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Tacoma Specialists
news & updates
July 2020 Vol. 4 View previous issues 1 2 3
Speak Up for SPECIALISTS
Our concerns regarding the safety issues around traveling from building to building have been heard and are being addressed. Thanks to our administrators who have reached out with questions, offered support, and are looking for solutions. Last week we received word that once we are seeing students face to face, our building assignments will be adjusted and that we will have input regarding the changes in deployments.

While we understand that this is an unprecedentedly busy summer, it would be more logical to address those changes prior to the beginning of the school year. Please take a moment to contact Christa Erolin , Forrest Griek , and Steven Deaderick to help them understand the advantages of beginning the school year with the students we will continue to serve as instructional models change.

Beginning the year with the same students we will eventually have face to face will create better continuity of instruction and help to smooth the transition, maximizing efficiency. Planning to change students at a later date is planning to disregard what happens during distance learning and having to start over, redoing all the administrative work involved with the beginning of a school year and having to assess students who might have had a different teacher, then planning and (re)delivering instruction in a way that meets the new group's needs. This is not what's best for students or teachers. It disrupts learning for students and creates unnecessary work for teachers.

While the safety issues are being dealt with, we continue to advocate for better quality of instruction, which requires investment in district wide programs and reasonable working conditions, which, in turn, tie back to health and safety. The safety of our staff and students goes deeper than COVID-19. While this is an immediate threat, the systematic under-staffing of specialists is an ongoing one. This affects our health, both physical and mental, and therefore, the efficacy of our instruction.

We will continue to educate administrators on what is a reasonable workload for a specialist. Establishing an 8 class per day limit (6 on Wednesdays), will be a start. This will not only improve our long-term health and safety, but will allow for better quality of instruction and learning.

The promised re-deployments will begin to reduce workload by reducing the number of students we each serve and therefore streamlining instruction, planning, administrative tasks, etc. This is also an opportunity to address equity issues for students and staff. Hopefully, as this work takes place, it will become clear how understaffed we have become. Your voice will be critical in ensuring we are treated equally under the contract. Please continue to let your administrators and union know what is helpful and what needs to change.
In the past 4 years, specialist staffing has significantly decreased, though enrollment has not changed.
Specialist Staffing: A Tale of Reductions:

Here are just a few examples of how specialist staffing numbers have been reduced without firing or displacing any specialist staff members:

  •  Larchmont: 1.0 FTE PE teacher for 2017-18.  Teacher left the position and was replaced by 3 teachers for 1.0 FTE for 2018-19.  The following year, the position was reduced to .7 FTE.
  • Larchmont: 1.0 FTE music teacher for 2017-18 and 2018-19.  Teacher left the position and was replaced by 2 teachers for .7 FTE for 2019-20 and is .8 FTE for 2020-21 staffed by 3 teachers, one of which is currently unfilled. 
  • Across the district for the coming school year, 6 elementary PE teachers retired or moved on to other positions.  Only 1 teacher was newly hired and 1 teacher was moved from MS/HS PE to fill those 6 positions. That is a reduction of 4 positions due to attrition.
  • Crescent Heights: 1.0 FTE teacher librarian for 2017-18 and 2018-19.  When that teacher retired the position was cut to .6 FTE for the 2019-20 school year and for the coming year as well.
  • Stafford: Music and PE were 1.2 FTE for 2017-18 and 2018-19. Both positions were reduced to .9 FTE for 2019-20 and 2020-21.
  • One Teacher Librarian was at 3 different schools in 2017, 2018 and 2019.   She was .8 FTE at Pt Defiance in 2017-18, .8 FTE at Lister in 2018-19, and .8 FTE at Sheridan in 2019-20.  She has retired for 2020-21.   Each time she was placed at new school, the FTE at the school she was removed from was reduced by .2 FTE.  Every single time. 

