tight time-lines and the potential high benchmark of 1,250,000 signatures within 8 weeks, so he maintained his signature effort on his old initiative as a backup.
Over the last two weeks, the new merged coalition has gained enough financial and political support and a large enough number of signatures have been collected that the Governor has decided to pull his original petition from the streets.
While we believed that the Governor planned to live up to his word to support the merged initiative (the Progressive Tax), this demonstrates in action his true commitment and we applaud him.
All CFT offices have petitions for locals to gather signatures. You should turn them back in to your locals or to your CFT field reps. You can also download the petition (here) and mail the completed ones directly to our Alameda office: CFT, 1201 Marina Village Parkway, Suite 115, Alameda, CA 94501.
The deadline for all volunteer petition signatures, due to a CFT office, is no later than April 23.
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Framing Our Message ~ Our Voice |
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PFT Representive Meeting with Bruce Dickinson, Co-Director of Southwest TURN
February 2012
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Framing Our Message ~ Our Voice
We agree with our SW TURN (Southwest Teacher Union Reform Network) colleagues, “We have come to realize that politicians and the business community have controlled efforts around recent school reform. Educators it seems, if not silent, have been reluctant to engage in a very public dialogue.
We also realized that our communications to date have been insufficient in building the support necessary to implement our ideas around school reform. Not only has the quantity been insufficient but the quality has been lacking. We need a new strategy for communicating (framing our message) if we are to be successful. We must learn these new strategies if we are going to impact policy-makers.”
What is framing? Read more |
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| Candy Smiley |
January 2012
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TENURE: IS IT NECESSARY?
Recently 631 teachers responded to the PFT survey, “Our Voice – Our Message.” Teachers were incredibly thoughtful with their responses. Thank you! The PFT Rep Council received a copy of the survey results January 12th, allowing time for analysis (“think-time”) prior to our work February 16th where we will be working with retired Executive Director of the Denver Teachers Association, Bruce Dickinson around Framing Our Message (beliefs and values around teacher effectiveness).
Read more...
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A Win for Workers, and for Us All |
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by Randi Weingarten
President, American Federation of Teachers
"As Ohio goes, so goes the nation" has taken on new meaning after this week's election. The people of Ohio used their citizen veto decisively to repeal legislation that would have stripped police officers, teachers, firefighters and other public workers of their right to bargain collectively.
It is the first time in the nation's history that collective bargaining rights have been upheld on a statewide ballot. And it is a clear sign that Americans understand we can't rebuild the economy without rebuilding the middle class.
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The opposition to the legislation's partisan overreach went well beyond public employees and union members. More people voted to repeal Senate Bill 5 in November 2011 than voted to elect John Kasich governor a year earlier. That message should not be lost on the legislators who voted to pass it.
Read more... |
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AFT Praises President Obama's Bold Jobs Plan
President Obama's bold plan— the American Jobs Act —is the right antidote to help solve our persistent economic problems, AFT president Randi Weingarten says.
"The president wisely decided to invest in jobs and programs that will rebuild our nation to meet its promise and potential," Weingarten says. "Congress must pass this jobs package immediately so that students will have the teachers they need and fewer rundown schools; drivers will have better roads and bridges; and Americans will have better opportunities to get and keep good jobs, and have more money in their pockets.
"Tonight, President Obama made clear that we can and must do better. This package will help provide good jobs that support families; public services that build communities; and resources for schools to provide students a high-quality and robust education in safe and healthy buildings.
"President Obama also made it clear that the path to our future is through education. We have seen a loss of 300,000 education jobs since 2008 as well as long-delayed school repairs and modernization projects. We can't equip our kids for the knowledge economy if we continue to slash education budgets. This robust plan will put people to work teaching and modernizing schools, and it will save money in energy costs that can be reinvested in education.
"This White House understands that teachers should be in their classrooms, not on the unemployment lines. First lady Michelle Obama honored all teachers tonight by inviting Nicole Gentile—a third-grade teacher who is one of 344 Cleveland teachers slated to be laid off for this school year—to join her for the speech.
"Closing corporate tax loopholes and asking the wealthiest to pay their fair share round out a smart, practical package that will put the United States back on track. President Obama is leading on this issue, and we hope Congress steps up and passes the jobs package swiftly." [AFT press release]
September 8, 2011
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5 myths about teachers that are distracting policymakers |
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Myth #1: Teacher preparation matters little for student achievement.
Myth #2: Teaching experience matters little for student achievement.
Myth #3: Removing incompetent teachers will fix our schools.
Myth #4: Teacher tenure rules make it impossible to get rid of poor teachers.
Myth #5: Merit pay will motivate teachers to teach more effectively.
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