Springfield NEA is Proud of the Accomplishments of Our Highly Qualified, Educator-Members

Please click on the links below to read about 2 of our colleagues who have achieved National Board Certification and continue to grow as recognized leaders in their disciplines. Congratulations to Dr. Melissa Albright, who also serves locally on our Executive Board and to Lisa Lilley.



http://www.springfieldpublicschoolsmo.org/pages/SPSMO/News/SPS_educator_elected_to_nation

http://www.springfieldpublicschoolsmo.org/pages/SPSMO/News/MYP_coordinator_elected_to_boa

 A Word of Encouragement

To coincide with the most recent, education-profession-bashing, article in Time Magazine, I think it is important to send a clear message to all of you who have committed your lives and careers to positively impact the lives of your students on a daily basis.

It is too often a thankless task. I know that a majority of our members are elementary teachers and they are setting aside each afternoon this week and one really long evening, to meet with the parents of each of their students. Those conversations will be unique; pointing out the learning styles, strengths and challenges of every student. Each conference will be a living example of the 'Learning is Personal' vision our district strives to achieve.

Do you get the impression I could go on and on?

Thanks to the debate coaches, whose students engage in relevant, critical thinking at every turn.

Kudos to the vocal, instrumental and visual arts teachers who consistently provide opportunities for their students to engage in 'the arts' as a daily way of looking at and understanding the world around them.

A shout out goes to science teachers who use current events and ongoing projects like the Nautilus, deep-sea exploration to inspire their students to ask questions and to test theories.

Much gratitude goes to athletic coaches, of all sports, who foster a healthy understanding in their athletes about what it really means to participate as a team member and to work together toward a common goal.

Each of us knows that many of our students wouldn't come to school at all if these opportunities weren't available to them. It is the dedication and expertise of our educators that keeps many students involved in school each day.

Please know that it would have been easy to keep on writing; listing the amazing ways that counselors, nurses, librarians and all of you meet the needs of the students in our community.

Thank you!

Kittilu Maxson

Springfield NEA President

 Springfield School Board Update

Study Session, 10.7.2014

 

 

Highlights:

 

* Parker McKenna made a recommendation for the board to renew the District's contract with Mercy as the Preferred Provider. The new 5-year contract will save the District approximately $4 million dollars, according to a re-pricing analysis of last year's claims. The board will vote on the recommendation at it's next regular meeting, Oct. 21, 2014.

 

* The board is considering a 3rd party contract to cover Crossing Guard responsibilities. There was much discussion about partnering with both the city and county, but the total cost to the district could be as much as $67,000 if those groups do not contribute toward the costs of keeping our children safe.

 

* Dr. Jungmann presented a draft of the district's 2015 Legislative Agenda, to be voted on at the next meeting. The document stresses legislative support of local control, revenue increases, the positive correlation between strong public schools and our community's healthy economic development, a commitment to fully funding the formula and an expectation that local legislators will use the Missouri Public Education Vision Project to direct their work for our children.

 

* Board President, Dr. Denise Fredrick presented to the Chamber's Good Morning, Springfield about the importance of defeating Amendment 3. She also volunteered with other local educators at the Protect Our Local Schools phone bank to call voters across the state to ask them to join us in voting against this harmful amendment.

 

* All board members agreed that more focused, one-on-one advocacy needs to take place between each of them and our local legislators. They expressed frustration that many candidates run on an 'education' platform and then can't be found when it's time to vote in support of our local education issues. There may be a reception for local legislators before the Dec. 9th board meeting.

 

One of my favorite moments of the meeting, which lasted until after 8:00 p.m., was when Dr. Jungmann referred to ,"Creativity and our other C's...", as he shared out experiences from his Listening/Learning Tour. Many of us have  thought that Creativity should be the first of the 4 C's and it was inspiring to hear the word used so naturally by the vision-maker of our district!

 

Submitted by Kittilu Maxson

SNEA President

Will You Accept the Challenge?

 

Springfield NEA President, Kittilu Maxson is joining with SPS -School Board President, Dr. Denise Fredrick in issuing a phone bank challenge!

