Your PEA officers encourage all members to participate!! United we stand! Divided we fall!!
Below are the links containing all election information.
Election Campaining Rules 2012
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Committee Assignments
Posted on February 6, 2012 by pleasantvilleea
| Committee | Members |
| Elections | Kristene Miller (SM)
Rose Giunta (WAS) Trina Jenkins (LAS) Teresa Campbell (DAS) Michael Zain (WAS) Wanda Curry (LAS) |
| Budget | Joe Manetta (MS)
Kristene Miller (SMS) Rose Giunta (WAS) Teresa Campbell (DAS) |
| Grievance | Jean Hovey Chair (WAS)
Denise Keen (NMS) Joe Manetta (MS) Rick Byrd (MS) Rhonda Moore McQueen |
| FAST/Pride | Cynthia Stocks (SMS) Chair
Latanya Elias (MS) Elizabeth Didonato (SMS) Rick Byrd (MS) Michael Zain (WAS) Ernestine Lackland (SMS) |
| Public Relation/ Legislative | Joe Manetta (MS) Chair
Rich Vosa Tim Newkirk Cynthia Stocks (SMS) Ernestine Lackland (SMS) |
| Membership | Denise Keen (NMS) Chair
Kristene Miller (SMS) Grace Ladia (SMS) |
| Health and Safety | Robin Dennis (LAS)
Denise Keen (NMS) Joe Manetta (MS) Jean Hovey (WAS) Elizabeth Didonato (SMS) Rich Voza Rhonda Moore McQueen Dianne Thompson |
| Pre- Negotiations | Latanya Elias (MS) Chair
Denise Keen (NMS) Tim Newkirk Rich Voza Rose Giunta Joe Manetta (MS) Teresa Campbell (DAS) Stephanie Burns (NMS) Rick Byrd (MS) Barbara Potter (HS) |
| Sick Bank | Elizabeth Didonato (SMS) Chair
Jean Hovey (WAS) Teresa Campbell (DAS) |
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Executive Board
Posted on January 4, 2012 by pleasantvilleea
Make this the year to get involved and stay involved to keep our union strong and united!
- We are in the process of updating the website. If you have any items of interest for the membership please contact:
- Ernestine Lackland (Corresponding Sec. Lackland.ernestine@pps-nj.us)
- Cynthia Stocks (Senior VP stocks.cynthia@pps-nj.us )
- Rick Byrd ( ESP VP byrd.rick@pps-nj.us )
- Joe Manetta (Treasurer manetta.joe@pps-nj.us )
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Alert on Pension and Benefits!
Posted on June 13, 2011 by pleasantvilleea
There appears to be an agreement between the Governor and Senate President Sweeney on public employees’ pension and benefit reform. Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (Essex) is in the process of reviewing the proposal and discussing it with her caucus.
YOU MUST ACT TO FIGHT THESE ATTACKS ON PENSIONS AND COLLECTIVE BARGAINING!
PENSIONS
Although a bill has not been introduced, some provisions have been reported in the newspapers:
• Increase the employee contribution rate for members of the Teachers’ Pension and Annuity Fund (TPAF) and Public Employees’ Retirement System (PERS) by one percent effective July 1, 2011.
• Another one percent increase in the contribution rate to be phased-in over a seven year time period.
• A new tier to the pension systems for new members who enroll after the effective date of the legislation. This tier will increase in the retirement age to age 65 and other changes in the retirement formula for new members only.
• Freeze cost-of-living-adjustments (COLA) for current and future retirees.
• Change the governance structure of each retirement system to add Taft-Hartley-like provisions – establish appointed, not elected boards to address funding levels and future changes to the respective pension systems.
PROVISIONS IMPACTING HEALTH BENEFITS and COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
• Premium sharing based on the employee’s salary ranging from 3% to 30% of the cost of health insurance to be phased in over four years.
• NEW HEALTH PLAN – premium sharing would be based on a new health insurance plan – DIRECT 40, employees wishing to remain in Direct 10 or Direct 15 would have to pay a percentage of the cost of the new Direct 40 plan PLUS the difference between Direct 10 and Direct 40.
