Sequestration cuts would chop funding for programs in the Department of Education by $2.5 billion. In addition, Head Start -- a federal program that promotes the school readiness of children ages birth to five from low-income families -- would be cut by $398 million. This would be the largest cut EVER to education programs. As President Obama said about these cuts: "If you think education's expensive, wait 'til you see how much ignorance costs."

Post-Katrina, schools in New Orleans are disconnected and our city does not have a shared vision for quality schools for all children. We believe children learn to their fullest potential when we are uniting to ensure that all students receive a quality education. Public input from all New Orleans stakeholders in decision-making is essential to the success of our students and our schools. Let’s unite under a shared quality school vision to equip all students for a successful future. Please view the quality school vision here: http://utno.la.aft.org/files/utno_vision_statement_public_0.pdf

I was recently informed that i cannot bring in a small bag of toys to celebrate the season. This is elementary school. We used to have Halloween parades where the smaller children would parade proudly in their costumes, followed by a small party at the end of the day. Children need to celebrate things in life. To have fun at school. So they will want to be there. Little by little this is being taken from them. They will not want to go to school, or learn. Make learning fun. They will have plenty of time for political and religious unrest and pressure to succeed. A little down time is not a bad thing! I can understand the need for healthy snacks, and I think it's great that in America we can all choose what religion we want to practice. If you don't want to celebrate, you don't have to, but why because you don't, does my children have to suddenly abide by your views??? If you agree, sign. I don't know if it will make a change, but I do want the administration to know, there is a voice on the other side of this argument!

On September 19, management at the St. Paul Public Schools walked out of negotiations and asked the state mediator to close our negotiations to the public so parents and other members of the community couldn’t hear what we were talking about. At the Saint Paul Federation of Teachers, we have worked hard over the last year to partner with parents, students and community members to identify the top priorities to deliver the schools St. Paul children deserve. Combined with research, we have turned these priorities into the strongest and most innovative set of contract proposals ever introduced by a teachers union. Our report and proposals can be seen at www.spft.org. Over the last few weeks, our members have been having conversations and collecting signatures from over a thousand community members on this petition. Please join those that have already pledged their support by signing today.

A statue called "the Bear Hunt" is proudly displayed at the California School for the Deaf in Fremont, CA. The statue offers is a chilling example of children being taught to celebrate racism. The statue offers a grizzly scene of a stereotypical Native American having his arm eaten by a bear and his privates mauled at the same time. Why is that statue openly displayed on a campus for Deaf American children? Why are they being taught to celebrate racism? The statue being celebrated is not the example of a world class education that state claims to offer.

