Book Drive Coming Soon!

Teachers, have you been doing some spring cleaning? Retiring? Need a place for all those books? The UFEA Book Bank is ready for your donations. The Unit Five Education Association has developed a resource for teachers to build their classroom libraries. The Book Bank will be opening its doors again this coming fall and we are collecting books now!

We need any and all gently loved books. Simply box them and label them UFEA Book Bank and put them where your UFEA building rep suggests. We will take care of getting the books over to the collection point. This is an on-going project, so feel free to donate books at any time – as long as they are designated to go to the book-drive.

Thank you for helping our Unit Five teachers put great literature into the hands of our students!

Courage from IEANEA on Vimeo.

After some media confusion late last night, the winners in the Unit 5 School Board race are confirmed:

• Meta Mickens-Baker
• Todd Ferguson
• John Puzauskas

It is clear from the outcome, and from the vote totals, that UFEA members made a big difference in this election, even though we didn’t get all 3 of our recommended candidates elected. Here is what we know:

• The two candidates with the most votes were our candidates: Mickens-Baker (an incumbent) and Ferguson (a newcomer).
• The incumbent at the top of the ballot did not get the most votes. A lot of voters mark the first name on the ballot. A lot of voters vote for the incumbent. We convinced a lot of voters to skip the first 2 names and vote for our candidates.
• The difference between the number of votes for the incumbents is 961. Even though Puzauskas was first on the ballot, Mickens-Baker got 3886 votes and Puzauskas got 2925. UFEA membership is about 950. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

So if you wore your blue UFEA shirt, “Liked” UFEA on Facebook, liked and shared the Facebook posts, passed out postcards, made phone calls, talked to your neighbors – you made a big difference in this election.

People noticed our level of involvement, and that makes a difference, too. It shows we pay attention, and it shows we care.

And it shows we can work together. We will need to work together on other issues in the near future – and we can capitalize on the connections we have made during this campaign.

Again, than you for all you did to make this a successful campaign. The future of Unit 5 and the students we serve will be better for it. So will our organization.

Some of us are old enough to remember the Bat Out Of Hell album from 1977. I can’t get this song out of my mind today:

In response to the continuing reductions and cuts being made by the District, UFEA President Vickie Mahrt will make the following public comments at the April 10 Board of Education meeting.

Good evening.

I am here today on behalf of the more than 900 members of the Unit Five Education Association – psychologists, social workers, speech pathologists, nurses, IMC specialists, coaches, and teachers.

For nearly the past decade, reductions and cuts have become the norm for Unit 5. In fact, we have never fully recovered from the significant cuts made in 2003-2004. Staffing has not kept pace with the growth in student population, programs and positions have been reduced and all of us have been asked to do more with less.

For all this time, we have been doing more with less. Our students consistently perform better than the state average on state tests, while our class sizes are significantly larger than the state average. At the same time, our teachers’ salaries are significantly lower than the state average, our district spends a smaller percentage of the total budget on instruction, and the district’s per-pupil expenditure is significantly less than the state average.

We realize that our district has a revenue problem, not a spending problem. We know our local property values have not kept pace with enrollment growth, and the State has not been sending us the money they owe us. Local, state and federal sources do not provide enough money to maintain the level of services our students and staff deserve.

We understand the need to control spending. We also know the Board has made it a clear priority to spend no more than we take in, so that fund reserves are maintained – or even enlarged.

And we recognize the Board has the authority to make reductions and cuts.

While we understand some of the budget realities that drive the reductions, we are frustrated. We don’t always understand how the Board develops the priorities for making such decisions.

While the Board is concerned with how these cuts impact their bottom line, our members worry about how cuts impact our students’ learning conditions and our teaching conditions each and every day.

And while we may not have the power to prevent the reductions, we want you to consider how they impact us.

We cannot continue indefinitely to do more with less. We will continue to do our best with less, but there will be real consequences of these reductions and cuts. They might reduce your bottom line and address your budget priorities, but they are taking a real toll on teaching, learning and staff morale.

There is enormous pressure – from Washington, from Springfield, and from the district office – for us to continue to make gains. We know we could “race to the top” with adequate resources to support us. But as you remove the rungs of the ladder we climb, we have trouble maintaining the gains we have made, and it may be impossible for us to move ahead – or we may even lose ground.

Our district mission statement is not about economy; it is about excellence. These reductions are about what is best for budgets, not about what’s best for students or staff.

We recognize that the District has had many of these decisions forced on them because of “sequester,” because of stagnant local property values, because Illinois does not fund education equitably or adequately. And we appreciate your efforts to minimize the direct impact of reductions on students. But surely you know that all reductions have an impact – some more measurable than others.