 

WHEN- Monday, September 29, from 3-7 pm

               and Tuesday, September 30, from 3-7 pm

WHERE- Protect Our Local Schools, Southwest Regional Office

                  519 Walnut in downtown Springfield

 

Join us in a friendly competition to make as many phone calls as we can, while we work to defeat Amendment 3. Sign in as a 'friend' of SNEA or 'friend' of the School Board and we'll post the results here!

 

You will be working to support our Local Schools when you give even 30 minutes of your time toward this effort.

 

Hope to see you there!

 



Remarks to the Springfield School Board

Sept. 2, 2014/Study Session

Kittilu Maxson, SNEA president

 

When you ask any educator if they consider their profession to be a business or an art, they would lean heavily toward it being an art, but each educator also willingly understands the need for accountability as they provide an undeniably important service to their community through their work with students each day.

You’re all familiar with the non-profit, “TeachGreat”. I would be remiss if I didn’t take this opportunity to point out that “TeachGreat” is grammatically incorrect. The correct phrase would be; "TeachWell". I don’t teach great, I teach well!  Putting all politics aside, you’ve asked me to bring you the teacher perspective. Thank you for this opportunity.

Let’s start by looking at our very own Springfield Learning Model. It’s processes include the familiar 3 C’s; Critical Thinking, Communication and Collaboration. Should Amendment 3 pass, teachers could see a much different emphasis in these areas. With so much riding on one-size-fits-all, state mandated testing, the results of which become the quantifiable student performance data to be used as the majority of each educator’s professional evaluation, our new 3 C’s might sound something like this;

                    *Careful Test-Taking, instead of Critical Thinking

                    *Communicating Quantifiable Data

                    *Competition, rather than Collaboration

Let’s look at that last one, Competition. Our district currently fosters and supports a culture of team collaboration at all levels. Amendment 3 could cause a subtle, yet negative shift toward professional isolation and competition among colleagues. Both are antithetical to the professional development of educators and are not in the best interests of our students… who come to us each year with a wide variety of strengths and needs. PD would need to focus on teaching to the tests. Teachers believe that what our district is focusing on now, the growth and progress of our student over time, is so much more relevant and accurate than any single, status shot derived from a one-size-fits-all, high stakes testing event.

As a climate of harmful competitiveness grows, the very same educators, who now choose to follow their hearts into careers where they advocate for the students with the most challenges to overcome, like in many of our Title and Focus schools, would be faced with the reality of their very jobs being on the line if their student’s scores didn’t meet a certain state-determined level.magine the scenario that could quickly emerge; students with potentially the most to lose, would no longer have the advantages of ever being guided and taught by our most experienced educators. What teachers would be willing to continue to take that risk?

I wonder if you’ve thought about the extra burden that will be placed on administrators and counselors if this amendment becomes law.As they create class lists and schedules, they will now not only be trying to match student’s needs with teacher’s strengths, but also be deciding the make-up of the group by which their colleagues will be evaluated and compensated. What a strain this will put on the professional and collegial relationships of educators at each site, but also on the student-teacher relationship.

Beyond the shift to Careful Test-Taking and Competition, it seems our mission statement could change from “Learning Is Personal”, to something more like “Learning Is Quantifiable”. Understand, educators want to show the effects of their art and professionalism through an effective evaluation system. Teachers don’t shy away from this process.Our district is currently implementing a new educator evaluation system which relies on highly trained administrators, collaborating with educators to use multiple measures, over time, in order to rate educator effectiveness. This evaluation process, when paired with our negotiated, binding contract and existing board policy, allows the district to have both the input and control it needs to ensure a quality educational environment for each student.

I  never thought I’d be so pleased to have the Springfield Learning Model to rely on as a structure, but as we move forward together in transparency and accountability, we must think critically about how we communicate this important issue and continue to foster collaborative, person-centered relationships which, together,  benefit our students, educators and our whole community. 

Teachers aren’t interested in having a constitutional amendment insert itself into our district’s continually improving processes.

Teachers and students are more than a test score.

Teachers understand there will be high costs of implementation, draining funding away from what they know their classrooms actually need.

Teachers don’t believe their students deserve this extra testing burden.

Teachers value working in a district that has high levels of local control.

This is a teacher’s perspective.

Thank-you.

 

 

 

 
 

SNEA: Looking Back, Moving Forward

 

As SNEA President, I’d like to sincerely thank all of our hard-working members for supporting the work of our association in bringing positive changes to the working and learning environment that we share each day with our students.

