May 2008 Advocate �4650 Paris Avenue • New Orleans, LA 70�22 • 504-304-2�60; 866-793-8866

American Federation of TeachersUnited Teachers of New Orleans

A D V O C A T EM A Y 2 0 0 8

VOLUME 2, ISSUE 8

The AFT-UTNO

Discipline Crisis

A failure to consistently en-force discipline policies, “dump-ing” of special needs students in regular classrooms without a structured inclusion plan and inadequate support for new teachers are making many schools in New Orleans unman-ageable. To make matters worse, some charter schools have no well-defined discipline policies. This ultimately is limiting learn-ing opportunities for many of our children.

The RSD and other manage-ment bodies have been too slow to respond to the urgent need for enforced discipline policies. It is in our hands to make the change. Teachers and school employees need to come together to make sure that every school has an ef-fective discipline policy and to pressure the RSD and charter organizations for effective, con-sistent enforcement.

THE PROBLEM

Teachers across systems say the biggest problem in many schools is a lack of enforcement

(see Opportunites Limited, page 4)

Also in this Issue:

Technology Issues in the RSD page 2

Inclusion Explored page 5

Classroom Makeover Update page 7

Legislative Update page 7

UTNO ElectionsSixteen candidates vie for nine positions

At UTNO’s April 30 member-ship meeting, sixteen candidates were nominated to fill nine posi-tions in UTNO’s leadership.

For president of UTNO, Rich-ard Rowland, a teacher at Clark

High School, will be running against Larry Carter, AFT-UTNO Organizing Director. Darlene Johnson, also of Clark High

School, will be running against Executive Council Member Jim Randels for the position of ex-ecutive vice-president.

There are currently three candidates for RSD vice-presi-dent: Denise Abadie-Smith of John McDonogh High School, Diedre Williams-Parker of Fan-nie C. Williams and Christo-pher Stow-Serge of Clark High School.

Nine candidates are running for the six at-large member po-sitions: Dave Cash, Guisseppe Delfino, Marie Hotard, Sheila E. Johnson, Daven Lewis, David Reynaud, Andrea Spreter and Wanda Richard.

Three offices were filled when the candidates for those positions were unopposed: NOPS Vice-President, filled by Terrie Willard, Secretary-Trea-surer, filled by current Secretary-Treasurer Leoance Williams, and NOPS PSRP Representative, filled by Linda LaGarde. There

(see Mail Ballots, page 6)

Leoance Williams was re-elected unnoposed to the position of Secretary-Treasurer

2 May 2008 Advocate

Knowing TechnologyBy Richard Rowland, Clark High School, Recovery School District

The struggle of UTNO teach-ers to enourage technology is on-going in meetings organized by the Union with Paul Vallas.

A description of current tech-nology and suggestions in Three Major Areas are presented for se-rious consideration by teachers and professional staff concern-ing: Presentation Systems, Inter-net Connections and Laptops, Curriculum and Learning.

Whiteboard devices such as: Promethian, Smartboard, Hita-chi STAR board, Mimio, Portable Slates and Response Systems are available to schools. Alter-nate suggestions were made last year to RSD tech specialists for moveable projectors and Smart-boards, but the RSD has chosen fixed (bolted-down) Promethian boards, which have problems because of lost remotes and RF pens, but which have a lot of Brit-ish software and are very popular in Great Britain.

Dell Latitude Laptops and EPIC laptops were given to all

teachers and high-school stu-dents in the RSD. The Dells are only supposed to be used by teachers for e-mail, JPAMS atten-dance/grading programs, and have Microsoft Office. Teach-ers are not given passwords to load their own programs and the RSD uses the WebSense pro-gram to block all other e-mails and many educational sites. (This does not happen in other

Parishes and States)Over 4000 EPICs were

bought by the RSD with (8,000 bought by the Memphis School Board). EPICs are now being re-turned at a 60-80% return-rate. The EPIC curriculum programs and subjects are developed in Texas. One demonstration site at John McDonough High is still operating. The Achilles heel of the EPIC program was a lack of working wireless networking in schools that has only been re-

solved this Spring, too late for the Dallas based EPIC program to be fully used this year

LACUE (Louisiana Computer Using Educators) has investigat-ed: Moodle, Blackboard, DEWS, Oncourse, Skype, Jing, Google, and Videofieldtrips. Also World Book/reference, TOTL Apple Lap-tops, Kurtzweil Assistive Technol-ogy, ReadOutLoud, Digital Cam-eras Teaching stations, Wikis, Blogs, etc.

