COUNTY OFFICES SPEAK OUT
(COSO)
Welcome to this
edition of COSO, County Offices Speak Out. This newsletter tries to strengthen communications between
the various County Offices of Education Teacher Associations in the State of
California. It also provides
information on the State COE Caucus, which meets at State Council and at
several of the CTA Conferences each year.
In this issue
Carol Clarke, the Tulare Kings Service Center Chair, writes our lead article on
the Forestry Reserve Act and its economic impact on County Offices and Rural
schools.
Our Chairperson,
Rich Valles, has written on several topics of interest for county offices and
Judy Ahern writes our ÒMeet the AssociationÓ articles about Sonoma County and
Faith Brandstett reports on Los Angeles County.
County Office
personnel are invaluable. Many
rural educational communities would be severely cramped to offer all the
services children require without the support provided by County Offices. The funding for those services comes
from a wide variety of sources.
One of those founts of funding in rural communities has been found in the
Forestry Act of 1904. A new law to
supplant these monies was enacted as the Forestry Reserve Act. That Legislation was up for
reauthorization in 2006, but has not yet received it.
The Forestry Act
was initiated as a device to supplement funds available to those rural
communities which had a great deal of their land tax base tied up in National
Forest. When such land was
originally designated as federal preserve in the early part of the 20th
Century, it was considered to be an unfair burden on the communities, which
would be unable to capitalize on such properties in order to facilitate the
funding of governments and schools.
Thus, the Forestry Reserve Act was constructed in order to insure that a
portion of all revenue realized through that reserve of land would be
disseminated to the communities through which this revenue flowed. The largest part of this revenue was
realized through logging many areas and it was a generous flow of resources.
With the heighten
environmental atmosphere of the Ô70s and Ô80s, and as logging cease to be a
consistent and robust funding basis, communities begin to feel the pinch of
sagging income, while costs rose.
Education, in the model of the county offices of education, really began
to suffer. So, communities most severely
impacted, working with the Congress of the Ô90s, created language, which
guaranteed to these rural areas a funding floor that would be assured whatever
the revenue might be realized through the traditional yields of the Forestry
Act.
This legislation
had a twin benefit. Of greatest
importance was the fact that in these communities, which received revenue under
the legislation, there was a consistent level of income for local government,
education, and forest management.
The secondary benefit to these communities and all with environmental concerns,
was that there was no longer any need for the exhaustive harvesting of the
federal preserves in order to guarantee a flow of funding.
In September of
Õ06, some three hundred-stake holders in the Forestry Reserve Act went to
Washington to plead the case of the rural communities and their county offices
of education that were depended upon these monies.
It was a difficult time
to be attempting to promote the needs of continued financial support of any
sub-community of the country. At
the time these small communitiesÕ government officers and educators met with
their Legislators. Congress and
the Administration were not in a generous state of mind and no reauthorization
was effected.
But, the pursuit
of that reauthorization is not at an end and the lobbying by a number of
groups, which includes the National Education Association and the California
Teachers Association, will continue.
ÒThis fight is ongoing and your help is requested in reauthorizing HR
106,Ó explained CTA Board Member, Michael Green.
Alva Rivera has
taken a new staff position and we will surely miss her. She treated us like family and we have
become accustomed to her style of interaction with our COE concerns and issues. We will not say good-bye, because Alva
has joined our ranks as a member and wants to be involved.
The screening has
been done and there are two candidates to be interviewed. We asked CTA, if we could have some
input in the selection process and their answer was no, due to a change of
policy in hiring CTA staff. They
reassured us that after the screening process was over, they would ask us for
some input on what we want from the new staff member. Larry Carlin is on the selection committee and has promised
that before the final selection is made, he would contact us for input. I have been holding out until I hear
from him, but JaniceÕs deadline has come and gone, so this is all I have. We know that Alva Rivera will be
coordinating the Presidents Meeting in March with our new staff.