Your Dues Dollars At Work!

It’s important to recognize that your dues dollars are actually put to work on a daily basis advocating for members, meeting with administration on behalf of teachers individually and collectively. SNEA doesn’t seek the limelight in promoting positive change for teachers and students. We seek results. Sometimes the results are intangible, like building strong working relationships with administrators and school board members – but it’s the relationship with our members that is the utmost priority.

Please view the following bulleted items that briefly outline a few of the contract provisions that SNEA has negotiated with the district since 2010, when the collective bargaining process began.

You might ask yourself this question:

"How many of these items would have been brought forward unilaterally by the administration and school board? Would they have even known they were issues that were important to teachers?

Our point? The process works, and it works because of your support and participation. And there is much more work to be done . . . with your support.

* SNEA members campaigned and voted (2009-2010) for a more focused process to bring teachers and administrators to the table to negotiate positive change. Some of you may remember the transition didn’t always go smoothly. Dr. Ridder, in his final report to the BOE (June 2014), said this about the process: "I really feel that we as a district have done a very good job with collective bargaining. I’ve been in different scenarios . . . and I feel that the journey has been good. Collective bargaining is all about empowering the teacher, and I think – through collective bargaining – we have come up with a strategic focus of supporting teachers. And I think this has been a very powerful thing."

* Since 2010, SNEA has negotiated binding contracts for teachers, counselors, librarians, school nurses, clerical employees.

* SNEA negotiated two consecutive years of "double" steps on the salary schedule for teachers, whose steps had been frozen in 2009 and 2010. This amounted to consecutive 5% increases for the majority of SPS teachers. Step freezes had never been restored in SPS history prior to 2013.
* Work day provision that more clearly defined the length of a teacher work day

* Duty Free Lunch for teachers as part of the overall binding contract

* Teacher Compensation for Supervising Student Teachers

* Staff Meetings – duration and frequency isn’t set in stone, but they must be "reasonable". SNEA has enforced this provision several times since it was adopted in 2011.

* Grades – The integrity of the grading process is important to teachers. If an administrator wishes to change a grade, they own it.

* Mileage Reimbursements for traveling teachers

* Additional Load Compensation for teachers who are asked to cover a class during plan time

* Administrative Assistance with Student Behaviors & Discipline

* Grievance Procedure for contract violations – SNEA negotiated the contract, SNEA enforces the contract on your behalf.

* Sick Leave – front loaded 4 Sick Leave days to the beginning of each school year to help new teachers and those who had endured serious illness the previous year.

* Increased payment for accrued sick leave upon retirement or resignation

* Eliminated permission forms and unreasonable advance notice for Personal Leave

* Stipend increases

* Lateral Movement for Advanced Degrees

* Expanded window for internal transfers from March to the end of June

* All provisions of the agreement (contract) are binding and prevail if in conflict with board policy

*  Any changes to the agreement must be agreed to by both SNEA and the district.

SNEA member, you are the driving force behind future changes to our contract.

Get involved, communicate with your colleagues.

Let your association work in partnership with you to continue to make Springfield schools a better place to teach and learn!

You Can Make A Difference!

 

Join Springfield NEA- Work to Defeat Amendment 3!





Go to the link below to see how you can get involved; along with your neighbors, families and friends.

 

                                   http://www.protectourlocalschools.com/

 

 

Together- We Can Make The Difference!

 



Local Leaders,

Don't let a constitutional amendment take a one-size-fits-all approach for Missouri's students!

We need your help as a local leader of SNEA to defeat Amendment 3.

 

 Please get involved....we only have 2 1/2 months to educate and encourage our colleagues, friends and families to VOTE NO on Amendment 3.

Click below for more information.

http://www.mnea.org/Missouri/News/Dont-let-a-constitutional-amendment-take-a-onesize-477.aspx-- 

SNEA is working closely with the Protect Our Local Schools campaign to organize a grass-roots effort to educate and energize our community about this harmful amendment. There is a place for YOU in this work!

Please share and help us get the word out!!

SNEA Leadership Welcomes You Back!



It doesn't take long for the sounds, sights and feelings of summer to fade and be replaced by students' questions, parents' e-mails, principals' requests and colleagues' ideas.

