October 13th School Board Update from OEA

Video link part 1
Video link part 2
Video link part 3 

Public Comment

Glorietta Teacher: “worst morale for years amongst teachers” – students had art 4 x per month ,  lost ½ of art, and computer teachers and librarians. District makes the choice to limit those programs. Loss of prep time (elementary). Loss of curriculum for students taught by teachers certificated in those areas. “Less regard for teachers and time for teaching is not honored.” “Demonstrate with action and fair compensation that we (teachers) are valued.” See full comments at this link.

Glorietta Teacher: teachers work hard and long hours with enthusiasm and “smiles” for the best interest of their students – teachers help each other- put in extra hours to help students be successful. Many teachers live paycheck to paycheck. 3% last year,  but first salary scale increase in 7 years. July 1^st, 2014 medical reduction from $1185 to $915 = 20% decrease.

Charles Shannon, OEA President: SF newspaper quoted re: teacher shortage – jobs are now “less enticing” and attrition is contributing.  Requests that Trustees retain and support Orinda teachers. Here's the article.

Teacher of the Month – Lori Biddle, 5^th grade teacher at Glorietta

Classified Employee of the Month – Jennifer Coon (district office)

Kathy Marshall – Resolution 1503: Sufficient Educational Materials

Comment by Charles Shannon. Teachers continue to create transitional CC materials as materials have not been provided by the district

KM: CA state freeze on adoptions until summer 2015

Resolution 1503 adopted: unanimous

KM: School Plan to “coordinate educational plan for all schools and a blueprint” for educational improvements at each site – aligned to LCAP 

- Plans presented for Glo., DR, SH and OIS

Trustee Rossitor asked about differentiation. Principal Theurer described using assessments to group students and addressed the need for time, Principal Gallegos identified using CPT. Principal Randall identified reading grouping, conferencing, on-demands, using instructional assistant for remediation

Trustee Krompholz asked about Bay-Science use. Principal Langer described trained BaySci teachers as leaders for grade levels. KM described various cohorts.

Michael Randall: science is project based

Charles Shannon: differentiated education has created more work for teachers; a lot of demand on our time; informal assesment based on daily work, homework

Trustee Butler thanked teachers who worked on Site Plans

Adopted Site Plans: unanimous

OPEB (Other Post Retirement Benefit Liability for OUSD)

Supplemental lifetime medical benefits for all certificated and classified employees when they retire

OPEB is an expense and if not pre-funded it is referrd to as a liability.  Required by CALPERS. Current district contribution is $119 per month per employees who qualify for this supplement. 1/1/15 contribution will = $122 per month per  qualifying employees. District does not use an irrevocable trust and consequently the cost increases. Earnings from a trust fund investment may reduce future employer OPEB costs. Classified employees’ costs are higher, starting at $295.00-$1185.00. per month.

Trustee Krompholz asked how this item came to be placed on the aganda as an action item when the previous decision included info-gathering.

Trustee Butler asked from where funds for an irrevocable trust would come? Lorene Farrell identified using Fund 17. Trustee Butler asked what $ compose Fund 17. LF: legal settlement $, parcel tax money, start-up $ for WR.

Acalanes UHSD has an irrevocable trust affiliated with CALPERS and Lafayette is investigating a trust.

Trustee Rossitor stated that 83% of districts do not provide lifetime supplemental benefits.

Trustee Moran expressed concern about the growth of the liability; ”unfunded liability is unacceptable,” irrevocable trust may provide flexibility needed to fund + interest from investments; concern that the CDE will continue with “boom-bust” cycle.

Trustee Butler asked for clarity about what $ resources will be used. Trustee Moran responded that the source of funds is a “separate discussion”.

Glorietta Parent cautioned Board that they do not have enough information or analysis to currently create an irrevocable trust.

Charles Shannon OEA recommended a mutual discussion about the trust and the $ resources to fund the trsut out of conern for a hidden agenda.

Trustee Severson: will direct staff: “majority of board indicates interest in setting up an irrevocable trust. Choice of which one might be the best one and a disussion about where the funds are coming from.”

Board Policy 3513.3 Tobacco free schools

Approved unanimous

Item H: computers at WR. has two mobile carts. WRPC will pay to lease from Apple to replace old equipment.

Approved: unanimous

Terra Verde Energy Report: AC at sites will be expensive b/c electrical needs to be replaced to support AC. $1million to 1.5 million per site. Recommends AC. Suggested that solar could help offset the cost of installing AC. Although cautioning prudence,  the Trustees need to move forward in about 4-6 weeks, if OUSD wants AC in place for the 2015-16 school year. Charles Shannon and Colleen Sullivan spoke to current classroom temperatures and value of AC for students based on experience in AC’d portables and data collection re” heat in non-AC classrooms during overtly warm weather.

