To: All 12 Month APEA Staff Members

From: John Napolitani, President

Date: July 20, 2009

Re: Summer Hours Update

In an effort to try to salvage the summer hour issue for all 12 month employees, I met last Thursday with the Acting Superintendent, BOE attorney and the Business Administrator. Since Mark Cowell wanted the secretarial unit to give back two weeks of their summer hours in return for working a four day work week, I made two (2) very modest proposals to make up for their loss. This was denied.
For the record, Mark Cowell is the same person that RIF’d fifteen (15) teachers last year. This year, along with Corey Lowell, he RIF’d another sixty two (62) staff members which included the entire cafeteria unit. Last week, he and Ms. Lowell wanted me to give away the secretarial summer hours for the last two (2) weeks of summer. And next they will decimate remaining units of the support staff along with attempting to dismantle OUR hard fought Union contract.
During negotiations, there is give and take. Not just give. Unfortunately, Cowell and Lowell have the Burger King mentality where they think they can have it their way. They are not being mindful of the fact that this is a democracy and they are both being paid very handsome salaries for their positions, even to the point where Ms. Lowell was just given a raise and added benefits to her contract less than 1 year on the job. My question to you is have you been given a raise with added benefits? The answer very simply is no.

To: All 12 Month APEA Staff Members

From: John Napolitani, President

Date: July 15, 2009

Re: Summer Hours Update

Aesop once said “Enemies promises were made to be broken.” No words spoken can describe the on again, off again, on again, and now off again summer hour fiasco that Mark Cowell began over one year ago.

Just to update you, due to an unfortunate accident that our Uniserve Representative, Tom Bohnyak, had late last week, the draft agreement was late being sent to Mark Cowell for review. During his review process, Mark, through BOE attorney, Alan Schnirman, made several additional requests of the Association. Ron Villano, our other representative, in a show of good faith, sent several letters to our attorney and Mark’s boss stating that an agreement had been made and our charges would be dropped when the agreement was signed.
For the record, the majority of the district started these new hours on Monday. As late as yesterday afternoon, Mark advised a few staff members in the Board Office that they were not to be working four (4) days, but rather five (5), due to the fact that no agreement has been signed, even though they already started these hours.
Our original agreement, at the table, was that all language was to stay in tact. Mark and Corey Lowell are demanding that the summer hours end on August 14, two weeks before school starts. This would be a loss of two (2) weeks of a benefit for the secretaries, who have had their summer hours for over three (3) decades.

Classroom Technology Allows For “Real-World” Interaction Between Students.
The Washington Post (6/24, Glod) reports, “Even as globalization has fed worries about whether U.S. students can keep up with the rest of the world, it also has spawned classroom connections across oceans.” Some teachers are using “real-world interactions” to teach “lessons once pulled mainly from textbooks.” They “see such exchanges not only as an exciting way to teach geography, history, language and science but also as a vehicle to forge connections that push children beyond cultural stereotypes.” According to the Post, “There is no way to count exactly how many U.S. schools have connected with schools outside the country.” But it is known that “teachers are signing on in record numbers to online forums designed to link students across the world through secure digital spaces.” One such forum, ePals, has “more than 600,000 educators in 200 countries” participating. ePals “matches teachers with similar interests and provides translations.”

“One of those few must-read books that appear every year in education” (Richard Allington). In Readicide classroom teacher Kelly Gallagher takes a hard look at common instructional practices that discourage students from reading, and offers specific suggestions for what schools can do to cultivate lifelong readers. Click here for details!

In the Classroom
Sacramento Public Schools See Sharp Increase In Students Getting Free, Reduced Lunch.
The Sacramento Bee (6/24, Preese) reports, “The number of Sacramento County students taking free or reduced lunch increased sharply this year, faster than any other year this decade, according to new state figures.” A little more than half of all students in the school system “now take free or reduced lunch, up from exactly 50 percent the previous year — a key indicator of increasing child poverty.”

Middle School Book Club Recognized For Getting Parents Involved.
The Tampa Tribune (6/24, Pastor) reports on Extreme Read Warrior Style, a book club at Adams Middle School that “brings students, parents, and teachers together once a year to talk about books they agreed to read together.” The club was implemented “four years ago and” recently “was singled out as one of the best ways to involve parents in the Hillsborough County school district.” This year, Extreme Read had about 150 participants. “Each group read one of five books that” media specialist Abbey Dyer “and teaching teams chose, partially based on what would be available at the school’s February Scholastic book fair.” The teams “had a month to complete the book before assembling in the Adams cafeteria” for “roundtable discussions, where they came up with four points they learned from their reading.” The club “was named as one of two outstanding parent involvement program winners” last month at the district’s All Stars of Education awards ceremony.