While I am part of a technol-ogy committee for the RSD with David Cash, and Christopher Stow-Serge, we are far behind in

accepting any new technology . The fixed Promethian boards and Laptops used for Word, Power-Point , E-mail, and limited JPAMs along with EPICs are the focus of the RSD.

Teacher and professional input and experience must be sought before investing $30,000.00 per classroom (EPIC @$1200X20 plus Promethian/Smart @$4-6,000).

The Union must demand that technology should reflect the needs of the teacher. There must be a teacher review board and online communication with all teachers. A survey is currently be-ing conducted on six areas (from Laptops to Supplies and Printers)

Teachers can join LACUE for free. Interested parties please contact Richard Rowland at (336-430-9725) or at richard.rowland@rsdla.net

CLASSROOM FOCUS

United Teachers of New Or-leans will be holding its annual picnic on Memorial Day, Mon-day May 26 at Pop’s Fountain in City Park. Come down to en-joy food, music and good times with your co-workers, including a performance by DJ Captain Charles! $12 admission covers food and refreshments, and the event will be open to adults 18 and over. We look forward to seeing you at the picnic!

Memorial Day Picnic

Educators are having maintenance issues with many of the new devices, such as the

Promethian Boards.

May 2008 Advocate 3

Our StandDr. Brenda MitchellAFT-UTNO PRESIDENT

I hope that all of you have had a chance to go out and enjoy Jazz Fest and this jovial time of year. Even amid the festivities, this is a serious time for United Teachers of New Orleans. We have made a lot of progress and have many things to be thankful for. However, our schools still have some serious problems that need to be addressed.

Foremost among these, disci-pline problems are making some schools unmanageable. We have tried in the past to bring these issues to the attention of admin-istrators, but too often they have fallen on deaf ears, and many in positions of power have been too slow to respond.

We can no longer sit back while children in some schools do not receive an adequate ed-ucation on account of a lack of enforcement of discipline poli-cies. It is time to make a change, and it is time for both the RSD and charter operators to begin enforcing discipline policies that work.

I also want to remind all of you that a critical election for our Union is happening. On April 30 we held our meeting for nomina-tion of candidates for union of-fices including President, three vice-presidential positions, Sec-retary, Treasurer and At-Large Member Representatives.

You will be receiving bal-lots in the mail to vote on that need to be mailed back on or by May 21. We are looking forward to full participation in this vital election.

I am also proud to say that the classroom makeover is pro-gressing, and we are eagerly an-ticipating the groundbreaking to begin the transformation of that classroom into a place of learn-ing that we all can be proud of. As I have said before, we would like to give a makeover to every classroom in New Orleans. But we are starting with what we can do — one classroom at a time.

I also want to remind all of you who have not joined a com-mittee about the importance of our member committees. Mem-ber committees are the best way to be an active part of making change not only at the school site, but in our school systems and in our city. Contact the UTNO Organizer at your school site to join a committee today.

I want to thank all of our members for the hard work that you all have done in putting this union back together. This union is coming back stronger than ever, and we owe it to you.

The Work Still Ahead of Us

Despite repeated attempts by UTNO leadership to assure that dues are being deducted from all our members, approxi-mately 100 individuals working in RSD schools are still not hav-ing their dues deducted.

This is a very serious matter as each members’ dues pay for liability insurance and legal ser-vices provided with member-ship. If your dues are not being deducted from your paycheck, you may not be eligible to re-ceive these services.