Ed Silvas: portables – 14 leased district portables; the cost to purchase the 14 portables and bring up to the vendor’s standard is $488,917.00. Can be paid out of developer fees.

Charles  Shannon pointed out that after four years there would be no more cost to the district and asked if there are enough developer fees to finance.

Trustee Krompholz varified that Pulte and developer fees money can be used.

District Goals – Supt:

Discussion item

Charles Shannon: Process for feedback from OEA: expected a draft of goals that could be shared with all membership. Four OEA members attended a meeting and were given a draft from the first draft (after review by Coordinating Council) at the meeting. Asked to comment on goals and not given time to even read draft. A district employee took notes and then submitted incorrect information about an OEA inquiry. OEA believes that communication needs to be attached to each goal or included as a stand-along goal.

Trustee Butler supported communication attached to every goal and reminded Board that at one time communication was a district goal.

Trustee Rossitor supported improved communication in terms of stakeholders receiving information in a timely manner that warrants thoughtful analysis.

Trustee Krompholz commented on Technology section in goals; no goal about student programs especially in reference to extensive Coordinating Council comments about technology goals.

Meeting adjourned

Why Do Teachers Quit or Stay?

By LIZ RIGGSOCT, The Atlantic

October  18, 2013

Richard Ingersoll taught high-school social studies and algebra in both public and private schools for nearly six years before leaving the profession and getting a Ph.D. in sociology.    Now a professor in the University of Pennsylvania’s education school, he’s spent his career in higher education, searching for answers to one of teaching’s most significant problems: teacher turnover.

Teaching, Ingersoll says, “was originally built as this temporary line of work for women before they got their real job—which was raising families, or temporary for men until they moved out of the classroom and became administrators. That was sort of the historical set-up.”

Ingersoll extrapolated and then later confirmed that anywhere between 40 and 50 percent of teachers will leave the classroom within their first five years (that includes the nine and a half percent that leave before the end of their first year.)    Certainly, all professions have turnover, and some shuffling out the door is good for bringing in young blood and fresh faces.    But,turnover in teaching is about four percent higher than other professions.

Approximately 15.7 percent of teachers leave their posts every year, and 40 percent of teachers who pursue undergraduate degrees in teaching never even enter the classroom at all.    With teacher effectiveness a top priority of the education reform movement, the question remains:  Why are all these teachers leaving—or not even entering the classroom in the first place?

“One of the big reasons I quit was sort of intangible,” Ingersoll says. “But it’s very real: It’s just a lack of respect,” he says. “Teachers in schools do not call the shots.   They have very little say.   They’re told what to do; it’s a very disempowered line of work.”

Other teachers—especially the younger ones—are also leaving the classroom for seemingly nebulous reasons.    I spoke with nearly a dozen public and private school teachers and former teachers around the country.   (I used pseudonyms  for the teachers throughout this piece so that they could speak freely.) Many of them cited “personal reasons,” ranging from individual stress levels to work-life balance struggles.

“We are held up to a really high standard for everything,” says Emma, a 26-year-old former teacher at a public school in Kansas who now works for a music education non-profit.   “It stems from this sense that teachers aren’t real people, and the only thing that came close to [making me stay] was the kids.”

In my interviews with teachers, the same issues continued to surface.    In theory, the classroom hours aren’t bad and the summers are free. But, many young teachers soon realize they must do overwhelming amounts of after-hours work.   They pour out emotional energy into their work, which breeds quick exhaustion.    And they experience the frustrating uphill battle that comes along with teaching—particularly in low-performing schools.

 “What people are asked to do is only the kind of thing that somebody can do for two or three years; you couldn’t sustain that level of intensity throughout a career,” said Thomas Smith, a professor at Vanderbilt University’s education school.    He was referring specifically to charter schools, but his sentiment is one that resonates with many beginning teachers in challenging schools.    “[It’s] the same way that people might think of investment banking.    It’s something that people do for a few years out of college, but if you want to have a family, or you want to have some leisure time, you know, how do you sustain that?”

Joseph is a former Advanced Placement U.S. History teacher who loved his first years in the classroom; after a couple of years, though, he came to a saddening realization about the future of his career.

