MARCH 17, 2008

EXTRA!

DRASTIC BUDGET CUTS ANNOUNCED

Here is part of the text from a letter from Randi Weingarten that was sent to me:
“The budget situation facing our schools is potentially dire. The city has now proposed another cut for this September. Taken together, this September's cut will be SIX times that of the mid-year cut in January. If that happens, everybody's life - the students and our members in particular - will be changed.

We haven't seen a situation like this since the early 1990s or maybe even the mid-1970s. The mid-year cuts led to the elimination of after-school and weekend classes and tutoring, less money for textbooks and instructional supplies, no money for extracurricular activities and student clubs, no budget for substitutes. This will be much, much worse.

That is why we need to be on the streets en masse on Wednesday, March 19. That is when the fight about city and state priorities needs to take place. If the streets are not flooded with parents and educators protesting these cuts, the governor and state legislative leaders, the mayor and the Council Speaker won't feel the need to make education their priority. “

We here at P.S. 123 will not be immune from these cuts. That is why we should be at the rally this Wednesday, March 19, along with parents, students, administrators and community members. Take the L train to Manhattan. Transfer at Union Square to the 4, 5 or 6 to City Hall.

KNOW YOUR RIGHTS

Teachers are not responsible for selling candy, and cannot be held financially responsible for unsold candy. Not one penny!

All teachers are entitled to a pre-observation conference. Use the pre-observation conference to clarify what your supervisor expects to see during the visit. Take notes. She may ask you for a lesson plan. Following the observation, you should write down your recollections of the lesson, which will help you at the post-observation conference with your supervisor. Simply telling you that they will be coming in does not constitute a pre-observation conference, even if they say it is!

Teachers are not to stay with their classes in the lunchroom.

Kathy Sharko will be at our chapter meetings on Monday, March 25.