If you are not sure that your dues are being deducted, please

RSD Errors Persist in Dues Deductioncontact UTNO Organizer Jaunita Bailey at (504)304-2160 to verify that dues are not being deduct-ed and to make alternate plans for payment until such time as the RSD corrects this problem.

Please note that if due to RSD error your dues are not be-ing deducted that you are still eligible to vote in May union elections.

4 May 2008 Advocate

Learning Opportunities Limited by Discipline Issuesof discipline policies, whether they are the state codes of con-duct, the RSD’s own discipline policy or policies at charter schools. “There’s no clear mes-sage sent to the children or their parents,” explains Kim Legaux-Johnson, a behavior interven-tionist at Schwarz Transitional School.

Jeffrey Berman, who teach-es at Booker T. Washington, another transitional school, agrees. “It’s very frustrating when there is no set discipline response, where kids know they can do anything they want,” says Berman.

Another problem is that not enough resources are being dedicated to solving these problems before they become crises, both in terms of funding and manpower. Michael Hard-ing, who teaches at Gregory Ele-mentary, says that with 400-450 students at Gregory, there is one counselor, one social worker and four security guards.

Harding says all the support staff, including two assistant principals who handle disci-pline issues, are stretched thin trying to cover the needs of the student body. Gregory teach-es first through eighth grades, which includes some students as old as seventeen. This year Gregory has seen two students expelled for beating up a teach-er, and another teacher has had a book thrown at her head.

A central concern of many educators is the lack of involve-ment of parents in discipline is-sues. Larry Carter, Director of Organizing at United Teachers

of New Orleans, says that when he was a teacher, he ran the Boy’s Club and worked with other af-ter-school programs to try to actively engage parents in posi-tive activities for youth. How-

ever, since the storm many of those programs have vanished. A subsequent lack of parent involvement in some schools leaves teachers in an impossible situation.

Teachers across systems agree that a central source of behavior problems is a failed model of inclusion that results in the “dumping” of special needs students in regular classrooms without adequate support. (see “Inclusion or Dumping? facing page)

To make matters worse, the teachers who are assigned to the “transitional” schools are of-ten those least prepared to deal with these problems. Both Har-ding of Gregory and Berman of Booker T. Washington say that the majority of their colleagues at Booker T. Washington and Gregory are first-year teachers like themselves.

These teachers also say the assistance they are receiving to deal with behavior problems is

woefully inadequate. “Mentored by email? Don’t even bother me with that,” says Harding of Gregory. Berman agrees. “If I had a real mentor, it absolutely would help,” says Berman. He explains that he has “created his own mentorship” by seek-ing the help of former instruc-tors and his parents, both of whom are teachers, in the ab-sence of effective assistance from the RSD.

Ultimately, students are bearing the real cost of disci-pline failures in New Orleans schools. “Very early on this year Vallas wrote off the whole

year,” explains Harding of Greg-ory. “But these kids don’t have that choice. They only get one chance to do the eighth grade.”

SOLUTIONS

The RSD is currently revising its discipline policy, but educa-tors say this is taking too long. There are ways to improve class-room environments that can be acted on more rapidly, and teachers at schools across New Orleans are a rich source of ideas for improvements in teaching and learning environments.

The first and most important step is to demand that the prin-cipals at every school enforce consistent discipline policies that actively involve the educa-tors themselves. “Discipline has to be consistent to be effective, bottom line,” says Larry Carter, UTNO’s Organizing Director.

Second, both the RSD and charter schools need to make the education of special needs

Jeffrey Berman of Booker T. Washington says mentoring is important for first-year teachers in dealing with discipline issues

May 2008 Advocate 5

Learning Opportunities Limited by Discipline Issuesstudents a priority and start dedicating real resources to identifying special needs stu-dents and to adequately provid-ing for their needs.

Beyond these essential changes, some instructors say the way to keep students en-gaged is to provide them with more instruction that is direct-ly relevant to their day-to-day lives. Tony Hart of Reed High School wants to see a return to vocational education in high schools. “Why don’t we have in-dustrial arts? Why don’t we have auto mechanics? Most of our jobs don’t require a college edu-cation,” says Mr. Hart.