• The proposed legislation will replace the 1.5% of salary premium sharing under P.L. 2010, c.2 (Senate Bill No. 3).
• Employees will also have the ability to reduce their premium costs by selecting a lower cost – High Deductible Health Insurance plan.
• It appears that existing retirees AND employees with 25 year or more years of service credit on the effective date of the legislation will continue to qualify for state-paid health benefits in retirement IF they enroll in the proposed Direct 40 plan.
• It appears that employees with less than 25 years of service credit as of the effective date of the bill (July 1, 2011) will have to pay for post-retirement medical benefits.
• It is unclear if retirees will pay a portion of the premium based on their retirement allowance OR based on their household income. NJEA expects this bill to be on a fast-track – Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee Thursday, June 16. It is unclear what the Assembly is willing to do.
ACTION NEEDED TODAY!
Call local legislators and ask them to say no to Speaker Sheila Oliver. Discussions with legislators indicate that no agreement has been reached in the Assembly Democratic Caucus, so there is hope! o Tell them health benefits are a mandatory subject of collective bargaining and collective bargaining works! o 80 percent of school budgets passed this year and virtually all of them below the statutory cap of two percent! o At a time when Governor Christie is giving away billions of dollars in tax breaks to millionaires and corporations, he is deliberately degrading the teaching profession in New Jersey. o There is nothing in this proposal that seeks to control the cost of health insurance premiums to our school districts. o Where is the demand for transparency and open bidding of health insurance contracts? Where is the demand to expose the obscene brokers’ fees that are being paid in so many of our school districts? Who are the middlemen collecting these fees, and what relationship do they have to the governor and the Senate president? Contact your legislator today, and share your stories and concerns with them! Take action via – www.njleg.state.nj.us/ Click on Find Your Legislator. Click on Contact Your Legislator. Please forward this information to your friends and family members and encourage them to contact their Senators and Assembly members.
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Bill seeks to end tenure, quash collective bargaining!
Posted on May 17, 2011 by pleasantvilleea
Christie/Kyrillos bill seeks to end tenure, quash
collective bargaining
May 17, 2011
In his State of the State address in January, Gov. Christie proclaimed that “the time to end tenure is now.” Legislation introduced by Sen. Joe Kyrillos (R- Monmouth) seeks to implement that and other destructive aspects of the Christie education agenda, to the detriment of schools, students and educators.
The bill keeps the word tenure but redefining it so radically that it would no longer provide any meaningful protection against unfair, unreasonable or politically motivated firings of experienced teachers.
It also seeks to undermine collective bargaining by outlawing existing salary guides and imposing an unproven and subjective merit pay scheme in every district.
Additionally, the proposed legislation invites further political manipulation of school staffing by eliminating teachers’ seniority rights, making veteran educators vulnerable to politically and economically motivated firings.
Finally, the Christie/Kyrillos plan seeks to invest unprecedented power in the Commissioner of Education by allowing him to unilaterally impose a new evaluation system, without input from the State Board of Education, for up to a year. The proposed system would give excessive weight to unreliable standardized test scores, and which would require a massive, expensive expansion of standardized testing at every grade level and in every subject area.
Key elements of the bill
You can read the full text of the bill. Below are several of the key elements.
Evaluation
Beginning in 2012, all districts would be required to use a state-mandated evaluation system which would supersede any district-adopted evaluation criteria, even if the district believes its criteria are more meaningful or productive.
The evaluation system would be created entirely by the Commissioner of Education, with no input from the State Board of Education, and would be imposed for at least one year before the state board is allowed to have input.
The evaluation would require that “at least 50% of the effectiveness ratings be based on objective measures of student learning such as standardized test scores or other quantifiable indicators.”
Student growth would be determined through unproven and unreliable “value-added” or “growth measurements” that education researchers have warned are not appropriate for that purpose.
Every teacher would be rated as either “highly effective,” “effective,” “partially effective,” or “ineffective.”
It is likely that the evaluation system would be subjective enough to allow administrators to rate any teacher as “partially effective or “ineffective” and thereby threaten their job status.
