CORRECTED UNITY NEWSLETTER - USE THIS ONE!
SEA and SPS working to build strong BLTs
Recognizing that Building Leadership Teams (BLTs) can serve as a foundation for building a positive climate for student success, SEA has partnered with the district to develop a BLT training. 18 schools participated in the pilot this spring with the intent of training all building in the late summer/early fall. Topics included:
- Examining a CSIP and how it can shape a building vision and culture.
- Recognizing different leadership styles and communication.
- Working with different stakeholders to come to equitable decision making
"We are looking forward to
bringing
this valuable in-formation back to our school
and building a strong BLT."
said
Michelle Merklin,
teacher, Sand Point
Elementary
.
Teresa Alsept, teacher, Eckstein Middle School, and
Michael Tamayo, SEA Vice President
, served as SEA's trainers along with several District administrators.
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FAQs on next year's schedule
Along with a twenty minute longer student day next year, we will also have a 75 minute early release every Wednesday except for the first day of school.
Please see our new FAQ for a host of important details, including considerations for schools as they build elementary PCP schedules.
The early release Wednesdays will be allocated among four categories: common planning time, collaboration time, professional development time, and tech time. In addition, staff will now be able to use the teacher directed staff meetings for individual prep time (consistent with your CSIP), since so much collaboration will now be occurring during the early releases. Important details in the FAQ!
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Rally at School Board for Ethnic Studies - Wednesday June 28th at 5 PM
Join SEA members and community members to rally in support of bringing Ethnic Studies to our schools. The school board gave preliminary support earlier this year, which led to the creation of an ethnic studies task force. We are now seeking a firmer commitment by the Board to go forward. Wear red and join us on Wednesday!
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Need 30 clock hours for free?
Write a professional growth plan. You can use the work you did for your PLC, or from your evaluation. "It's easy" - Ed Paltrineri, McDonald International. The forms (one for your PG plan itself and one for the clock hours) you'll need are at http://assessment.pesb.wa.gov/professional-growth-plan-pgp/pgp-planning. You'll just need one of your certificated coworkers to sign off on your form when you're done!
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Secondary educators weigh in to support social and emotional learning
Thanks to everyone who participated in our brief survey on Social
Emotional Learning in secondary
schools. A quick look at results:
- 82% agreed (45% strongly) that "secondary schools should set aside time each week to address social and emotional needs through intentional school activities (assemblies, classroom activities, advisory, homeroom, etc.)."
- 51% agreed that "my school does a good job of addressing students' social and emotional learning needs."
- 72% agreed that "where secondary schools do not already have a plan or program for social and emotional learning, some of the additional student minutes due to the longer day should be allocated in this way."
The SEA committee meeting with the District recognized that while members strongly support social and emotional learning, we need to ensure that it is of a high quality. We will be launching a District-wide committee to support SEL that will work with the District to support schools and educators in this work, including organizing a conference next year for schools to share best practices.
SEA committee members included
Kris McBride, counselor at Garfield, Paul Franklin Bihary, humanities at Ingraham, Kendra Rose, teacher at Franklin, Pamela Davis, Special Ed IA at Rainier Beach, and Michael Tamayo, SEA vice president.
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Proposed Bylaws changes for your review
Three different proposals to amend SEA's bylaws were introduced at our last Representative Assembly (RA). Representatives will vote on them at our next RA, so be sure to give input to your representatives. For the full text,
follow this link.
- Work stoppages: sets quorum rules, how vote can be taken, and disallows a threshold other than majority vote to pass
- Dues: changes certificated SEA dues (not WEA or NEA) to a percentage system rather than a flat dollar amount; would not increase total dues collected by SEA.
- Substitute educators: allows substitutes who work fewer days but who volunteer time with SEA to run as delegates to RA
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SICK LEAVE REQUESTS
Dejon Hush, a Para Ed at South Shore K-8 is dealing with an ongoing health issue in the family and any hours donated will help out a lot.
Crystal Alvaro Okada, teacher at Thornton Creek is very much in need of shared leave donations so she won't lose her income AND benefits over the summer. She's hoping to get 25 hours donated.
Jasmine Singh, Payroll technician at JSCEE just had eye surgery and any donated leave will be very appreciated.
Len Hill, Math teacher at Hawthorne was out of work for a lengthy recovery due to major surgery and is in need of about 60 hours of donated leave. He very much appreciates any and all time you can donate.
Joyce McDonald, teacher at Dunlap is in need of a second knee operation and is out of sick leave. She thanks you in advance for your generous donation of leave.
Kathleen Barton, SpEd IA is scheduled for surgery soon and has no sick leave left. She appreciates your caring and helping her through this difficult time with your donated leave.
Thank you all for your generous donations in this challenging time for the above members.
Members can access the shared leave form by clicking
HERE. Forms can be submitted to
HRLeaves@seattleschools.org or FAXED to 206-252-0021 or mailed to Seattle Public Schools, MS 33-380, PO Box 34165, Seattle, WA 98124-1165.
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