The Advocate, February 6, 2019

1. President's Message: Are Our Students Worth Four Billion Dollars?
2. Make Sure to Vote in the PAT Election!
3. Setting Overload Pay for the Spring Semester
4. Planning to Retire or Resign Before Next School Year? February 15th Stipend Deadline
5. Sick Leave Bank - Donations Still Needed!
6. Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action, February 4-8, 2019
7. Social Justice Social: Building Sanctuary, February 21st
8. Nurturing Black Children in White Spaces: February 22nd
9. Creating Pathways Towards Racial Justice: Symposium February 23rd
10. Get the Facts About PERS!
11. Music and Arts Grants Available from California Casualty

Download the PDF!

The results are in. After talking with parents, students, and educators around the state for the past year, the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Student Success just released their final report.

Four billion dollars.

That is how much money Oregon needs to invest if we want to guarantee essential educational services for our schools and all our students. In their report, the bipartisan committee outlines how they arrived at this number, and what 4 billion dollars could do for our schools. Here are just a few examples:

An email containing a link to the Voter’s Pamphlet, Candidate Statements and the electronic ballot were sent to PAT members last week.  If you have not received one, double-check your home or PPS mailboxes.  Ballots must be submitted by 5:00 p.m. on February 15, 2019, to be counted.

Our contract now has language that defines limits to class-size, teaching load, caseload, and number of unique course preparations. Article 8 in the 2016-2019 PAT Agreement:

• defines “thresholds” for teaching loads and caseloads and requires overload pay for educators who exceed the thresholds;
• requires overload pay for departmentalized 6-8, middle school, and high school full-time educators with more than three unique course preparations.

Of course, the intent was to reduce our workload, not for large numbers of educators to receive overload pay. However, holding the District accountable to paying overload pay this year is a crucial step towards securing real workload reductions in the future.

Any overload pay for second semester will be based on workload on the third Monday of February. Since that is a no-school day, we count overages on Tuesday, February 19. If you have an overage on this date, please make sure you save evidence, by taking screenshots of your class lists and/or course lists on Synergy.

We are still working to resolve disagreements with the district overload pay for first semester, and anticipate filing a number of class-action grievances.

Our contract provides a stipend to encourage employees who know they will be resigning or retiring to give notice prior to the Spring unassignment and transfer process, so educators may apply for the vacancy. This maximizes the vacancies available for educators to apply. If you notify the District in writing of your intent to resign or retire no later than February 15^th, you will receive a stipend of $700, to be paid in your final paycheck from the District. This does not apply if you are resigning in lieu of termination, non-renewal, or non-extension.

Thank you to the many members who have already donated hours this year to the Sick Leave Bank. The PAT Sick Leave Bank helps PAT members who must be absent from work due to an accident or illness, but have already exhausted their accumulated sick leave.

So far this school year, we have helped 19 colleagues who are suffering from cancer, surgeries, injuries, and other medical issues. Without a grant from the PAT Sick Leave Bank, they would have had no salary or insurance while on leave.

The Bank is funded solely by member contributions. We are 1000 hours short of the maximum 4000 hours that we can collect for this year. We already have applications that we cannot fill until we collect additional hours.

We need your help! 

You may contribute 4 – 24 hours of sick leave every year. 

Access the donation form here. Return the signed form to your PAT Building Rep or PONY to the PAT office. Thanks for your solidarity.

Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action began in Seattle, Washington at John Muir Elementary School in 2016. From there, educators in cities across the nation, began organizing a week to intentionally celebrate the lives of Black students, teachers and families. Cities including Seattle, Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, Boston, Washington D.C., Baltimore and Portland, Oregon now participate. Black Lives Matter at Schools Week of Action consists of educators teaching lessons about systemic and structural racism, intersectional Black identities and Black history.

PAT's Black Lives Matter Committee has been working to plan community events and locate curriculum resources and lesson plans for educators at all levels. Please check out the resources on our website.

If you missed participating during the week of action, don’t despair! You can celebrate Black Lives in your classroom all year long!

Friday, February 22, 4:00 PM - 6:30 PM at the PAT office 

Featuring Special Guests: Dyan Watson, Natalie Labossiere, and Kara Hinderlie Stroman.

Three Black mothers who are also educators will share their experiences about raising, educating, and supporting Black children in mostly white spaces. Through storytelling and prose, these moms will provide glimpses into the conversations they have with their own children as well as Black students in their care. Participants will leave with more understanding about the dilemmas these moms wrestle with as parent-educators and with insight into how to keep Black lives safe in schools. Participants will have time to discuss, ask questions, and plan for their own classrooms. The highly acclaimed Rethinking Schools book, Teaching for Black Lives, will be for sale at the event.

RSVP: Please let us know that you are coming by registering here

For questions, please contact Linda Christensen at [email protected]. 

Cosponsored by PAT, Rethinking Schools, and the Oregon Writing Project.

Join us for a transformative circle involving educators, parents, students, legislators, organizations representing Oregon’s communities of color, state level education partners, higher education advocates, and social justice groups from around the state. On February 23^rd the Oregon Education Association is hosting a very special convening centered on transformation, featuring students’ projects that highlight contributions to our schools and their cultural voices.