Wednesday, August 26, 2009

As the dust settles

From a couple of e-mails from Brian, 8/25/09

Hi Everyone, thanks for all your support today. Despite the vote we need to stay united and find a way for us to move forward. I do believe we need to look at options. I have included two links here. One is the Expanded School Based Management agreement between UTLA and the district, please look it over and let me know what you think. I have also included a link to the school that uses this model, Woodland Hill Academy. Please study both of these ASAP so we can discuss it and see how we would like to move forward.

http://www.utla.net/node/796

http://www.whacademy.com/

Here are other options to look at. This is the Belmont model. As I stated before, we need to be out in front on this one as a school. We need to set the example that something we can choose can work. However, given the tight timeline, this needs to happen with the utmost haste.

UTLA/Belmont agreement: http://www.utla.net/node/793

Belmont High School: http://www.belmonths.org/

Brian Fritch
History Teacher, UTLA chapter chair
James A. Garfield High School, LAUSD
323-981-5500
brian.fritch@lausd.net
________________________________

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Friends & press

We are making progress. Noted artist Harry Gamboa, Garfield class of 1969, has added us to his website.
Also, our Garfield parents and students made the news Friday evening on Telemundo Channel 22. We thought it was a terrific report, although there is a little confusion about charters and magnets. For the record, the magnet has been a proud member of the Garfield community for years!

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Plan of action

Here's the plan for this week.

Duffy is mobilizing the union through the chapter chairs across the district. UTLA is planning an "eight-to-eight" strategy for Tuesday, which means that we will be at Beaudry from 8:00 in the morning until 8:00 at night, and we will counter whatever strength Green Dot and its allies think they will have out there.

The alternate resolution sponsored by LaMotte and Zimmer was seconded, it seems, by Nury Martinez, which means that Tamar Galatzan is the only swing vote.

All we need to do, then, is to persuade her to support our vision for the future of our schools. And all she has to do is to vote for the LaMotte-Zimmer proposal.

If she isn't ready to do that, the board can vote to table both motions again, and give everyone more time to talk about the issues. With the traditional calendar schools and A-Track only just about to come back into session, that seems to be a reasonable option for any board member.

Here's the calendar:

Monday, August 24, 12:15 p.m. (lunch) - emergency whole-chapter meeting in GHS Library. We will detail the strategy for the week and marching orders for our mobilization there.

Monday, August 24, 4:00 p.m. - our GHS Statement of Principles will be faxed to board members. Be sure you have signed a copy by then. (Continue to circulate it to colleagues and friends at other schools.)

Monday, August 24, 6:00 p.m. - Yolie Flores-Aguilar, our board member and author of the Greeen-Dot-friendly motion, will be hosted by the GHS parents' community in the GHS Cafeteria. Teachers, students, and community members should be there. We endorse a civil discussion, but we want her to know that Garfield is united.

Tuesday, August 25, 8:00 a.m. - UTLA begins its mobilization at Beaudry. Track A and traditional calendar teachers, alongside community members and parents, need to be there early in order to match any show by Parent Revolution.

Tuesday, August 25, 2:00 p.m. - board debate is allowed to open on the Flores-Aguilar resolution. (The agenda is posted on the LAUSD Board site, http://laschoolboard.org/.)

Tuesday, August 25, 3:15 p.m. - two buses leave Garfield with Track B and C teachers along with more parents and community supporters to join the mobilization at Beaudry.

Tuesday, August 25, 8:00 p.m. - we hope to celebrate a vote for the positive future of schools in Los Angeles!

Finally, be sure to sign up as a "Follower" of this blog. You will need to set up a confidential free Google user account to do this. Numbers are important in this business!

Garfield stands united.

What are our challengers doing?

Ben Austin and Parent Revolution have been busy, and they are likely to be out early and in force at the board meeting on Tuesday. They have been organizing for a long time, and they have allies in many places. An e-mail from last week from Austin to his members tells the story.

While our members are making those e-mails and calls to our board members and the superintendent, we should also make some time to contact the Daily News and the L.A. Times, and get out our side of the story.

Here's the link to the Parent Revolution e-mail:

Statement posted

We are posting the the text, in English and in Spanish, of the Statement of Principles. We are getting tremendous support for this campaign, and we look forward to presenting it to the board this week.
The statement is written as a declaration from individual members of the Garfield chapter of UTLA, but we are inviting support (in the form of signatures) from any member of the Garfield community, including our invaluable support staff, our parents and families, and any individual working with our school for the benefit of our students.