Teachers will be prohibited from grieving or appealing their ratings unless they can demonstrate that the evaluation system was not followed. They will have no recourse if they believe their rating does not reflect their true performance.
Tenure
Fair dismissal procedures currently afforded to experienced district employees would not exist in any meaningful way under this legislation. What the bill calls “tenure” would not provide real protection against unfair or politically motivated firings without just cause.
Teachers would be able to earn “tenure” after three consecutive years of “effective” or “highly effective” ratings.
Any teacher who is rated “partially effective” for two consecutive years or “ineffective” in any year would lose tenure protection and be subject to immediate firing without appeal. If a teacher is not fired, tenure could only be regained with three consecutive ratings of “effective” or better.
Because evaluations would be based on unreliable test scores and subjective factors under the control of administrators, every teacher would effectively be without any meaningful protection from unfair or inappropriate firings.
Even tenured teachers with long records of excellent evaluations would automatically lose tenure if their school or district divided, consolidated or regionalized, unreasonably subjecting them to the threat of job loss in those situations.
Seniority
The bill eliminates seniority rights in the case of reductions in force, leaving senior teachers subject to job loss even if they have earned good evaluations.
Mutual consent
The legislation stipulates that no teacher will be transferred to another school without the consent of the principal at the receiving school, as well as of the teacher. If the principal does not consent, and another placement is not found within 12 months, the teacher may be placed on permanent unpaid leave, without salary or benefits.
As a result of this provision, any teacher, regardless of seniority, tenure or prior evaluations, could be effectively fired without cause simply by the current principal proposing a transfer to another school whose principal refuses to accept the transfer.
Compensation/merit pay
The legislation would outlaw the use of salary guides based on experience and educational attainment.
Districts would be required to adopt compensation systems based primarily on each individual’s annual effectiveness rating. Other salary factors would include assignment to a “failing” school, as determined by the Commissioner of Education, or teaching in a designated “difficult to staff subject area.”
No additional compensation would be allowed for taking additional academic courses or earning advanced degrees except as individually permitted by the Commissioner of Education.
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Christie Letter Attacking Teachers
Posted on May 15, 2011 by pleasantvilleea
In a letter to school board members across the State Christie is asking for their support for legislation he has recently presented which in part does the following:
- Requires the evaluating of teachers based in part on student test scores.
- A teacher can lose tenure if an administrator gives them one bad evaluation.
- Legislation will end seniority.
- A Principal can place a teacher on paid leave for a year and then permanent unpaid leave if the Principal does not want them in their school.
- Merit pay
Please read Christie’s LETTER:
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Upcoming PEA Events
Posted on May 7, 2011 by pleasantvilleea
Retirement Dinner, June 2nd
The PEA has organized an End of Year/Retirement celebration. The event will take place on June 2nd at the Carriage House. We have approximately 20 members who are retiring this year. It is imperative that we have a final count no later than May 13th. If you are interested please complete the attached flyer and hand it in to your building Representative.
Walkathon, May 25th
South Main has organized a very successful Walkathon for the last five years. This year they agreed to help organize the event district-wide. Therefore each building is hosting a Walkathon for their students, parents, staff and community members. The school nurse and parent liaisons are heading up this effort in each building. Please participate and help make this event a success. If you should have any questions please contact Nurse Didonato at X2142.
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PEA Update
Posted on April 7, 2011 by pleasantvilleea
PEA UPDATE:
Spaghetti Dinner: The spaghetti dinner was a hit with the kids, community, staff and administration. We served over 300 people. Staff members from every school volunteered hours of their time serving food, cleaning up and doing whatever was asked of them. It was a wonderful joint effort. I want to specifically mention the three guys that worked the kitchen and did a tremendous job. Ken Norton, John Hannigan and Rick Byrd made it possible for the event to be a success. Hopefully next year we can make it bigger and better.
NJEA President, Barbara Kashishian: As you are aware the PEA is hosting a joint event with the Atlantic City Education Association on April 20th. The theme is a celebration of public education and the guest speaker will be the President of our union Barbara Kashishian. Time is running out to reserve a spot. If you are interested please e-mail me at Peaunion@aol.com.
