2010 October | American Federation of Teachers New Jersey, AFL-CIO

Program by New Jersey Union Grooms Candidates

October 29, 2010

Dominick Stampone, the mayor of Haledon, in Passaic County, who belongs to the American Federation of Teachers, said: “They talked about fund-raising, campaign finance reporting, dealing with the media, addressing a room, crafting your message, and also about the core values we believe in, like affordable health care and living wage requirements. They really covered all the bases.”

Mr. Stampone completed the program last year when he was running unsuccessfully for county freeholder.

Program by New Jersey Union Grooms Candidates
By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA, New York Times
Published: October 29, 2010

Dominick is a professor at Raritan Valley Community College and officer in the RVCC faculty local.

Donna Chiera named to panel tasked with evaluating ways to assess N.J. teachers

October 28, 2010

Donna Chiera, a special education teacher in Perth Amboy who is also executive vice president for pre-K to 12 for AFT NJ, said she asked for the post because, “If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.”
Chiera said evaluations should be tools to help teachers hone their skills. She said she believed in using multiple measures of student growth – such as reviewing classwork – and not just scores on yearly state tests. She said it’s also important to consider whether teachers have proper materials, how often students switch schools, and other variables that can affect learning, including parent engagement.

“Many teachers in the classroom are afraid this process is going to be used as a ‘getcha’ instead of as a process to truly improve teacher effectiveness,” she said, but added that she hoped to ensure it helped the profession.

From Christie names panel tasked with evaluating ways to assess N.J. teachers  at http://www.northjersey.com/news/education/102810_Christie_names_panel_tasked_with_evaluating_ways_to_evaluate_NJ_teachers.html

LESLIE BRODY

The Record,  STAFF WRITER

Englewood Charter School Teachers Unionize

October 23, 2010

Group Organizes To Preserve Quality Education Standards

EDISON…Working at a charter school in Englewood, fourth-grade teacher Janine Ellis wants to protect the engaged classroom environment and close-knit community the teachers have cultivated since the kindergarten through grade five school opened in 1998. Many of the original teachers are still on board at the school, where students receive special attention based on small class size. Ellis and her colleagues voted to form a union with the American Federation of Teachers, a decision ratified by the state Public Employees Relations Commission.

More…

Unions work their way into charter schools

October 23, 2010

BY LESLIE BRODY
The Record
STAFF WRITER

In an unusual move, teachers at Englewood on the Palisades Charter School unionized this week and so joined a national debate about how well union rules can co-exist with charter schools’ push for autonomy.

Several teachers at the cozy enclave for 200 elementary school children said they joined the American Federation of Teachers to gain a stronger voice in school policy after the charter’s board unilaterally extended the school day this fall. Their move makes them the first charter teachers in Bergen or Passaic counties to unionize, joining teachers in about one-fifth of the state’s 73 charters.

Read full article at http://www.northjersey.com/news/education/education_news/105585573_Unions_work_their_way_into_charter_schools___.html

Sound Higher Ed Policy More Than Cheap Toolbox Gimmicks

October 13, 2010

By Dierdre Glenn Paul

(A response to “It’s Time To Grant State Colleges The Same Authority As Other Public Colleges & Universities”)

With the state of New Jersey in dire financial straits, New Jersey Association of State Colleges and Universities’ CEO Darryl Greer seeks to capitalize on an opportunity to decimate collective bargaining.

Greer suggests that New Jersey’s higher education fiscal woes are inextricably linked to labor costs. Grabbing a page from Gov. Christie’s playbook, Greer would rather make higher education unions the public piñata than truthfully identify the real culprits–competing presidents amassing alarming debt for massive expansion campaigns of new buildings and satellite campuses around the globe in the hope of replacing Rutgers as the premier state university.

The nine state colleges and universities represented by Mr. Greer are in poor fiscal health because they have failed to retain their distinctive missions of providing an affordably excellent education to first generation college students and working-class New Jersey citizens.

This association that should be working to find common ground with all stakeholders and planning a viable strategic plan for higher education has instead revealed for all to see that they have no plan. Like Wall Street, they have opted to rely on the government for a bailout that will forgive years of imprudent fiscal decisions made at New Jersey taxpayers’ expense.

Unlike Greer’s management association, the American Federation of Teachers Higher Education division is working in collaboration with the Association of American University Professors to develop initiatives that will benefit students, educators and New Jersey’s working families. These reforms are not dependent upon Gov. Christie’s odd brew of flawed logic and vindictiveness that resulted in the Race to the Top debacle and, most recently, pulling the plug on the federally funded ARC tunnel project.