Proposals like Mr. Hart’s re-main controversial, and call back a heated debate about aca-demic versus technical training for African-American youth that has been going on since W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washing-ton argued this very matter one hundred years ago.

In any case, teacher voices need to be central to solving the discipline crisis in our schools. At every stage of the discipline process teachers need to be in-volved as partners.

UTNO’s Discipline Commit-tee will be meeting regularly and is currently negotiating with the RSD for changes not only in policy but implementation. Join the discipline committee today by calling UTNO Lead Organizer Juanita Bailey today at (504)304-2160. Together we can solve these problems, and make our schools a place where our children’s education is no longer compromised.

Inclusion or Dumping?Educators and advocates say

the inclusion of special needs students into regular classrooms in New Orleans public schools is badly mismanaged, and that this is leading to serious discipline problems in our schools.

“I know what inclusion is, and this isn’t it,” says Karran Harper-Royal, a parent of public school children and an advocate at Pyramid Parent Resource Cen-ter. “A lot of times people in New Orleans think as long as a child is sitting in a classroom with regu-lar students, that is inclusion. But if they’re not participating in materials and content, that’s not inclusion,” explains Harper-Royal.

Harper-Royal uses the term “dumping” to describe the prac-tice of putting special needs children into regular classrooms without support, which she says is commonplace in New Orleans.

This is causing serious prob-lems for educators. Tony Hart, a teacher at Reed High School, points to the failure of inclusion as a primary cause of behavior problems.

Hart explains that special needs students, particularly those who are behind in basic skills such as reading, get un-derstandably frustrated when asked to perform at grade level and begin acting out. “Special needs are a big problem,” says Hart, “We have kids that read at a third-grade level.”

Adding to this problem is the failure to adequately diagnose

large numbers of special needs students. “The reality is that the majority of our kids have learn-ing disabilities,” explains Michael Harding, a teacher at Gregory El-ementary, “I don’t know how we are supposed to do Individual-ized Instruction Programs with the limited staff that we have.”

However, Harper-Royal says that these problems do not mean that we should abandon inclusion, which is regarded as a progressive educational reform. “Children weren’t being served to their potential with segregat-ed classrooms either. It’s not a situation of either/or— we need to do inclusion and do it right,” says Harper-Royal.

In order for inclusion to work, we need to provide adequate re-sources for special needs stu-dents— not just leaving them in regular classrooms without sup-port. Both the RSD and charter organizations need to prioritize identifying special needs stu-dents and hiring sufficient num-bers of special education teach-ers to accomplish real inclusion.

We also need tougher penal-ties for schools that are not ac-cepting their fair share of special needs students, so that they bur-den is not shifted entirely upon certain schools and districts.

Ultimately, teachers in the RSD and in charter schools need a voice in the workplace so that we can turn our schools around and accomplish real inclusion of special needs students.

6 May 2008 Advocate

On May 23, the Civil District Court of New Orleans will be hearing a case filed by seven for-mer patients of Charity Hospital to re-open the hospital, which has been closed since shortly after Hurricane Katrina hit.

The patients are suing Louisi-ana State University’s Health Sci-ences Center on the grounds that the medical care available in New Orleans since the closure of Char-ity has badly deteriorated.

Affidavits in the case have been filed by the Lower 9th Ward Health Clinic and several officals with Orleans Parish Criminal Sheriff Marlin Gusman’s Office. The Orleans Parish Sheriff’s de-partment currently runs the larg-est psychiatric unit in the city, and has repeatedly called for the re-opening of the hospital.

While not a plaintiff in the case, UTNO is a member of the Committee to Re-Open Charity Hospital, an organization sup-porting the plaintiffs. “This issue is important for United Teachers of New Orleans because many of the students who attend our public schools, as well as their parents, grandparents and oth-er relatives depended on Char-ity,” says UTNO Community Organizer Katrena Ndang. Ms. Ndang notes that many UTNO members who were forced to re-tire after storm need the services that Charity provided as well.