We have had great
turnouts at our COE meetings after the Region II Leadership and the Rural
Issues Conference. Many of you
were in attendance with great COE concerns and issues. Remember our COE PresidentÕs Meeting is
Thursday, March 29, 11:30 AM at the downtown Bonaventure Hotel in LA. CTA will cover your expenses for travel
and lodging, but not your release day.
If you are a President, please try to be there and if you cannot, CTA
will pay for your designee, but not both.
A flyer should be in your mailbox by now. If you havenÕt received one, please contact your primary
staff, and they will get you all the information you need.
In the article
written by Alva in our last newsletter, she covered AB 1802, which is the
School Site Council bill. We like
our district brethren, need to be involved with spending of school funds. School Site Councils are set up to
distribute monies to other sites in our County Office. Shasta County Office of Education has
been involved for many years. It
is comprised of one administrator, two teachers, two classified, two parents
and one student. As you know for
Court and Community and Juvenile schools, parents are hard to get, so we use a
Probation Officer, as a parent. If
you do not have a School Site Council, contact your primary staff and they will
show you how to set one up to fit your site. Remember the Administration cannot distribute these monies
without the Site CouncilÕs approval.
For more information come to the PresidentÕs Meeting March 29th. You may want to stay over and attend
the CTAÕs State Council meeting and see how your CTA works.
In closing, I
would like to thank all of you that have helped to keep our COE Caucus group
going. This will be my last year
as a member and as your Chair. I
will be retiring in June. I will
miss our caucus group. We have
been through some amazing situations.
It has been a fun ride with many memories. With my leaving, the door opens for someone to say yes and
take the lead for a bigger and brighter future.
ÒMeet the
AssociationÓ
Judy
Ahern-Sonoma County Office of Education-Sonoma County is located about 50
miles north of San Francisco.
Sonoma County is a very large rural county, ranging from the rugged
coastline to the redwoods and rolling hills. It is also known as the ÒWine Country.Ó The approximately 150 COE teachers work
in Special Education, Preschool, and Alternative Education (Court &
Community). Sonoma County has 42
different school districts. The
COE special education classes are usually housed on these campuses. Alternative Education classes include
the new Juvenile Hall in Santa Rosa.
ASCOE (Association of Sonoma County Office of Education) serves children
from 5-22 years of age. Our older
students work at places like Costco and other local businesses. Our diverse group also represents speech
and language specialists; teachers of the deaf and hard of hearing; teachers of
the visually impaired; adaptive P.E. teachers, nurses, RSP teachers and
specialists at our Adaptive Tech Center in Sebastopol. We have actual caseload limits for
everything, but the classroom. Our
contract is online. Check it
out! Sonoma County is an expensive
place to live in. A first year
teacher with a BA + 30 or less starts at $38,198. The top salary is $72,758 with a BA+ 60 and 18 years. We work 182 days a year. For those who choose to do it, summer
school is usually 5 weeks long.
Los Angeles
County of Education Association spans 4,000 square miles and services all
school districts within Los Angeles County. We have approximately 1,200 teachers and service over 5,000
students. Although we serve a
largely urban population many of our outlying sites are in rural areas. Our number one concern is student and
staff safety. Communications is
another area of concern due to the vast area of the county. We have three divisions within LACEA,
Department of Alternative Education, Department of Special Education and
Juvenile and Community Court schools.
Department of
Alternative Education (DAE)-The Department of Alternative Education services
students that have been expelled from school, students on probation, new
releases from the Juvenile Court and Community Schools, High School for the
Arts, I Poly, Independent study and Pregnant Minors to name a few. Antelope Valley Principal
Administrative Unit is one example of a Principal Administrative Unit for the
Department of Alternative Education.
The Antelope
Valley Principal Administrative Unit (AVPAU)-The Division of Alternative
Education (DAE), in the Los Angeles County Office of Education, is made up of
many Principal Administrative Units throughout the Los Angeles County. The Antelope Valley PAU is located in a
high desert community in the northeastern section of Los Angeles. The Antelope Valley PAU main school is
located in Lancaster, California with 9 satellite sites. These satellites span across a large
geographic area approximately 139.2 square miles. AVPAU operates three educational programs serving the needs
of at-risk students in this area: Community Day School (CDS), Cal-SAFE
(California School Age Families Education), and Independent Study Strategies
(ISS).