 

You have prepared your working space, whether it is the main office, gym, classroom or library. That space is also where your students are engaged and discover more about themselves and their world. I want to thank you for all the time you have already put into orchestrating the best space possible for them and for yourselves.

 

The photo above was taken after SNEA hosted a New Teacher Lunch for all the new hires in SPS. Most of your executive board came to meet and greet the new teachers and to share their personal stories of what membership in SNEA has meant to them.

 

As I look forward to the 2014-2015 school year, I know that there will be legislative issues we'll need to understand in order to fight together against them. There will be questions you have about how to best implement the policies and procedures of our district. We'll partner together to utilize the best professional practices to meet all of our students' needs. You'll make suggestions that our bargaining team can bring to the negotiating table. We'll have meetings that help determine a positive level of professional support as we each work to improve our teaching skills.

 

Most of all, as I look ahead into this school year that has now arrived, I see the wealth that SPS has in their best asset; you. Thank you for coming to work each day, greeting your students with energy and developing trusting, sharing relationships with your colleagues. I truly believe that it is you and the students you teach, who make this the best place to work in the whole state of Missouri.

 

Kittilu Maxson

4th grade teacher/on leave

SNEA president

snea@aol.com

417.848.6487 



SNEA President's Remarks to the School Board About Anti-Teacher Tenure Ballot Initiative

Late last week, I got a phone call from Superintendent Dr. Norm Ridder, inviting me to speak to the school board during the legislative issues portion of the regular session. He stressed that the school board had requested information about the ballot initiative process and also what the language of this particular ballot would mean for our district, should it get on the ballot in November.

I read several articles, including an excellent one from The Progressive, by Brendan Fischer and Lisa Graves, which gave me a clear picture of what is happening behind the scenes through this initiative process in Missouri. Mark Jones, MNEA Political Director, clearly laid out the timeline for this initiative to actually get on the ballot and the process for signature validation.

I invite you to read on to get a glimpse of what one St. Louis billionaire believes he can do to take away local control from school districts across the state. This ballot initiative will negatively effect our profession, our students, our schools and communities. SNEA will keep you posted on what you can do to keep this initiative  from becoming  a neatly purchased amendment to our state constitution.

 

 

******************************************************************* 

Remarks to the SPS School Board

April 29, 2014

By Kittilu Maxson, SNEA president

 

Ballot Initiative/Petition Process

What is it?

Many of you have run into people gathering signatures for petitions. Maybe it’s out in front of your library or driver’s license office. If you’re like me, you begin by asking clarifying questions…like, “Do you live here?” “Are you registered to vote in Greene County?” “Do you get paid?”  “By whom?”

The ballot initiative process is an avenue for citizens to bring an issue that is important to them before the people for a vote. The process is intended to be a grassroots movement, motivated by intense support for an issue. Make No Mistake-This is NO Grass Roots Movement!!!

Who is paying for it?

Rex Sinquefield, a St. Louis billionaire, also the state’s biggest political contributor, is funding the ‘teachgreat’ initiative to get this measure on the ballot in November. This billionaire’s priorities are to financially support legislation that will lower his own taxes and to privatize public education. Each person working on this ballot initiative campaign is being paid to do so. They are not motivated by personal ideals or issues.

Here, I’d like to point out that none of the public education stakeholders that we often look to are asking for these changes.

NOT the

* Missouri School Board Association

* Missouri Association of School Administrators

* PTA

* Teacher’s Associations

 

What IS in the ballot initiative language?

In a nutshell, it strips local control over educator evaluations and the teacher tenure process. The language implements a top-down, one-size-fits-all, standardized testing event for every child, in every district across the state.

We already know what’s working in Springfield…

SPS is developing and in the process of implementing an Educator Evaluation Plan, based on a framework recommended by DESE. It is highly collaborative, transparent and holds all parties in the process accountable. SPS has processes in place to recruit and retain highly qualified educators. When there are concerns about a teachers’ competence or performance, there are steps taken to support their improvement and if that doesn’t happen there is a path to let them go.

This initiative puts a huge emphasis on the status of our students from a one-time, high stakes test event, rather than on student growth through multiple measures and formative data, over time.

It would be a HUGE step backward for SPS!

Where are we in the ballot initiative process?

