The Advocate - April 25, 2016

1. President's Message: Taking Action and Making Change
2. Educators Endorse Candidates for May Election
3. Compensation Review: Deadline June 1st
4. Retroactive Credit for Master's Degree: Deadline June 1st
5. Contract Educators' Performance Evaluation
6. Let's Engage!

Over the past two months I’ve been so inspired by our colleagues around the country, taking action to defend our profession and fight for the funding all public schools deserve.

Teachers in West Virginia struck for nine days in February, winning a five percent raise for all state employees, and millions in additional school funding. Oklahoma teachers followed suit, boosting teacher pay by $6,000 and restoring millions to the education budget after striking for a week and a half. And Kentucky teachers shut down schools across the state two different times after conservative lawmakers tried to sneak through a bill that would gut their pensions.

This week, teachers in Arizona and Colorado are walking out to protest inadequate funding, and this movement keeps growing.

The Portland Association of Teachers Political Action Committee (PAT PAC) and the Oregon Education Association Political Action Committee (OEA PAC) have endorsed the following candidates for the May 2018 primary election. The PAT PAC board considers candidates’ positions on public education, their commitment to union values, their alignment to PAT strategic goals including racial equity, and their electability. We look forward to working with these candidates to improve our schools, and move our state, city, and county to better support our students and families.

On Monday, April 16^th, you should have received an email from to your PPS account from “PAT Salary Review”. If you think you might at all qualify, please fill out the link.

You do not need to email the PAT office to let us know or ask us if you should fill out the form, just go for it!

It’s also important to be aware that sending the info to PAT does not fulfill the requirement to submit your request for salary placement review to the District.

Here is the content of the email:

Contract educators in the Supervised Phase of their two-year evaluation cycle should receive a written summative evaluation report by May 1^st.  The summative evaluation should be based on evidence collected during the entire two-year evaluation cycle.  This includes formal observations (with pre- and post-observation conferences), informal observations, and other artifacts such as assessment tools, commendations, etc.  Every element of a component need not be rated, but any element that is rated must be evidenced-based and documented. 

In their April 16^th email addressing compensation review, the District also spelled out how educators can get credit for Master’s degrees earned prior to licensure. If you think you might at all qualify, please fill out the link below.

The email states:

PAT has a goal to have 1-on-1 conversations with at least 75% of our members. We know that these face-to-face conversations are key to maintaining union strength and solidarity.

PAT needs YOU to sign up to be a listener! OEA will pay for your sub, and provide training on the mechanics of how to be a listener and the technology we’re using will be provided on site.

All listening will occur on Fridays, so sign up on the PAT website!

Being a listener is a fun and easy way to be an active and involved union member. As professional educators, we know how valuable face-to-face time with other educators can be. While these conversations only last around five minutes, it provides a critical opportunity for member voices and stories to be heard and valued.