The May 23 hearing will be presided over by Judge Ethel Julian at the Civil Court of New Orleans, 1300 Perdido Street.

Hearing on Charity

Hospital Lawsuitwere no nominees for the office of Recording Secretary.

This election will be decided by mail-in ballot. Ballots have been mailed from the UTNO office to all current members. Completed ballots must be post-marked by May 21, 2008 to be counted in the election.

More information, including official biographical information and photos of all candidates, will be sent separately.

Election results will be made public on May 28, 2008.

Mail Ballots in Union Elections(continued from page 1)

Campaign Regulations1. No campaign literature shall be distributed to non-members of UTNO or placed in non-members’ school mailboxes.

2. Campaign literature may not contain defamatory or scurrilous statements. If you feel that literature contains such, please contact the UTNO office for directions.

3. Use of the intra-school mail delivery system is prohibited. (Candi-dates are not allowed to use the system.)

4. UTNO will not make available to any candidate the home addresses or home phone numbers of members.

5. Provisions have been made for candidates to mail literature to the membership by a company experienced in handling the mailing of this type of literature.

6. Persons who joined the union after March 15, 2008 will not receive ballots.

7. Ballots will be mailed out the week of May 4. Ballots must be post-marked by May 21, 2008, to be counted. Election results will be an-nounced on May 28, 2008.

United Teachers of New Or-leans continues to make progress on its first post-storm contract with the Orleans Parish School Board. Some of the areas that we have reached tentative agree-ments on are the work-day, the number of after-school meet-ings, representation at disciplin-ary conferences, class sizes and the length of the school year. We are still negotiating holidays and pay periods.

The contract and thus all agreements are subject to final ratification by both the OPSB, UTNO’s Executive Council and the full membership of UTNO.

UTNO thanks all the mem-bers of the contract develop-ment team who are taking their valuable time to make sure that UTNO members get the con-tract they deserve.

UTNO/OPSB Contract Update

May 2008 Advocate 7

May will be another busy month for UTNO’s Bridging the Gap Classroom Makeover Proj-ect, as design work is being fi-nalized and donations continue to come in from our brothers and sister union members.

On April 29 the design team met and one design was select-ed from among three presented by Delgado Community College

interior design students. Donations have been pour-

ing in from Dade County, Florida. We at UTNO extend a sincere thanks to the United Teachers of Dade Retirees Chap-ter for its generous donation of $1,604, as well as Dade County Community College for its do-nation of $2,000.

A big thanks as well to Cross Country Magic Carpets, who donated a brightly colored 5’ x 7’ rug for the room, selected by winning teachers Jasper Baena and Bernadine Henderson.

Groundbreaking for the ren-ovation is expected to occur in early May, so watch the UTNO web site for details.

Classroom Makeover

Moves Forward

Education Legislation UpdateUnited Teachers of New Or-

leans is very concerned about a number of bills currently in the Louisiana legislature. Bills proposed for the current ses-sion include proposals to use public funds for vouchers for private school tuition, to extend the length of time that the RSD maintains management over public schools.

Among the bills we are most concerned with is HB 1347. The bill, proposed by Representative

Austin Badon from New Or-leans East, will spend $10 mil-lion in public funds to pro-vide vouchers for students in Orleans Parish to attend private schools or schools in neighboring parishes. Both LFT leadership and a del-egation from UTNO spoke against the bill, however it passed the House Education Committee on April 30 by a vote of 9-8.

A similar bill to HB 1347, SB 795, is being introduced to the State Senate by Senator Ann Duplessis. We urge you to op-pose this bill as well. Your rep-resentatives and senators need to hear from you that we don’t believe siphoning public funds to private institutions is respon-sible or a good solution for Or-leans Parish.

We are also concerned with HB 463, a bill that would alter the requirement that the RSD has to return schools to Orleans Parish after a certain number of years.

We feel that given the ab-sence of real community over-sight in the RSD, these schools should be returned OPSB in the

time specified in Act 35. It is simply not acceptable that par-ents, teachers and community members have to go to Baton Rouge to attend BESE meetings for the governance of their local schools.