Many parents with students in the Bernards Township schools have given feedback regarding their discontent with the late start of school (after Labor Day), the loss of the full week mid-winter recess, and the late end date. As such, we are proposing alteration of the school calendars for the next three years and have solicited support of the community via this petition. We request that the Board of Education consider the content herein and include the opinions of the parents that these signatures represent in the outcome. Additional considerations are placed at the bottom of the proposed calendars, below. PROPOSED CALENDAR REVISIONS FOR ADOPTION 2014-2015 (183 days) SEPTEMBER 2014: 19 school days Mon 1st - Closed - Labor Day Tues 2nd - In Service Day – Staff Report Wed 3rd – In Service/Students Report - Abbreviated Schedule K-12 Thurs 4th – In Service/Students Report - Abbreviated Schedule K-12 Fri 5th – All Students report – full day K-12 Thurs 25th – Closed – Rosh Hashanah OCTOBER: 23 school days NOVEMBER: 16 school days Thurs 6th – NJEA Convention Fri 7th – NJEA Convention n Wed 26th – Abbreviated Schedule Thurs 27th – Thanksgiving Recess Fri 28th – Thanksgiving Recess DECEMBER: 17 school days Tues 23rd – Abbreviated Schedule Wed 24th – Closed - Winter Recess Thurs 25th – Closed – Winter Recess Fri 26th – Closed Winter Recess Mon 29th – Closed Winter Recess Tues 30th – Closed Winter Recess Wed 31st – Closed – Winter Recess JANUARY: 21 school days Thurs – 1 – Closed – New Year’s Day FEBRUARY: 15 school days Mon 23rd - Closed – Mid Winter Recess Tues 24th - Closed – Mid Winter Recess Wed 25th - Closed – Mid Winter Recess Thurs 26th - Closed – Mid Winter Recess Fri 27th – Closed – Mid Winter Recess MARCH: 22 school days APRIL: 16 school days Fri 3rd – Closed - Good Friday Mon 20th – Closed – Spring Recess Tues 21st – Closed – Spring Recess Wed 22nd – Closed – Spring Recess Thurs 23rd – Closed Spring Recess Fri 24th – Closed Spring Recess MAY – 19 school days Fri – 22nd – In Service/Flex Day – Staff Reports Mon – 25th – Closed – Memorial Day JUNE – 15 school days Fri 19th – Abbreviated Schedule K-12 - Last Day Students **return of unused snow days is also requested if available to end school earlier and/or offer as in-service days for teaching staff. Barring unusual circumstances, snow days in excess of three will be made up during the spring recess beginning on Friday. 2015-2016 (183 days) SEPTEMBER: 19 school days Tues 1st – In Service Day – Staff Report Wed 2nd – In Service/Students Report – Abbreviated Schedule K-12 Thurs 3rd – In Service/Students Report – Abbreviated Schedule K-12 Fri – 4th – All Students Report – Full Day K-12 Mon - 7th - Closed - Labor Day Wed 23rd – Closed – Yom Kippur OCTOBER: 22 school days NOVEMBER: 17 school days Thurs 5th – NJEA Convention Fri 6th – NJEA Convention Wed 25th – Abbreviated Schedule Thurs 26th – Closed - Thanksgiving Recess Fri 27th – Closed - Thanksgiving Recess DECEMBER: 17 school days Wed 23rd - Abbreviated Schedule Thurs 24th – Closed - Winter Recess Fri 25th –Closed – Winter Recess Mon 28th – Closed – Winter Recess Tues 29th – Closed – Winter Recess Wed 30th – Closed – Winter Recess Thurs 31st – Closed – Winter Recess JANUARY: 20 school days Fri 1st – Closed – New Year’s Day FEBRUARY: 16 school days Mon 22nd – Closed – Mid Winter Recess Tues 23rd – Closed – Mid Winter Recess Wed 24th – Closed – Mid Winter Recess Thurs 25th – Closed – Mid Winter Recess Fri 26th – Closed – Mid Winter Recess MARCH: 22 school days Fri 25th – Closed - Good Friday APRIL: 16 school days Mon 11th - Closed – Spring Recess Tues 12th – Closed – Spring Recess Wed 13th – Closed – Spring Recess Thurs 14th – Closed – Spring Recess Fri 15th – Closed – Spring Recess MAY – 20 school days Fri 27th – In Service/Flex Day – Staff Report Mon 30th – Closed - Memorial Day JUNE – 14 school days Mon 20th – Abbreviated Schedule - Last Day of School K-12 **Return of unused snow days is also requested if available to end school earlier and/or to offer as in-service days for teaching staff. Snow days used in excess of three will be made up during the spring recess beginning with Friday 2016-2017 (183 days) SEPTEMBER: 19 school days Thurs 1st - In-Service Day – Staff Report Fri 2nd - In-Service Day – Staff Report Mon 5th – Closed – Labor Day Tues 6th – First Day of School – All Students Report K-12 OCTOBER: 20 school days Wed 12th – Closed – Yom Kippur NOVEMBER: 18 school days Thurs 10th – NJEA Convention Fri 11th – NJEA Convention Wed 23rd – Abbreviated Schedule Thurs 24th – Closed - Thanksgiving Recess Fri 25th – Closed - Thanksgiving Recess DECEMBER: 17 school days Fri 23rd - Abbreviated Schedule Mon 26th – Closed – Winter Recess Tues 27th – Closed – Winter Recess Wed 28th – Closed – Winter Recess Thurs 29th – Closed – Winter Recess Fri 30th – Closed – Winter Recess JANUARY: 22 school days Mon 2nd – Students report FEBRUARY: 18 school days Mon 27th – Closed – Mid Winter Break Tues 28th – Closed - Mid Winter Break MARCH: 20 school days Wed 1st – Closed – Mid Winter Break Thurs 2nd – Closed – Mid Winter Break Fri 3rd – Closed – Mid Winter Break APRIL: 14 school days Fri 14th – Closed - Good Friday Mon 24th – Closed – Spring Recess Tues 25th – Closed – Spring Recess Wed 26th – Closed – Spring Recess Thurs 27th – Closed – Spring Recess Fri 28th – Closed – Spring Recess MAY – 21 school days Fri 26th – In Service/Flex Day – Staff Report Mon 29th – Closed - Memorial Day JUNE – 14 school days Tues 20th – Abbreviated Schedule - Last Day of School K-12 **Return of unused snow days is also requested if available to end school earlier and/or to offer as in-service days for teaching staff. Snow days in excess of three will be made up during the spring recess beginning with Friday. Considerations: If there is a way to reconsider the May in-service day for the teaching staff, please do so as thi...

In the wake of Jill McGrale Maher's recent termination, parents are left with many questions that have not been addressed by the Board of Directors. Please click the link to view the petition. If you are viewing this from a smartphone, please be sure to scroll to the right to view the petition letter in its entirety. We intend to deliver this petition in 48 hours.