The Antelope
Valley PAUÕs three educational programs service approximately 1,000 students
each year in grades 6-12. Almost
all students enrolled in our programs qualify for Title 1 funding and a large
number are new Juvenile Camp or Hall releases. Forty percent of the population has been identified as Camp
or Hall release students. Other
students were either expelled or referred to our program by their home
district. The typical enrollment
of students at the PAU is 80 days after which students return to the original
program they came from. Approximately,
ninety-five percent of our students participate in the National School Lunch
Program. Currently there is 1
migrant student enrolled. There
are 92 students enrolled in special education. Currently there are 43 English Language Learners (ELL)
enrolled and 71% of the total are at the Early Advanced and Advanced
proficiency levels. The Antelope
Valley PAU operates 16 CDS classrooms, three of which are stand-alone, sharing
space with no other classrooms.
Three CDS classrooms are located within a church facility; another three
classrooms are located in the main office at Antelope Valley CDS and include
Mid-city CDS and Lancaster CDS.
Another three CDS classrooms are located at the Division Street
site. One CDS class is in
Palmdale, another CDS classroom is at Westside, and another CDS classroom
shares space in conjunction with ISS programs, at Tarzana Treatment
Center. The CDS furthest south
from the main office is located at the Santa Clarita Academy site. The classroom operation is on a 160-day
semester and typically year round programs with a 360 minutes instructional
program, which allows for seven courses and enables the students to earn extra
credits toward graduation. AVPAU
operates four Cal-SAFE programs that provides teen parents with the opportunity
to complete their high school requirements and provides parents with
opportunities to build a healthy and productive future for their children. The students enrolled in this program
are between 14 and 18 years old and in grades 9-12. AVPAU operates two Independent Study Strategy programs
through the Alternative/Opportunity School; Tarzana Treatment Center, Youth
Services Bldg. ISS and Valencia ISS at Santa Clarita Academy; This program is
for students who are unable to attend a regular comprehensive high school due
to various reasons. These students
meet at least one hour per week to work with a teacher for tutoring, counseling
and one-on-one instruction. They
work at home at their own pace on an Individualized Learning Plan tailored to
their learning needs. Students
enrolled in this program are between 15 and 19 years old and in grades
10-12. Antelope Valley PAU sites
were created to serve students who are at risk of failing or dropping out of
school. The schools programs are
flexible in meeting the needs of enrolled students. We encourage students to set and attain individualized goals
for behavior, academics, and successfully transition back to their home school
district or graduate.
Juvenile Court
and Community Schools (JCCS)-Our Division, JCCS, emphasizes student achievement
in a safe, secure, and positive environment, with an exemplary, rigorous
academic curriculum based on the California Content Standards, delivered by
highly qualified teachers, using state-of-the-art research-based instructional
methods, and fortified by a wide range of support services. Our mission is to provide our students,
adjudicated and incarcerated offenders aged 13 to 18, arguably among the most
severely at-risk and educationally challenging in society, with a positive
academic experience and demonstrable achievement of skills for success. Our vision includes the belief that all
students can and will learn, and that our educational programs, personnel, and
support services can and will motivate each student to achieve their maximum
academic and personal potential.
Presently
Challenger PAU is undergoing visits by Department of Justice personnel. One area of concern has been the safety
of students and teachers, and to date has been both productive and informative.
Safety for
students and staff is a high priority for LACEA. Here is a letter to the editor of the Los Angeles Times
regarding safety in the Halls and Camps.
January 27, 2007
Letter to the
Editor
Los Angeles
Times:
On Friday,
January 26th, a teacher was brutally beaten at the Challenger
Memorial Youth Center, a probation facility in Lancaster. This is just the latest event to rock a
system that is in freefall. Young
offenders, teachers, and probation staff have become targets in this extremely
dangerous and unstable environment.
