The Saratoga Springs Teachers’ Association (SSTA) serves as the exclusive negotiating representative for the nearly 540 employees in our unit. This is not a role we take lightly nor for granted. The leaders of the SSTA are committed to providing exceptional service, representation, voice, and support to our members. Your elected Officers and Building Representatives serve annually on the SSTA Executive Committee. In total, 55 of your peers have accepted the responsibility for the leadership of our Association. Each serves in a unique role that enable us to provide the service and representation our members require and deserve. Members should reach out to one of these dedicated leaders when an interest, concern or situation arises. Each has the experience, knowledge, and training to either assist you directly or connect you with the appropriate resource(s).

On the first Monday of each month, our Executive Committee meets to address current issues and guide the direction of our officers. All active members are welcome and encouraged to attend these meetings. The conversations at these meetings are essential to making sure our association represents each member in the best possible way.

NYSUT recently published it's core values and guiding principles (https://www.nysut.org/resources/special-resources-sites/our-union/nysut-values). They are Public Schools, Good Jobs, Health Care, Justice and making Our Voice as educators the primary advocate for our students. The leadership of the SSTA embraces these values. We are committed to seeing our members and our students receive the advocacy you deserve as a result of putting your trust in us.

In Solidarity,

Tim

Melissa Deutsch

We are fortunate to have the opportunity to have four meetings this year to voice our concerns directly with members of the Board of Education. We are still firming these dates, but it will look like we will be meeting:

• Tuesday, November 5th
• Thursday, December 12th
• Wednesday, February 12th
• Thursday, May 14th

One topic at our fall meeting will be the specific roles of Special Education teachers, School Counselors, School Psychologists, OT/ PT, Speech Providers, and School Social Workers. The Board is seeking information about how our programs are designed and how they meet the needs of our students.

If you have topics that would be appropriate to discuss with our elective leaders please reach out to Melissa Deutsch at mdeutsch1@nycapp.rr.com .

Kristen Bobear

Thank you to all who participated in our 2018-2019 Vote-Cope drive. Your contributions helped to raise money for political activities which support our union at the national, state, and local levels. Our 2019-2020 drive will once again be in the spring so please look out for materials around May.

There will be changes to the 2020-2021 drive:

• Our 2020-2021 drive will take place in the fall of 2020 to kick off our school year.

• Our auto-deduction contributions will be taken out per paycheck rather than taken out as a lump sum. Your total contribution will still be the same, however this amount will be divided among the paychecks you receive. You will receive more information as this change gets closer.

Joanne Estrada

We will have 3 dates available in November if you are interested in completing a Health Care Proxy and Living Will with our new Legal Services.

The tentative dates are:

• Monday, November 18th
  
• Tuesday, November 19th
  
• Wednesday, November 20th

This process will take about 15 minutes per person. If you are interested, please email Joanne Estrada (jmestrada@nycap.rr.com) with your name and building by October 31. Once we get a count, we will update you with more information regarding times and locations. All members will be receiving a Legal Service packet from your Head Building Rep regarding these services.

News of a teacher shortage across the nation has been pummeling us for years now, right up through a story yesterday in the Panama City News Herald about an “extreme” teacher shortage.

Fewer students in teacher prep programs. Thousands of unfilled teacher vacancies in state after state.

But we need to stop calling it a teacher shortage.

You can’t solve a problem starting with the wrong diagnosis. If I can’t buy a Porsche for $1.98, that doesn’t mean there’s an automobile shortage. If I can’t get a fine dining meal for a buck, that doesn’t mean there’s a food shortage. And if appropriately skilled humans don’t want to work for me under the conditions I’ve set, that doesn’t mean there’s a human shortage.

Calling the situation a “teacher shortage” suggests something like a crop failure or a hijacker grabbing truckloads before they can get to market. It suggests that there simply aren’t enough people out there who could do the job.

