Speak Up for Specialists! Vol. 36

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Speak Up for SPECIALISTS

May 2021 Vol. 36

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While We Wait...

to find out what our assignments will be for next year and to see how the many changes in circumstances, policy, personnel, and attitudes shake out, we encourage you to take a moment to speak up for yourself.

As other educators receive their assignments, administration posts change reins, TEA plans for coming bargaining, and the wider community looks forward to keeping less social distance, we need to continue the discussion of the issues that specialists continue to face which keep us from providing safe, equitable, quality instruction.

In this issue we've included information on who to contact to be sure that your concerns are addressed. Please take some time to help improve our situation by being part of the conversation. There are many ways to improve the current situation.

Choose an issue that impacts you, choose the people that need this information from the contact list, then contact them with your ideas. Some examples are below.

Advocacy Contact List

Let TEA know that...

Quality:

The most important aspect of deployment is that when there is one full-time position, it should be filled by one person. One Job, One Educator. If that could be conveyed to the district by TEA, it would be appreciated. It does not serve the school/students/community/staff well to have 3 teachers filling a 1.0 FTE position. Or in the case of Downing, 3 teachers filling a .6 FTE position.

Equity:

Another important aspect of deployments is that PE and Music FTE should be the same for each school. PE and music staff serve the same number of classes and have very similar schedules. It makes no sense to have one specialist do the same job as another with less FTE.

TEA's help and support on these issues would be greatly appreciated. There are huge intentional inequities across our district for staff and students alike due to the deployments of elementary specialists. This needs to be addressed by our union.

Specialists are certificated educators and are to be equitably represented by our union. If there is enough information to place grade-level teachers, there is enough to place us. Specialists should receive these same protections and courtesies under the contract:

Assignments if Displaced – If you received notice of displacement this week, you will be getting a call from HR. You may have been contacted today. They will also be working tomorrow (Saturday). If you receive a call from Steven Deaderick (253 740 9524) or Lori Dumas (253 279 3488) or a district 571 number, it is important to answer and work with them to find the best placement from the available options. All displaced staff will have placements by Monday morning, so that the list can be approved by the appropriate departments and work on posting open positions can be done starting Tuesday.

Staffing Adjustments prior to September – To avoid the disruptive fall displacement process as much as is reasonably possible, the District will be looking at enrollment in July and August. If you are impacted by this, letters will be sent on July 22 and Aug 19 and HR will contact those needing new placement by phone. Making adjustments at these times provides the opportunity for staff who are being transferred to have options on placement. Fall displacements in late September are disruptive to everyone and leave few options for placement for those impacted. The goal is to be able to start the year within negotiated class size and caseload lids. TEA will be notified of these changes and involved in the process much like spring displacement.

*To be most effective, we suggest sending all correspondences to the entire board.

Let C&I know that...

Quality:

We need a district-wide k-12 vision for music education. As I look at the open high school choral positions, I can't imagine what it would be like to try to run a quality program with students who have had limited or no previous experience. With no foundation, this program will wobble around and eventually collapse. Compressing 8 years of skill development, content knowledge, and a sense of ensemble into a freshman class will not be successful or enjoyable for anyone.

In our current situation, students do not have equitable access to instruction, so as they move to the next level, the students who have been moving forward are slowed by those who haven't. When the expectations of the experienced students aren't met, the whole program suffers.

In the past, several of my middle school and elementary students have gone on to collegiate study and careers in music --- music education, performance, recording artists, --one is even a composer for video game music. This is a career path, and we as a district are putting up roadblocks for many students. Elementary and Middle School programs are essential foundations and there needs to be a plan to ensure that everyone has access throughout their school careers.

As a district where we have Centers for Expressive Arts and a School of the Arts, in a city that has pledged its support of the arts through Tacoma Creates, we need to reflect this attitude with attention and intention in how we structure our arts programs. Currently we are intentionally blocking equitable access to quality instruction.

Quality and Equity:

It can be done! Intentionally making Health and Physical Education available--a state requirement which we are currently not fulfilling--is possible and necessary for educating The Whole Child.

