The Advocate - December 6, 2017

• Addressing School Safety
• Ways to Support Pioneer
• Become a PAT Leader, Run for Office
• Next Week is Teacher for a Day
• Vote Yes on Measure 101!
• Help PAT Engage!
• Promoting Racial Equity in PPS
• Urban Educators from Around the Country Gather in Portland
• OEA Conflict Resolution Workshop, March 3, 2018
• Promising Practices Grants
• Athletic Grants from OEA and California Casualty
• Member-to-Member Specials

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As you heard earlier this week, one of the tough topics still in front of us in bargaining is the issue of school safety.

As educators, we want our schools to be a place where students can make mistakes and be welcomed back into their classroom communities. But we know that interventions are needed for this to work, and many students will require ongoing support.

In the past week, we’ve received an overwhelming number of emails, calls, and other messages, looking for ways to support the students and staff in the Pioneer program.

One thing is clear—PAT members understand that an injury to one is an injury to all.

Are you interested in getting more involved in PAT? 

Nominations opened at the November 1^st PAT Representative Assembly (PAT RA) for several elected positions in PAT.  These positions are:  PAT President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary, PAT Executive Board Directors (5 positions), and PAT Delegates to the Oregon Education Association and National Education Association Representative Assemblies. 

On December 12^th, The PAT will hold this year’s Teacher for a Day event.  We invited community leaders from the legislature, city government, business, and the non-profit world to become “guest teachers” in our schools. 

On January 23^rd Oregon voters will participate in a special election to decide State Measure 101.  The Oregon Education Association and The PAT have joined over 90 groups, including Oregon Nurses Association, AARP, and the Oregon Medical Association in endorsing Measure 101 for a healthy Oregon.

As you may have heard, PAT is partnering with OEA and PPS to run a listening campaign called Engage!  We have an ambitious goal of listening to 75% of our members and we are off to a good start, having already visited 9 schools. 

The Racial Equity Task Force is hosting a Happy Hour/Social for PAT educators of color on Thursday, December 7^th from 4:30-6:30 PM at the PAT office: 345 NE 8^th Ave.

The Racial Equity Task Force is working on recommendations to PAT and PPS outlining how to advance racial equity in our schools. In order to better advocate for our members of color, we need to understand what issues you are facing at work. We want to hear from you!

The event is primarily our social, but please RSVP so we can tailor the event to your expectations, and order enough food.  

Our statewide organization, the Oregon Education Association, is hosting three conflict resolution workshops around the state in 2018, and the closest one in our area will be March 3, 2018 at the Clackamas Uniserv Office.

Do you have a plan that could enhance your classroom skills or boost student achievement? An idea for a site-based professional development activity that could build partnerships? OEA’s Center for Great Public Schools awards Promising Practice Grants to individual PAT members. 

There are four $500 grants available to PAT members.  To apply, please complete the short application form available online. 

The completed grant application form must be sent to [email protected]  by December 11^th.

Applications are open for athletic grants from the OEA/NEA, sponsored by California Casualty. Sign up at www.calcasathleticsgrant.com. The deadline for consideration is January 15, 2018, with 2017/2018 recipients announced in April.

Do you have a house you would like to rent?  Furniture you would like to sell? A side job you would like to promote?  Put an advertisement in our new Member Specials page on the PAT website.  Please fill out the form with all the necessary information. We look forward to providing these specials for you. Check back monthly for new specials. This is another benefit of being a PAT member!

Your PAT bargaining team met with the District until 8:00 PM tonight. 

We spent the bulk of our time reviewing each side’s proposals around workload, workday, and work year. We also touched on several other key issues such as salary, special education supports, and professional development.

Thanks to your organizing efforts, it felt like bargaining finally began today.

The two bargaining teams just ended day one of the two-day mediation session, and your Bargaining Team would like to thank all of you who had time to email/tweet/call/Facebook the Superintendent regarding the importance of focusing completely on getting a deal.  Your efforts worked.  Not only did the Superintendent get the message, he even cancelled his plans to leave bargaining in the early afternoon.

Download the Conferences Guidelines Flyer

Below are some general guidelines for parent conferences:

Your bargaining team met with our counterparts from the District for face-to-face mediation yesterday. We were happy to have our new Superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero at the table for the first time, in addition to Kylie Rogers, Chief Human Resources Officer. 

At the outset of the meeting, your bargaining chair Steve Lancaster said he expected this meeting to be a breakthrough or a breakdown. By the end of the evening he concluded it was neither.

The Advocate - November 1, 2017

• What it Will Take to Fix PPS
• PAT 2018 Election Materials
• Winning Health Insurance Improvements
• Help PAT Engage!
• Promoting Racial Equity in PPS
• PERS Bubble and Mid-Year Retirement
• New Memoranda of Agreement
• Host a Guest Teacher for a Day
• OEA Promising Practice Grants
• Athletic Grants from OEA and California Casualty
• Social Movement Unionism: Hope in Hard Times
• Member-to-Member Specials
• Donate to the Sick Leave Bank

PAT members delivered a strong message to the School Board last week that the dysfunction in PPS has gone on long enough. BIG THANKS to Sarah Brown, Greg Burrill, and Francisca Alvarez for sharing powerful stories of what PPS cuts mean to educators and students. You can watch their comments on the PAT YouTube channel.

In my own testimony, I made it clear that if PPS wants to fix the very real problems in our District, administrators and Board members need to take off their rose-colored glasses and start listening to frontline educators.

Are you interested in getting more involved in PAT? 

Nominations will open at the November 1, 2017 PAT Representative Assembly (PAT RA) for several elected positions in PAT.  These positions are:  PAT President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary, PAT Executive Board Directors (5 positions), and PAT Delegates to the Oregon Education Association and National Education Association Representative Assemblies. 

Materials for the Bargaining Survey #1

• Slides for Bargaining Survey Meeting
• Instructions for Organizers and Reps for Bargaining Survey
• Bargaining Survey #1 Information Packet
• Link to the Bargaining Survey #1

Other Materials from the November 1 RA

• Agenda
• Complete Slides from the RA
• Sign up to host a Teacher for a Day
• T-Shirt Order Form
• Fact Sheet-- Workload
• Racial Equity Committee Happy Hour/Social for PAT Educators of Color
• MOUs
  • Merger/Closure
  • ACA Ungrandfathering
  • PERS Bubble
  • 1st Quarter Report Cards
• Nominations and Elections
  • Letter to Members: Election of PAT Officers, Executive Board Directors and  Delegates to the NEA and OEA Representative Assemblies
  • Nomination Form
• Bylaws Proposed Changes
• Promising Practice Grant
• California Casualty Athletic Grant Guidelines
• November Checklist 
• Slides for your 10-minute meeting

The PAT has achieved a significant improvement in member health benefits.  On September 28, 2017, PAT signed an agreement that ensured that our insurance plans were fully compliant with all elements of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).  

That change has added a series of new components to PAT member benefits like preventive care, hearing aid coverage, positive changes in the out of pocket maximum calculations, and improvements in alternative care coverage.

PAT is conducting a listening campaign and it’s going great! 

On Friday, October 27^th, we were out listening to our colleagues at seven schools: Atkinson, Creston, Duniway, Grout, Lewis, Richmond, and Winterhaven. That brings our total to nine schools, but we’ve got lots of ground to cover.