“I realized that most older men I taught with eventually felt pressured to advance into higher-level administration as their careers progressed in order to better support their family,” he said.    “What many of them working in high-need schools told me, however, was that being successful at school directly conflicted with being successful husbands and fathers.    While this is certainly true of any occupation, most occupations don't leave your children asking you, ‘Why do you go to more basketball games of the kids at school than mine?’"

Pay is also an issue that came up in my interviews. A starting teacher salary in the U.S. is $35,672.

“What is expected of great teachers and the amount they are paid is shameful,” says Hayley, a former teacher from the Northwest, referring to just one factor in her decision to leave the classroom to work for an education-tech startup. “Yes, if you love something you should do it regardless of pay, but when you take into consideration the time, the effort, the emotional toll and what teachers are asked to actually do everyday, it was painfully obvious that teaching is not a sustainable job. I really wish it had been.”     Hayley taught for three years before finding herself emotionally drained, physically exhausted, and interested in pursuing a career that provided more balance and financial security.

Higher pay doesn’t necessarily lead to a better retention rate, though. “[Some] studies suggest that teachers are more interested in working at schools where the conditions of work are good rather than in getting paid more,” Smith, the Vanderbilt professor, said.    He pointed to a study by the Benwood Foundation that offered teachers in Chattanooga large bonuses to go teach in lower-performing schools.    The study found that few teachers were willing to move for this kind of offer. (In fact, according to Smith, the initiative had to be reengineered to offer bonuses to teachers already in those schools.)

With the exception of retirement, studies suggest that there are only a handful of overarching factors that push teachers out the door—family or personal reasons, other career opportunities, salary, administrative support and overall job dissatisfaction.    These are largely the same issues that arose in my interviews.     Some were wholly unhappy or drained and left in pursuit of another career completely, some wanted more money; some wanted both.

Another study done by the National Charter School Research Project suggests lack of job security is a factor in teachers’ decision to leave public charters; however, this was not a concern of any charter teacher I spoke with.    Most teachers sounded simply frustrated, overworked and underpaid—sentiments that are certainly echoed in the research.

The teacher-turnover problem has a flipside, of course: If 40 to 50 percent of teachers leave the classroom within the first five years their career, that means that 50 to 60 percent of teachers stay.    Who are they?    Where are they teaching? What is keeping them?

Becky is a retired teacher who taught for nearly 30 years in just about every capacity imaginable.  After starting in Chattanooga in a public school, she moved all over the country, teaching in Houston in a low-income school and then Chicago in a wealthy suburb before teaching at a private school in Ohio.

She loved teaching, but even in her years before retirement, she still felt the weight of the work on her constantly.

“When you’re in your early 60s and you’re still coming home with 65 hours of grading over two weeks…that’s very overwhelming. [But] I love working with teenagers. I love the relationships and I love being able to help them.”

This overwhelming desire to help students is a common thread among all the teachers I speak with.   They all cared for their students deeply, but even this couldn’t keep teachers like Hayley or Emma in the classroom.    Simply put: everything else—the workload, the emotional toll, the low pay—was just too much.

A range of factors influences teacher retention, according to Ingersoll’s research, but he tells me that the way administration deals with both students and teachers has a “huge effect” on teacher satisfaction.   He cites this as being one of the potential ways to keep teachers without spending billions of dollars increasing salaries.

“Those schools that do a far better job of managing and coping with and responding to student behavioral issues have far better teacher retention,” he says. And, in both public and private schools, “buildings in which teachers have more say—their voice counts—have distinctly better teacher retention.”

Ingersoll has also done extensive research on beginning teacher support and found that teachers who have even just two small initiatives in place (working with a mentor and having regular supportive communication with an administrator) are more likely to stay in the classroom.

Based on other education statistics, parental involvement, student achievement and the career entry point for teachers can also impact retention.    Parental engagement and high student achievement are key factors.    Where these numbers grow, teachers are more satisfied and presumably more likely to stay in the profession.   And teachers who sought teaching as their first career are more likely to stay in the classroom in comparison with teachers who entered the profession mid-career.

Regardless of why teachers stay or leave, the revolving door of teacher turnover is a problem that affects students and entire schools.    Ingersoll maintains that it doesn’t have to be a problem that continues to spiral out of control; the revolving door can be stopped.    And while there are a number of ways to fix it—from increasing salaries to mentoring young teachers—the mindset behind the solution is simple.

“Respected, well-paid lines of work do not have shortages,” Ingersoll says. He adds that he is happy with his new career, but he would still be a high school history teacher had it not been for the lack of respect and low salary he experienced. For a lot of teachers I spoke with, this seems to be the common sentiment:    If the overall attractiveness of teaching as a profession gets better, the best teachers will enter the profession, stay, and help increase the effectiveness of schools.