As part of the health care community, PE teachers and the broad range of curriculum they teach are essential in developing healthy, socially-emotionally aware citizens. At the elementary level this instruction can set healthy habits and patterns, both physical and mental, for a lifetime.

TPS needs to have a k-12 vision for Health and Physical Education so that learning and understanding f these skills and concepts can be built throughout a student's school career.

Health, Fitness, and Athletics, as well as Physical Education are all viable career paths which we should be blazing for our students. Not all students have access to PE/Health education. A district-wide plan is necessary to make sure students have equitable access across the district at all levels.

If Milwaukee can reduce overall class sizes in the district and increase the number of art, music, and physical educators in the district, then we can, too. If we set a goal like theirs to have at least one full-time music and PE teacher in every elementary in the district within 3 years, then it's possible.

Let Parents and Community Members know that...

We are working to improve educational experiences for The Whole Child.

We are working to provide equitable access to quality instruction for all students.

What we do is an important part of educating healthy, creative life-long learners and positively contributing members of society.

The public is invited to give input on the TPS budget.

The next School Board meeting is Thursday, May 27th at 6pm. Write a letter or speak in person.

Invite staff, students, parents, and community members to speak up for specialists. Click below for the guidelines for addressing the board.

Interact with your School Board

Write an opinion piece for the local paper or talk with a reporter.

Allison Needles aneedles@thenewstribune.com is the Senior Editor for Tacoma and has been reporting stories in education. Click below to submit a letter to the editor.

Submit a Letter to the Editor at The News Tribune

TPS Wants your Budget Input

TPS has invited the public to participate in the budgeting process through an online budget calculator. Members of the public are invited to ask questions, suggest priorities, and make their own budget, balanced or not.

This is an effort to provide transparency and to help people understand the complexities of the process. However, in this case, it seems that the district is gathering (skewed) data on what to cut, based on misleading or incomplete information.

Under the heading of "Academic Excellence", Music and PE specialists have been separated out from all other teachers, put second on the otherwise alphabetical list and been given an $8.6 million dollar price tag. This looks like a ploy to justify cutting us further. As certified educators teaching mandated core curriculum, there doesn't seem to be any other reason to single us out.

Open Positions

As retirements and resignations are being announced, Music and PE positions are being posted across the district. The timing of this makes it difficult for those of us waiting to find out our assignments for next year, but if you're looking to move, especially to secondary, be sure to keep checking the postings. At the time of publication we could find the following PE and Music openings:

Stadium
Meeker
McCarver
Foss

Music

Mt. Tahoma Choir
Wilson Choir
Baker Choir

TPS Open Positions

Given the scarcity of information, there is much speculation. It is not clear whether this pot of money is for elementary specialists, or all K-12 Music and PE.

Since we cannot even get a list of how many specialists there are and where they currently teach, it's difficult to know whether this is a change for better, worse, or simply the status quo. For a ballpark figure, $8.6 will cover about 60 teacher salaries/benefits if they are all at the top of the pay scale.

It raises red flags, that we have been singled out when no other group of educators has been. This specifically says "Music and PE teachers", not "programs". While we obviously contribute to academic excellence, it also seems odd that we would be highlighted so near the top of the list. Many of the line items are nebulously described, making it very difficult to understand how they intend to use the funds, or from which funds certain functions will be funded.

Once again, we have no one speaking for us in the budgeting process, so we're having difficulty finding someone to ask.

After looking through every category, CAB/district admin is nowhere to be found, and school admin, office staff and paras are all in a single category with no breakdowns.

Yet here we are, just Music and PE, all by ourselves. Librarians are not included in this specialist category, and it seems from the description that they will no longer be filling teacher-librarian roles, but instead will be supporting student technology. (Click the "i" to see this.)

Since the district is seeking out guidance on priorities from the public, we encourage you to participate in this budgeting activity as well as ask parents and friends to join us in asking some clarifying questions and lobby for specialist funding.

Why are Music and PE teachers separated out when they are certificated educators, teaching core curriculum?

Is this $8.6 million dollars meant for elementary specialists only?

What is the staffing formula for specialists?

Where is the budget for district administration?

How can we ensure students have equitable access to quality instruction?