They need to gather between 147,000-160,000 signatures. Right now, the Coalition for Missouri’s Future believes they will get enough signatures

On May 4^th they will be submitted to the office of the Secretary of State for validation. If approved, the issue will go on the November ballot.

There may be legal challenges along the way, especially on the lack of clarity of the ballot language as it would appear for voters, specifically the non-disclosure of the financial burden it would place on local districts

SUMMARY:

This ballot initiative pits the support of public education through local control against political opportunism. It is an outside party, taking away local control and at the same time implementing one-size fits all processes which teachers do not believe are best practices for their own professional evaluation, nor for the effective assessment of their student’s growth, progress and achievement.

 

Kittilu Maxson, SNEA president

April is early enrollment month- Join NOW- 5 Months Free!!

                                        


TOP 10 DISTINCTIONS

Springfield NEA is the only association


• That was elected by a clear majority of Springfield teachers, counselors, nurses and secretaries to be the exclusive representative of the entire bargaining unit

• That is recognized as the exclusive representative by the Springfield R-12 Board of Education

• That meets annually with district leadership to bargain compensation and working conditions for the entire bargaining unit

• Most recently bargaining a 2-step salary increase for most teachers, librarians and counselors, new contract language guaranteeing duty free lunch and including administrative support for teachers when faced with student discipline issues

• With a binding contract that allows the SNEA president to meet with members during their conference time

• That does NOT use member dues for Political Action Committees. All PAC member donations are voluntary and are used to help elect recommended school  board candidates

• That is entirely governed by elected members of the association

• That connects a network of representatives -in virtually every building- and meets monthly to discuss district practices, policies, contracts and other relevant information

• With a full-time president, UniServ Director and secretary working out of an independent office to serve the individual members’ needs

• That offers immediate, in-person, legal assistance to members when they are  ‘hotlined’ and that offers all members $4 million in liability insurance

             Sometimes you get what you pay for!

No wonder SNEA sets the standards by which all are measured!

Call 417.869.5090 to request a membership form or ask your building representative for details.

Kittilu Maxson, SNEA president spoke to the Board of Education regarding teacher representation. 3.4.2014

Comments to the BOE/March 4, 2014

Good evening, Members of the Board, Dr. Ridder, Members of the Cabinet.

I’m Kittilu Maxson, a 4^th grade teacher, on leave from the classroom and now serving as president of Springfield NEA. I am proud to represent the teachers, school nurses and clerical employees of this district.

As you know, as early as Sept. 1^st, 2013, SNEA issued a request to this board to be involved in the interview process for selection of a new superintendent. You may also know that we issued objections to the “blended” process that was presented to us by this board’s leadership. The process was confusing and has proven to be untimely. While I know from speaking with Dr. Jungmann yesterday, that an excellent candidate has been selected, teacher “input”- and representation for that “input”- was determined exclusively by this board’s leadership.

Many of you may remember that when teachers, counselors and librarians elected a representative a few years ago, we used a process that was clearly outlined in policies that this board had approved.

SNEA did not agree with some aspects of the process but we abided by it to the letter and were duly elected to be the exclusive representative through a fair election process-a process that was agreed upon by all parties- including the district’s legal counsel, who played a major role in putting it together.

Many districts across Missouri now use that model in choosing employee representatives.

Recently, the district received some unwanted publicity when a prospective school board candidate contested the validity of the district’s signature-counting process.

The simple truth was that he and another prospective candidate had failed to get enough valid signatures to have their names on the ballot. Those individuals do not join you here tonight to share “input” on school board decisions.

Similarly, in every contested board election, some candidates have failed to get enough votes to serve. Some of those candidates persistently criticized how this board did its job, and they received thousands of votes, but that wasn’t enough to share “input” or to serve with you here tonight.

I would like to respectfully remind the board that it is not this board’s duty to intervene and choose a teacher representative. Teachers have already done that-and if they wish to change their representative, the board policy that many of you voted for clearly explains how that may be done.

Springfield NEA is honored to serve the teachers of this district as their representative in negotiating the best possible agreements with the district regarding compensation, benefits and working conditions.

We honor the process that has led to a better understanding of this district through a respectful dialogue with administration.

We ask that this board honor the representation process that it put in place years ago, so that we may continue to move forward together with mutual respect and understanding.

Thank you.