“To improve the quality of teaching,” Ingersoll says, you need to “improve the quality of the teaching job.” And, “If you really improve that job… you would attract good people and you would keep them.”

__._,_.___

Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) Input from Teachers

The LCAP Input from Teachers, shared through a survey, faculty room posters is summarized below. And here are the notes of what was shared by OEA leadership with OUSD leadership. Comments are enabled in the document (you have to be signed in to Google to comment and comments are then not anonymous. Anonymous comments can be made at the end of this post by clicking on the 'comments' link.) Further details about LCAP can be found by clicking the LCAP tag at the end of this post.

LCAP INPUT FROM TEACHERS

LCAP 1 - Students have access to fully credentialed teachers, instructional materials 

that align with common core standards and safe facilities

• Need common core curricular materials.

• Need district office to underwrite cost of Columbia materials such as notebooks, easel pads,

• Need fully credentialed teachers for library and for tech.

• Fix classrooms that don’t reach Cal OSHA standards for heat and cooling.

• Assess old doors and windows for security.

LCAP 2 - Support for teachers to implement Common Core in all subject areas

• Need quality CCSS training with time for planning.

• Compensate teachers to create Common Core units/lessons/activities outside of contract

• More collaboration between schools with regard to vertical spelling alignment.

• Restoration of lost prep time at elementary.

• Utilize and compensate district teachers as staff developers.

• Need math curriculum delivered and distributed well BEFORE the start of school.

• Need IEP and 504 information accessible online like Kaiser does.

• Need alternative or supplement to Columbia Reading Program.

• Revisit and refine online resources ex. Wikis

• Enable full access to online resources such as youtube, forums, etc.

• OIS needs a library assistant/clerk

• Simplify report card process and provide release time for teachers to work on them

LCAP 3 - Community involvement and participation

• Provide parent/community information and education meetings regarding the education of

Orinda’s children, provided at convenient times, locations and methods.

• More accessibility to school board members ex. ‘office hours’ as done in Berkeley USD.

• Regular community surveys.

• Have a contact parent for under represented groups ex. minorities, ESL, LGBT, Students with

• On-going and responsive communication between School Site Council and Stakeholders

LCAP 4 - Improve student achievement by multiple measures

• Retain students who need it.

• Refine the SST process to make it more efficient and ensure that there is a cut-off point by

the end of March so there is time to begin full-assessments.

• Need clear, consistent, district-wide intervention program, especially Tier II intervention, to

support students, particularly writing in lower grades and reading in upper grades with the

goal of reducing the number of students referred to special ed.

• Provide honors math at OIS and math enrichment at all elementary schools

• Resurrect practice of teachers scoring writing in common.

LCAP 5 - Student engagement and attendance

• Allow teachers to bring in curriculum projects that individualize classrooms and emphasize

strengths and passions of teachers.

• More project based learning with student choice.

• Less emphasis on required assessments.

• Need more time and support for increased cross curricular collaboration.

• Pilot smaller learning communities (ex. vertical grouping like ‘houses’) at OIS

LCAP 6 - School climate with regard to student experience measures (suspensions,

expulsions etc.)

• Regular surveys of school community with regard to climate.

• Effective anti-bullying program at OIS ex. student-driven.

• Monitor SB48 (FAIR education act) implementation in schools.

• Bring fun and creativity into classroom by increasing autonomy of teachers to decide how to

teach to agreed goals.

NOT LCAP: School climate with regard to TEACHER experience

• Parents and administrators need to show respect for teachers ex. a communication protocol,

tone of communications and some coaching for parents on this.

• Administrators need to be more aware of workload impact of changes they propose. Decision

to add needs to be a decision and not a directive.

• Minimize phone call interruptions and early release of students from class.

• Regular faculty meetings at OIS.

• Training for teachers in how to run/participate in meetings.

• Training for teachers for how to deal effectively with difficult stakeholders.

• Administrators need mediation training.

LCAP 7 – Ensure student access to classes that prepare them for college for college

and careers

• Rather than teach to the test, engage students in the love of learning.

• More public speaking and performance opportunities for students.

LCAP 8 - Other student outcomes ex. PE, and the Arts

• Restore weekly art grades 1-5 and

• Kindergarten to participate in specialist programs (Ex. art and P.E.)

• Collaboration/Cross Articulation time for specialists and teachers.

• OT training for primary teachers.

• Integrate more arts across the curriculum.