President’s Report to the Representative Council, January 7, 2008

President’s Report to Rep Council

January 7, 2008

Welcome to a New Year and new challenges as we prepare to begin contract negotiations again. Next week on January 14^th Mayor Dellums will give his first “state of the city” address. He will most likely call on all of us, as he has so often, to think of solutions that fit the size of the problem and not limit ourselves to what is. In that spirit, I offer these remarks on the state of our union as we enter 2008.

Sunshine Proposal for Bargaining a New Contract

Public education continues to be under attack from those who seek to privatize it. And although the defeat of the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind was a victory given the unacceptable content of the draft revision, this is not time for complacency. Similarly, although we have regained some measure of local control, what that will mean in practice remains to be seen. OEA and community pressure played a role in keeping Burckhalter and Sankofa schools open, despite the District’s attempts to close them. And we have the School Board’s verbal support in making sure that ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) officers are not allowed on school campuses again, as they were at Melrose recently. But clearly we need to keep the pressure on.

It is in this context that we are preparing to release our sunshine proposal for a new contract. Ours is a bold proposal, set firmly in our OEA vision, “Create Success!” It is not a proposal that seeks to limit our vision to what can be, but rises above that to what must be, in order to create the conditions for success for our students, and recruit, train and retain excellent teachers who view education as a craft rather than a script and a long-term vocation rather than an entry-level job into the business world.

Our decision to propose what many will call “unrealistic” if not “impossible” is born from the belief that to do otherwise is to continue to sell our students and our members short. We want the state, who still holds financial control over the district, to be forced to say publicly to our members and to the community – “No, we can’t afford to provide what we know (and research shows) is necessary to guarantee an excellent public education for allour students. We can’t afford your demands for lower class size, especially in schools with the greatest need.” We want Jack O’Connell and his wealthy patron Eli Broad to be forced to say, “No, we cannot afford your demands, even though we live in one of the wealthiest economies in the world, and your biggest corporations and Port pay next to nothing to support this most fundamental democratic right, the right to a quality education.”

We are setting ourselves squarely in opposition to those who would “reform” public education by killing it through high stakes testing, punitive sanctions, narrowed curriculum and slavish adherence to arbitrary standards. In contrast, we are standing up for academic freedom, relevant curriculum, authentic measures of learning, and genuine respect for educators through increased compensation and fully paid health premiums. This is not just a battle for a better contract; it is a fight to defend quality education as a civil right. But publicizing our demands alone will get us nowhere, as just as those demands may be. We need to seek out our natural allies in the community and educate them about what we know to be true – that NCLB’s high stakes testing is short-changing their children and robbing them of the kind of broad education they need to be critical, thinking citizens.

Bargaining Health Care through the Health Benefits Improvement Committee

Part of our necessary alliance with the community will continue to grow if we take the unprecedented step of bargaining collectively with the other OUSD unions around health care. Of course there are risks, and there are no guarantees. But our entire sunshine proposal is a risk – our only hope of being “David” to the state’s “Goliath” on any of our demands will depend on the strength we can build within our membership and with the broader community. Barack Obama’s upheaval in the Iowa caucuses last week is a good illustration of what can happen when the choice is made to disregard the voices preaching caution and fear of the unknown. We have the option of stepping into uncharted territory and bargaining with our fellow OUSD brothers and sisters, or we can choose to go it alone, thereby risking the fragile alliances being built. As your President, I have weighed both sides of the health care debate, and talked to hundreds of teachers. In the long run, there’s no doubt that we must continue fighting to secure universal health care coverage. In the meanwhile, I remain convinced that our best hope for winning the best possible health care package – and overall contract – lies in bargaining health care through HBIC with the other unions.

Hold These Dates!

January 17^th (Thursday) at 4:00 pm: Press Conference on the steps of Castlemont High School to present our Sunshine Proposal.

January 30^th (Wednesday) at 4:30 pm: Meet at the School Board to present our Sunshine Proposal.

Measure G:

As you know, your Executive Board voted to endorse Measure G, which will make the $195 parcel tax currently known as Measure E permanent. Along with Mayor Dellums, I am one of five signatories on the voter’s guide, and have been meeting regularly with the Measure G Committee. In your packet is a flyer put out by the campaign, containing talking points for use in talking to voters. We are on a very short timeline here as Measure G will appear on the February 5^th ballot. The Campaign Committee is focusing on distributing lawn signs, targeting voters with an automated call and several mail pieces, and putting a banner at 51^st and Telegraph. OEA has been asked to help with the following:

1.      Distribute yard signs through school sites and PTA’s

2.      Distribute yard signs in neighborhoods

Please sign up if you are able to help. There are yard signs available tonight, along with yard sign scripts and instructions.

Mayor’s Task Force on School Finance

Ward and I have been meeting with this task force for the last few months. The focus is on looking at ways to increase funding for schools. We are presenting a draft of our initial ideas to the Mayor for (hopefully) inclusion in his State of the City address. At OEA’s urging, these include looking at ways in which the Port of Oakland and other large corporations and developers can be made to pay their fair share.

In unity,

Betty Olson-Jones, OEA President