It is important for our mem-bers, parents and interested community members to get ac-tive and to send a message to your Representatives in the Loui-siana Legislature to oppose both HB 1347, HB 463 and SB 795.

To find your legislator, go to http://legis.state.la.us and

follow the link on the left that says “How do I...?” and then the link under legislator questions that says “How do I determine who is my legislator?”. You can contact your representative us-ing the email address or phone number listed on their web page at http://legis.state.la.us, or by calling the legislative switch-board at (225)342-6945.

We urge all of our members and supporters to call or email their legislator today to defeat these HB 1347, HB 463 and SB 795- to keep supporting public education and to bring back lo-cal governance of our schools!

Members of UTNO’s delegation spoke to the House Education Committee

Clark Teachers Jasper Baena and Bernadine Henderson selecting a rug from

Cross Country Magic Carpets

8 May 2008 Advocate

Being There for the ChildrenAn interview with Barbara Sallettes, Sophie B. Wright Elementary

PROFESSIONAL VOICE

Barbara Sallettes has seen many changes in the school systems in New Orleans. A gen-tle, soft-spoken woman with a dry sense of humor, she has been working in Orleans Parish schools for 38 years. Ms. Sal-lettes started her career while still in high school as an assis-tant teacher, and after college worked as a teacher at Gentilly Terrace Elementary.

As the years went by Ms. Sal-lettes saw that her students had other needs that she couldn’t always take care of in her job as a teacher. “I could see a lot of students had problems. You couldn’t really address students with 30-35 in one classroom,” explains Ms. Sallettes. After 18 years of teaching she decided to make the move to becom-ing a counselor, and has been counseling students for the last two decades at Sophie B. Wright School in Uptown New Orleans.

“I like what I do— relating to students on a one-to-one ba-sis,” says Sallettes. “I’m giving them information they need to

have. It’s rewarding when you are passing out valuable infor-mation.” In her current job she also works with the SAT team and does evaluation for gifted students and students with ar-tistic promise.

Sophie B. Wright was char-tered two weeks before Hurri-cane Katrina, and Ms. Sallettes says that with all the changes going on in the city, the school

has been relatively stable. Wright reopened in January of 2006, after first having to prove to the state that there would be enough students to reopen the school.

“The state told us if we could find 100 children that we could reopen, so we called everyone on our rolls,” recalls Ms. Sallettes, “Some were in Oregon.”

Sallettes sees the changes since the storm as a mixture of positive and negative. While she says she enjoys working at Wright, she has concerns about the flow of information in char-ter schools.

“I used to get emails and let-ters regularly about what is going on,” says Sallettes. “There has to be some way of pulling those of us in charter schools into the mainstream of information.”

She is also concerned about healthcare issues, and says that the inability of the various sys-tems to guarantee health ben-efits for retirees is a major prob-lem. She sees UTNO as a way to

solve issues like these. “There has to be a way to tie everyone in to healthcare. We can’t have these fragments— we need to bring everyone together,” says Sallettes.

Barbara Sallettes has been a proud member of UTNO for her entire career in the OPSB. For her, the union is a vital protec-tion for the rights not only of teachers, but for counselors and other employees as well.

“I think this is the only way to protect your rights,” states Sal-lettes, “If you don’t have a union, you really have no rights. In the old days before the union came, you could be a good teacher, but if the principal didn’t like you then you were gone.”

The job of counselors and other support staff may at times be overlooked, but they bring es-sential skills to the education of our children. United Teachers of New Orleans is proud of Barba-ra Sallettes and all our support staff, counselors, para-profes-sionals and other educators.

Barbara Sallettes in her office at Sophie B. Wright Charter School

It’s Your Newsletter- Make Your Voice Heard

We welcome comments as well as stories, photos and sto-ry ideas from the front lines. Please limit submissions to 500 words and send to UTNO Com-munications Director Christian Roselund, croselund@utno.org, (504)304-2160.