May 03
Come and celebrate our own Dean Vogel!
May 02
Today the CTA and CFT…
… filed opening briefs for a legal appeal asking that Judge Rolf M. Treu’s misguided ruling in Vergara v. State of California be reversed in its entirety.
Stating that Judge Treu’s decision striking down five California Education Code provisions “is without support in law or fact,” the original notice of appeal says that Treu’s reversible errors are “too numerous to list.”
The brief filed today not only outlines the numerous legal errors in the ruling, but clearly shows that the laws in question provide great benefit to California students.
Take a look at the joint news release and also at the talking points to become familiar with the points made in the appeal. Stay connected and up to date.
A lot of activity is expected on Facebook and Twitter. Please chime in and let everyone know California’s educators care deeply about their students and will stand against anyone trying to strike down their educators’ rights which are also their rights.
Vergara Tweets and Facebook Posts
Please retweet posts from @CATeachersAssoc as well as tweet some of these message points below from your personal accounts.
Like lawsuit itself, #VergaraTrial ruling is flawed. Appealing so we can continue providing all students a quality education.
#VergaraTrial plaintiffs failed to produce a single example of a student harmed or likely to be harmed by #DueProcess laws.
From the beginning, #VergaraTrial lawsuit has highlighted the wrong problems, proposed the wrong solutions, and followed the wrong process.
Circumventing the legislative process to strip teachers of their due process rights will not improve student learning. #VergaraTrial
Teachers don’t have tenure—that’s a misnomer—and they certainly don’t have a job for life. #VergaraTrial
Teachers with more than 2 years of experience simply have the right to a hearing before being dismissed. #VergaraTrial
#DueProcess ensures administrators don’t fire teachers who speak out on issues like student safety or appropriate use of funds #VergaraTrial
#DueProcess makes the teaching and learning environment more stable. #VergaraTrial
Appealing because #VergaraTrial ruling would make it harder to attract, retain quality teachers, ignores research showing experience key factor in effective teaching
#VergaraTrial not about helping students, just another attempt by millionaires, corporate special interests to push their agenda on schools
#VergaraTrial testimony showed that experience enhances teacher effectiveness and increases student productivity at all grade levels
Prolonging probationary period would have the unintended effect of keeping ineffective new teachers in classrooms longer. #VergaraTrial
CA’s experience-based layoff system is fair, efficient way for districts to deal w layoffs due to budget cuts, declining enrollment #VergaraTrial
Apr 30
2015 VTA ELECTION RESULTS
President: Moira McSweeney……………………………………..392
Vice President: Alyson Brauning……………………………………….390
Treasurer: Brenda Hensley…………………………………………389
Recording Secretary: Corey Penrose…………………………………………384
Corresponding Secretary: Samantha Maunder…………………………….383
Wood/Buckingham Director: Todd Blanset…………………………………….71
Vaca High / Country High Director: Sylvia Aquino ……………………………..36
Julie Timmerman-Rodrigues……………………………18
Vaca Pena Director: Karen Peters……………………………………………..19
Jepson Director: Tracy Begley…………………………………………….27
Elementary Site Directors:
Mike Ensley………………………………….186
Sharon Riehl…………………………………………….164
Sofia Feliz-Hatfield……………………………………..158
Tammy Parker……………………………………………154
Megan Morris…………………………………………….150
Sylvia Shepard…………………………………………….88
Apr 29
2015 LCAP survey results
Hello brothers and sisters! A while ago, you received this survey in your email and these were the directions:
The Vacaville Unified School District’s Local Accountability Plan (LCAP) is currently under review and revision for 2015-16. This survey will ask you to rate how effectively you feel VTA members’ top priorities from our 2014 survey have been implemented this year. It will also help to establish VTA members’ top three priorities for 2015-16. Please indicate the level of progress you feel has been made this year toward achieving each of the twelve 2014 priorities. In addition, please identify what your top three priorities are for 2015-16. You can use priorities from the 2014 list or any others you may have.
2014 Priorities:
Competitive salaries
Adequate supplies
Smaller classes
Curriculum that is aligned to new standards
Access to technology for staff and students
More planning time
Meetings that are worth attending
Better working conditions/morale/working copy machines
High quality administrators
More Career Tech Education (CTE) at all levels
Follow through at District level on behavior and SARB
Teacher driven professional development (what and when)
- No progress
- Some progress
- Significant progress
- Don’t know
And here were your replies:
VTA 2015 LCAP Top 3 Priorites – Summary of Most Commonly Indicated Priorities (approx.. % of responses)
-
Priority 1-
Competitive Salary/Salary Increase – approx. 50%
Smaller Class Sizes-approx. 8%
Technology/Access to technology- approx. 7%
-
Priority 2-
Smaller Class Size- approx. 22%
Competitive Salary/Salary Increase-approx. 18%
Technology/Access to technology- approx. 14%
Increased Prep/Planning Time-approx. 11%
-
Priority 3
Technology – approx. 20%
Competitive Salary/Salary Increase -approx. 12%
Prep/Planning Time-approx. 10%
Smaller Class Size- approx. 9%
Curriculum/Curriculum Aligned with Common Core – approx. 7%
Here’s another breakdown of the specifics of your replies
[gview file=”http://www.vacateachers.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/VTA-LCAP-Survey-Data_All_150405.pdf”]
And here’s the complete list of every single reply.
[gview file=”http://www.vacateachers.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/VTA_2015_LCAP_Top_3_Priorities_edited.pdf”]




