focus

On educators
focus on educators is an award winning publication of the Pittsburg Education Association/CTA/NEA www.peateachers.org

California Teachers Association

The California Teachers Association exists to protect and promote the well-being of its members; to improve the conditions of
teaching and learning; to advance the cause of free, universal, and quality public education; to ensure that the human dignity and civil
rights of all children and youth are protected; and to secure a more just, equitable, and democratic society.
APRIL 2018
Volume XXVI, Number 8
President’s Message
It is now post Spring Break.
Hopefully all of us had time to rest
and enjoy our time away from the
daily educator days. We need
energy to complete this time
period of support during mediation
as well as educating and
advocating for students. We are in
a constant barrage of public
education attacks that we see
teachers in multiple states
speaking up and standing up to for
what is right for students.
Educators in Arizona, Colorado,
Statement of Mission
Oklahoma, and West Virginia
have gone to their state capitols in
this mission to stand up for public
education. We are and will
continue to do the same!
Our PEA members ROCK and
bring an enthusiasm to their
advocacy of students and our
profession. On Wednesday,
March 14 there was a national
student organized walkout in
honor of the students of Parkland
that were killed due to gun
violence. In this movement the
students of PHS created an event
to also mark their support against
gun violence. The event was
covered by local news stations and
our students voiced their concerns
about safety. One of our
members, Peter Garellick, was
able to be part of a panel for
KQED (NPR) to speak on the
related topic of arming educators.
You can find this panel discussion
at:
https://www.kqed.org/news/11656
303/california-politics-debate-
over-arming-teachers-national-
student-walkout
We are everywhere in our urgency
for students getting the best public
education they deserve which
includes a safe place to learn and
for PEA members a safe place to
work.
As April is National Poetry
Month, read an excerpt from a
poem by Tonya McQuade featured
on the California Educator website
at
https://californiaeducator.org/2018
/02/26/what-a-teacher-needs-hint-
its-not-a-gun/ :
Poem by CTA member, Tonya
McQuade
What a Teacher Needs (Hint:
It’s NOT a Gun!)
… Teachers are not wardens,
Nor guards, soldiers, or cops;
We’re trained to nurture children –
Grow their minds to reach the top.
When I see those Florida teens
Raising voices, speaking truth –
I know teachers have done their job,
And I’m inspired by our youth!
In Solidarity,
Tammy Carr
PEA President
 PEA Leadership 2017-2018 Rep. Council Meeting Calendar (Tuesdays)
President April 24,
Tammy Carr May 22
PEA Office
Elementary Vice President School Board Meeting Calendar
Michell Redfoot April 11 & 25
Willow Cove May 9 & 23
Secondary Vice President
June 13 & 27
Irwin Manangkil
July 25
Black Diamond
Secretary Are You Getting Your PEA Information?
Nicole Glassel
Having our Site Reps collect your input, attend the monthly Rep
Los Medanos
meeting and then report back to you is vital in the
Treasurer
communication chain of our Association.
Shelly Bascomb
North Campus Roll call at last March 20th Rep Council Meeting:
________________________________________________

Committee Chairs: Adult Ed. – present MLK Jr. – present

Grievance Committee Black Diamond – absent North Campus – absent
Jill Wery – Pittsburg High Foothill – present Parkside – present
Chris Coan – Willow Cove
Heights – present PHS - present
Negotiations Team
Highlands – present Rancho Medanos – present
Mark Maselli – Chair - Hillview
Hillview - present Stoneman – present
Political Action Chair
Jim Vaughan – Black Diamond Los Medanos – present Willow Cove – present
Elections Chair Marina Vista – present
Sharie Chmura - Parkside
Human Rights Chair
Andrea McKinney – Black Diamond
Women’s Issues Chair
Alicia Puzak – Pittsburg High
Organizing Chair
Laura Silva - Parkside
CTA State Council Representative
Mark Maselli – Hillview
LGBTQ Chair
Marissa Young-Padilla - Parkside
Special Education Chairs
Michell Redfoot – Willow Cove
Melonie Sauceda-Flemming – Hillview/MLK PEA member Michael Ruibal is PUSD's Teacher of
Technical Editor the Year. It is a well-deserved award for this special
Susan Harrison – PEA Office Administrator teacher of Black Diamond High School. If you see him
out and about, take a moment to congratulate him for
this achievement.
Focus on Educators is a publication of the
Pittsburg Education Association CTA/NEA
Eric Heins and Andrea McKinney were elected as
159 East 4th Street, Pittsburg, CA 94565
your local delegates to the annual Representative
Phone: (925) 432-0199 email: info@peateachers.org Assembly of the National Education Association in
website: www.peateachers.org Minneapolis, MN, June 29-July 6, 2018.

