Jordan Elbridge Teachers Association

The Executive Committee met on December 15th and got quite a lot accomplished:

–Decided on a form for building reps to use to report problems and concerns to both the Executive Committee and school administration when necessary.

–Decided that to increase turnout at Board Meetings, the High School would represent JETA at the meetings in January & April, Elbridge would represent at February and May, and the Middle School would represent at April and June. See your Building Rep to show the JETA colors!

–Decided to urge members to go to the NYSUT MAC (Member Action Center) to urge the Governor not to make Regents Field Testing mandatory.

–Decided to empower our Social Chair Jessica Paquette to set up a NIGHT OF JETA BOWLING AT DESTINYUSA IN FEBRUARY!!!! Stay tuned for more details!

This past week, Ben resolved an issue with the district that involves only first year coaches and first-year club advisers who are paid under Schedule A-3.

If you fall into one of those categories, please check with your building representative to be sure that you are being paid what you should be for your time.

Thanks for all you do for our kids.

I wish I could take credit for writing this, but it was written by Maggie Estlinbaum, one of the high school building representatives in a letter to the high school faculty that was too good not to reprint here:
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Hello Everyone,

Tuesday November 4^th is Election day.  It is of the utmost importance that we all take the time to vote and make our voices heard.  It was mentioned at our last faculty meeting that only 43% of NYSUT members voted in the last election.  As I am sure you are aware, if we do not vote, it is difficult to convince our elected officials that the issues that we value like a great education system is important.  So please, take the time to vote, and make sure that you vote for all of the contested offices.  It is almost more important that you vote for your local officials as  your voice is more powerful at a local level.

To help you in forming your decisions below are links to the Onondaga County Board of Elections and the Cayuga County Board of Elections.  On both of these websites you can find a sample ballot for each of the contested races so that you can do your research before heading to the polls on Tuesday November 4^th.

http://www.cayugacounty.us/CountyGovernment/BoardofElections.aspx

http://www.ongov.net/elections/pollingPlacesTowns.html

Here is also a link to the NYSUT endorsed candidates in case you are interested.

https://mac.nysut.org/endorsed-candidates

Finally, there are two things that I need to request from you:

1. We are looking for members to attend Board meetings and take notes at them.  As Mindy mentioned following our last faculty meeting we have done this in the past and it holds the Board more accountable for what they say about teachers in a public forum.  There is a sign-up sheet in the staff lunch room and I will likely walk around and try to sign folks up in the next week or two.
2. We are looking for members who would like to join the APPR committee.  This committee will be in charge of looking at our APPR agreement and discussing any developing any potential changes.  I have already heard from Marlena Nivison, Pam Mead, and Jason Kufs that they are interested in being on this committee.

Thanks for setting this up! It is a great way to communicate.

Kiki Gugel asked me to ask around the high school for two volunteers to work at the snack bar at the Pep Rally on Friday night, September 12.

Please don’t tell her that I didn’t because I forget things like that. Hopefully she won’t read this post and know that I’ve let her down because the 43 people who have registered for updates so far (YEAH, JETA!) will read this and turn out in force.

I worked it last year, and it was a blast. And I don’t just mean the fireworks.

She told me to beg. Unfortunately, at JETA.biz, we (will eventually) have such high standards that we prefer to ask nicely.

State Education Commissioner John King has decided to repeal the Common Core Standards after seeing JETA members dress up in blue today. “That’s strange,” pointed out JETA co-president Ben Alexander. “All we wanted was a three-year moratorium on high-stakes testing so that test results don’t hurt kids or teachers any more.”

Well, that actually didn’t happen, but it was fun to sport the blue. More pictures will follow as they are received at JETA.biz Central.

 At the Middle School this morning.

Kiki Gugel (8th Grade Resource), Jim Sherman (MS Home & Careers), Paul Farfaglia (Data Co-ordinator), Angel Bevilaqua (8th Grade Science), Doug Hickman (MS Technology), Leo McCormick (7th Grade Science), Mark Donabella (8th Grade Math)

The JETA Executive Committee members who made it to the end of the meeting at 6:00

Leo McCormick (Treasurer), Happy McClurg (Health & Safety), Kiki Gugel (MS Building Rep), Jennifer Weaver (Secretary), Paul Farfaglia & Ben Alexander (co-Presidents), Dave Sipley (Hiding in the Background), Pat Smart (Elbridge Building Rep).

Sitting here in Texas with the family, I think it’s only right to wish y’all a Happy Thanksgiving.

While mushy stuff will be kept to a minimum on this website as long as I’m writing posts, thank you for working for the kids, for fighting against the odds, for waging daily war against ignorance, ambivalence, and poverty. Thank you for working around all the barriers that get placed in our way. Thank you for joining in a common cause to make the world a better place than we found it. Thanks for being friends. Thanks for belonging and making it worthwhile to belong to JETA.

Happy Thanksgiving, y’all.