There is no reason to believe that is true. But pretending that it is true sets up justification for a variety of bad “solutions” to the shortage. “Since there aren’t enough teachers,” the reasoning goes, “then we might as well just let any warm body run a classroom.” So some states have adopted the idea of letting any person with any college degree take charge of a classroom. Computer-based learning systems are pitched in part as a way to “solve” the shortage of live humans to do the job. In some areas, charter schools have a particularly hard time filling positions with certified teachers, and so legislatures (like the one in New York), instead of saying, “Well, you’d better bend to free market forces and make a better offer,” offer to change the rules so that charters can hire folks who have no teaching credentials. Some folks have suggested that a single superteacher could handle an auditorium full of students or be piped into multiple distant classrooms via internet without any loss of the quality that made them super. All of these choices are less than optimal.

All of those “solutions” rest on the premise that there just aren’t enough qualified human teachers in the world, that the magic teacher tree hasn’t borne enough fruit. Given that premise, these all seem like ways to address the problem, even if it means settling for less than the high-quality teachers all students deserve.

But if we assume there are plenty of qualified people who could choose to enter a classroom, and stay there for a career, then we realize that we’re dealing with an entirely different problem. Students who could choose to become teachers are choosing not to. People who could choose to stay in the classroom are instead engaging in a slow-motion strike, an extended exodus, and our real problem is how to attract and retain those people.

Money is obviously an issue, as witnessed by a year’s worth of “teachers can’t live on a single teaching salary” stories. But over the past couple of decades teachers have also suffered a steady drumbeat of disrespect, the repeated refrain that US schools are failing and terrible, an accountability movement that is more about threats than support. The rise of reforms like Common Core and high stakes testing regimens have meant a loss of professional autonomy for teachers. The rise of alternative pathways and “any warm body will do” solutions send the message that teaching is such a simple job that any shmoe with minimal training can do it. The PDK poll lays out the results–teachers think about leaving the profession and do not want their children to enter it. And that’s before we even start to consider how badly underrepresented men and teachers of color are in the classroom.

The qualified people exist, but too many states and school districts want to pretend otherwise, in part because there is one other appealing aspect to viewing this as a teacher shortage. The shortage model allows state and district leaders to shrug and say, “Hey, they just aren’t out there. It’s not our fault.”

When the dealer won’t sell me my $1.98 Porsche, I can blame it on him and complain, “It’s not my fault he wouldn’t sell to me.” Or I can suck it up, take a look in the mirror and say, “If I want that car, I need to do better.”

Peter Greene

©2019 Forbes Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.

• Prior to asking your question, please review your contract. (Digital copies of the contract were emailed out. Hard copies were delivered.)
  

• Please provide as much accurate detail as possible to facilitate discussion and resolution of the issue. It is extremely difficult to discuss and resolve issues based on hearsay or inaccurate information.

• Please be patient as we work to answer your question(s).

If you contact one SSTA Representative, please allow time for that person to gather accurate information to answer your question. You may want an immediate answer, which is seldom possible.

Members often consult people outside of SSTA and/or NYSUT for advice handling a concern or issue and report to us that we (SSTA) should handle the issue or situation differently. While it’s always beneficial to examine an issue from multiple perspectives, it’s imperative to have accurate information and knowledge of SSTA’s contract and negotiated plans and procedures.

We need to continue to monitor Human Resources’ interpretation and application of the contract and law. Please contact one of our FMLA coordinators below if you

• plan to take leave under FMLA, prior to submitting your leave notification and request.

• have already submitted your notification and request in order to share that information/experience.

The pavilion change didn't slow us down!

Fun was had by all! Thank you everyone for coming out and celebrating the start of the school year and the continuation of this family oriented tradition!

(p.s. 4 out of 6 of our Elementary schools represented in the picture below)

The Bob Best Memorial Fund has enabled us to create pathways for youth and families within our community to participate in education and wellness programs at the YMCA.

Two families and several students were given a one year scholarship to participate in Y programs . Additionally, 6 elementary students were given two weeks with the YMCA travel camp. A $1000.00 scholarship has also been established in Bob's memory through the Saratoga Builder's Association.

Continuing a legacy of healthy living for others and opportunity is the goal of the Bob Best Annual Golf Tournament. We could not be more grateful for your support!