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 Know Your Contract
By, Chris Coan
Grievance Chair
On February 28, 2018, all sites lacked internet connection
and some sites, therefore, lacked phone connection as they
are tied to the internet. This occurred the entire day without
warning. On March 1, 2018, PEA filed an informal grievance
with the district regarding Article 11.1.7 of the contract which
reads: “The district’s intent is that each classroom shall be
provided telecommunication equipment for bargaining unit
members.” We at PEA believe that this day was an example
of what might occur in the event of an emergency situation
and most sites were not capable of accessing
communication equipment if help or support was needed in
the classroom. PEA met with Enrique Palacios and Norma
Gonzalez and right away Enrique announced that “Pittsburg
schools are safe.” PEA has continued with the grievance to
now a level 2 given to the superintendent. We believe that
all classrooms should have walkie-talkies in the event that
communication systems are down. The District believes that
some sites who do not have classroom sets should just
share with the custodians and office staff. They also contend
that the February 28th systems failure day was rare and most
likely won’t happen again. PEA contends that in the event of
an emergency/disaster situation the computer systems would
most likely fail and we want teachers and students protected
with a communication system not connected to the electrical
grid or computers. Our classroom safety is our students’
classroom safety, as well.
Please let me know at ccoan@pittsburg.k12.ca.us if you had
an unsafe situation occur on February 28 and were not able
to ask for assistance or support. The district believes all was
well and no problems occurred. Thanks.
***************************************************************************
Mismatch, Generosity and Philly Karma
By, Elza Hess
Teacher, ESL Literacy, PAEC
I was very thankful to be supported by PEA to attend the
CTA Good Teaching Conference North held in San Jose
over the first weekend in February.
The Fairmont Hotel in downtown San Jose was chosen by
CTA as the conference venue. The hotel did an excellent job
of treating us teachers like kings and queens for the
weekend. I especially felt this as a teacher coming from Adult
Ed in Pittsburg, where the part-time Adult Ed teachers (most
of our faculty) are posited daily at the bottom of our
institution’s low-nutrition, high-waste food chain. It was nice
to feel a little more R-E-S-P-E-C-T for a few days!
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I want to mention three strong impressions I was left with
after attending the CTA Good Teaching Conference. The first
came after my initial workshop of the weekend titled, “Using
Resources from the ELA/ELD Framework to Support
Effective Instruction”. As I am an ESL teacher, I was naturally
drawn to this topic. The resources presented were excellent,
taken from the California Department of Education’s very well
organized “English Learner” website. The ELL information
could be used and adjusted for all levels — elementary to
adult. We also had time for some discussion around our
tables. The teacher sitting next to me was from Solano
County and taught a similar student group to mine: students
with very little previous formal schooling. We both agreed
that it was very, very challenging work. However, the
difference was that she taught students at a high school and
I taught those same students one year later at Adult Ed. Her
school had monetary resources: full time teachers, regular
testing, support personnel, and language placement
specialists. At Adult Ed we had none of those. What I myself
did have was practical know-how from many years of
experience functioning as an “outlier” teacher — teaching
students no one else could reach, whose interrupted
elementary education needed to be restarted from one to six
decades later. I also had information about networking and
professional organizations that specialize in research on
students with an interrupted elementary school education.
The “mismatch” here was that the K-12 school had the funds,
and the adult school teacher had the hands-on practical
know-how, and newest research information on the topic. If
only the two could be combined……..
We agreed to stay in touch.
My second impression was that of the generosity of CTA. I
attended the IFT (Institute for Teaching) workshop on writing
a competitive grant, “to support strength-based teacher
driven innovation on behalf of students and public schools.”
The grants strongly encourage teacher creativity, research,
entrepreneurship, and teacher-driven change at the local
level. Our presenter, a teacher from Wine Country, had
received a grant to start a student floral shop at her public
high school, located in an area where there were few job
opportunities available for students to make extra money for
the prom, student activities, etc. The program had taken off
very successfully and had become an integral part of the
community. A connection to, and support from, the local
School Board as the grant is being implemented was also
stressed as a plus. The generosity part of my conference
impression was that CTA awards individual grants of up to
$20,000.00 per year. If you have a good innovative idea,
submit your IFT grant application by April 30!
Philly Karma is illustrated in the photo taken at the
conference Saturday night with candidate Tony Thurmond,
running for State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Tony,
a graduate of “Weenie” Northeast High School in
Philadelphia, had just met my husband, a graduate from rival
“Stinkin’ “Lincoln High School, also in Philly. The two schools
had just made peace (see Elza mediating in the middle), and
the next day, the Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl!
are representative of the gender binary (ex. boy/girl), it is our
responsibility to mix them up.
Are you using pink/blue paper (to display non self-selected
girl/boy work at any site? If so, you might be unknowingly
perpetuating gender stereotypes.

