Photos - http://www.flickr.com/photos/13137940@N02/sets/72157623362505995/show/with/4379673760/

SUSSEX SUPPORT RALLY [powerpoint doc] - http://nj.aft.org?action=downloadasset&assetid=5010fee2-4ab4-4898-a395-a19e68cb8d3d

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MAGEL is the Michigan Alliance of Graduate Employee Locals.

C-RTA - There is no need to log on as a Registered User. 

Please go to C-RTA FAQs for contract information on sick days, child care leave and many other topics.

Four Terra Faculty attended the annual OFT conference.

On March 23 our members will vote for two important issues:

• Approval of the new COPE bylaws
• Union Officers:  President (A. Bauer is incumbent) and Secretary (P. Bauer is incumbent)

Here are the duties for each position:

A.     The President shall preside at all meetings of the Federation and the Executive Board. This person shall be ex-officio member of all committees, except the Audit Committee, shall sign all necessary papers and documents, and represent the local when and where necessary. He/she shall make a report to the membership at least once each year summarizing the accomplishments of the Federation and outlining plans for the next year. This person shall be in charge of seeing that the report is regularly published. The President shall issue all notices, shall answer correspondence, and report correspondence to and from the Federation to the members at the regular meetings.

B.    The Secretary shall be the custodian of the seal and the charter of the Federation. He/she shall record the minutes of the Executive Board and the general membership meetings. The minutes shall be published and distributed to all members prior to the next membership meeting.

Click on the title of this post to read the updated COPE language we will be voting on.

On Friday afternoon, the district released its Resolution for reducing particular kinds of services. The resolution goes before the school board for approval on Monday, February 22 at 6:30pm at LRHS. Here is what the resolution consisted of:

• Math: 1 FTE
• Science: 1 FTE
• English: 2 FTE
• Social Studies: 1 FTE
• Drama: 1 FTE
• Business Technical: 1 FTE
• German: 1 FTE
• Health Careers: .40 FTE
• Eng. Roving Sub: 1 FTE
• Auto: 1 FTE
• Wood/Construction: 1 FTE
• Non-teaching services: Literary Coach: .80 FTE AD: .80 FTE Activities Coordinator: .40 FTE AVID Release Period: .20 FTE AG Release Periods: 1 FTE BTSA Period: .20 FTE Pre-Engineering Period: .20 FTE Total: 14.40 reduction in services

In October 2009, the Granite City High School Student Council was awarded a $500 grant from the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT), CHOICE, and Southwestern Illinois College.  17 area schools were awarded the grant.   A contest was held between the 17 schools to see which school could create the most effective campaign......

Full Senate vote scheduled for Monday, February 22

A package of four bills was introduced last week, and heard in the Senate State Government Committee today. These bills will reduce public employee pensions & benefits, while doing nothing to alleviate any of the current problems with our under-funded pension system.

The five members of the State Government Committee voted unanimously to release these bills from committee, allowing them to be put to a full vote in the Senate on Monday, February 22. In over two and a half hours of testimony, including remarks from NJEA President Barbara Keshishian, NJREA President Ro Jankowski, and several of your peers and colleagues, the committee did not ask a single question of those testifying.

Clearly, your legislators don’t know what questions to ask! With the vote on these bills coming up on Monday, we need you to call your Senator and explain to them the impact these bills will have on thousands of working families in New Jersey. In addition, with these bills being likely to pass in Monday’s Senate vote, we need you to call your representatives in the Assembly and let them know what is in these bills! Here’s what you need to know about this package of legislation: S-2 – The Pension Bill – would eliminate defined-benefit pension plans for future part-time employees, and change the formula used to calculate pensions to reduce pension values by at least 8.3% for future employees.

S-3 – The Health Benefits Bill – would require all active employees to contribute 1.5% of their salary towards benefits, all new members to contribute 1.5% of their pension when they retire, and eliminate benefits for future part-time employees.

S-4 – The Leave Time Bill – would capsick leave compensation at a maximum of $15,000 and limit vacation leave carry-over to one year for future employees. S-4 also replaces ordinary and accidental disability under TPAF and PERS with purchased private disability insurance.

SCR-1 – The Constitutional Amendment – would mandate under-funding the pension system for the next eight years, by allowing to State to contribute only 1/7th of its full contribution each year until it reaches 100%.