FTE numbers were provided by TPS through a public records request.
How You Can Help
A big Thank You to those who have contacted administrators and shared information on Social Media. Keep hitting send! Click the share buttons at the bottom of the page to share this newsletter on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Contact your administrators, school board members, social media friends, local media, and talk it up with friends and colleagues. Here is a guide with TPS contact information and sample messages.
You're invited to share your concerns
"Please communicate your concerns directly to myself or Christa Erolin. It is important that labor issues are addressed through the proper channels that the Union and District have established. This insures that concerns are addressed in a timely manner and the communication from both the Union and the District are in alignment."
 
Please feel free to call or email me directly if you have any questions.
 
Know Your Contract
Specialist Staff Survey
We are gathering information on working conditions and possible contract violations for the 2019-20 school year to be sure that these do not recur. If you are a Music, PE, or Library specialist, please complete the survey if you haven't already.
Flawed Staffing Formula
The district has not done their homework on how many classes will fit into a school day.
Staffing levels are inequitable within buildings and across the district.
TPS uses a "school score" to determine need across the district. The score is determined using socio-economic factors, test scores, and various other indicators. Moving resources to where they are most needed makes sense. Is that what happened here?
*This document is dated 6/22/2020, but we are told it was used in making deployment decisions in May.
Instruction
Specialists and students are being set up to fail. Many teachers will be starting the school year doing distance lessons with students they have never met and who they might see once a week.
Where is Everybody?

Click below to see how your school and schools across the district will be impacted. Current as of 7/23
OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF MIND
We are all familiar with the phrase, “Out of sight, out of mind”. The Specialist Advocacy Council has identified specialist concerns regarding safety, quality, and equity. TEA’s job is to advocate for Tacoma teachers during contract bargaining and throughout the year.
We are currently 'out of sight' regarding specialist representation on TEA. The formula for representation on TEA’s Representative Assembly(RA) is 1 rep. per 10 teaching staff. Given the formula, there should be 75 reps for elementary schools on TEA/RA. To the best of our knowledge only one specialist (1.3% of total reps) is on TEA/RA. Specialists make-up 12% of the total number of elementary school teachers, therefore we should have 9 reps on TEA/RA. That number would put us in plain sight and strengthen our voice so our concerns are heard and addressed. It is our job to educate TEA and fellow representatives as to the concerns we have as specialists and how it impacts our students’ academic, social, and emotional growth. If we remain out of sight, we will be out of TEA’s mind, and how will that benefit us?

Please sign up to become a building representative for TEA this year. We will make a difference!!!
What's It Like to Be Special?
The Personal Touch

In the last few newsletters, you’ve seen some of the members of the Specialist Advocacy Council share their personal experiences teaching in Tacoma Public Schools. We all know how powerful it can be to share personal stories; we would like the district to know that there are real people being impacted by their staffing decisions. Please email tacomaspecialists@gmail.com if you would like to share your story - the good, the bad, and everything in between!

Health and Real Life Impacts
of Recent Staffing/Deployments

One of the issues that we’d like the district to understand is that their decisions about specialist staffing and deployments have real-life consequences. If you are comfortable, we would like to share (anonymously and with permission only) what health issues you have had, or what sacrifices you have had to make as a result of your teaching assignments in the last 4 years.
Please email tacomaspecialists@gmail.com if you would be willing to share.


If you would like more information on how you can help advocate for our students and Music, PE and Library educators, please click to add yourself to our advocacy group.
A council representing PE, Music, and Library have been meeting to gather information, rally support and determine next steps for solving district-wide Safety, Quality and Equity issues for specialist programs, students, and staff.

Click below to join our mailing list and be kept in the loop as the situation evolves.
Your information will not be shared without your permission.
Please include your:
Name, Building ( any you have connections with), and Role (Staff Position, Parent, Citizen, Student)
Tacoma Specialists Advocacy Council
Maggie Ross - Music, Fernhill
Matt Wood - PE, Stafford
Megan Oberfield - Music, Browns Point
Paula Greuling - Music, Birney
Penny Cramer - Music, Sherman
Rhianna Bedient - PE, Whittier
Rod Huskey - Music, Boze
Roxane Hreha - Music, Whitman
Steve Johnson - PE, Lowell