Petition Background The opening of Navigator and Rocketship Charters would negatively impact our STUDENTS and neighborhood schools as follows: •The opening of a Rocketship Charter will immediately close one of our neighborhood schools. This would likely cause boundary changes. All other elementary sites will be forced to consolidate, resulting in massive student and teacher reassignments from their current neighborhood schools. •Rocketship will use its associated construction company Launch Pad to build on a 1.6 acre site on Church and San Pedro (behind World Gas Station). Our MHUSD sites follow the minimum 10 acre guideline. Using non-profit bonds to build a high density school that will immediately cause one of our neighborhood schools to close and remain vacant is not a good plan for our neighborhoods. •The opening of a Navigator Charter will cause two schools to share the same campus: a charter school and a current neighborhood school. The disparity of resources between the schools will negatively impact the neighborhood school students. •Navigator and Rocketship primarily focus on English, Math, and obsolete California State Test Scores by narrowing or eliminating History, Science, Foreign Language, Music and Art. •At Navigator and Rocketship, large groups of students spend 1.5 to 2 hours daily in front of computers supervised by tutor/aides rather than teachers. •At Rocketship, an average school of 450 students have 10 teachers (1:45 ratio, 1 teacher for 45 students). This is not the ratio that we want in our schools. In Morgan Hill, our current ratio is 1:29. We prefer to reduce class sizes, not raise them. •Due to the application process, Navigator and Rocketship will not serve all students or even a representative population of our district. They serve English Language Learners very close to proficiency. They require high parent participation. These charters also serve far fewer students with disabilities. If students are not successful, or the charter does not have appropriate programs, these students are returned to our neighborhood public schools. •Our neighborhood schools will receive less funding and this would negatively impact every campus in our district including programs such as Jackson Academy of Math and Music, our Dual-Immersion Multicultural Education Program and planned technology and science academies for P.A. Walsh and San Martin-Gwinn Elementary Schools. •75% of Rocketship teachers are Teach for America interns. These interns have only 5 weeks of teacher preparation. 99% of MHUSD teachers are required to have 1-3 years of post-graduate teacher education. For more information: Stop Rocketship Website http://www.stoprocketship.com/ LA Times Article, The Charter School Mistake by Diane Ravitch http://articles.latimes.com/2013/oct/01/opinion/la-oe-ravitch-charters-school-reform-20131001 The Hype Behind Charter Schools http://www.districtadministration.com/article/hype-behind-charter-schools New Data Shows School Reformers are Getting it Wrong http://billmoyers.com/2013/06/07/new-data-shows-school-reformers-are-getting-it-wrong/ David C. Berliner on Inequality, Poverty and the Widening Education Gap http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2012/10/david-berliner-on-inequality-poverty.html PAC Money Floods Local School Board Races http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-news/ci_21896419/ I SUPPORT QUALITY PUBLIC EDUCATION at our neighborhood schools and urge the Santa Clara County School Board NOT TO APPROVE THESE CHARTER PETITIONS.

The Management Oath is a voluntary pledge for graduating MBAs and current MBAs to create value, responsibly and ethically. We are building upon these essential efforts to create a community of MBAs with a high standard for ethical and professional behavior. It is different from the Honor Code since the Honor Code governs students’ behavior only during their time in school, but the Oath aims to guide their entire professional lives.

To have Congress pass a law that will PROTECT OUR CHILDREN from being disciplined literally to death in our schools!

We are concerned about the direction our schools have taken. The states growing reliance on standardized testing is adversely affecting students across all spectrums and the morale of our teachers. These tests are taking time away from real teaching. They are narrowing our curriculum, fostering an environment of teaching to the test and test prep. Science and social studies are getting less time in the classroom while art, music, and gym are taking a back seat to pre-tests, post-tests, and field tests. Love of learning is being stifled and our teachers’ morale is suffering. This resolution will send a message to our elected officials that we want them to reduce testing mandates, and allow our teachers and schools to do what they do best.

The parents of students at Davis Elementary have brought a serious concern to the attention of the Cobb County School Board. Because of budget cuts, the inclusion classrooms in first, second, third and fifth grade do not have a dedicated special education teacher. The general classroom teachers are trying to make-do with one special education teacher (and a recently added half-time teacher) shared between Kindergarten, First, Second and Third grades and some support from paraprofessionals. We are writing to ask that immediate action is taken to address this situation. Our general classroom teachers, special education teachers, and paraprofessional are all gifted and well qualified to serve our students. The parents at Davis Elementary greatly appreciate the efforts that go above and beyond their job descriptions. However, one general classroom teacher, no matter her abilities, experience, and education, cannot be expected to do the job of two people. With special education support moving in and out of the classroom, no one is able to teach or consistently track the progress and performance of students with special needs. The general classroom teacher cannot be asked to do so and effectively teach her class, which includes general education students needing as much of her attention as would be received in another general education classroom. We ask that Cobb County fully restore this funding so that you are in compliance with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and our children are provided a Free and Appropriate Education (FAPE). We have learned that many IEPs have been written to reflect the level of reduced services, which is also a violation of State and Federal Special Education Law. Other schools in Cobb County have inclusion classrooms staffed with a general classroom teacher and a co-teacher, as did Davis until this year. For the sake of the overall student achievement at Davis Elementary, we hope this matter can be resolved quickly and amicably at the county level. Please respond to our concerns in writing. We appreciate your attention and response.