In order to
achieve any measure of success with incarcerated youth, consistent structure,
sound education, along with firm, fair, and consistent consequences must be in
place. Rehabilitation can only
occur in an environment that is safe and secure for young offenders and those
that work with them.
The teachers and
probation staff who provide direct service are committed to the education and
welfare of incarcerated youth. The
failure lies with our elected and appointed, county, state and federal
officials who have been complacent, willing to accept mediocrity and only act
when the system is in crisis.
Most of the young
offender population can become productive and contributing members of our
community. They sorely need the
education and positive guidance that can only be delivered in a safe and secure
environment adequately staffed by trained professionals. We fail them and ourselves if safety
and security continue to be neglected.
Mark Lewis,
President
Los Angeles
County Education Association
Department of
Special Education (DSE)-The Department of Special Education services students
from birth to age 21 or until the students 22nd birthday. In DSE, we serve approximately 30
school districts in 10 Principal Administrative Units (PAU). We rent classroom space in various
school districts to house our students on district sites. The average PAU can have as many as 30
offsite classrooms. There can be
one classroom on a district site or a cluster of classrooms. Our classes are leveled due to the
level of severity of the students.
A level 1 class can have a maximum of 10 students with a waiver of
2. Level 1 classes usually have
students that have medical procedures (gastrostomy feedings, tracheotomiesÉ) or
they can have severe behavior problems, which require intense behavioral
interventions or they may still be in diapers and require help with all of
their personal needs. A level 2
class has a maximum of 12 students with a waiver of 2 and a level 3 class has a
maximum of 14 students with a wavier of 2. The waiver can only happen if all classes of that type (i.e.
autism, middle school) are full within that PAU or area.
As with the
Department of juvenile court and Community Schools, DSE, is very concerned with
safety. Our students have become
more severe and require more behavioral support than ever before. Another concern has been the movement
for school districts to take back programs. In the last 2 years, we have been able to slow the movement
by conducting focus walks in conjunction with administration, and the Para-ed
union, CA School Employees Association.
We have been able to spotlight outstanding classes and teachers along
with giving support to teachers that require some support.
The Coe
Presidents or their designee are invited to the March 29, 2007 meeting at the
Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles.
Alva Rivera, our staff person has invited the CTA Officers and Executive
Director for a question and answer session. She is also working on having a Legislative Update, someone
to speak on Special Ed issues and possibly how to motive our members. There will also be some time for
networking and sharing. We would
like to have 100% attendance at this extremely valuable meeting. CTA will pay for your transportation,
parking and lunch. If you are also
State Council, they will pay for you to stay over on Thursday night. CTA will only pay for one individual
from each association and will not pay for release time. If you are having a problem with
release time, see if your Service Center Council or UniServ can be of assistance.
One of the ways,
we finance the work of the COE Caucus is to have two raffle tables a year at
State Council. This March at State
Council the following counties have offered to provide prizes: Los Angeles
County, San Joaquin County, Shasta County, Tulare County, and Madera
County. Please contact either
Woody Moynahan or Janice Hahn, when you get to the hotel. We will make sure your prize gets to
the table.
Thank you to
Riverside County, San Diego County, Kern County, Yuba County and Solano County
for the prizes for October State County raffle table.
March 9-11,
2007-Good Teaching conference-Irvine
March 29,
2007-COE Presidents Meeting-Los Angeles
March 30-April 1,
2007-CTA State Council-Los Angeles
June 8-10, 2007-CTA
State Council-Los Angeles
June 29-July 5,
2007-NEA RA-Philadelphia, PA
July 16-20,
2007-Presidents Conference-Asilomar
July 29-August 3,
2007-Summer Institute-UCLA
October 5-7,
2007-Region 1 Leadership Conference-Asilomar
October 26-28,
2007-CTA State Council-Los Angeles
Chairperson- Rich Valles
530-378-2208
Vice Chair- Burvell
Butts
Treasurer-
John Kassel
Secretary-
Katheryn Burke
Newsletter
Editor- Janice
M. Hahn
JMHRYCOURT@comcast.net