We find ourselves depending on you to keep our students, and us, in mind when you decide where to cut.

We trust you will join us when we tell our legislators that education funding should be a priority in the state and federal budgets.

We need you to work with us to explain that we have a revenue problem, not a spending problem.

We ask you to advocate with us for an adequate revenue source, based on a tax system that is fair and sustainable. The result will be good for our staff, for the students we serve, and for your bottom line.

Seven Candidates Running for 3 Seats on the Unit 5 School Board

Seven candidates are seeking a four-year term on the McLean County Unit 5 School Board. There are three open seats. Incumbents Meta Mickens-Baker and John Puzauskas, both of Bloomington, are running for re-election. Glenn Block (Towanda), William Todd Ferguson (Bloomington), Rebecca Ferrara (Normal), Randy Merker (Bloomington) and Steven Zimmerman (Bloomington) are also running.  Current board member Jay Reece is not seeking re-election.

What You Need to Do:

Be Registered to Vote

• Not sure if you are registered or where your polling place is? Go here and find out!
• Tuesday, March 12, 2013 > Last day to change address or register to vote
• Wednesday, March 13 – Saturday, April 6, 2013 > Grace period registration/change/apply to vote; in office and during office hours only

Get Informed and Involved

• Click here to see which candidates are recommended by UFEA and to find out more about how to get involved.

Vote April 9

• Polls will be open from 6 am until 7 pm. Be sure to get out and vote!

• You can also vote early: Monday, March 25 – Saturday, April 6, 2013 > Early voting only at Government Center, 115 E. Washington, Room 403

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Colleen Moore
Glenn Elementary School
306 Glenn Avenue
Normal, IL 61761

One Rosenbaum Scholarship is awarded to a senior at Normal Community High school, while another is awarded to a student at Normal West. A third scholarship is awarded to the child of a UFEA member (may be a high school senior or a current college student) pursuing a career in education.

The application form (the same form is used for each of the scholarships) may be downloaded using the links below:

• 2013 UFEA Scholarship Application (PDF) 
• 2013 UFEA Scholarship Application (Word document) 

The Illinois House adjourned Monday afternoon without considering a proposal to cut pensions for active and retured public employees, including participants in the TRS and SURS systems. Earlier in the day, a House committee sent to the House floor a pension cutting bill. More

Between now and Wednesday, it is crucial that your state representative hear from you on the pension issue.

Call 888-412-6570. Follow the prompts to be connected with your state representative.  All the information you need is here.

A legislative “call to action” is in effect call as a result of Gov. Pat Quinn’s announcement that Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan had dropped his demand that pension-cutting legislation must include the controversial “cost shift.” This could pave the way for movement on the long-stalled plan to cut pensions for public employees.

Call to action

IEA members are urged to immediately contact their legislators using the We Are One Illinoishotline.

The hotline number is 888-412-6570. Just follow the prompts and you will be connected to your state representative.

When you get your legislator on the phone, be sure to tell him/her to:

• Oppose any proposal that would cut benefits for retired employees.
• Vote NO on any pension bill that has not been negotiated with and approved by the employee unions.
• Work with the unions to develop a fair and constitutional solution to the pension problem.
• Support revenue solutions to the pension problem, not benefit cuts.

It is important to understand that the votes that could be taken between today and Wednesday will be cast by the outgoing (lame duck) legislature.

The governor’s announcement came at the same time that the second of two “Pension Preservation” rallies held last week was underway at the Statehouse in Springfield. See how those in attendance, new and veteran teachers, feel about the pension issue.

[from http://ieanea.org/2013/01/07/call-to-action-issued-on-pensions/]

We are in the process of trying to put all information and resources related to your benefits in one location. Find out more about your Health Insurance, Life Insurance, Flex Spending, FMLA and more …

Please let us know what links, information or resources you would like to see there so we can make http://ufea.org/benefits/ as helpful for you as possible!

September 10, 2012

The 950 members of the Unit 5 Education Association offer their full support to the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) in a struggle that is about much more than a contract for the 26,000 CTU members.

CTU is standing up for students and public education everywhere by fighting for an agreement that will be good for students, public schools and the profession of teaching, implementing research-based recommendations outlined in “The Schools Chicago’s Students Deserve“, including:

• Recognize that class size matters;
• Educate the whole child;
• Create more robust wrap-around services;
• Address inequities in the system;
• Help students get off to a good start with age-appropriate early education;
• Respect and develop the professionals;
• Teach all students;
• Provide quality school facilities;
• Partner with parents;
• Fully fund education.

This is the time for workers to stand together and speak with one voice.

UFEA pledges its support to the men and women of CTU. Their issues are our issues. Their fight is our fight!
Adopted 9/10/12 by the UFEA Representative Council