Changing school climate begins with assessing our own

shortsightedness and addressing assumptions made by
ourselves and others. Students have the right to dress and
present themselves in a way that is consistent with their
gender identity. They have the right to use the restroom,
locker rooms, and other facilities that are consistent with their
gender identity. If you need more information and would like
to help assess the safety of your site, check out these
resources.

Schools in Transition: A Guide for Supporting Transgender

Candidate Tony Thurmond; PEA Site Rep, Elza Hess; and Paul Hess
***************************************************************************
The CTA Issues Conference
By, Marrisa Young-Padilla
PEA LGBTQ+ Chair
A few weeks ago, I had another opportunity to attend the
CTA Issues Conference which addressed many issues
facing our membership. So many issues, so little time.
Students in K12 Schools:
https://www.genderspectrum.org/staging/wp-
content/uploads/2015/08/Schools-in-Transition-2015.pdf
U.S. Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights:
https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/index.html
NCTE/GLSEN Model School District Policy:
https://www.glsen.org/sites/default/files/Trans%20Model%20
Policy.pdf
Gender Spectrum - http://www.genderspectrum.org
Trans Youth Family Allies - http://www.imatyfa.org

For this article, I wanted to focus on some resources I Links to Trans and LGBT Legal Organizations -
became aware of during a session I attended titled, “An http://www.transequality.org/additional-help#legal
Exploration in SOGI: Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
in Schools.”

We, as educators, take great pride in providing welcoming

and inclusive environments for our students. To do this, we
must keep abreast of the issues facing our youth that may
not be obvious to us. For example, our schools have many
caring and loving beings who do not fit into the gender binary
(the gender classification system that consists of 2
categories: male and female).

A few “check-in” questions:

Is your site a “Safe” school? Do you provide a “Safe Space”?

If you are still using gender binary (girls and boys, ladies and
gentlemen, etc.) terms and practices, you are perpetuating
gender stereotypes and therefore, not maintaining a safe
environment for your students.

Also, are you using boy/girl lines at sites that serve our
young students? Even when students self-select lines that

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On Monday, March 26, PEA members banded together outside the District office for a march and rally event as the first
mediation session was held. The attendees had supportive signs to reach out to the community positively. Thank you
for all your active participation and support to our PEA Bargaining Team! You truly ROCK and make an amazing part of
advocacy for our students and our profession!

