Carolyn's Corner

December 7, 2005

The year has certainly flown by with much drama and energy! Getting out our PVFT Flyers has proven to be a challenge that we have not met. Hopefully, the second semester will bring a more reliable communication from us to you. It will be my New Year's resolution to try to get one out at least once a month. Anyway, let's take a look at the first semester in a capsule.

The election, and its possible repercussions, dominated the time, energy and focus of PVFT for much of the first semester. Since his state of the state address last January, the governor demonized the public sector unions and those that they represent: teachers, police, firefighters, and nurses to name the major players. Somehow the public did not see them as the enemy, or the cause of the state's budget woes…thank goodness! It was a tough battle, but sanity, and the working people of California, prevailed. The fight is not over yet, but the victory on November 8 has given us all a great deal of momentum. I want to thank the many PVFT members who walked precincts, phone banked, watched the polls on election day and did all of the other jobs that needed to be done to lead us to such a stunning victory. I want to personally acknowledge Francisco Rodriguez for the amazing job he did as our political coordinator. He was the one who coordinated all of the jobs, found the volunteers, and kept everyone informed about the issues on the ballot.

Another project that took quite a bit of my time and energy during the first semester was bringing about the P.A.L. (Partnership of Administration and Labor) retreat for all the district principals and their building reps along with the district's Cabinet and the union's Executive Council. This retreat took place on November 17 and was our first attempt to bring the administration and the union together to discuss how we can form an equal partnership which can work together for student achievement and increased cooperation between the PVFT members and their supervisors. I hope that this partnership will continue to grow and thrive for the benefit of everyone involved. I believe that this is the most logical way for us to operate here in PVUSD. It is not a common occurrence in education, but it just makes sense to me. We're all in education for the same reason…the kids! Why shouldn't we work together as equal partners to do the best possible job of educating all of our students? Partners don't let each other fail so our success should be more easily attainable. Also, keep firmly in mind that this partnership does not diminish our role as a union. Your salary, benefits, and working conditions are still of paramount concern to us…that will not change. There will always be issues that the union and district disagree on but we will build a firewall between those issues and those that we do agree on around student achievement and communication.

And finally, I worked very hard during the first semester to bring about the first West Coast training in RSRA (Redesigning Schools to Raise Achievement) by the excellent trainers from UFT in New York City. This training took place on November 18 – 20 in Burlingame and was attended by 80+ PVUSD teachers and their principals along with district office management, PVFT leadership and some Board members. The feedback from the school teams was very positive and enthusiastic. We sent a team from each of our PI schools in year 3, 4, and 5. Other schools will also have the opportunity to attend the training in the future, if they wish to. The training basically gives staffs the tools that they may need to help them implement what they are already doing at their sites to reform their program. Our superintendent has been very supportive of this entire AFT reform model as well as the partnership that must be forged for it to be successful.

Carolyn Savino