Retirement Dinner: The retirement dinner is on June 2nd at Carriage House. We will be sending out a flyer with the details and asking people to complete the form no later than April 20th. We need to get a head count before the break. Thank you for your help!
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Excellent Editorial – Bergen Record
Posted on March 31, 2011 by pleasantvilleea
Monday, March 28, 2011
The Record
NO ONE would confuse Superior Court Judge Peter Doyne for Russell Crowe. The bespectacled, gray-haired jurist looks like, well, a jurist, not a movie star. But while Crowe played a fictional master and commander battling the forces of Napoleon, Doyne was charged as the real-life special master to take on no less a formidable adversary than Chris Christie.
The state Supreme Court appointed a special master to review the governor’s controversial education cuts. Doyne issued his report last week and it was a broadside into the SS Christie. Doyne wrote that “the state has failed to carry its burden” when it underfunded schools by $1.6 billion over two years.
The funding cuts were the result of the state’s fiscal crisis. Christie often says that, unlike the federal government, states cannot print money. Very true. And raising taxes is off the table for Christie. But New Jersey has a constitutional requirement to provide a “thorough and efficient” education to all its children. And it is not fulfilling that requirement.
The high court now has to decide what to do with Doyne’s findings. It can ignore them or it can compel the state to restore funding. But can it compel Christie to do anything he does not want to do?
If the high court puts a pair of “exquisite handcuffs” on Christie, a phrase he has used to describe the Corzine administration’s handling of an application to reopen the former Pascack Valley Hospital under new management, Christie will just find a good locksmith.
This governor isn’t going to back down from a fight, not even a fight with the state Supreme Court. The current education system is not performing to expectations. The old system didn’t either. And the Christie administration is not offering a plan to transform fictional great expectations into reality. Abandoning public schools is not a solution; it is a photo-op.
Politicos are lining up at the Robert Treat Academy, or places like it, and saying, “If we can make it there, we can make it anywhere.” This is show business, not education. All that is missing is Liza Minnelli.
New Jersey spends vast sums on public education with less than the desired results in poor, urban schools. The governor has long contended that throwing more money at failing schools does not improve them. The facts support that. But the alternative is not to starve public schools or abandon them in favor of charters or private schools.
Billions of tax dollars have been wasted in former Abbott or special-needs districts. The money often went everywhere but where it was supposed to land. That was true in state-operated districts — Paterson, Newark and Jersey City — too. You can’t blame the New Jersey Education Association for the decades of poor school performance in Paterson. The state has been running that show, not the unions.
I would like to know why current legislators haven’t brought former Paterson Schools Superintendent Edwin Duroy before a committee in Trenton and asked him how millions of dollars were misspent under his watch. They should start with Duroy and then pick another state-sponsored mess. But Republican and Democratic legislators are not calling for this because the state is littered with too many rocks and there are too many state-pensioned individuals hiding under them.
Wars are being waged between the courts and the state and the governor and the unions. The wrong people are fighting the wrong people.
What New Jersey spends on education is not the problem; the problem is how that money is being spent and who is deciding how to spend it. From the absurdity of a state university going $100 million in stadium debt to keep its $2 million-a-year football coach to the Paterson district using state education money once to repair a Mahwah fire truck, it has been highly paid, politically untouchable education administrators who continue to waste tax dollars.
The court can’t fix that. A special master can’t fix that. A commander could. But right now, the SS Christie is firing at the wrong ships. Sink the teachers and their unions and who is left to teach in the classroom? Edwin Duroy? Now there’s someone you would never mistake for Russell Crowe.
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The Results of the 2011 PEA Elections
Posted on March 29, 2011 by pleasantvilleea
The Results of the 2011 PEA Elections
Vice President At-Large (Shall take office on April 1st )
Dorothy Boggs 211
Jean Hovey 215
Monique Johnson 33
Denise Keen 31
Vice President Support Staff (Shall take office on June 1st )
Rick Byrd 150
Dawn Holcomb 8
NEA Delegate
Monique Johnson 38
Denise Keen 83
Carolyn Poole 82
Cynthia Stocks 116
NEA Support Staff Delegate:
Rick Byrd
Iris Nesbitt
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