5

By, Michell Redfood
PEA Elementary V.P.
On Dr. Seuss’s birthday this year, several PEA members
participated in the Read Across America Day by reading
aloud a great book selection at various Pittsburg Head Start
Preschools. The book selected and donated to each
preschool Head Start Classroom in Pittsburg this year was,
“They All Saw A Cat” by Brendan Wenzel.
If you are looking for a great early reading book to practice
Reading Foundations, Reading Literature and Language
Standards, this is a great selection! The preschoolers were
as enthusiastic as ever! At each site they were eager to
listen and also very eager to share out. It was a great
opportunity for future Pittsburg Unified Students to get
introduced to their potential future teachers.
Please consider volunteering to read to our preschoolers
next March 2019! It is a great opportunity to go back to
basics, get to know our community and it is a real joy reading
to such enthusiastic learners!
And a big THANK YOU to the teachers who donated their
time in support of our Pittsburg preschoolers!
Danielle Jensen, Teacher, Marina Vista & PEA Representative
***************************************************************************
State Council of Education April 6-8
By, Elza Hess
Teacher, ESL Literacy, PAEC
I was happy to represent Pittsburg this quarter as the
Alternate State Rep for April’s CTA State Council meeting,
held as usual in Los Angeles. I also learned a bit about L.A.
traffic, as it took just as long to get from the L.A. airport to
downtown as it did to fly in from the Bay Area!
The weekend was very busy. The work in the “Credentials
and Professional Development” committee resulted in our
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workgroup voting to oppose opening discussion about
relaxation of standards of contract accountability in “intent to
return” portions of the teachers’ contract. All our workgroups
also heard a valuable presentation from a representative
from the Department of Education in Sacramento about how
to improve isolated Professional Development Days into
“Professional Learning Communities”, where teachers
discuss and work out what they have learned after the official
presentations are over.
During the First General Session on Saturday morning,
Democratic candidate for Governor Gavin Newsom came as
the invited speaker and was very warmly received.
Items of interest from the Committee Reports included:
The Language Acquisition Committee encourages CTA
members to apply to be part of the English Leadership &
Legacy Initiative’s (ELLLI) Advocacy Institute to be held at
the Hayes Mansion in San Jose, CA on August 3-6, 2018.
This event will be fully funded; scholarships are competitive,
awarded to only 50. The deadline for the online application
has been extended to April 27.
http://www.californianstogether.org/2018-english-learner-
advocacy-institute/
The School Safety Committee would like CTA members to
email information about workplace violence and heat illness
at their sites to Michael Musser, liaison to CalOSHA @
britcartr8@gmail.com. He is working on a Workplace
Violence plan and heat illness regulations.
Adult Ed Committee shared that there was a lengthy
discussion about CTE teachers not being eligible for
permanent status due to outdated Ed Code (44910) — some
who were formerly permanent are now being reclassified as
probationary or temporary.
The Retirement Committee is working on researching
firearms divestment.
Voting during the Second General Session on Sunday
involved spirited debate especially for two issues: the
adoption of a semester of required ethnic studies at the high
school level, and permission for an educational provider to
physically or mechanically restrain a student in situations of
imminent physical danger. Both were voted to remain under
“watch” status.
There were also many opportunities to network and meet
teachers from all over the state. The Hispanic Caucus put on
a marimba dance night, the Student CTA hosted a very
professional candidates’ panel, I had a great conversation
with some members of the American Indian Caucus, met
teachers from the Republican Caucus, as well as some
LGBTQ national leaders, and talked to retired teachers —
who knew everything. It was a very busy, responsible and
interesting weekend.
 We are ALL the Pittsburg Education Association. Proudly stand some new educators!

________________________________________________________________________________________________________
California’s Day of the Teacher California’s Day of the Teacher has its roots in the
community and is patterned after the celebration of the
traditional “El Dia del Maestro,” which is observed in Mexico
and Latin America countries. Our California’s Day of the
Teacher arose out of legislation co-sponsored by CTA and
the Association of Mexican American Educators in 1982.
(from cta.org)

PEA invites you to join us in

celebration of…

Day of the Teacher

Date: Wednesday, May 9th

Time: 3:30-5:30

Place: La Piñata, 95 Bliss Ave.,

Pittsburg

This May 9th, educators around the state will mark the 36th
anniversary of California’s Day of the Teacher. This is a time What: Dinner, a drink, and
to honor teachers, demonstrate their impact and a great merriment with fellow
opportunity for CTA chapters to reach out to local
organizations and businesses to strengthen the school- educators!
community connection.

We all know our communities share our goals for quality We hope to see you there!
public schools and recognize public education as being the
cornerstone for strong communities. But it’s also up to us to
build those vital relationships with parents, community Please RSVP to
organizations, local businesses, other unions, the faith Susan@peateachers.org or
community and seniors. We are all part of that community
and we will best succeed when we work together. 432-0199 by May 4TH

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 Calendar
April 2018
1 Easter
1 April Fool’s Day
2-6 Spring Recess
10 PEA Executive Board – PEA Office – 159 East 4th St. – 3:45 PM
11 PUSD School Board Meeting – 2000 Railroad Ave. – 6:30 PM
21 WHO Awards Luncheon – Doubletree by Hilton – Berkeley
22 Earth Day
24 PEA Rep Council – PEA Office – 159 East 4th St. – 3:45 PM
25 Administrative Professionals Day
25 PUSD School Board Meeting – 2000 Railroad Ave. – 6:30 PM

May 2018
1 PEA Executive Board – PEA Office – 159 East 4th St. – 3:45 PM
9 Day of the Teacher – La Piñata – 95 Bliss Ave. – 3:30-5:00 PM
9 PUSD School Board Meeting – 2000 Railroad Ave. – 6:30 PM
13 Mother’s Day
15 First of Ramadan begins at sundown
22 PEA Rep Council – PEA Office – 159 East 4th St. – 3:45 PM
23 PUSD School Board Meeting – 2000 Railroad Ave. – 6:30 PM
28 Memorial Day – No School

Next Deadline for Articles is Monday, May14, 2018

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