Garfield stands united.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Links

informed_bulldogs is a student-created Myspace site. garfieldunites believes students should be allowed to build their own campaign, but we can all benefit by staying informed about what all members of the Garfield community are doing for this school!
  • www.myspace.com/informed_bulldogs
saveourpublicschools is a teacher-created blog for discussing the background issues at stake in the small schools question. garfieldunites neither endorses nor opposes the views represented there, and we encourage readers to get involved in the conversation.
  • savepublicschools.com
Here are some additional links to blogs, articles of interest, and other items suggested by our readers. They represent different points of view, and not every item lines up with this blog's purpose, which is to mobilize the Garfield teaching community, in collaboration with UTLA and supporting community stakeholders, to block the Flores-Aguilar motion and to push for authentic school change from our local perspective. But we like academic debate, so happy reading! I'm having some problems with the links, so I'll post these as text; readers can paste them into their browser.
  • www.dailynews.com/search/ci_13185224?source=email - Robert Skeel's op-ed in the August 22 Daily News, "Why school choice plan is a bad idea for our district"
  • rdsathene.blogspot.com/ - Robert Skeel's blog
  • 4lakidsnews.blogspot.com/ - blog by parent-activist Scott Folsom; we recommend the Letter to Board President Monica Garcia from August 20
  • itsyolie.blogspot.com/ - Yolie Flores-Aguilar's blog, last updated July 10
  • www.gse.harvard.edu/blog/uk/2009/06/charter-pilot-and-traditional-schools-in-boston-facts-to-refocus-the-debate.html - blog article from Harvard Graduate School of Education professer Thomas Kane, with analysis somewhat favorable to charters in the Massachusetts school system
For those ready for heavier, but very compelling analysis, check out "Correctly Understanding 'School Choice.'" Social Science and Modern Society 46 (2009): 324-332, on journal newstands like Vroman's in Pasadena (sorry, no permission to link at this juncture).

Contact your representatives

The following items were part of a UTLA chapter bulletin posted to Garfield teachers this week:

UTLA is calling on all Garfield Faculty to contact the LAUSD Board Members, the Superintendent, UTLA leadership, and local representatives to voice opposition to the Resolution of “A NEW WAY AT LAUSD” proposed by Yolie Flores Aguilar, Monica Garcia, and Richard Vladovic.  This proposition will “sell out” up to 50 new schools and hundreds of “underperforming” ones (such as Garfield) to private entities. 

***A SUBSTITUTE MOTION has been proposed by Ms. LaMotte and Mr. Zimmer*** Please visit the Board of Education at www.lausd.net and READ the Board Meeting Agenda for August 25th!!!!! 

The Board needs 4 of the 7 votes to pass the resolution.

Please call and/or email the contacts below, especially the swing votes (Galatzan and Martinez) letting them know THAT YOU OPPOSE THE RESOLUTION BUT SUPPORT THE SUBSTITUTE MOTION!!!!

School Board Contact Info:

Ms. Marguerite LaMotte                          (213) 241-6382  marguerite.lamotte@lausd.net

Ms. Monica Garcia                                    (213) 241-6180  Monica.garcia@lausd.net

Ms. Tamar Galatzan                                    (213) 241-6386  tamar.galatzan@lausd.net

Mr. Steve Zimmer                                    (213) 241-6387  Steve.zimmer@lausd.net

Ms. Yolie Flores Aguilar                        (213) 241-6383  Yolie.flores.aguilar@lausd.net

Ms. Nury Martinez                                    (213) 241-6388  nury.martinez@lausd.net

Mr. Richard Vladovic                        (213) 241-6385  Richard.vladovic@lausd.net

 

Superintendent Contact Info:

Ramon C. Cortines                                    (213) 241-7000 superintendent@lausd.net

UTLA Contact Info:

A.J. Duffy                                                (213) 368-6267 utlapresident@utla.net

(Ask Mr. Duffy why the union has not been more active in opposition to this issue)

Local Representatives

Sen. Gloria Romero                             (323) 881-0100  Senator.romero@sen.ca.gov

Supervisor Gloria Molina         (323) 881-4601  molina@bos.lacounty.gov

 

Garfield Community Meeting

Save Our Public Education

Yolie Aguilar-Flores will be @ Garfield H.S. to talk about her Small Schools Resolution. Please join us to voice our opinions about her resolution and to tell her "NO ON SCHOOL PRIVATIZATION".

Host: Garfield H.S. Community Room
Price: Free
Date: Monday, August 24, 2009
Time: 6:00-7:00 pm
Location: Garfield High School
Address: 5101 E. 6th St., Los Angeles, CA 90022
Phone: 323-712-0635
Contact: fridajalisco@hotmail.com
Map: View Google Map
RSVP: View Facebook Link

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Statement of Principles

If you would like the digital file for the Statement of Principles being circulated to Garfield faculty, send an e-mail to the Webmaster at garfieldunites@earthlink.net, and you will be sent a copy.

We are currently collecting signatures to submit the Statement to the board. Until we have submitted the signatures, we will only distribute the digital file to recognized parties. We ask that you support us in this by only forwarding it yourselves to other recognized parties.

Yes, we know that it will get out, but we want to keep as much integrity in the process as possible. There have been examples of others interested in this process who have not been so respectful.

We expect to submit our signatures to the board on Monday afternoon, August 24.

Garfield stands united.